# My attempt at breeding betta



## millersrepairshop (Jul 30, 2013)

A little over 10 years ago after 2 unsuccessful attempts at breeding my betta, I simply decided to give up my hobby and cut my losses. I have recently purchased an aquarium for my children to enjoy and it has sparked my interest yet again for the beauty of betta. Since I have purchased 2-10 Gal. tanks, 1-5 Gal. tank and a 30 Gal. grow out tank. I have 1 male and 1 female as of now and also have 2 more males and 2 more females on order. I introduced my female into my breeding tank last night and both fish looked very interested in each other. Her body got darker within an hour. (Both biting at glass and showing off). They are currently in a 5 Gal. tank with a heater set to 82 degrees. She is in a glass globe from an oil lantern. And I am using a cut styrofoam cup as a place for him to build his nest. Also using a sponge filter and I have a floating betta mirror in the tank with also a couple live plants. I left the light on for about 2-3 hours last night after introducing them then went to bed. So far today the light have been on now for about 4-5 hours today and my male has started making his nest. I am new to the website and sorry this post is ending up to be such a long one, but any tips and or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.


----------



## millersrepairshop (Jul 30, 2013)

Here are a few pictures


----------



## snowflake311 (Jun 19, 2013)

His dorsel fin is huge. He is pretty but my gosh he has a lot of fins. Betta fins have gotten so long over the years.


----------



## JayM (Aug 4, 2013)

He is gorgeous. I'd remove the mirror ball. He shouldn't need it now.
Our male didn't like the cup but we had live floating plants & he built his nest in there. 
Hope all goes well.


----------



## Bootsie (Dec 18, 2012)

If you don't have a bubbler I'd add that. A small one would work ( or at least wrap a sponge over one so it doesn't disturb the water too much.

Keep a hiding place (the plants) for the female to escape to because spawning can go on for hours. You might not be there when he chases her off and she'll need a place o hide and destress. 

If the filter is causing too much water wake then you can build steps from styrophoam so the water trickles down into the water. 

Take out the mirror and let him focus on her. Let her out and if they haven't started dancing within 30 minuets, contain her and try it again tomorrow.

Good luck! I just had my first betta breeding last week and mine are doing great! Just remember they can have a lot of fry, even for the first spawning. Mine was around 150+ guesstimate and I have't noticed a dead fry yet. Gotta find homes for all that you don't cull.


----------



## Ilikebutterflies (May 19, 2012)

You will find that by stopping all water movement ie: filter and airstone he will imediatly built a nest. place the female as close to the nest site as possible in her jar.


----------



## Lamb (Jul 9, 2013)

I've also read that harvesting some bubble nest from a previous container or another male would work to get him motivated. It worked great with my first spawning 3 days ago. I also let the female out before the nest was finished, but they were both pretty docile considering they're nature. Neither was wounded but you just have to gauge how your bettas are. Good luck! It is a really exciting experience when they spawn!


----------



## indjo (Jun 6, 2010)

First, welcome to the forum and the wonderful world of bettas  

Since this is your first attempt, I'm guessing you would like to "see" everything. If so, don't use any floating . . . anything. . . instead cover the top/tank where you want them to nest (opposite end of hide outs). This will enable you to see everything easier compared to nests under styrofoam or other floating objects.

First time breeders can be left in the chimney for 1-3 days since they usually need more courtship time which may mean longer beating time. Keeping the female caged will keep her safe. But for veterans, 1 night is usually enough because they usually spawn within 24 hours. 

I agree to take out any object that may distract them both, namely the mirror. Pumps and filters should be turned off until fry are strong enough to fight the current . . . though pumps should be set to 1-2 bubbles per second.

Bubble nests are not a must. If they show flirting signs, they will breed. So you don't really have to worry about nests (for future reference).

Make sure you have fry food ready before you breed. Sometimes fry can easily starve since they will most likely react better towards live foods.


----------



## millersrepairshop (Jul 30, 2013)

I have since removed the floating mirror and his bubble nest seems to be coming along nicely.(Covers the entire inside of the foam cup and in some spots are up to almost a half an inch thick) The sponge filter I have in place is set to very low causing no water movement inside tank. I will attach a few pictures so you can see his nest development. I will also include a picture of the female I intend on breeding with him. She appears to be ready. I only have 2 small live plants in the aquarium so visibility is great as well as her having great hiding places. I did release the female last night for a few hours. She seemed very interested in the male. She would charge right up to him under his bubble nest and they would both show off to each other. She would swim right up to him as if to go into the embrace, but then quickly dart away. Are things going correctly? And does my female appear to be ready to spawn? Any idea what offspring I should expect with this pair?


----------



## Ilikebutterflies (May 19, 2012)

I would say blue fish with red wash(like the male)or red fish with blue wash. You may possibly get red fins and irid bodies. The steel color is in the top layer (irid layer)and the red is in the 3rd layer(red layer). There are 4 color layers in betta fish. Each layer controls a different set of colors/characteristics. When mixing layers you often you end up with messy results. Mixing color layers should be done very carefully.
Red wash is a fault unless there is enough red there to qualify it as a bi-color-meaning the body is one color and the fins another.

Some other options: Breed him to another irid fish w/o red on it. Copper, blue, green, turquoise. That should greatly reduce the red wash.
Breed him to a nr fish. (non-red ie:yellow or orange) that will eliminate most of the redwash in future generations but allow you to keep the irid colors. IMHO a nr fish carrying the butterfly pattern would look nice.
Breed him to a red dragon fish. That may give you a metallic irid body color with red fins. It could be kinda cool looking in the f1 and f2.


----------



## Lamb (Jul 9, 2013)

I was wondering, is the female a veiltail?


----------



## MattsBettas (Dec 18, 2012)

The female looks to be a veiltail or a roundtail.


----------



## Lamb (Jul 9, 2013)

So I guess what we should ask now is what are OP's goals? I do like the male though. I would like to call him Mo. Lol.


----------



## millersrepairshop (Jul 30, 2013)

The female was sold as a halfmoon, but I'm not so sure that she is by the looks of her. Today they went to the embrace (I witnessed 6-7 times within 30 minutes) The female appears to be eating half of the eggs that fall and also bringing some up to the nest along with the male. Is that normal? She still appears to be full of eggs. Not sure when to pull her out. :-?


----------



## Lamb (Jul 9, 2013)

I took the female out when she stopped going to the nest to wrap. It told me she was finished at least, it's hard to tell. But I'm guess you'll know when it's time. For me the whole process took 2 hours. Good luck! 

I don't know if you saw my post above, but what are your goals for breeding?


----------



## millersrepairshop (Jul 30, 2013)

My apologies for not seeing your message earlier. To be completely honest, I am simply trying to reacclimate myself with the process of betta breeding. I have no intentions of showing nor selling the offspring from this pair. (I doubt they would be desirable to anymore). I have spoken with a local pet shop and was told that they would take any and all offspring once they reach 1-2 months of age. Which works out great for me! So I guess you could say it is an experiment, however the fry will not be destroyed or abandoned. I am trying to prepare myself for the 2 males and 2 females which I ordered that should arrive in a few days. Those will be the fish I would like to breed. I will add pictures of the fish that are on their way. One is a Mustard gas HM and the other is a green dragon HM. And the females are.. a green dragon multi color HM as well as a black female. Any suggestions on breeding those?

Thanks in advance!


----------



## Lamb (Jul 9, 2013)

It's good to have a goal in mind when you're making your pairs. Are you doing it more for color? or for form? I know I bought a few betta I didn't even need when I started purchasing and had to give them away for free (they were $15 each and then shipping) because I was overzealous with shopping. 

Do you know what you want to produce? The line I'm working on is blue grizzle, then I will breed my male to my purple female and attempt a purple grizzle line. Keeping good form in mind would be beneficial if you're planning on selling and at least breaking even. 

The black girl looks PK... Maybe someone will correct me, but she looks PK to me. Also be careful when you purchase blacks and make sure they're not Melano females, they're infertile. (I'm still trying to figure out how to tell the difference so I'm hoping someone more knowledgeable will chime in!).

Maybe look into reading the stickys here? I know those helped A LOT! There are great links, I frequent bettysplendens.com.

Good luck!!!


----------



## millersrepairshop (Jul 30, 2013)

I have an idea of what I would like to produce, but I doubt I will ever end up with exactly what I want. I am going for color first, then form. I can show you what I would eventually love to end up with, but I have no idea how to get there. The picture below is NOT mine (watermarked eBetta) but this is what I would love to end up with! :-( I hope I'm not breaking the rules by posting a picture of a fish that isn't mine. If so, please remove. Thanks


----------



## Ilikebutterflies (May 19, 2012)

Wow, is that a dragonscale mustard gas(or also known as purple/yellow bi-color with dragonscaling)? Cool colors. You should be able to reproduce that. The purple may be a bit tricky. I see MG's fairly often and clean yellows are becoming easier to find as well. I say go for it!
I would buy some of those from you just to look at.
From what I understand mustard gas breeds pretty true. I would start out with a nice pair of MG. Find the cleanest best contrasting colors that you can. If you need to clean up fins go with yellow fish as to not loose the darker color. Now that fish, while stunning color wise, has it's fair share of finnage faults. Save yourself some time and get good fins AND good color if you can find it. If you can't find it, go for color first.


----------



## Lamb (Jul 9, 2013)

That's a gorgeous fish! I even see a little orange? I am still learning but maybe ask for suggestions in a new thread? I love listening to all of the input from the experienced members. The knowledge they give is invaluable.


----------



## Ilikebutterflies (May 19, 2012)

Breed your purples together(green dragons?). Nice start colorwise I might add. You are probably going to lose a good bit of the MG you were after but breed the best f1 female back to the dad and the best f1 male to the very best cleanest MG female you can find. Breed their offspring together...if you have room for 2 spawns at a time that is.
The black female looks plakat-nice form on her though. You will get longer finned plakats most likely. Look to get very rounded caudals out of that pairing. Breed the offspring of that to the very best black/yellow HM or HMPK that you can find OR find a very good yellow HM female to preserve the Bi-color and work on his caudal.

So, IMHO, good start with the bi-colors. Just make sure not to breed any red or irid into your black line. I think that will make things messy. Your purple f1 will have dragonscale patches. If you want more dragonscaling you will have to add that in. I'd go with yellow dragons to preserve the bi-color and not mess with the purple.


----------



## Lamb (Jul 9, 2013)

Yay! Looks like you don't need a new thread after all! Thank you ilikebutterflies!


----------



## Ilikebutterflies (May 19, 2012)

Meh, just my amateur opinion;-) I think there is enough yellow wash on the purple ones(green dragons??) to actually push that line towards the original purple MG the OP had in mind. As far as that goes, the OP could breed the original male to non-red females(as suggested earlier) and work at bi colors with him as well. He would make irid bi-colors like steel, royal, turq and copper.


----------



## millersrepairshop (Jul 30, 2013)

Thanks for the wonderful advice Ilikebutterflies. You have truly been a great help with excellent ideas and info. You have given me some great ideas! And thanks to everyone else who has posted and made me welcome here. I have been reading the color genetics guide on here for the last few days and I things are starting to sink in and I am starting to understand it all a little better now. Really glad you understand the direction I want to go and you think it is possible. :-D


----------



## indjo (Jun 6, 2010)

+1 Ilikebutterflies

The female's behavior is normal. She will always return to the nest once in a while until she is ready to spawn. It may take longer though since this is her first time.

Good luck.


----------

