has anyone bred goldies AND bettas because i want to find out how much harder it is. if bettas are any harder than goldies then i dont think ill bother!

ew what if they bred TOGETHER?? a Goldabet. a bettagold. ew that is one weird looking fish! what about...a bubble eye and a betta??? OR an oranda and a betta??

Good question blinky ... i never thought of that 1

Chelsea! I think Blinky meant if there are people on the board who managed to get eggs out of both kind of fish, not together! Now, on the other hand, imagine a goldfish with the colors of a betta!! Wouldnt that be neat!!....

The positive thing about bettas is that you get them relatively easy to breed, as soon as they are conditioned and the pair is together. All you have to do is wait for the moment when the eggs are layed, and then take the girl out, otherwise there wont be many eggs left. The male will take care of the eggs and young fry, and you leave him in with them for a few days, until they are able to swim around the tank themselves.
They eat freshly hatched brine shrimp, microworms and that liquid fry food, although I found they grow the best with the shrimp and the worms.

ohh pretty. i'd like a nice fat magenta/blue oranda please.

Youd have to find out the species LINNEAGE of both, first. See how close it is.

Guppies can be made to breed with Mollys and Platties, and although its rare you can get a Mollygup or a Platgup or something which is a cross between the two. Its because theyre both livebearers and have a close linneage.

The fry, whatever its called, will be infertile tho.

Lions and Tigers are the same. Biologists once created a 'Tigon' which was infertile.

Matt.

Regarding the colours, guppies and bettas in the wild dont have the spectacular colour or finnage they do in the LFS, theyre bred to enhance it.

I bet thet if you found all the darkest-coloured goldfish you could find and bred them together, again and again, you could make a red goldfish, in a couple of generations. Of course that would take a few decades.

Thats how they come up with all the other funny breeds of goldfish, especially tall he fatties.

Matt.

so once you are rearing the fry, are they more difficult than goldfish fry?

No, not really. They just need a ton of food to grow, but so do any kind of fry. They dont like great currents, just like the adult bettas, so I keep sponge filters in there with them, on a lower setting. They dont like huge water changes also, so smaller ones are in order. And they like warmer water, thats where a heater comes in handy.
Otherwise, food, food, food, thats all they think about. And its kind of cool to see them get their coloring, after they look like grey ugly things for weeks, and slowly get their beautiful colors.
The only thing to watch for is, when they get bigger, as soon as you find aggressive fish among them, take the aggressor out and give him his own little 2 gallon or so container, or tank deviders, or something. They grow up together for a while though, before you see the aggressiveness come out in the males. Mine are around 6-7 weeks old now, and they still are all together...

Im sure the fry need the same care.