Betta Breeding

If you stumble upon this page whether by accident or looking for answers I can safely assume you are interest in betta breeding

A universal truth is that nothing good or exciting worth gaining and waiting for is ever free or easy. You know this fact well, life throws hard balls at you everyday.
Don’t let this scare you if it does, betta breeding is not for you.

You have read this far, that means you are serious about getting the right information to breed like a pro.
Betta breeding is very exciting and simple when you acknowledge the basic procedure. Very crucial if you don’t know how.

Know that the male betta is the one to protect and care for the eggs not the female. Selecting two betta with excellent features you just increase offspring inheritance by fifty percent in potential.

Don’t rush your betta into reproduction, this is the biggest mistake people make in betta breeding. You need to prepare and condition both breeders to reach optimal results.
Two weeks in advance is your conditioning period, keep your bettas in separate tanks and block off so they cannot see each other.
To condition your bettas change their diets to food highly in fat and rich in protein.
I would suggest live foods like worms or frozen blood worms, but since you are a beginner use dried process blood worms and dried krill instead. Keep in mind that live food are almost always prone to diseases. In addition floating pallets with 45% protein or higher is suitable as well. Feeding should increase to three times a day with as much as the fish can eat within five minute, dispose un-eaten food to help maintain water condition. Do frequent water change as it correlate to the amount of food you are feeding your fish and amount of waste build up.
Proper conditioning your breeders and their body will automatically trigger a response to eagerness courtship. The female betta will start to plump up with eggs while male betta prepares a gurgle nest. This is where many newbie go wrong, they get the impression that when put together a male and a female betta without prior conditioning breeding will occurred. Only a 25% chance of bettas that breed when toss together, majority of betta when pair up to breed the male will injure the female.

Set aside a ten gallon tank with water fill up to half, tank bottom should be bare, include a water heater to maintain constant temperature of 80*-85*F. adding live plants can provide oxygen for the fry and also a temporary food source.
Cut a Styrofoam cup in half and tape it on one side of tank wall to be as the nest.
Use a clear divider to separate the male and the female betta when first introduce.
Add the female to the breeding tank and allow her to get comfortable with the environment. Add the male to the other side of the clear divider.
The male betta will flare up as usual and the female being properly condition will show sign of readiness with horizontal line along the body.

The male will start a bubble nest under the Styrofoam and dance around the female, at this stage you can safely remove the clear divider for the actual spawning to take place. The male and female betta will embrace under the nest. Female will dive head down in a S shape and the male will wrap himself around to squeeze out the eggs, male betta will fertilize the eggs and picks up with his mouth to place in the bubble nest.

Once the fertilize egg is place on the bubble nest the male will show aggression towards the female betta.
Take the female betta out from the breeding tank, her job is done.
The male will continue care for the eggs for the next two to three days until the fry hatch. The male will continue picking and placing the fry back into the bubble nest.
Within 24 hours the fry will begin development and begin to swim on their own, now you can remove the male betta his job is done. Check out the page about Baby bettas
If male betta is not remove his at this time his nurture instincts would have expired and he’ll start feeding on the fry.
Start feeding the fry with brine shrimp and very fine crumble flakes