Sam Livingston

I never had a betta and am curious about trying em out. I know I'm jumping too far ahead too soon but how challenging is it to get 2 to mate? Also what kind of food do betta's fancy?

COBettaCouple

Splendens are a big task to breed. With proper conditioning and proper introduction and post-spawning treatment, a pair will breed successfully but the expense and space needed to raise them at home, plus the question of what to do with up to 400 or 500 betta. Some of the wilds are less demanding in breeding needs as far as raising the fry, like the Mahachai.

Bettas love bloodworms (especially thawed frozen ones) and most love peas. We've only had one that refused to eat Betta Pro pellets.

Chief_waterchanger

Brine shrimp are also a fun thing to watch bettas eat. They enjoy the larger ones, so if you do a colony of brine make sure to let them grow out about a week or two.

Sam Livingston

To COBettaCouple , I'll stick with wild ones if I can get my hands on them, I'm still fumbling around hundreds of platy fry who are few months old. I've been hearing good things about the Mahachai they seem to be very popular.

To Chief_waterchanger, that's great because I have an order of brine shrimp coming in, so I'll start letting them get fat.

Thanks guys

Barbrella

Mahachais are very beautiful, but have very specific needs that must be met, so lots of research is warrented.

Chief_waterchanger

... We tossed our mahachai pair into a 10g with some water lettuce and within a week had wigglers. Only fed them flake food at the time, and they all do just fine. What sort of special needs are you referring to, because we honestly don't do anything special for ours, but have them in a 10g tank with plants and they do well. (admitedly we don't overfeed and we have pretty good well-water.. )

COBettaCouple

They really are easier to take care of than we thought. Mainly you have to seal off the top as much as possible to prevent jumpers and we've found that the conditions that make our splendens happy seem to work for them. They do like more cover and hiding spots though and a big clump of java moss has made our bunch happy.

Barbrella

Yes, 10 gal tank, lots of cover and plants, tight-fitting lids and subdued light is what I was told by someone who breeds them. No bare 2.5 gal. tanks or any of the other small containers that splendens manage to survive in.

COBettaCouple

yea, that's a good setup.. the betta spa is an optional thing, but i think they like it. we used half of a styrofoam bowl taped to the tank side for the bubblenest, since we didn't have almond leaves.