Betta breeding finally ready

[jhawk__]

Ok so I have everything I need, and plan on starting putting my pair into jars and conditioning them for a week tonight with frozen bloodworms. I'm going to let them spawn in a 16 gallon container and have tons of betta cups to cup the fry if they make it I will be feeding infusoria for the first week does this all sound good?

[fissyfriend]

Hi. I am a newbie but I have done a lot of research on breeding bettas. I read that you need to have the water at 5-6 inches deep and whatever tank you want to breed them in and you need to have the male in that tank. In preparation for breeding feed them live food and do water changes often on that tank. For your female you do not want her to see him and you do not want him to see her. Also, you want the breeding tank at 80-82 degrees. After about a week or so of having them in their own tanks you want them to be able to see each other so your male betta can show his colors and so he can flare at her. When you put your female in the breeding tank at first your male will chase her and such but it should not be aggressive. You want there to be some plants in there so that when they are done she can hide. Take her our immediately after they are done mating or he may kill her. Also you want a Styrofoam cup cut in half taped to the glass of your tank so that he can build his bubble nest in it.
Here is some of that advice and you can always google more. But this is what I googled. My friend has two bettas ready to breed so I did this research for about a month.
How to Breed Betta Fish: Animal Planet
Good luck!

[henningc]

OK, I've done this way too many times to count. I'll tell you how I do it.

First, I keep my males in jars all the time except to breed. Females reside in a group in a 10gal.

After conditioning, the female should have a white puss nodual on her anal vent, the pair is ready. I condition with live BBS and froozen BS and froozen Blood worms.

I place the male in a plastic sweater box 2/3 full with a length way cut styro cup. I let him in the breeding container a day or so and he should build a small nest. Then put the female in his jar and fill it so she can get above the container water line and place the jar in the box with the male. He will go absolutely nuts, but nobody gets hurt. Once he blows a large nest release the female, but put the jar back in in a back corner so she can hide behind it.

Once they spawn, and you will know because he will be tending the nest and she will be behind the jar, remove the female. After the eggs hatch and he loses control take the male out.

I use green water-Old aquarium water with the poop I siphoned on the bottom in a jar in the sun for several days. Add a few snails to speed up the process. Feed green water until water is tinted. Add about a 1/2 cup a day. After three to four days start them with a few bbs in the mix. Within 8 days transfer the fry water and all to a 10gal tank. If four to six weeks you will be sorting into cups. Use and eye droper to feed bbs.

Hope it all works out for you. Be careful with the Infusoria, it can tox out the water with little notice. Green water is always the way to go.

[jhawk__]

Thanks for the advice just added my bettas to jars for conditoning. I'm using my marble blue veil tail male and blue veil female. I fed the 5 frozen blood worms just now and I plan on feeding them 5 more before I go to bed? Does this sound like an efficient diet? And I'm also keeping them in 1 gal jars. Is doing water changes every 3 days okay?

[Andy Sager]

A possible variation to HenningC's method is that I use a roughly 2" square piece of romaine lettuce instead of the styro cup for the male to use to make a nest under. As the lettuce starts to deteriorate in the tank, an infusoria culture is started for the fry to feed on. I also add a few pieces of PVC connectors or tubing for the female to hide in if the male gets too "frisky". ( I also put the female back in her jar at night, still in the tank so he can see her, if the male is overly aggressive and they haven't spawned by the first day. )
You can see some of my setups in the albums portion of my profile in an album titled "Breeding Bettas".
If you have any other questions, feel free to PM me

Hope this helps

[jhawk__]

Okay. do you guys have filters in your spawn tank as I wasn't planning on using one

[Alyxx]

Originally Posted by warrior13

Okay. do you guys have filters in your spawn tank as I wasn't planning on using one

I move a cycled sponge filter in and turn it on very low when the parents are in, then I turn it off after spawning until the babies are free swimming. Just be sure to cycle it beforehand!

[jhawk__]

Originally Posted by Alyxx

I move a cycled sponge filter in and turn it on very low when the parents are in, then I turn it off after spawning until the babies are free swimming. Just be sure to cycle it beforehand!

I have a little bubble box I could use? Would that be okay.

[Andy Sager]

Originally Posted by Alyxx

I move a cycled sponge filter in and turn it on very low when the parents are in, then I turn it off after spawning until the babies are free swimming. Just be sure to cycle it beforehand!

I don't use any filtration in my spawning tanks as the size i use sometimes does not allow for it plus the fry are very sensitive to water movement. I only start a cycled SPONGE filter once the fry are starting to eat.

The potential problem to turning off a sponge filter once it has been colonized is that you can create an anarobic situation which creates pullution in the water. This is why you are better off putting a sponge filter into a sparsely filled tank of fish ( so the BB colony is not tremendously large) to inoculate it then using it in the fry tank so that the colony grows to the appropriate size for the bioload present in the tank.
As for why sponge filters, they are the best filter to use for fish fry. They have no parts that the fry can get stuck in, the media is a tremendous place to grow benificial bacteria and you don't need to have heavy water movement to make them work. I can't say the same for bubbler filter

Hope this helps