# First Breeding Attempt



## Shadow6558 (Jan 18, 2010)

I have decided to have a go at trying to breed my beta's.

Dracos(M)-
A bicolor blue and red Crowntail (Is it possible he is also dragon? Not exactly sure what a dragon looks like)









Ava(f)-
A Cambodian Crowntail









Has anyone had a breeding similar to this, I am curious as the the out come of the breeding and coloration of the offspring.

To start, I have separated them from the other fish, Dracos lived in a ten gallon with several of my other fish, Ava is new, and has been in a 1 gallon quarantine tank (I have a bigger tank for her, and the rest of my fish.) As of right now, I moved them into a heated room, placed in gallon jugs.




















I had already started conditioning them ahead of time and they will only be in the jugs for another day or so. With these jug set ups, is it possible to put the male fry in these as they get older? I think they are slightly bigger than some of the jars and containers usually used.
Tomorrow, or today lol (morning everyone), I will be getting an even larger tank from a friend. I can't remember right now if it was a 20 or 30+ gallon tank, but if it is 20 I plan on setting up my breeder tank there, if it is thirty+, I will move the fish in Dracos' tank to it and use the ten gallon for the breeding.

I have several containers stock piling for the male fry when they are old enough, adding more all the time. The breeding tank will have a small plant, maybe the log in the tank with my other fish, to help hide the female. I decided against the pebbles for obvious reasons, When I get the tank tomorrow I'm heading over to Petco or Petsmart to pick up food for the fry, working on hard boiled eggs now. The quarantine tank acts as 'breeding tank also, which is what the female will be in until it is time for her and the male to be put together.

My Betta Breeder Helper(Alice)-









Questions:
1.If I keep the room temperature high do I need a heater for the tank?
2.Dracos is quite round, I know I am supposed to feed him extra while conditioning him, should I cut back a little? I feed him several times a day, some flakes and dried worms, he usually eats them pretty fast, like I haven't fed him...
3.I would rather get the frozen food for the fry, are there any up sides/downsides to live food versus dried food?
4.I also read about leaving the father with the offspring until they were older (the female offspring actually matured) It says if the dad is left in the male fry will usually stay docile longer and are able to be kept in the tank with everyone longer. Has anyone tried this?

If I missed anything, please feel free to ask me about, this is my first time and I am really excited. I hope they are compatible together, I guess I will find out in the next few days-week.
Any advice is also welcome :]


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## Shadow6558 (Jan 18, 2010)

Sorry about the huge pics, fixing them now.


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

Fry can't eat what adults eat. They do best with live food. They need newly hatched baby brine shrimp, vinegar eels, infusoria or microworms.


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## HopeInHeart (Oct 11, 2009)

Hi-

I bet you're pretty excited! Dracos does not look like a dragon to me--dragon's have whitish irredescent scales that look pretty much like a dragon's scales. 

1. The tank will need to be kept about 80 degrees. You can put a thermometer in there to see what the temp is. If it's not high enough, you should use a submersible heater, I prefer ones that you can adjust the temp on yourself.

2. They should only be fed freeze-dried bloodworms about once a week as a treat if you want, and should be soaked in water to rehydrate before you feed them. Not rehdryating them can cause lots of problems, and I personally don't feed freeze-dried bloodworms anymore. You should probably also be feeding them some kind of pellet, like Hikari Bio-Gold. (Pellets also need to be rehydrated to prevent bloating.) I've heard that flakes don't really do a whole lot, but I use BettaMin flakes as part of my feeding regimen. Some frozen brine shrimp would be good too if you can get it.

3. I've heard that fry won't eat anything that doesn't move, but I don't really know. I have some frozen bbs for when I can't run a hatchery or need it for convenience for my babies. 

4. I've never tried this. I would think the father would eat his offspring after awhile, but I really don't know. I had to remove my male before the eggs even hatched because he was eating them, and this resulted in alot of the eggs going bad and infecting babies. Typically you should leave the male in until the fry are free-swimming. 

I think the jugs would be ok, but they should have covers to keep your fish from jumping. 

Hope this helps you! Alice is adorable and looks ready to help!


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## Betta Fish Bob (Dec 31, 2009)

Looks like you have done a lot of work. I thing you will be fine.

Dramaqueen posted a great STICKY on breeding bettas here ...

http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=30005


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## Shadow6558 (Jan 18, 2010)

Yea, I read it.

Thanks Hopeinheart for the advice, I keep a tub lid over the jugs so they can't jump out. I got my new tank today and it is a thirty gallon. I also found some money that I had lost so I went and bought a new thermometer for the new tank, more bloodworms (they weren't freeze dried before), and two different types of bbs. I also got three more corys and they are happily swimming around in their new tank.

With my thirty gallon, would it help anymore to have my breeding betas in it or should I just use the ten gallon?


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

A 30 gallon would make a great breeding tank IMO.


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## Shadow6558 (Jan 18, 2010)

I wanted to use it instead, but my mom insisted that I put all of my fish in the 30 gallon, and I use the ten for breeding. So I am using the ten... 

She is going to buy me a couple more fish for it. 

I just set up my breeding tank, current temp is about 80, I'll be adding Dracos in a few minutes, then I'll add ava in the next few hours to the side tank.

Pics:
Full Tank:







A plastic lid for the bubble nest:







Random:







Side tank for Ava:








Is the log to much? I can take the plant out of it if it is. And one more question, should I wait to put Ava in? I really would like to put them together to mate Saturday or Sunday, because I have the full day off. If I have to, I can just stay up really late one night.


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## Shadow6558 (Jan 18, 2010)

I put Ava in her tank and Dracos is in the main part. Temperature went down to about 77, but is slowly increasing back to 80.

I'm hoping Dracos will make a bubble nest tonight, but we shall see.

Also on another note, I'm almost positive I caught two of my Glofish mating, not 100% sure, but pretty sure. If they laid eggs, I probably meesed them up when I switched tanks. Not really sure about mating and glofish. I'm not purposely breeding them! (Just a heads up, I know you are not supposed to breed them purposefully...)


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## HopeInHeart (Oct 11, 2009)

Congrats on getting everything set up...it's a big job!
Hope everything works out well for you.


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## Shadow6558 (Jan 18, 2010)

Yea, how long does it usually take for the male to blow a bubblenest? I don't think he has even started. He had a few bubbles in his last tank, but it always got separated because of the filter being on.

I came home for lunch today and found my mom had gone into my fish room and turned off all the lights and heaters, needless to say, my water temperature dropped dramatically to about 72 when I caught it....
I'm afraid these temperature fluxes are going to make my fish sick, the temp is about at 77 now.


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## Shadow6558 (Jan 18, 2010)

Should I start conditioning another male beta? I have a veil tail I could try...

Oh an d I was looking really closely at the female and she is a double ray crowntail, it's hard to tell in the picture, maybe I can get a better one. I may just go buy another male crowntail...


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## Shadow6558 (Jan 18, 2010)

So Dracos made a really small bubble nest... he didn't use the lid, instead he thought it was more convientant attached to Avas tank... lol

I put them together, but his bubblenest is still probably too small. They both are ignoring each other. Dracos has tried to flare for her, to show off, but she's more interested in the bottom of the tank...


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

I hope all goes well for you.


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## MrVampire181 (May 12, 2009)

Ok this is just regarding the sticky, it's just an overview of breeding but can't be relied upon to be enough info. I would look at www.bettatalk.com and maybe www.bettysplendens.com. But I do like the sticky either way 

Ok trust me on this you WILL need a helper to breed these fish LOL. At leas you have one 

But you look like your almost ready, good luck and be sure to keep asking questions


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

Are you referring to my sticky? Yes, it's just a gemeral guideline for breeding. There are several different ways of breeding bettas.


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## MrVampire181 (May 12, 2009)

dramaqueen said:


> Are you referring to my sticky? Yes, it's just a gemeral guideline for breeding. There are several different ways of breeding bettas.


Ya but it is a good sticky


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

Thank you.


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## Shadow6558 (Jan 18, 2010)

They have been together for a;most two days now, and the male still hasn't built a bubblenest...

He isn't aggresive at her and she isn't aggresive either. They just swim together or around the tank, I've even caught them eating together... Occasionally he's flared for her(showing off) but he only does that a little. I tried putting a mirror next to the tank to make him jelous, but that doesn't seem to work, however he does try to fight with himself.

Should I keep them together longer or try a different male?


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## HopeInHeart (Oct 11, 2009)

Maybe they were not conditioned enough. You could try pulling them out and reconditioning them, feeding them good food twice a day and having clean water for about two weeks should get them ready.


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## Shadow6558 (Jan 18, 2010)

That's what I did...

They got/get brine shrimp at lunch, blood worms in the morning and in the afternoon, and i also add some bettamin flakes.


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## HopeInHeart (Oct 11, 2009)

Sounds like you did great--hope it all works out for you.


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## Shadow6558 (Jan 18, 2010)

Thanks..

I bought another crowntail male today- Jaeger, and am starting to condition all three of them again, I think the female has started to absorb her eggs, because she doesn't seem as round to me, maybe I just got used to her...

Anyways, in a week or so, i will put Dracos and her back together and continue to condidtion Jaeger, if nothing happens, by two weeks, I'm going to switch Dracos and Jaeger.

(I'll post a pic of Jaeger later.)


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## Shadow6558 (Jan 18, 2010)

New pics of everybody, I think I may have just not looked at Ava very clearly or something(unless she decided to swell up really fast), because she's definitely still big.

I bought a new tank, it's a betta barracks and can hold between 1-5 betta's, currently Dracos has the whole tanks to himself. I decided just to wait for Jaeger instead of condition them for a week, and reintroduce them...

Everything seems to be going okay, Dracos did blow a really small bubble nest when I separated him and Ava, but I think it is because he was next to Jaeger, so I might try that again, if it doesn't work out.

Pics-
Jaeger, showing off-








Good flare pics-














I can count at least five rays on one of his branches(w/e those are called, can't think of it right now...), I had no idea he had so many when I bought him. lol.

Does anyone know his color pattern?


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

Nice pics!! He's very pretty!


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## Shadow6558 (Jan 18, 2010)

Thanks, I really like his colors, and he was posing for me, lol.


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## HopeInHeart (Oct 11, 2009)

Wow, he is so gorgeous. I think maybe he would be called a multicolor.


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## Shadow6558 (Jan 18, 2010)

lol, thanks I wasn't sure.

I'm really excited, today when I got hom for lunch he had a nice bubblenest started. and there were lots of bubbles just floating around the top of the tank too, so I think he is almost ready. Do I need to condition him for a full two weeks if he has the full bubblenest?


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