Earthling84

So I got 2 bettas, a crowntail male and female. I set them up in my 20gallon tank with lowered water and 80F. I just got them yesterday, I have the male free in the tank, and the female in an upturned glass pitcher. The male has already constructed a bubble nest on a piece of styrofoam. How long should I wait until I release the female?

To see vids of my betta setup and my other tanks visit - www.youtube.com/earthling1984

And a drawing I did of how my setup works - www.tabsite.net/bettasetup.bmp

Alessa

have you the rest of the set up available? the hundreds of jars for the babies? do you have a baby brine shrimp hatchery setup?, do you have another tank ready for the females?

what kind of offspring are you aiming for?

what are you planning to do with the babies after they are born?

do you know that the female should be contained in an open ended container (like the glass thing used for oil lamps) so that she can get access to fresh air?




usually (someone correct me if I am wrong) you would let the female out after they have been conditioned in water with indian almond leaf extract and quality protein foods for several days. (if you just got them yesterday they are not conditioned yet and will have to separate them, condition them and try later), and when they seem not to be agressive anymore towards each other. Then you would watch them to see if there is any agression and if neccessary, put the female back in the enclosure.

Is the tank in which you have them cycled, by any means?

I am not a breeder, but this is what I have read. I'd wait for pandora to show up since she actually has experience.

Earthling84

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alessa have you the rest of the set up available? the hundreds of jars for the babies? do you have a baby brine shrimp hatchery setup?, do you have another tank ready for the females?

The tank the male an female are in(20gallon) for breeding is going to be the tank for the female babies. After they breed they will be placed in the 10gallon connected refugium tank which will be separated into 2 sides to keep them apart, the babies will remain in the 20gallon alone. I have about 25 jars for male babies. I will only be keeping some of the best looking females(for future breeding) and best looking males(also for future breeding and to give to pet shops). The rest will be used as feeder fish for my bichirs, stingray, salamanders, newts, frogs.

As for feeding the babies, I have a 10gallon refugium tank attached to this tank which has 5 types of live plants, I've heard plants give off food for them. I also have a baby brine shrimp hatchery.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alessa what kind of offspring are you aiming for?

Would be nice to get a few really nice looking bettas for future breeding. Keep some, give some away, maybe trade a petshop some(i doubt i'll get cash but maybe store credit), and feed the rest.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alessa what are you planning to do with the babies after they are born?

Answered above

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alessa do you know that the female should be contained in an open ended container (like the glass thing used for oil lamps) so that she can get access to fresh air?

Yes, I know they breathe air from the surface as well as from the water. It may not show in my video but I have put an air pocket in the pitcher she is contained in.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alessa Is the tank in which you have them cycled, by any means?

Yes, if you had watched my video you would see it is a sump/refugium attached to my 40gallon tank and my other 10 gallon refugium. The 10gallon refugium houses 5 types of live plants, which I hope will aid in feeding the babies. The tanks have been setup for some time now and are fully cycled.

Alessa

That is so cool!

Can I have some babies when they come (you will see a long list of betta lovers comming after me with the same request lol)

Earthling84

yes, and actually if your location of Chi-Town is chicago, then your very close to me ;o. Could easily ship to you cheap with UPS ground.(next day so close)

But yes, I would be happy to give away or sell cheaply some of my betta stock when/if I do get some. I'll keep you all updated and get pictures and/or videos as things progress.

My male and female seem compatible. I did have them in the tank together for a while before I put the female in the pitcher. The male chased her and stuck out his gills, but he never bit her and seemed to just be trying to court her. I guess it will be up to her as the male seems ready.

Any information or help with what I should do would be great. I have researched some online, but still don't know everything. If you have done this before and have some tips let me know

thanks!

P.S. - if this breeding is successful I'm gona drop the cash to get a couple nice halfmoon bettas and breed them

Alessa

YAY!!! (Me want halfmoon too )

Yes, I am in chicago

now, wait for the countless betta lovers to come this way

Lucy

Wow Eathling, that's quite an endeavor. Pandora and CWC have experience breeding bettas.
I sent a pm to Pandora, hopefully she'll be here soon.

Good luck

Shawnie

im worried about your lil girl..in the vid it looks like she cant get out of that pitcher to get air...can she? because betta's are labyrinth fish which means they MUST get to the top of the tank for air and that pitcher being tipped over blocks that

Butterfly

How long has the 40g been set up? Your female needs more than an air pocket, she needs to be able to get to open, fresh air.
Keep us posted how things are going.
Carol

Earthling84

I know in the video it shows no air. I changed that now and the pitcher is about 1/4th full of air at the top. I will change the air out daily. The 40gallon has been setup for over 2 months. The fish living in it(bichirs, stingray) are all doing fine; and I test water parameters often which most recently were: ammonia=0, nitrite=0, nitrate=<20

here is a drawing I made (don't make fun of it) of how my setup works. www.tabsite.net/bettasetup.bmp

Pandora

Alessa is right, you need to condition the pair before you spawn. Breeding is really hard on them, and if you just got them yesterday they've been through a fair bit of stress lately! The male normally won't eat at all while tending eggs and fry, the female expends a lot of energy making eggs (if a female doesn't spawn she either reabsorbs them or drops and eats them so regains the protein, etc), and both parents are going to be very active, and most of the time will have minor injuries they'll need to recover from, so have to be in tip top shape both to produce strong healthy fry, and to stay healthy themselves. Usually I condition for at least 2 weeks, feeding a mix of frozen foods and pellets. If you can get any live cultures even better!

The live plants will nourish infusoria which will help get the fry through the first day or 2, you're right. After that the baby brine shrimp are a good food. Make sure you have 2 hatchers so you can feed the fry twice a day (the brine shrimp are most nutritious immediately after hatching so it's good to have 2 separate batches daily for the twice a day feeding). It doesn't have to be anything complicated... I just have airline tubing shoved into glass jars and it works well enough!

a 20 is a bit large for a breeding tank. It may work just fine for you, but if they're not spawning after being conditioned, you may want to divide it. For some reason they tend to spawn better when forced to be in fairly close company. Otherwise the female will often just disappear and hide and not come out! Most breeders use a 5-10 gal, and some even smaller containers (though that's not for the faint of heart or first timers... I've never worked up the courage to try myself lol)

It sounds like you're pretty prepared, have done your research, and have most of what you need on hand for at least the first month, so off to a good start. Depending how many fry you end up with, the 20 might not be big enough for all of them as they grow. Be prepared to do a LOT of water changes either way (at least every other day, daily is better), they need clean, fresh water to grow well otherwise they'll end up stunted. You'll need jars, but you have a 2-3 month time frame to accumulate them, and that way you'll know the size of the spawn and how many you'll need.

That's about all I can think of for now, if you have any more questions ask away and good luck!

Earthling84

Thanks for the advice pandora! So my male will be ok with the female in the pitcher while I 'condition' them? He will just keep his bubble nest up and waiting till I release his girl? ... I guess my question is, are they supposed to see each other as they are conditioning?

As for feeding, I have been feeding them 2 times a day, frozen bring shrimp in the morning, and frozen krill at night.

Pandora

Yeah, they should be fine... though it might be easier for you to turn the pitcher the other way and just get fresh water from the tank daily. Some breeders let them see each other through conditioning, some don't. I do if they happen to be next to each other anyway lol. As far as I can tell it doesn't make a lot of difference either way. The one thing about letting them see one another is it's more likely the female will start dropping eggs before the conditioning time is up... if she does that, then you should probably just let her go spawn, since it would mean she at least is more than ready.

The foods you're using sound good! Just keep that up and in a couple of weeks they should be fat and happy and ready to go.

Alessa

Also get an open ended container as changing the air every day is not good enough!

(Pandora, correct me if I am wrong)

wow pandora replied before I could post lol

Pandora

lol yes, an open ended container would be ideal. You can get them at craft stores, Walmart, etc. for less than 5$ in the section with the glass vases and stuff

Earthling84

thanks for all your help... yea, I can just turn the pitcher over, lol, I don't know why but that never crossed my mind. I'll do that

tango

Hey earth nice video of your sub tank. I have been inspired by you to do the same thanks a lot dude. If you don’t mind me asking you some questions along the way. Please let me know one way or the other.

Earthling84

I love to share my knowledge, PM me anytime with questions.