brianl78

yes i have a couple questions i got a betta in 5 g tank and i want to breed him i was going to put the female in the same tank with himn in a clear breeder box and get her fat with eggs and then when i see her fat and he has a nice nest built i am going to try i seen people put foam in the tank for them to help build a nest yes i got plains for them and do the female have to be close to the same color has the male or does it matter thanks alot

COBettaCouple

I wouldn't recommend breeding them, unless you have about $2,000 to setup a room for the endeavor and LOTS of time to take care of them every day.. probably 6-8 hours a day minimum.. and a place lined up that would buy all the survivors, or at least take them in.

chickadee

This question does come up a lot and I do not understand why people want to breed the hardest fish in the world to breed with the smallest amount of knowledge they can have on how to do it. It is rarely a success and is a dangerous thing to do with fish you care about unless you are very well prepared. Which I can tell by the post you have made that you are not any where near prepared to do this. You need to know that people who have spent thousands of dollars preparing places and buying breeding pairs and having hours of research and preparation have had many spawns and ended up with one fish to their credit out of all the spawns and still lost a member of at least one of their breeding pairs. They also have had many spawns that produced NO viable eggs or the eggs were eaten by one or both of the parents. They also have had many introductions where the pair did not get along and did not spawn at all, or the eggs did not hatch, or the male would not care for them, or one of many more problems arose so that the spawn was not successful. If you want to breed fish, go get some mollies or guppies or some fish that all you have to do is put them together. Betta splendens are not fish for the faint of heart or those who have not done a LOT of preparation and homework. They are not for people who have not got a LOT of equipment or money to buy it. They are not for people who are in it for the money as this is not a money making proposition. Like I said, the guy I know that had many many spawns has had one fry reach maturity and it was a female who will replace the female who was killed during one of the spawns tragically. No spawn no matter how successful can possibly pay you for the amount of time, effort and equipment you have to expend on it. It will take many of them and remember bettas are not high ticket items. You could have maybe if you were lucky one or two good quality pairs out of a spawning but most will be less than perfect specimens that cannot be sold as show quality. Also if you plan to breed halfmoons they do not breed true. Halfmoons do not necessarily breed halfmoon fry. They will have some but not probably more than 10% out of the total return if any.

I hope you do some strong thinking about this before trying it. Breeding bettas is truly better left to the pros.

Rose

0morrokh

Just in case you weren't talked out of it by Dave & Rose's posts...
Are you aware of everything you need? You need a large tank (like a 55) for all the female fry, and several hundred separate containers for the males. You need live food cultures to feed the fry--that is IF you can get a successful spawn without one of the bettas being killed, which can happen easily. You also need to be prepared to do Daily water changes on All of the male bettas' containers. If all that work does not phase you, then perhaps the moral issue will change your mind...it does not sound from your post that you have a pair of top quality bettas...so the fry you will be producing will be regular old pet store fish, and you will need to find homes for All of them. That usually involves begging the lfs to take them, in which case they will probably not receive the best care...even if you find a store to take them that takes good care of their bettas, who knows what people will buy the fish & stick them in a bowl...

So, I really hope you decide not to. There are a lot of fish that are easier to breed & less risky to breed.

MinxMermaid

Hey, Mom says NO,, that means NO

trust me she knows....sounds like you're by no means set up for this.

how about just trying to be a good Betta Dad to a male and female and keep them healthy and happy. that will make a bigger contribution than trying to breed them with no experience. just my

Devon

Agree with all the above posters. I thought about breeding bettas and started doing my research... once I realized the amount of time and money (not to mention space that I by no means have!) I decided that it was a really bad idea for anyone that already had a full-time job... AKA, someone like me. Besides that I really don't have the energy or money to go out and find the perfect spawning pairs... which are hard to come by (believe me, I did some preliminary shopping).

Edit: I also can't stress enough how difficult it would be to unload the babies... I don't know about your area, but where I live all the LFSs already have their own suppliers for bettas, and a chain will never do business with you (they have contracts with their vendors.) Most independent LFSs have their own suppliers as well, and even if they were able to take a few off your hands, you'd be stuck taking care of the ones you couldn't sell until you could find places for them. Remember... bettas can have between 100 and 700 fry per spawn... sometimes more.

brianl78

yes i am not going to i no it is a lot of work and they are very beautiful ill just stick with my platys on that subject

Butterfly

Good, mature decision.
Carol

Alessa

YAY someone listened!!!!

Agree with Butterfly above! congrats on the desicion!

Devon

Ditto. I think that for now, you are really going to enjoy just having your betta boy; they are energetic, inquisitive and charming pets all on their own. Breeding is always an option, just something to be thought of well in advance.
I think that you have made a wise and humane choice.

COBettaCouple

cool