BettaFishCO Posted December 20, 2022 Share Posted December 20, 2022 Idk if this is how a journal is started but I guess I'll find out. So we've been breeding for about 2 months now and loving it. Started with grabbing a beautiful blue Betta pet from a lfs. When we went to a PC or ps for supplies and we noticed how ugly and sad the Bettas we're in the stores. Me, being the go getter I am, decided to see if we could do better. 2 days, 30 hours of study and it was clear, I'm now a fish breeder. Fast forward another 2 months, clocked 368 hrs of study, later and now we have around 60 tanks and should be at around 200 in another 2 months. Our goal is to raise the absolute healthiest fish in Colorado tap water. So far so good. If you have any questions, we're all ears. This community has helped us a lot including Cory and his vids. Any inSight or encouragement welcome, we don't bite. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theplatymaster Posted December 20, 2022 Share Posted December 20, 2022 Nice! Are you breeding bettas? Or is it something else? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick_G Posted December 20, 2022 Share Posted December 20, 2022 (edited) I've never bred Bettas but I'll be following your adventure. Let's see some pics of your setup 🙂 Edited December 20, 2022 by Patrick_G 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BettaFishCO Posted December 20, 2022 Author Share Posted December 20, 2022 Hi platy, We specialize in Bettas but inorder to go full time we needed a few others. Right now we have neo caridina, hillstream, and otos. We're branching into Cory's, khuli loaches (might be bad spelling), dwarf crayfish, rams and apistos. Thanks Patrick, I spent so much time typing I burnt my boiled egg lol 🤦♀️😅 I'll try to post some today. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BettaFishCO Posted December 20, 2022 Author Share Posted December 20, 2022 This is one tub-o-fries. The bottom is a breeding bin and the larger is the 2 week grow out bin. Then off to the market...😜 Theyll be in that bin for 2 weeks, no water changes, then they'll go into a 35 gallon recycle bin till about 2months of age. This is my breeding rack with all the breeding Bettas. Mostly kings and giant galaxy star kois, and galaxy kois. They each gets about a 2 gallon pool and continuous flow from a heated rez. All have plants for some amusement and I try to feed live foods as much as possible to keep them actively looking and swimming. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theplatymaster Posted December 20, 2022 Share Posted December 20, 2022 (edited) On 12/20/2022 at 4:06 PM, BettaFishCO said: This is one tub-o-fries. The bottom is a breeding bin and the larger is the 2 week grow out bin. Then off to the market...😜 Theyll be in that bin for 2 weeks, no water changes, then they'll go into a 35 gallon recycle bin till about 2months of age. This is my breeding rack with all the breeding Bettas. Mostly kings and giant galaxy star kois, and galaxy kois. They each gets about a 2 gallon pool and continuous flow from a heated rez. with so many fish where do they go? Are you giving them to a PC or your LFS? Selling them online? Or can we expect some RAOKs? Edited December 20, 2022 by Theplatymaster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BettaFishCO Posted December 20, 2022 Author Share Posted December 20, 2022 I'm super green to the industry, whats RAOK? We talked with the local fish stores and they all seem interested. We know one store sells about 200 every 30 days. The goal is to eventually take a contract to PC (2-5yr) cause we know we can treat them better with better industry practices. Till then we're just nailing down our systems. Quality before quantity. O, and just lfs for now. We feel sales are going to go really well so we don't want to sell out online and be unreliable to the lfs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theplatymaster Posted December 20, 2022 Share Posted December 20, 2022 On 12/20/2022 at 4:21 PM, BettaFishCO said: I'm super green to the industry, whats RAOK? We talked with the local fish stores and they all seem interested. We know one store sells about 200 every 30 days. The goal is to eventually take a contract to PC (2-5yr) cause we know we can treat them better with better industry practices. Till then we're just nailing down our systems. Quality before quantity. an RAOK is basically giving fish out randomly to people on this forum, in the Buy/Trade/Sell area 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJenna Posted December 20, 2022 Share Posted December 20, 2022 On 12/20/2022 at 3:50 PM, BettaFishCO said: We specialize in Bettas but inorder to go full time we needed a few others. Right now we have neo caridina, hillstream, and otos. We're branching into Cory's, khuli loaches (might be bad spelling), dwarf crayfish, rams and apistos. Your room looks so organized! What size do you let them go to lfs? I have no knowledge about Bettas so I'm looking forward to learning from you. Welcome to the group 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BettaFishCO Posted December 20, 2022 Author Share Posted December 20, 2022 Thanks Jenna, Another, sort of phrase, we go is if you have attention (wondering eyes) and the best looking product, they'll sell themselves. So we'll probably start at 3 months so there fully developed. We think big, healthy, sexy fish sell the best for the lfs. I wish I knew coop sold plants before we started. Literally spent thousands on junky plants we had to grow out. Man there warehouse is absolutely beautiful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BettaFishCO Posted December 22, 2022 Author Share Posted December 22, 2022 Took a quick pic of a batch of fry. Super delta blue long fin with a galaxy star koi plakat. Just wondering how genetics work and it's flawless. There is a cool chart that shows what Betta genes are dominant and recessive. Looks to be pretty accurate so we should get some great kois in the next batch. I found it incase someone wanted to nerd out with me. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BettaFishCO Posted December 22, 2022 Author Share Posted December 22, 2022 These Betta are 7 weeks old. They started to color up in the first 2-3 weeks. Can't wait to see them fully developed at 3 months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick_G Posted December 22, 2022 Share Posted December 22, 2022 Looks like a really nice system. How are you handling outflow on the tubs in the breeding rack? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BettaFishCO Posted December 22, 2022 Author Share Posted December 22, 2022 Hi Patrick, It all flows into the 5 gallon bucket filled with media, a heater, and a 420gallonhr pump. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick_G Posted December 22, 2022 Share Posted December 22, 2022 On 12/22/2022 at 6:06 AM, BettaFishCO said: Hi Patrick, It all flows into the 5 gallon bucket filled with media, a heater, and a 420gallonhr pump. Do you have a fitting in each tub for the overflow? It’s hard to see in the pics. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllFishNoBrakes Posted December 22, 2022 Share Posted December 22, 2022 Excited to see what a fellow CO tap water breeder can do! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BettaFishCO Posted December 22, 2022 Author Share Posted December 22, 2022 I see, here is a close up of the bins. Each bin is fed by a 1 gallon dripper and exits through 2 1/8th inch line. This should allow me to upgrade to a 2gph dripper if I wanted. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BettaFishCO Posted December 22, 2022 Author Share Posted December 22, 2022 Thanks Allfish, Do you ever have problems with water pumps? I have a 420gph that was doing fine but now barley trickles. Also have a hang on 10g filter that did the same thing. Maybe hard water? What's your experience? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllFishNoBrakes Posted December 22, 2022 Share Posted December 22, 2022 (edited) @BettaFishCO I don’t use a whole lot of pumps. I keep my fish in community settings, and then when they breed I harvest and hatch the eggs, and then raise the fry. I haven’t done Bettas as I don’t have the space to grow them all out, jar them, etc. My water is soft where I’m at. Just 40 TDS out of the tap. Most of my tanks run right around 70, with the highest tank being at 100. I’m not doing giant scale breeding though, like I said I just harvest and hatch as it naturally happens, like with this Albino Cory spawn I woke up to this morning: Julii’s are dropping some eggs as we speak as well. Edited December 22, 2022 by AllFishNoBrakes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick_G Posted December 22, 2022 Share Posted December 22, 2022 On 12/22/2022 at 12:45 PM, BettaFishCO said: I see, here is a close up of the bins. Each bin is fed by a 1 gallon dripper and exits through 2 1/8th inch line. This should allow me to upgrade to a 2gph dripper if I wanted. Thanks, that’s clean simple system. How do you seal the hole where the outflow tubes enter the tubs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BettaFishCO Posted December 23, 2022 Author Share Posted December 23, 2022 I don't seal them. Irrigation usually is pretty tight. Thats sweet Allfish, I found the issue. Looks like all my drippers were clogged with junk. I replaced them and added a inline mesh filter and all looks good. My water i think come out at 150-250 ppm. I put a cold water filter that brings it down but i havnt checked it after i installed it...... oops. But my shrimp are happy with it so it works for me. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schuyler Posted December 23, 2022 Share Posted December 23, 2022 On 12/20/2022 at 12:50 PM, BettaFishCO said: Right now we have neo caridina, hillstream, and otos. Breeding otos? I thought they were really hard to breed were nearly all caught wild Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BettaFishCO Posted December 23, 2022 Author Share Posted December 23, 2022 Hey Schuyler, Your correct. I've never shied away from difficult things. I believe there just like cory's but even more dependent on mimicking the rainy season. There still being conditioned so I won't know for about another 2-4 month (dont know their age) if I can get them to breed. I have 20 so hopefully at least one tank spawns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schuyler Posted December 24, 2022 Share Posted December 24, 2022 I know @xXInkedPhoenixX has a journal about accidentally breeding otos. Maybe they would have some advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now