My Breeding Methods

There are many methods when breeding betta. I use a mix of two ways the thai method and the breeder method. This will be just a quick overview of how I breed my fish so you understand if you wish to purchase or if you are just curious.

To begin with you need a pair of fish, sense fry I have found tend to minic their mothers form and body shape more choosing not just a good male but a good female with go a long way with the way your fish will look. Decide on what you want to breed and then pick your pair from there. Then once it has been decided I start conditioning my pair for 2 weeks or more they get unheated but clean clean water and frozen or live food during this time.

When this is going on I ready my spawning container. It is about a 15 gallon plastic container, sometimes I use a ten gallon tank. I cram it full of java moss and duckweed if I have it as well as put a seeded sponge filter if not you can use a old filter pad and just place it in the tank with a air stone in it. It is filled with about 4-5 inches of water and heat it to 80-82* F. Adding tannins into the water such as oak leaves or black water extract.


After the time has passed I add in the pair. I put them in late at night and if they havent spawned by morning I pretend to make it rain and do a large 30% water change. This tends to make them get into the mood. You then tend to see eggs scattered around in the nest. I remove the female after the male starts to get aggressive at her and she looses her interest. There is much debate on if turning the lights off at night is bad for the male. I just leave a nightlight on and I have seen no deterioration of my males nests at night. In about 30 hours my eggs hatch and the fry become free swimming. Then the male has his work cut out for him and spends his time trying to get the fry to just stay put. Its best to leave your male alone at this time because he is stressed enough. There is also debate on if feeding your male at this time will cause him to start eating fry. I offer food to my males when the fry are about 3-4 days old some do take it and some do not but I haven't had a male turn on his fry.

Once the fry start swimming horizontal and the male will start to loose interest in chasing them I take him out. With good water changes, more in smaller quantities is better then large, and a varied diet the fry reach full color and slow in growth in 4-5 months.