Breeding Betta splendens
By Victorea Earnest
General betta stuff:
Betta splendens is a bubblenesting anabantid. They are from very still water with very little oxygen. Like other anabantids they have a labyrinth organ that allows them to get oxygen from of the air. This is why they are often seen gulping air from the surface and why you can keep them in water without any aeration.
There are several strains of B. splendens; the ones you see at pet stores are veil tails. These are mostly mass produced and very mixed, like mutts (of course, sometimes mutts are the best pets). You will also see Crowntails, which appear to have extended rays on their dorsal, anal and caudal fins; actually the webbing between the rays is receded. Then there is the short-fined plakat, both the show types and the actual fighters. Plakats are usually stockier than the other strains. The most common fish breed by hobbyists for shows are the deltas and half-moons. A half-moon is a delta with an 180degree caudal fin, plus straight edges on the caudal, plus the anal and dorsal fins must also form a circle with the caudal. It’s a very specific fish and many different genes are involved (there is no such thing as a half-moon geno). Doubletails are from a simple recessive gene. All of these fish are the same species: Betta splendens.
Choosing your
breeders:
What do you like? If you like veils, breed veils. You will get an unpredictable variety of colors from a spawn of pet store veils. They are so mixed that it will be a fun surprise. Some people think that it’s good to practice on $3 fish before you go on to more expensive ones. Some people think it’s a waste of time to breed veils. Some people just flat out like veils better than the fancy ones, so if you like them breed them.
If you want to breed a specific color or type of fish, your best bet is to get them from a breeder. This way you know what the fish is carrying, some colors breed true, some will give you a predictable mix of colors. Fish from a breeder may cost you anywhere from $3 to $100+ depending on the strain, the breeder’s reputation and other factors.
In my experience, the female’s age is very important. Too young they often just get badly beaten or killed. Sometimes this is because they're really a late blooming male! Too old and they tend to be overly aggressive, more interested in picking a fight than anything else. I like them to be between four months and one year, though I have bred them younger and older.
If you like doubletails, you should either breed a doubletail to a single tail carrying doubletail, or two single tails that carry double tail. Breeding two doubletails together tends to result in a higher percentage of deformed fry.
Stuff you need to
have or think about before you start:
You will need a five to ten gallon tank, a submersible heater, Styrofoam cup or bubble wrap, the glass chimney from a hurricane lamp, microworm culture, and brine shrimp eggs. Later on lots of jars, coke bottles or beanie baby boxes. A spawn of bettas can be very large, as many as 300+ fry. Most people do not have that many survive to adulthood, at least not the first few tries but you should be aware that you could get “lucky”. Even as few as 50 juvenile males can be a lot of work. Females can usually be kept together, but sometimes the biggest bullies turn out to be females.
Before you proceed you should consider what you will do with all those fish. Some pet stores will give you about a dollar store credit each; you can give them away or you can sell them on Aquabid (not that easy). I give away some and sell a few of my fish at IBC shows, it helps me pay for the shipping and show fees. I do cull any deformed or weak fish. Some people do not like to cull; it’s something you need to consider before you have 300 fish to jar.
Breeding:
These are very basic guidelines. This is more art than science; nearly every spawn is different.
Start by conditioning your breeders for 1 to 2 weeks. Feed them at least twice a day, as much as they will eat. Live food is best, if you don’t have live, frozen bloodworms and mysis shrimp work well. Some very experienced breeders feel that feeding brine shrimp causes the males to eat the eggs, so I would avoid that when you are conditioning the fish. Clean up any uneaten food right away.
Set up the spawning tank with 4- 6 inches of aged water and the submersible heater (set anywhere from 78-85; 80 is best). You can add a sponge filter now, but don’t turn it on, the water surface needs to be still. Add as many floating plants are you can fit in the tank, the more the better. The female will need the hiding places to rest and the fry will feed off the infusoria. Add any decorations, tunnels, caves or flowerpots. Make sure that you arrange them so that there aren’t any corners for the female to be trapped in. Tape the half Styrofoam cup to the side of the tank. I prefer to use a piece of the small bubble wrap that is used to wrap fragile things for shipping. My males seem to like that better. If you use the bubble wrap, just lay a small piece on the water. The male may also build his nest in the floating plant, duckweed is good for this, but any floating plant you have handy will do. Add the male. I usually add the female in her chimney at the same time. I usually leave them alone for a few hours, then come back into observe their behavior.
The male ~should~ be building a bubblenest and dancing and flaring for the female. It’s OK if he doesn’t have the nest, but if he is either ignoring the female or trying to bite her through the chimney they most likely will need more time. If the female is dark, she should have vertical stripes. In addition, all females should be wiggling their tails a little, flaring a little (not “I’m gonna tear you apart” flaring and lunging, more like “I’m tough enough for you ” flaring…). She should be round in the belly and have her head pointed down at about a 45-degree angle, kind of like “I’m putting the weapon down now… I’m not going to bite you, pretty boy…”
This could take anywhere from 5 minutes to a week. Once both are dancing, and you have time to observe (don’t do this and then go to work) lift the chimney and let her out. They should swim side-by-side and flare and dance. If the male just starts to chase her without dancing put her back in the chimney and wait some more. If they start to swim side-by-side and dance, but then the male starts to chase her, just keep an eye on them, that’s mostly normal. If she starts to chase and bite him, separate them immediately. Use a different pair or swap out one of the fish and start over. A male that has been bullied too much may never breed.
Most of the time, there will be several hours to a couple of days of dance; bite; chase; hide; dance. Keep an eye on them and if it looks like the female is getting more than just fin damage, take her out. If you have enough floating plants and other things for her to hide in, she will most likely be OK. This is a judgment call. Very often the female will get her fins pretty badly shredded and still be ready to breed.
Once they start to spawn, they will circle each other trying to get into the right position for the male to wrap around her. Sometimes the male has a really hard time getting it right, and you can see the female getting impatient, staring at him in disgust as he sinks to the bottom without her. Sometimes it takes a long time for things to go right, but usually it’s very calm and almost surreal compared to the violence of the last few hours or days.
Once he figures out how to wrap her properly, they will both appear to have passed out and the male will usually sink and the female will usually float to the top of the bubble nest. She will look somewhat twisted and appear to be dead, but she will wake up. The male usually wakes up first, and if eggs were released he should start gathering them up and spit them into the nest. When the female wakes up she usually helps.
Sometimes the female will eat the eggs. Watch the way your fish eat before you breed them. You will notice that when bettas eat, after they have positioned their food in their mouths they tilt their heads back and kind of jerk it down their throats. If the fish are not tilting back their heads this way they are not eating the eggs.
This will usually continue for a couple of hours. When they are finished the male will chase her away. As soon as you see her hiding, take her out and put her in a nice clean jar with betta max, Melafix or an almond leaf and give her something to eat. She’s finished; she just needs some TLC.
The male will stay with the nest. He will be rearranging the eggs, adding bubbles and keeping guard. He will clean them and eat any that fungus or are infertile. Some breeders firmly believe that you should not feed the male when he is tending the nest; they believe that this will stimulate his appetite and cause him to eat the fry. Some breeders believe that you must feed him or else he will eat the fry. I personally do not feed them, this is because some males will not eat anything and it just helps to keep the water clean.
The eggs start to hatch in 24-36 hours. The fry fall from the nest and the male gathers them up and spits them back into the nest. I usually leave the male in about three days after they start to hatch. By that time they are free swimming and the male has either lost interest in them or he’s chasing after them and trying to make them stay in the nest. I pull him out before he gets too hungry.
The free-swimming fry are about this “-“ big. Once their yolk sack is absorbed I feed them microworms and BBS. At about three to four weeks they are about the size of newborn guppies. At about six to eight weeks they start to look like little fish. How soon they develop color depends on the strain. The first few males start to show up around three months. I start jarring them when they start fighting and before they nip fins (hopefully). I think waiting longer to jar them results in bigger, healthier fish, but only if they haven’t caused too much damage to each other.
You can get more information and links to betta breeders from the International Betta Congress website:
