Dwarf Bettas

[Sean Smith]

So while I was trying to make some half moon plakats from a koi plakat and a half moon female . I had a very weird thing happen. All my bettas from the breeding never grew to even two inches . The females barely hit one . So I just bred the smallest male to a healthy female from that batch after they hit 8 months old . They both show regular half moon fins and they seem really healthy . So I’m gonna see what happens , if all works out , I’ll have a dwarf half moon betta line .

 

[FancyBubbles]

That's interesting. Hopefully your bettas stay healthy.

 

[Sean Smith]

They seem as healthy as any of my other bettas . I think I just stumbled on a random accidental find . And if so , I haven’t found anything on the internet of anyone else having dwarf bettas . So if the fry grow up the same size or smaller , it’ll be time to set up a strict breeding program to help prevent overbreeding one line and getting inbreeding problems

 

[Luckyscale2003]

i would worry about infertility and structure issues but yea they look amazing

 

[ProfessorSycamore]

Mini bettas would be cute if they stay healthy!

 

[Sean Smith]

That’s what I’m finding out , so far , no fertility issues . All my adults are very healthy . We will see what the fry are like .

 

[Kribensis27]

Interesting, I’ll watch this thread. It’ll be cool to see how it turns out!

 

[Luckyscale2003]

I mean like more on the 3 to 5 gen when traits really start to appear

 

[Sean Smith]

I mean like more on the 3 to 5 gen when traits really start to appear

You mean for inbreeding or for color and size and fin
Also the fry are almost a week old and already growing amazingly. They’re almost big enough for brine shrimp now

 

[Luckyscale2003]

I just mean dwarf recessive gene may show up and mess with your genes if it’s doubled

 

[Sean Smith]

That’s true . So far, no fry show any issues . But I also have no idea if they’ll stay small or not

 

[Sean Smith]

They are now at size to feed bbs . And not one has any spine issues . And I don’t believe I’ve lost any to fungal or bacterial reasons . I have no weird eye alignments . And fins are starting to just pop out barely . Mouths look good . Even if they don’t stay small , I am very happy at how healthy they are . I wish I got to them sooner before I came back home from long college classes , could’ve prevented the female from eating half her eggs or more . I would have had a huge batch of healthy bettas

 

[Sean Smith]

So I’ve breed the bettas again a couple days ago and it turns out they only have small batches . So I wasn’t late into getting to the first batch . They just do not create very big batches . Maybe 40 eggs max .The first batch has grown big enough for me to look for defects and cull . Only a few were culled . Two had spine issues . One had a fan tail looking thing going on and a slightly shortened body . The last one I culled had a dent in its head . So I’m left with about 25 or more. They are showing more blue than anything else . But too soon to say what color they will be .

 

[Luckyscale2003]

Awesome. I hope to breed my bettas for the first time aswell but their new tank is taking ages to cycle

 

[Sean Smith]

So I got some bad news . The first batch got to half an inch and started getting color . They didn’t make it . I think it’s an internal problem . Fins were fine . Spines were good . They swam just fine . No bacterial or fungal infections present . I still have the second batch and we will see . But so far , it looks like I won’t be able to establish a new line of dwarf bettas

 

[Sean Smith]

It did not work out. And I don’t think I can put them through the stress of breeding with with other bettas to see if it helps . I don’t think they would be well in health afterwards

 

[NotSoAggressiveAquatics]

That’s to bad. It seemed like you were onto something, the Sean betta

 

[Rachaeljuno]

So while I was trying to make some half moon plakats from a koi plakat and a half moon female . I had a very weird thing happen. All my bettas from the breeding never grew to even two inches . The females barely hit one . So I just bred the smallest male to a healthy female from that batch after they hit 8 months old . They both show regular half moon fins and they seem really healthy . So I’m gonna see what happens , if all works out , I’ll have a dwarf half moon betta line . View attachment 765892View attachment 765893View attachment 765894

Did you breed them with professionally bred bettas? Or like pet store bettas?

 

[Sean Smith]

Did you breed them with professionally bred bettas? Or like pet store bettas?

The original bettas that I had used to breed from two generations before were professional . I breed two separate mates of the small ones of that first generation and then took the healthiest male that was small from the one batch and the healthiest female from the other batch . But it didn’t work . I will say I did get almost every female from that batch to be a max size of and inch and half . The smallest stayed under an inch .
Now I do have a similar project going on with a half moon butterfly that is fairly small but looks really healthy and a blue female veil tail that has stayed small . They’re at breeding age now . So I’m gonna see if I can start the project again with a different set of bettas with different tails so the genetics won’t be close to each other . But that will take a while before I can pump out a couple generation to see what happens . On the other hand, I also breed the largest bettas together from that first batch and they’re reaching 3 1/2 inches or larger . Only issue is their colors are bland

 

[JustAFishServant]

Just somehow stumbled across this thread and it's fascinating! I've never seen an entire batch of dwarves...

Dwarf Bettas are a very real thing and more common than you know. Sadly, it's almost always due to poor genetics or malnutrition as fry that they end up being smaller than normal (about 1.25" in body length) and most of them female. I have two on my hands as of now; a Super Red Long-Finned Female named Val and a Cambodian Long-Finned Female named Dotty. Both have the typical dwarf characteristics; 1.25" body length and long fins. They've grown up apart since I never keep females together and Val turned out especially territorial. Both are healthy w/ no health concerns!

Many dwarves live their lives normally. Sadly, a good portion of them either don't make it past 'fryhood' due to being eaten by larger fish/siblings, deformities, underlying health issues or lack of proper care. I've had great success with my dwarves (over 5) but for one known as Lemon. Poor girl had a back deformity, tail kink that squished her swim bladder, a missing upper lip, severely shortened body (she was barely 0.75"), and severe digestive issues which caused an internal infection and ultimately led to her demise only 5 months after in my care.

Overall, dwarves are becoming increasingly more common due to poor breeding practice. If you get bettas from a pet store and breed them, for instance, you have no idea how much they've been inbred. In my 8-year experience with keeping dwarves I've noticed they're more likely to start out with and/or develop undernourishment since their mouths are smaller, back deformities (or any deformity for that matter), and often a decrease in lifespan. My "favorite" was Honey, my "heart fish" with the longest fins I've ever seen on such a small girl! Her body length was 1.25", tail length was 0.75", and personality was a blast with her territoriality attacking or flaring at your fingers and such. Since then I've seen what someone called dwarves being given away on CL. I've seen some on YT (most of the people are unaware). They're common!

 

[Asia8]

Just somehow stumbled across this thread and it's fascinating! I've never seen an entire batch of dwarves...

Dwarf Bettas are a very real thing and more common than you know. Sadly, it's almost always due to poor genetics or malnutrition as fry that they end up being smaller than normal (about 1.25" in body length) and most of them female. I have two on my hands as of now; a Super Red Long-Finned Female named Val and a Cambodian Long-Finned Female named Dotty. Both have the typical dwarf characteristics; 1.25" body length and long fins. They've grown up apart since I never keep females together and Val turned out especially territorial. Both are healthy w/ no health concerns!

Many dwarves live their lives normally. Sadly, a good portion of them either don't make it past 'fryhood' due to being eaten by larger fish/siblings, deformities, underlying health issues or lack of proper care. I've had great success with my dwarves (over 5) but for one known as Lemon. Poor girl had a back deformity, tail kink that squished her swim bladder, a missing upper lip, severely shortened body (she was barely 0.75"), and severe digestive issues which caused an internal infection and ultimately led to her demise only 5 months after in my care.

Overall, dwarves are becoming increasingly more common due to poor breeding practice. If you get bettas from a pet store and breed them, for instance, you have no idea how much they've been inbred. In my 8-year experience with keeping dwarves I've noticed they're more likely to start out with and/or develop undernourishment since their mouths are smaller, back deformities (or any deformity for that matter), and often a decrease in lifespan. My "favorite" was Honey, my "heart fish" with the longest fins I've ever seen on such a small girl! Her body length was 1.25", tail length was 0.75", and personality was a blast with her territoriality attacking or flaring at your fingers and such. Since then I've seen what someone called dwarves being given away on CL. I've seen some on YT (most of the people are unaware). They're common!

Admin, could you leave my comment on this old thread? I haven't been able to find someone with actual experience in keeping dwarf bettas like this commenter and I would like to hear from them if they happen to be still active on this forum.

JustAFishServant I'm wondering if you could comment on the betta I just bought over the weekend. It's super small (1.25 inches body length) and it has long fins and an egg spot (false maybe?) So far other aquarists have said it's just a doubletail with a typically short body. I am okay with this either way. I would just like to hear from someone with experience in keeping dwarfs to satisfy my curiosity. TIA.