# I'm new to the community, and I would like to know if my betta can breed.



## Blade Productions (Sep 29, 2015)

He is a crowntail betta from walmart, he is about 4 cm (counting tail/fin), and he flares at himself quite often. I am gonna get a female crowntail betta from petsmart pretty soon, and hopefully I can ask how old she is, since I believe my betta is 5 months old or in that general area. I will get a bigger tank, and I would like to know what size I should get for the breeding and possibly filter and heater, but you get my point. What size tank should I get?


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## sharkettelaw1 (Mar 6, 2013)

More importantly, have you got 2 spare tanks to put your pair when they're done? Have you got enough hiding places for the female? Have you got live food to give your fry? Should your pair lay six hundred eggs, and by some miracle all six hundred survive to adulthood, have you got some place that are going to take them? Have you got a goal in mind for your potential pair? If your answer to most of these questions is no, then don't breed. Breeding is not easy, its not simple and its not cheap. Most of the people on this forum who breed, they do it to improve the standard and quality of the species, and for show quality fish capable of winning shows as well as their own specific goals. If you go to the spawn logs on here, and see the results of their hard work, their fish aren't just beautiful, they're outstanding. If that's what you're aiming for, then by all means go for it. But if you're planning to just throw two fish together and see what you get, well not a lot of people are going to be interested. Breeding should not be taken lightly, and I don't think you understand that. Its not a matter of spending as little as you can, you cannot compromise on the health of your fish.


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## indjo (Jun 6, 2010)

Is there any specific goal you want to achieve? As far as I know, most pet store CT are of poor quality. If you want to breed towards show standard, post his picture and we'll point you in the right direction. But if you only want experience, make sure you can rehome potential fry.

As this is your first attempt, I'd suggest getting a 10g tank. It is easier to add heaters, hideouts, and what not that you might want to use. And you won't need to move fry to bigger tank/s until later.


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## Blade Productions (Sep 29, 2015)

indjo said:


> Is there any specific goal you want to achieve? As far as I know, most pet store CT are of poor quality. If you want to breed towards show standard, post his picture and we'll point you in the right direction. But if you only want experience, make sure you can rehome potential fry.
> 
> As this is your first attempt, I'd suggest getting a 10g tank. It is easier to add heaters, hideouts, and what not that you might want to use. And you won't need to move fry to bigger tank/s until later.


K, thank you. A goal is for a class project, and to see the outstanding potential my fry will reach, specifically how pretty they will be. I understand you best, and I will post the photo of Henry.


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## indjo (Jun 6, 2010)

We need a side view picture. I can only say he might be a CT.
What do you mean by pretty - it's too personal. What colors do you want on fry?


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## Strawberry12 (Mar 6, 2015)

By goal we mean- do you want to work on a certain crowntail color? Color combination? For example some breeders decide they want to work on black veiltails. You need to decide what you want your outcome to be, not just throw two fish together willy-nilly. 


Yes we need to see a side picture of him flaring to properly judge him and his form. Like this-

View attachment 639482


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## BlueInkFish (Jan 13, 2013)

Exactly what Strawberry said!

You must have a goal! Some people breed just for some experience, or getting to learn more about betta breeding. Others breed for show quality fish or for a specific color/pattern!


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## Revosok (Aug 11, 2015)

Can your betta be bred? Yes. Will the offspring be desirable? Most likely not. Walmart bettas are notoriously poor quality (form wise). Before you even think of breeding you will need to do weeks to months of research and preparation. For example, you will need to hatch baby brine shrimp as food and find out when you should transition to pellets. Or, what you will do with all of the unwanted baby bettas. You will have to spend hundreds of dollars and dozens of hours on the breeding and raising betta fish process (though you can save lots of money if you know what your doing). Keep in mind that I am only a sophomore in highschool, and I don't even have enough time to visit this forum with the amount of homework I am being assigned nightly, nonetheless actually breed bettas.
If you are a first time betta keeper, or a novice betta keeper, I suggest that you don't even think of breeding bettas just yet. *And also something to conciser- you may end up caring for hundreds of fry, will you be able to take care off all of them, and put down the ones that have deformities?* And another thing, this project would take months of hard work, and if you aren't breeding for any actual purpose other than the sake of showing off to your friends at school, DON'T DO IT!


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## kevinap2 (Apr 3, 2014)

As Revostok alluded to, for someone who is a casual breeder, bettas are not ideal creatures to breed. The newborn fry will only eat live food. It is a major chore to have live worm cultures and brine shrimp hatcheries ready to go for them. They most likely will not eat powdered food. They also must be fed several times a day.

You also will need to think about rehoming possibly 100+ bettas after your project is complete. Keep in mind that after 6-8 weeks, the males cannot be housed together and must be separated into jars, and those jars must be heated.

We're not trying to discourage you from breeding, but you really need to know what you're getting into before you take this on as a class project. It's a ton of work.


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## Blade Productions (Sep 29, 2015)

Well, that was a bit rude, since this is for science class and we are doing the genetic research and punnet squares and etc. I already have plans for the deformed ones and I have plans for fry. They will sell except for 4 of them, which will be mine. And I am working for a certain fin length and color, specifically one like Henry himself, with more red detailing. but thanks for the constructive criticism!


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## Strawberry12 (Mar 6, 2015)

I don't see any rudeness, just blunt answers. you have to understand we get many people who don't realize what goes into it, or think it's like breeding guppies and don't realize they could wind up with 500+ offspring. Personally it's the idea jarring that stresses me out the most, making sure they're a consistent temperature and the daily water changes. 

Like we said, we can determine if he's a good breeder with a better picture like the example I posted


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## LittleBettaFish (Oct 2, 2010)

As Strawberry12 has said, we get a lot of members that join site wanting to breed their fish, not fully comprehending what the task actually entails. Often people will have had experience with breeding something like livebearers, and think that breeding bettas will be just as straight-forward. 

If you really care about your fish, and he is a pet, I would personally advise against breeding him. If you are dead-set on breeding, I'd probably purchase a pair of fish specifically for this reason so there is less attachment. Sounds callous, but courtship between Betta splendens can be absolutely brutal. Serious injury or even death is not uncommon. Spawning and the subsequent defense of the nest and fry, can take a lot out of a male, and sometimes males will simply fade away and not recover when they are removed from the spawning tank. 

Others have already covered what is involved in raising fry to maturity, so I'm not going to hammer on about that. 

However, I would strongly recommend going through this section of the forum, as well as the spawning logs section, and looking at as many posts as possible to gain as much knowledge on the subject as you can. In this hobby, there is *no* such thing as too much preparation. Being properly prepared won't guarantee success, but it will often tilt the odds of success a little more in your direction.


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## Revosok (Aug 11, 2015)

Also, just as a side note, I would like to point out that bettas have been cross-breed so much over the ages, that anything is possible. For example, if you breed a non elephant-ear (dominant) with an elephant ear (recessive), you would expect none of the offspring to express the elephant ear trait. But...you may end up having one or two elephant ears or lucky fins. You never know. Bettas are pretty tricky.


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## dannifluff (Jul 5, 2015)

I don't think it was rude. The posters, most experienced breeders, are just trying to ensure you have the best possible chance of success, and don't find yourself in a situation with a lot of dead fish. I thought about breeding for about *this* long, but when I looked through the spawn logs, I realised how much work was involved and quickly decided I didn't have the time for daily water changes and all the extra work involved, not to mention shipping and so on.

There are fish that are easier to breed for class projects, or even small mammals like guinea pigs. Bettas, deceptively easy to keep, do appear to be one of the more difficult fish species to breed.

Having said that, there are loads of great tips here for doing things inexpensively, so research away. It's just not something to be entered into lightly, on a whim, and I expect doing the research properly and starting off in the right way will enhance your class project as well. You don't want to end up with a class project where all you have to show for it is a load of dead fish because you didn't do the research... that isn't even good science, let alone good animal husbandry  Even experienced betta keepers and breeders have to cull whole spawns for various reasons, or lose them due to illness/poor genetics, so they are just trying to help others learn from their mistakes.

Edit: Also, just a note regarding selling. Ensure you have a definite plan for this. Don't just assume it will be easy to sell your fish, especially if they have come from poor breeding stock. Experienced Betta owners, the ones who would consider shipping a fish rather than just getting one from a store, can be choosy so selling online via eBay or Aquabid is unlikely to yield results, and stores will often have arrangements with breeders in place already where they get a lot of fish for quite cheap or free, and may not have the requisite room to suddenly take on 50 or so fish. Ensure you canvass local stores to see if they would be willing to take some off your hands _before_ you end up with a lot of jarred fry ready for sale, as you might get stuck with them. It might also be they are only willing to take a few, so you might have to get a bit brutal in selecting fish for culling as well, not just the sick or deformed ones. I, personally, couldn't imagine anything worse than having to cull perfectly healthy fish just because I have too many and a store only has room for a few of them. It may be better to start off with a quality breeding pair to ensure your fry are saleable through other avenues as well. Again, having some idea of IBC standards and selecting stock according to this will only ever enhance your research project.


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## RNHime (Mar 12, 2015)

Your fish looks pretty from the little I can see, but I definitely wouldn't breed him. If for no other reason that your chosen female could injure or kill him. I've heard too many sad tales. Pet store fish are awesome _pets_, you've given a better life than most his siblings, why ruin it for him now that he's living the life? =P

Also, selecting bettas from a store for breeding is an awful idea because the fish are usually pale so who knows what colors they really are, no way to know age, and beyond that what their genetics are - especially with the females who are less colored than males to begin with. If you're dead set on bettas do your research, be prepared to spend quite a bit of money, ALL your free time, and buy fish Online for breeding that you know the age & genetics of, and don't get attached. I personally don't recommend bettas for a school project at all. If something goes wrong and nothing is salvageable do you get any credit?? Failed spawns happen all the time, even to pros!

Maybe try breeding guppies, since they have similar color and fin traits but are known to breed like rabbits??


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## kevinap2 (Apr 3, 2014)

RNHime said:


> Maybe try breeding guppies, since they have similar color and fin traits but are known to breed like rabbits??


And they don't need a specific conditioning process, they don't tear each other to pieces during the courtship phase, and they can be fed dry foods as opposed to pretty much requiring live foods for the first few weeks of life. Plus spawns are pretty much a guarantee with opposite sex guppies, whereas bettas... well, not so much.


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## Blade Productions (Sep 29, 2015)

Ok, I like your answer the most, to get a pair pecifically for that, and I will do so. I'm thinking about buying a pair from 2 different breeders, and breed those after learning needed info. Thank you!


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## Blade Productions (Sep 29, 2015)

Well, I have to since we are studying genetics in class. Thank you!


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## Aquastar (Jul 17, 2015)

Guppies are a great option for studying genetics. Cheap, easy and fast. Bettas need lots of live food and tank care, guppies are kinda: I wont die on you! I had a fry survive in a low planted tank full of predators (betta,guppy,tetra) for a good 3 weeks.


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## kevinap2 (Apr 3, 2014)

RNHime has a very good point. If your betta spawn fails, do you still get points? If not, you NEED to find a different project. Experienced pros have spawns fail all the time. These are hard fish to raise. You must condition the parents correctly and introduce them correctly, or they may not spawn. Even then, there are no guarantees. If you do get a spawn, you must take into account the fact they need pristine water conditions, they require SMALL live food, and you will need to jar every single male once they reach a few weeks old and heat all of the jars. You will also need to clean those jars once every day or every other day depending on how large they are. This is a massive undertaking and a poor choice for a school project.

Please heed the words of caution that experienced breeders on this site are giving you. This is a tough project with a high risk of failure. If you breed guppies and have a failed spawn, all you really need to do is wait a month for them to drop fry again. On the other hand, you may have your prospective betta parents kill each other and be out all of the points on your school project. There is a very valid reason why so many of us are telling you that this is a bad idea.


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## Aquastar (Jul 17, 2015)

That's a good point. Also, a pet is more than a ornament, a pet is more than a way to shush kids. A pet is more than a school project. Sure, incorporate them into a project in a harmless way, but don't decide that is their sole use in your life. If you are school, I take it you will be studying a bit, so you will have next to no time for feeding them and water changes along with your normal stuff. What would be better than guppies is endlers! Endlers do not eat their young so loosing some will be harder than ever! You could also do a EndlerXGuppy to see what they inherit and stuff.

*Also, what will you be doing with your possible 100+ fry? How will that be helping the speices? 
So many bettas need a home already, don't add to the numbers without reason. Where will you rehome them? 
Is there friends that have nice 5gal setups for each one of them? Do you have enough space for the breeding tank? What about the grow-out tank? What will you do with the males? Will you be able to do daily water changes for over 2 months? Exactly how much conditioner do you think you will go through?*


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

I like the idea of guppies. You could breed guppies in a 10 gallon tank with a breeding net.

Supplies:

10 gallon tank (I think the -mart stores may be having a sale on those)
50 watt aquarium heater, adjustable
sponge filter with air pump and air line
conditioner
emergency meds 
java moss situated away from the filter and heater
1 male fish, 2 female fish
breeding net/box
aquarium thermometer
For long term, another 10 gallon tank for a big litter so you can separate males and females when you're done breeding.


You can get more to make the tank prettier, get some floating plants to make the fish more comfortable, etc.

With guppy genetics, you can study:

tail types/shapes
colors
patterns
body form

With bettas, you need all that equipment, plus separate tanks for each parent fish, plus all the jars for male fry once they need separating, and the parents might kill each other instead of make babies. Virgin fish can also have problems fertilizing the eggs or eat all the eggs, too.


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## Strawberry12 (Mar 6, 2015)

From what I understand, Bettas scoff at punnet squares and recessive genes, they've been screwed around with so much it's almost a complete crapshoot.


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## kevinap2 (Apr 3, 2014)

Sadist said:


> Supplies:
> 
> 10 gallon tank (I think the -mart stores may be having a sale on those)
> 50 watt aquarium heater, adjustable
> ...


For the purpose of a science experiment, you'd probably want one male and one female. It would be tough to figure out which female the fry came from if they were both pregnant and both dropped around the same time. You could always add a female after the project is done.


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## RNHime (Mar 12, 2015)

:greenyay:I just have to come in and say that it feels good knowing that I had a fairly good idea with the guppies - thank you to the more experienced members that came in with more solid details than I have. I'm not a guppy keeper, so I only had a vague idea that 2 guppies quickly become many guppies... and they are forgiving. I also like the endler idea - endlers are sooo pretty and interesting to me! I love the tiger guppy hybrids! You can get breeder pairs of both species for fairly cheap on Aquabid.

Also, it will be *much* easier to house & rehome fry that can live together in groups. A friend may be able to take 5-10 guppies vs 1-2 bettas... I daresay guppies would even be more profitable, if you're hoping to sell, as you will have much less cost to do the breeding.

Please do heed the advice of the other posters, Blade P!

Bettas are awesome fish and it may very well be that you one day become a successful breeder, but it's not a good one-time project. Way too much time and expense for a student. Don't jump into this because you have one awesome fish that you love. Enjoy the one you do have, become an experienced keeper... because bettas have so much personality the death of one can hit you very hard. I'd hate to see a passion squashed before it's time.


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## Fenghuang (Dec 28, 2012)

You cannot really draw any definitive conclusions on genetics from one or two generations of breeding bettas from Walmart/Petsmart/pretty much any big box store. There is so much mixing in those genetics that you could end up with anything, especially if you are just throwing two fish together with no goal you plan to work towards. Punnets squares are nice models. But real world betta genetics are far more complicated. Just a note for going forward!

EDIT: Whoops, didn't realize this thread was so old... Shouldn't be on the internet so late! Sorry!


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