Make sure that you have a male and female. The male betta
has longer fins and the female betta has a "white dot" just
cranial to the anal fin. You want to select fish that look
good to you. The age of the fish should range from 6 months
to one year depending on the size of the fish. Avoid fish
with bent or missing fins because these traits may be passed
on to the fry. The best fish can be purchased through a
breeder who shows in the International Betta congress (IBC).
If you join the IBC you can look at the show results in their
publication called "Flare", and find the breeder that is
placing in the category of fish fish color and fin type you
are interested in. Then contact the individual and ask if
they have any fish to sell you or if they know where you can
get the type of fish you are interested in. You should
expect to pay about $15 to $30 for a pair and about $7
dollars for shipping. Yes you can find some nice pet store
fish for $3 for the male and $2 for the female, but you may
have trouble finding female bettas, also the fish from
winning individuals have bigger fins and brighter color for
the most part. The other benefit is that you can get advice
from them and meet people this way.
It has been suggested to condition a pair for 2 weeks prior to breeding. During this time the pair are kept separated in quart jars. Fed 2-3 times a day with water changes every 2 days. Remove all uneaten food with an eye dropper that has been left for more than 20 minutes. The fish keeper has a tendency to over feed the fish during this period. I use a beef heart recipe, but I think most people use live food.
Most people put the male into the tank first a few days prior
to spawning. All feeding stops at this point. The female
is
placed in a quart jar in the aquarium. This should stimulate
the male to build the nest. After several days release the
female even if there is no bubble nest. Some males wait till
the last moment to get ready others will have a nest the size
of Mt. Everest.
At this point anything can happen, some times good and
sometimes bad. I have had males that kill the female and
surprisingly, even females that kill the male. Also lack of
interest, or lots of interest, but no spawning. I usually give
them three days, before removing any fish. Patience and
persistence is key, but sometimes your lucky. The spawning
ritual starts out with the male often violently attacking the
female after they display to one another. The female usually
retreats to the floating plants. The male will swim back to
the nest to enhance or maintain it after each attack. After
a day or two the male will swim to the female, display and
then back to the nest. This is repeated many times. The
female will start to follow the male to the nest. This is
also repeated. The female, when she follows the male to the
nest will circle under the nest and the male will also, in a
slow deliberate motion. Then the male will rap around the
female inverting her and they will drop down the water
column. This will also be repeated with out eggs at first,
then latter the female will release the eggs as they are in
their embrace. As they drop down the water in their embrace
the fertilization of the eggs occurs. The male will release
the female and collect the eggs. The female will drift
lifelessly to the surface, then recover and repeat the
process until her eggs are depleted. Then the male will
chase her away and passionately maintain the nest.
After the spawning is complete, remove the female and treat
her injuries with BETTAMAX, which can be purchase from your
local pet store, or the IBC, and sometimes Wallmart. Leave
the male in with the nest for two more days. You will see
the fry by there tails hang down from the nest. Periodically
a fry will fall from the nest and make a mad dash in some
random direction. The male will catch the fry with his mouth
and spit him back into the nest. This continues until the fry
are escaping so often the male just gives up. This is the
proper point to remove the male. Some males will have a
history of eating the babies or the eggs, if this occurs,
just after spawning is complete scoop up the nest with a
petri dish and remove the male and the female. After three
days return the newly hatch fry to the breeding tank. Try to
maintain a constant temperature.
On the day the fish have spawned put 1/2 of a teaspoon of
brine shrimp eggs in a two liter bottle and fill it with
fresh water. Bubble air in it for one hour, then add 2 table
spoons of synthetic sea salt, or 2 table spoons of Kosher
salt and one table spoon of epson salt. You should get newly
hatch baby brine shrimp in about three days and they should
last about a week. After removing the male add 2 or three
drops of "liquid fry" or two or three drops of wet hard boiled
egg yoke that you rubbed of the moistened yolk after wetting
it. When the shrimp hatch, filter out about 2 cups of
hatched shrimp with a coffee filter, wash that with fresh
water then rinse off the shrimp and egg shells into a jar.
Wait about 10 minutes and most of the shrimp will be at the
bottom and the egg shells at the top. Remove the shrimp with
a turkey baster and add this to you babies. Feed the fry 2-3
times a day. Set up the tank for raising the fry. A ten
or
twenty gallon tank with your sponge filter and maybe a guppy
and a heater set to heat the tank to 80 F. After about three
weeks of the fry in the breeding tank, remove the guppy from the raising
tank and gently pour the fry into the bigger tank. Be sure
that the temperature is identical. As time goes on remove any
abnormally large fry and place them in quart jars and
continue feed them brine shrimp also. At about 2 months
intermittently use flake food instead of brine shrimp. At
about 3 months jar any fish who are scraping. These are your
males. Some people have bred fish as early as three months
but most fish will not be ready to breed until about 6
months.