Hey,
I am considering raising bettas and I have a bunch of questions. First, how many females would I need to have and how many males? Also how old do they need to be before I can breed them? How big of a tank do I need to have for raising fry in? How many tanks do I need for raising fry and what kinds of food should I get? I know they need live foods, but what types and when to feed what is beyond me. Also, if I raise bettas, I read somewhere that it takes up so much time that one person had to get rid of their bettas that were just pets. I hope I don't have to do that as I just have two. What temperatures do the fry need in order to hatch and thrive? Would it be easiest to learn to breed bettas using veiltails, or could I start with crowntails?

i wish i could help more but this is all i have heard


first of all you will need a bunch of little containers to seperate the males from the females and each other(which you probably already know) i dont think the females have to be seperated though. i think you would probably only need one male and maybe a few females(just in case one of the females isnt compattable with the male)but thats just my oppinion. i have heard of people breeding bettas in 10 gallon tanks and bettas take a long time to grow(from what i have herd and they can have quite a few babies at a time too) so you may be keeping hundreds of jars around the house. i dont know what kind of food you would feed them maybe baby brine shrimp? i think that is what i have heard. i think you feed 3-4 times a day.(but im not 100% sure) i dont know about the time thing though so maybe someone else can answer that. i think about 80 degrees is what they need but i am not sure about that either so someone else will have to answer that too. i think it would be just as much work and not any easier) to breed crowntails as it would veiltails but i dont know. i thought about breeding my bettas once. i got them conditioned and everything but i was so afraid my female would rip my male to shreds(or visa versa) (thats what hapened to my friends betta the female tore the male to peices)and decided against it(i am just too pesimistic and perinoid for that lol) it would be a good way to make a little money(especially if you had hundreds of them. my petstore sells the veiltails for almost 4 dollers and they sell the crown tails for 6 dollers) plus that would be sooo exciting seeing all the colors you would get and evrything.

well ihope i have helped you might want to check my answers but i hope i have helped

I bred some of my bettas about 3 weeks ago so I hope i can help you out.


To breed bettas you will need 10 gallon aquariums though 5 gallons can be used to. Breeding in a 5 gallon just means that you will need to move the babies into something bigger sooner than you would in a 10 gallon. For breeding set up I recomend you get sponge filters, air stones, live plants(fanwort and java moss are great), and completely submersable heaters(25-50watt). I bred and raised my fry in water at 84 degrees fahrenheit. I think this helped them hatch much fast. I also think it helped then grow faster.

As for feeding the babies. The first 2-3 days after hatching you can leave them alone because they will still be feeding off thier egg sack. After that, if you have live plants in with them, they will help grow infusoria which the fry can feed off of for another couple days. I fed my fry baby brine srimp 2 days after hatching because they were free swimming. Amazingly they were able to eat it. Baby brine shrimp, vinegar eels, and microworms are what a lot of people use. I've heard that feeding microworms can cause some damage if fed them too long though. Ex: missing ventrals. BTW- I feed mine twice a day. I will continue this till they are 3 months.

Once the fry are about 2 weeks-4 weeks old you should move them to something bigger because by now they are going to be getting big. Most use 55 gallons as growout tanks. I'm using a plastic pool that was made for dogs so its a lot shallower than a pool made for human children. Its almost set up like a pond. I will be moving mine out there once I'm sure they are big enough. I would not recomen this as a permanant source to keep your betta unless where you live stays warm all year long. I live in So Cal which is the desertish area. It sometime get to hot out here and I have to set up an umbrella during the day. At night you may need to set a heater up for the babies. I have a spare one on hand just incase that happens.

When the fry become aggressive you will need to move them into jars so some kind of small container. You shoud buy lots of these because you never know if your spawn is going to be 20 babies or 500 babies.

2.5 months to 3.5 months is the best time to sell your fry because this is when people want them. They will be able to breed at this age.

It most likely your first try will fail like my first try and many others first trys. It takes some getting used to. Expect fin shredding and feel lucky if it doesn't happen. I tried breeding 3 times before I ended up with the babies I have now. First time was a mistake and the female got a chunk ripped out of her caudal fin. 2nd time my male was nearly killed, third time my girl came out with a chunk ripped out of her caudal fin and 4th time nothing bad happened. The only reason I think everything went well the 4th time is because my male was conditioned for months. He was so docile I thought he wouldn't breed. Took him 4 days to get in the mood.

As for how many do you need. You need at least one male and one female lol. It all depends on how far you want to go. I would have at least 2 pairs to start off with maybe even more girls than males. Its hard to find girls that will breed. Having at least 2 pairs allows you to switch around.Most males are ready. Crowntails can be very hard to breed because I find that they are pretty agressive but more people want them than they want veiltails. I would not call VTs expieriment fish. If you breed them to get used to breeding betta that means you are taking on the resonsiblity to take good care of them and find them good homes. Its not very nice just to breed to find out if you can.

In a way all bettas are the same. With the right amount of conditioning they will breed. When conditioning you MUST let them see each other. This helps them get used to each other and will help the ammount of fin shredding go down.

Breeding betta cost a lot if you are buying everything and going all out. I lucky only had to buy a few things because I found most of my things already laying around the house. I know I've already spent over $100 on my babies. They really aren't that hard to care for. I won lots of aniamls and still have time to care for my guys. If I, a 14 year old girl, can care for 3 mice, 1 rat, 3 cats, 4 dogs, 16 fish and still find the time to raise fry I wouldn't worry about having to give up all your fishies. As long as you keep a routine for everything I find it easy.

Sorry the post is so long. Its just there is a lot you need to know. I highly recomend you do lots of research. Each breeder has thier own special way but for the most part a lot of it is similar.

Good luck. I hope I was of some help.

Heres a link to my page all about my spawns. I've got a few photos of my pond like thing and what I breed the fish in. It doesn't have a lid but plastic wrap and a piece of cardboard work well on my spawn tank.
Link

I've only got a couple things to add. If you plan on making any money at all, start off with high quality bettas from breeders. Also, make sure you have people who want to buy your bettas before you start breeding.