BREEDING BETTAS

Choosing your pair

It is of utmost important that you know the background of the fish you are planning on breeding.  A good healthy pair with good clean genetic background is very important.  Look for fish that are active and lively and are at least 4 to 5 months old. For longfin bettas, look for fish with big strong Claudal Peduncle which is necessary to support  their long heavy fins.

Step 1. Condition the pair

Put a visible male next to the female you wanted to condition.   Try using a male similiar in color to the male you wanted to breed her with.  A male used in the conditioning stage will  constantly flare and swim around trying to entice the female. He will definitely be stress and  tired with two weeks of nonstop action. It is important that the breeder male is in top health, as he has to spend 4 days taking care of the eggs and the fry.  If the same tired male is use for breeding, he may be too stress and will not recover from the whole process.  Remember in the wild only females that are ready will approach the male's nest to breed.

For the female, food is very important.  Having a male visible to her will stimulate her body to produce more eggs.  Multiple feeding of live food will help her reach full readiness faster. Too much feeding of tubifex worm may not be good for conditioning females, the females will become too fat, space intended to store eggs instead is replaced by fat. Mosquito larvae is suppose to be the best food to condition females, they are actually fat free and are the main diet for wild bettas.  I have seen fat females that produce average spawn while smaller females on the other hand produce huge spawns.   Bloodworm is also a good source of food to condition females. So how do you know if a female is ready to breed?  A female ripe with eggs have light yellow color on the stomach area,  she will also move slightly awkward.  When seeing a male, a dark color female will show vertical stripes and swim in an head down position. With these signs visible,  she is ready to produce a huge spawn for you.

Step 2.  Setup

I use a 10 gallon tank, filled with 3 to 4 inches of water.  I put 2 to 3 piece of Indian almond leaf to provide a place for the female to hide and also to condition the water similiar to their natural habitat.  A party cup cut in half attached to the tank's corner will attract the male to build his bubblenest underneath.  Water is mix with a concentration of 1 gm raw salt per liter.  I put in some water plants to generate infusoria.   I cover the sides of the glass tank to reduce any distractions to the bettas during and after spawning. Sunlight is kept at a minum to reduce the temperature of the tank and allows the eggs to hatch in about 48 hrs.  Fry that hatch too fast are known to be weaker. 

Step 3.   Putting the pair together

I release the male into the tank during the day while  the female is in a jar beside the tank   The male will first explore the area and when he notice the female, he will start flaring at her and she at him.  She will show vertical strips while he will start building a bubble nest and swims toward her to entice her to follow him. Let them do this for the day until just before the sunset.  Release the female into the tank and turn off the lights.  For my case, spawning  takes place the following day.  

Step 4.  Spawning process

Female will show vertical stripes and swim in ahead down position.  She will approach the male and the male will embrace her in a U shape. With proper embrace, eggs are released simultaneously with sperm and are fertilized in mid water.  Mating process last  for 2 to 3 hrs or until the female has no more eggs left. The male will chase her away from his nest  and she will hide under the leaves provided.  Most website advise to take out the female and put her in a jar with melafix or methylene blue.   But If you want a bigger spawn,  leave the female there with enough place to hide, the female will spawn with the male again on the third day.  Only then remove the female.   I put a piece of lettuce leaf in the tank on the day they spawn.  By the time the fry are free swimming (4 days) , the lettuce leaf will generate  enough infusoria to feed the fry. (Note: in order for infusoria to exist and populate the tank, I prepare my breeding tank with a few water plants like elodia or water hyacinth  that where from my outdoor tank)  For the tropical temperature in Penang, eggs usually hatch 2 days after spawning. Fry starts spreading around the tank and swim horizontally 2 days after hatching, this is also describe as the free swimming stage.  Take out the father  when fry are free swimming and put him back into his jar with a good feeding of his favourite food. I don't feed the male during breeding as extra waste is generated.  I will also place in the tank a  sponge filter running with  very minimum air bubble. (about 1 bubble per second).  Water is added to the tank using an airline tube placed in the  middle opening of my sponge filter until  water slightly covers the top of the sponge filter. Sponge filter will not just act as a biological  filter or  break up surface scum, it also serve as a place for  infusoria to concentrate nearby.  I notice fry will concentrate near the sponge picking on infusoria.  I also add in 3 to 4 small snails to help keep the bottom clean by eating up the rotting lettuce leaf and the dead plants.

Step 5.  Feeding the frys

Now comes the hard part, to raise the fry to beautiful adult bettas.  Two main causes of fry death are 1) Overfeeding which result in pollution and leads to stress and disease. 2) Lack of food which result in starvation.  Fry will only eat food that are alive and moving like daphnia/moina, bbs, microworm, vinegar eel and infusoria. If those food are not available when  fry are free swimming, they will most likely die.  Fry will eat commercially made fry food like Golden Pearls, Decapsulated BrineShrimp eggs and Mike Reed No BBS fry food. You have to slowly train your fry to eat those food and I believe during the first 10 days of the fry's life they are too vulnerable to start those training.   Feeding is done 1 day after they are free swimming.  I leave a light shining at the tank 24 hrs a day so that the fry can feed constantly. I alternate BBS with microworm.  Microworm is fed to the fry during long stretches when I am unable to feed them as they are able to survive longer in the tank(12 hrs). BBS  is fed 1 to 2 times during the day.  This feeding regime will continue until fry are  3 weeks old (.5 cm).  I will stop feeding them microworm and start alternating chopped tubifex worm with BBS for about 1 week before feeding them solely on chopped tubifex. Without feeding microworm, I will discontinue leaving the lights on at night.  By the time the fry are 6 weeks, they should be able to eat whole tubifex worm and also frozen bloodworm.  I will then transfer them to a 100 gallon grow out fibre tank.  For those who wanted to wean their fry to dry food.  I would recommend feeding them frozen bloodworm for a few days, then change to freeze dried bloodworm. When they readily eat  freeze dried bloodworm, it is time to try pellet food like hikari cichlid bio gold micro size. 

Step 6.  Jarring Betta

When signs of aggressive behavior like fin nipping starts to show, it means that time has come  for jarring. The general age for jarring is 2 to 3 months, but may vary according to different spawn and the individual fish in the spawn. Females  don't required jarring  and can remain in the grow out  tank.  Fish that are jarred will turn darker in color and their fins will grow rapidly.  I  do a 100% water change twice a week with my 1 litre jars.  I  add in some aquarium plants like Elodea to keep the pollution level at a minimum.  I use indian almond leaf to condition the water. The leaves should not be kept more than 1 week as they will start to rot and becomes acidic.  Feeding is done only once a day and 6 days a week.  

Below are some of my fry photos. Enjoy