genie

Hi all--
I don't think I am ready for this yet, but has anyone ever bred bettas? I would like to hear stories.

Fishface

Me, too.

Phloxface

I would personally never breed them. It is difficult and expensive. You need at least 100 jars for the males and they need to be cleaned every day. This is a very time consuming task. Mostly though I would never breed them because it is way too hard to find proper homes for possibly 100+ babies. I don't even know ONE person I'd trust to give a betta to... There is such a huge surplus population of Bettas already dying in the cups at the stores I'd figure that for every Betta I bred and found a home for, one cup Betta never finds a home and dies in the store. Even if using show quality parents there is no guarantee you will get even one show quality baby.
I'd rather rescue and find homes for the ones already out there and leave breeding to the few experts out there who do it for a living and have a full staff to help them.

Plus, I have read that sometimes the females and even the males die from the stress of spawning and caring for the fry. The male does not eat or sleep for a week or more after the eggs are in the nest. He watches to catch the falling eggs/fry and put them back in the nest. Sometimes the strain of this is too much and they die shortly after. I couldn't do that to my beloved fish.

genie

I am fully aware that I am not ready to take on this kind of task, I just wanted to know if there was anyone here who had.

Phloxface

I know, I was just wondering why you want to? I'd never be able to part with any of the babies and I can't have hundreds of separate tanks. I just don't know or trust many people to take proper care of a fish. I've read on other forums people, especially teenagers, who try to breed Bettas. They usually end up with only a few live fry and then kill them too because it's so hard to take proper care of them. I just don't have the heart to put my Bettas through the stressful process of spawning only to lose all or most of the fry.
Do you know lots and lots of people who want a Betta and are willing to buy a tank and not keep it in a bowl? That would be my biggest fear, that I helped bring something into the world that would end up suffering and not properly cared for.
I'm not trying to discourage you, I'm just wondering why you'd want to do it.

genie

I don't really even want to breed bettas, I was just wondering about the process and other people's experience. You can't believe everything you read on the internet, so I wanted the forum to fill me in. I know I would never want to breed Lila b/c she is my favorite. I was just wanting info-- learn something. I am a little too attached to my babies to put them through it, especially b/c they are pet store fish (usually don't breed well). I guess I just want to know as much as possible about the water babies I keep.

COBettaCouple

We've considered breeding Angel to an opaque OHM male and done much research on it. We don't have the space or money to do it, but did learn a lot about the incredible amount of time and work a home breeding takes.. along with the fact that you pretty much need a room dedicated to the endeavor.

http://www.flippersandfins.net/bettabreedingarticle.htm - this article was the best one that we found on the spawning and up to the fry being free-swimming.
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/article...p_hatchery.php - a good article on building brine shrimp hatcheries.
http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/bettafish/breeding.php - this article has some info on raising the fry.
http://joshday.com/howtobreedbettafish.htm - another good article.

chickadee

A room or better yet a warehouse or garage that is heated and insulated. Also a staff of people to work 24 hours a day to keep track of the fish so if they happen to spawn during the night you do not lose a breeding pair due to them killing each other. The amount of equipment and room needed to do a really good job and have really healthy fry is very expensive and the breeding pair can be very expensive to find a really quality pair that are properly matched and have not been so inbred that the fry are deformed. They can also look fine but be unhealthy and the poor people who buy them will not have them long because of the inbreeding their health will not let them live long. This happens with some of the breeders that sell cheap on some of the online auctions. This is why you need to always find out from someone you trust that has bought from that vendor before.

It is not something I would recommend for the faint of heart or those who have not kept bettas and studied them for several years. It is not in any way as easy as breeding the guppy or molly or platy or most of the livebearers or even some of the egglayers. While they may need a lot of work after the fry are here, with bettas the work begins way before spawning and continues for a long time after. I had pictures of a really good betta breeding set up and I shall look it up and see if I can post them for you as I got specific permission from the owner of the pictures to post them on the forum should the situation arise.

Rose

COBettaCouple

Rose is right, it's quite a daunting task and i have to say we had no clue how much of a project it would be until we researched it. As those links show, it's something that will have you kissing goodbye to having a life for at least 6 months along with a sizable amount of money.

It is very interesting to research it though and look at pictures of how it's done. so i hope those links will be enjoyable research for you, Genie. We'll be looking forward to those pictures if you're able to post them, Rose. We're really fascinated by the Betta breeding and while the Betta Bug implores us to do it, the love of all Bettas tells us we're not ready or able to do it and give all of the Bettas the best of care and all of the proper equipment.. with the type of work we're doing, we're in a fortunate position to have the time between us both to spend and during the spawning time would take shifts for monitoring the breeding pair. (i've even got a music/tv setup in my head for the Betta room, lights, timers... oh, there's the betta bug again. help - it's calling to me, oh the sweet song.. ) lol

i guess the bottom line to us is that it's enjoyable to research betta breeding and even plan things out in our heads, but until we had the time, money and space to be reasonably certain that we could properly care for every single betta we wouldn't even consider, much less carry out, a betta breeding.

genie

yeah-- I am sure that I don't have the time for it. But I do think it is an interesting process. But like someone said earlier, I don't know one responsible person to care for a betta, let alone 300 people.

COBettaCouple

i do want to breed vampire bettas and send one to every member of the government, then i'll rule the US. The stars on the flag will then be little bettas and betta cups will be outlawed. LOL