Betta Breeding Questions

[Lillypad]

Hi all! I have some questions about breeding bettas.
Here is my plan:

Condition bettas for 1-2 weeks with frozen bloodworms 3 times a day and letting them flare at each other 3 times a day for 3-5 minutes.
Add male to breeding tank for 3 hours
Add female in breeder net for 24 hours
Release female with male
Remove female after 48 hours if damage is minimal, and they haven’t bred
If they breed, leave male in for around a week to care for fry

I appreciate any advice on my plans! Really want to do this right this time!

My main question is about choosing breeding pairs. I know you have to look for things like form, color, patterns, etc… the pictures below are of all my bettas (male and female) that I have that I think I could breed. Let me know which bettas would make good pair, or generally good breeders.

Female yellow copper 

 

Male yellow copper

 

/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,onerror=redirect,width=1920,height=1920,fit=scale-down/https://www.bettafish.com/attachments/7bf3009b-f584-41ac-b7d7-0c1e9cba8faa-jpeg.1055056/Female black samurai

 

Male black samurai 

 

/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,onerror=redirect,width=1920,height=1920,fit=scale-down/https://www.bettafish.com/attachments/2496493d-d1e3-4203-bc1a-0103a4d0bc1c-jpeg.1055055/Female crowntail

 

/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,onerror=redirect,width=1920,height=1920,fit=scale-down/https://www.bettafish.com/attachments/dfc041e9-c1cf-4615-bf79-335bc602d15a-jpeg.1055059/Male veil tail

 

/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,onerror=redirect,width=1920,height=1920,fit=scale-down/https://www.bettafish.com/attachments/a3451969-4190-42ff-a990-157c2b67255c-jpeg.1055058/Male koi

 

/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,onerror=redirect,width=1920,height=1920,fit=scale-down/https://www.bettafish.com/attachments/598978c3-5085-4482-a3ef-873772d17efb-jpeg.1055060/Male blue marble

Females:
Black samurai: flares at males/poked at glass to get to male
Yellow copper: flares at males/poked/smashes into glass to get to male
Black samurai: flares at females/poked at glass to get to her/males medium sized bubble nests
Black samurai: flares at females/poked at glass to get to her/males medium sized bubble nests
Yellow copper: flares at females/poked at glass to get to her/males medium sized bubble nests
Blue marble: weak flaring at females/small bubble nests/poked at glass to get to her
Koi: extra-large bubble nests/doesn’t take much interest in flaring/swims up to bubble nest when he sees a female

any behavior that doesn’t sound good for breeding?

which bettas do you think have the best form?
Looking forward to hearing all of your input! Thanks in advance.

[Lennie]

Hey Lily, 

here is what I do:

1st, before starting to a betta breeding project you need to culture a live food that is very tiny because your babies will need tiny live food. Vinegar eels are easy and stays okay for a long term without culturing again and again. So first, if you don't have something like infusoria or vinegar eels going on, start a culture.

To breed:

My female sorority tank always have my male betta tanks in their vision from far away, so usually they carry eggs. I put something that floats on top to help male to build nest around, catappa leaf works great. Then I cover around it with lots of amazon frogbits.

I use a shallow tank, cycled sponge filter that is there to cycle the water but without any surface agitation. I put the female inside the net box and leave her there for some time.

Like this :

They always see each other, usually, males start building bubble nest directly and females have their belly chunkier building up eggs more. I feed both female and the male in the tank. 

Usually male swims to females net breeder box, flares her and directly goes back build his nest. After some time, when the nest seems to be completed, and female starts to try swimming towards him/the nest, I release her. They barely  flare at all at this time.

I only dim the lights but never turn it off completely.

But you always have to be more careful. Some males tend to be very aggressive. And in case you wanna breed such male, you always have to be ready for intervention.

Also, sadly not every pair you want to work actually works. Even after following the exact steps, their energy may not match. 

 

I tried this male with a yellow koi female and they didnt work it out. However, after staying together for two days together with this red koi female, they were ready to breed!

 

So at the end of the day, they kinda decide if they are suitable for each other.

 

To select a pair:

You should make sure female isn't bigger than male. Their size should be ideally similar maybe female being a lil bit smaller.

Ideally, they should have same type of tail/fin structure and color to have better quality babies that would sell. Like if you wanna breed a halfmoon male, you need a halfmoon female. For example, that male veil tail of yours don't really carry the specific look of veil tails so I wouldn't breed him.

From the yellows you have, male is a half moon plakat and female is? Halfmoon? Those don't seem like coppers to me btw

 

Some health issues I can remember rn to keep in mind for breeding:

-Marbles, scale patter bettas, dragons etc are more prone to diseases, tumors, blindness. Same goes for aliens. Your samurais have the scale going to the eyes. If I'm not mistakes, this may cause you end up having blind ones potentially. like this:

 

-Kois that color up all the time rather than being colored at first are more prone to cancer and health issues.

-In my personal opinion and observations, dumbo ears have extremely low quality of life in general.

 

Male betta may repair the nest when needed and guard it, but won't take care of the fry. So observe the fry situation and don't directly assume an exact period of leaving him in the tank.

to remove female, again don't estimate a direct 2 days. When you see after they mated and he started to chase female away from the nest, it is time to remove her. Sometimes male cut this period too short and start being aggressive towards female when she wasn't done laying. So it is best to remove her to prevent injuries I think.

Edited July 10, 2023 by Lennie

[Lennie]

Here is some videos you can check if you haven't yet:

 

 

[Lillypad]

Ok , thank you! I have micro worms and baby copepods in my breeding tanks for when they first hatch, and baby brine shrimp when they’re older.

[Lennie]

On 7/10/2023 at 4:19 PM, Lillypad said:

Ok , thank you! I have micro worms and baby copepods in my breeding tanks for when they first hatch, and baby brine shrimp when they’re older.

too big for them to eat sadly at the start.

making them eat anything is one of the biggest challenges, and they may starve to death.

Microworms can be a next step after the vinegar eels, but they are too small to eat microworms when they hatch. 

If you can get a vinegar eel culture, and follow it with microworms and live bbs gradually, it sounds pretty good and ideal. The bigger they get, you can start feeding the bigger food 👍🏼

 

[Lillypad]

I don’t know if I said this in my first post, but I have bred bettas before successfully up until the fry were about 2 weeks old. They ate whatever was in the tank from the moment they hatched, until I could give them live bbs. Is it possible that the tiny worm-like things in the breeding tank were vinegar eels, instead of micro worms. They also ate the tiny bugs, and I’m not quite sure what they are.

thank you for the warnings on health.

which ones do you think would be the best to breed?