Breeding Bettas
Conditioning Bettas For Spawning (Jump To This)
Preparing a Betta Spawning Tank (Jump To This)
Introducing your Betta to the Spawning tank (Jump To This)
Betta Spawning ritual (Jump To This)
Caring for the Betta Eggs (Jump To This)
Caring for the Betta Fry (Jump To This)
Growing on Bettas (Jump To This)
Conditioning Bettas For Spawning
As a breeder I ensure that my fish get live food every day and so really my females and males should, theoretically, be ready to spawn at any time. A male that is ready to spawn will be active and instantly flare at another male or its own reflection in a mirror. If they are blowing a bubble nest then that is also a good sign that youre Betta is ready to spawn. A large water change a tablespoon of aquarium salt per 5 gallons and the addition of an almond leaf works wonders. Live food is essential to condition your Bettas, I breed Angel fish and consequently I have Brine shrimp available every day. I also have Whiteworm and Daphnia cultures on the go so I am never short of things to feed them. I also keep several buckets of dirty water on my garage roof and this normally yields fly larvae which they also love. If your not squeamish you can chop up Earthworms and feed them as well.
Female Bettas that are conditioned should have fat bellies which are swollen with eggs like the one in the picture. the ovispoitor or egg tube will also be visible in the anal area. Again the female should be fed on all of the foods that you can feed to the male.
In a nutshell:
Live food every day.
Frequent water change.
Aquarium salt at 1 tblsp per 5 gallons.
Female swollen with eggs
& ovipositor visible.
Preparing a Betta Spawning Tank
Preparing a spawning tank for Bettas couldnt be easier. In fact Bettas will spawn in any type of container as long as there is room. Sometimes I use washing up bowls to spawn them in and ive even spawned them in a 3 lire coke bottle turned on its side ( I wouldnt recommend this thought). Generally I use 16 x 8 x 8 (inches) to spawn them. The tank is washed thoroughly and filled to a depth of six inches with water that I have aged for 24 hours. I place a 3 x 3 inch square of Almond leaf in the tank and a piece of plastic tube around 3 inches long. The Indian almond leaf will leach beneficial substances into the water and the male will normally build his nest under it. Dont put to big a peice in there as it will sink after a few days and could take the nest with it. The plastic pipe is for the female to hide in once the spawning has finished. Once the tank is filled I wait a further 24 hour for the temperature to stabalise at around 78 degrees. If you are going to feed your fry on Microworm than start a new culture on the day you set up the spawning tank.
There are lots of variations on Betta spawning tanks, some people like to have floating plants or strands of Cabomba, this will also give cover and something for the nest to be built in. Others use half a styrene cup for the male to build a nest under and upturned flower pots for the female to hide in. Whichever method you use they should all work. I use my method because it works for me. Its simple clean and efficient.
In a nut shell:
16 x 8 x 8 tank inches
3 x 3 Inches peice of Almond leaf
3 inch length of plastic tube
Water aged for 24 hours
Wait for temp to reach 78 degrees
Start a new Microworm culture.
Introducing your Betta to the Spawning tank
Once the water has stood in the tank I introduce the male into the tank. This gives him a chance to move around the tank and inspect it and find all the nooks and crannies. The next day in the morning I float the female in a plastic pop bottle that I have cut down to around 5 inches high. When the male spots the female it is highly likely that he will go loopy. Swimming up and down and all around the bottle flaring his gills and extending his fins to the full to show the female what a hunk he is. (sounds like me when I was 25 years younger LOL! ) The female will largely ignore the male for a while but will start to take interest in him after a while. At this point the male should start to build a bubble nest, preferably under the Almond leaf. He appears to lose interest in the female however he will make the ocasional dash back to the bottle just to make sure that she knows he is still around . He will busy hinself for hours taking air from the surface and blowing out bubbles to his hearts content. Sometimes the Almond leaf can be lifted off the surface of the water by the size of his nest. Not all males will build huge nests in fact some wont build a nest at all. The next day in the morning I release the male, regardless of whether or not the male has built a nest. Sometimes this will stimulate him into building a nest if he hasnt already built one. Once the male realises that the female is loose he will persue her around the tank chasing her frantically. This can continue for some time and may result in the loss of some of the finage, however he should settle down and leave her alone to continue with the nest.
TOP TIP:
If you have more than one male and one is blowing a nest while the other wont, take a spoonfull of one nest and put it into the tank with no nest. This often encourages the male to begin to blow a nest
In a nut shell:
Introduce male after 24 hrs of ageing the water.
Introduce female next day in bottle in morning.
Male builds nest.
Let the female go the day after inroducing her.
Male chases female.
May lead to fin nipping
Male should continue to build nest.
Betta Spawning ritual
What happens next never fails to amaze me and I can watch it over and over again. The female becomes more and more interested in the male and the nest and begins to edge nearer and nearer to the nest ocasionally nipping in to take a peak at how its going. By now her ovipositor or egg tube will be clearly visible and she should appear fatter as she is now ripe with eggs.When she's ready she ends up right under the nest. Somertimes its a little awkward the first time (weve all been there) Eventually they get it together and the male wraps himself completely around the female right under the nest . The male releases her and she lies there motionless as if paralysed. For the first few embraces no eggs are released but after a few dummy runs the female begisns to release the eggs. Only a few are released at first but as the spawing gets going she releases more and more eggs at each wrap around. Once the eggs are released , the male takes them up into his mouth and spits them into the bubble nest. Sometimes the female will help with this but not always. The spawning goes on for around an hour or so until the female is spent of eggs. When the male realises that she is not releasing any eggs he will chase her away from the nest and she wont be allowed back near it. At this time the female normally hides in the plastic tube and as soon as I see that the female is hiding I remove her from the tank
We all know that fish can be fish amnd act in strange ways so its no surprise that sometimes the roles can be reversed. It has been known for the female to look after the eggs should the male die. The female often helps the male to collect eggs and deposit them into the nest. Its also been know for the female to lay eggs herself when no male is present and then tend the infertile eggs.
This pic was coutesy of Nisha
TOP TIP
If your male leaves eggs on the bottom of the tank. suck them up with a straw. put them into a plastic container add a litle methylene blue and float it in tank to keep it warm. the fry will probably hatch out.
In a nutshel;
Female begins to show interes.
Female inspects nest.
Ovipositor clearly visible.
Male wraps female.
Female expells eggs.
Male gathers eggs.
Spits eggs into nest.
Drives her away when finished.
Remove female.
Caring for the Betta Eggs
Once the female has been removed the, male will settle down to look after the eggs. For the next 36 hours he will concentrate on keeping the eggs well oxygenated by blowing more bubbles and moving the eggs around in the nest. Sometimes he will move the eggs around in the nest. Sometimes he will just make the nest bigger and bigger. I have seen a really small nest about 1 inch square with eggs in it but after I added another piece of Almond leaf the male betta built another nest under the leaf and transferred the eggs to the new nest. After 36 hours the eggs will hatch and you will see tiny little tails hanging from underneath the nest. Sometimes the male will shift his nest from one part of the tank to another.
TOP TIP
Ensure that the temperature in the tank does not rise too high or low. If this happens then the bubble nest may break up
Caring for the Betta Fry
Once the eggs hatch and the fry hang from the nest the male really has his work cut out in looking after them. After a while the fry may fall from the nest and the male will take them into his mouth and gently blow them back in the nest. The nearer the fry become to free swimming the more the fry will swim around and the greater the amount of work the male will do. On the second day after hatching the fry will become free swimming.They will have used up their yolk sac and instead of hanging vertically from the nest they will now be horizontal. This means that they have used up their yolk sac and their hungry little bellies will need filling up. Now is the time to begin feeding them, if you have microworms than feed them. I prefer to feed mine brine shrimp straight from the start but I do still sometimes feed them microworm. Now is the time to remove the male
TOP TIP:
If you have a huge batch then lower the water. Thgis way the fry wont have so far to swim back to the top of the nest and the male wont have so much work to do.
In a Nutshell;
Eggs hatch after 36 hours.
Fry hang vertically from nes.
Male picks up any that fall from the nest.
Free swimming after two days.
Remove male when fry are horizontal.
Start feeding BBS or Microworms.
Growing on Bettas
Once the male is removed your work will begin in ernest. The fry will need to be fed three times a day and from around 1 week old the water will need to be changed as often as possible. I change around 20% every day from the end of the second week and this will help your fry to grow quickly. I do not siphon the floor of the tank instead I rely on Apple snails to clean the floor for me for the first few weeks. Once the fry are big and strong enough to escape the suction of an air line then I begin to siphon the floor. I normally divide the tank into three and each day I choose a different part to siphon from. This is a laborious task but it has to be done. You can add a sponge filter if you wish, I wont use any filters in my smaller tanks instead relying on water changes to keep the water clean. If you start the fry on Microworm then try to move them onto brine shrimp as soon as possible. Once they reach the size where they can take grindal worms and white worms they should grow even quicker.
Move them on to grow out tanks as soon as you can as this will also aid their growth. Once I move them on I then add filtration to the tanks but I still keep up my daily water changes and siphoning the bottom. I also still enlist the help of Apple snails. At around 3/4 of an inch you are going to start to be able to work out which ones are males and which ones are females and as soon as you start to see aggresion in the tank you need to start to take out any troublesome males to grow them on individually. This is where the real work starts if you dont have a Betta barracks . The males will need to be kept apart and I normally keep them in 3 litre coke bottles but as part of a barracks system. Sometimes I do not have the room to house all of my male bettas in the barracks system that I have so I have to just keep them in bottles changing the water each day. This is a laborious task but ive got it down to a fine art now and can do around 30 bottles drained and refilled in around 5 minutes.
In Thailand they seem to be able to grow their Bettas to near adult size in around 3 - 31/2 months but realistically for the hobbyist I thinks its going to be more like 5-6 months. By the time they are 3 months old I am feeding mine 3 times a day, in the mornings they get BBs then at dinner time they get either whiteworm, daphnia or fly larvae. At around 3 months you will know which ones you wish to keep and those that you wish to sell. You will be able to sell more Bettas if you are able to post them. so check out my shipping Bettas page to see exactly how to ship them
