Breeding Betas

I have a very unusual looking male betta, he has bright blue eyes and gorgeous color. I was curious if I bred him, would the offspring be passed some of his awesome attributes? Im not sure how the genes work in these colorful little fish. Thanks

do you have a pic of this unusual betta?
just kinda curious

im not sure about bettas, but typically 40% end up like mom 40% like dad and 20% kinda a cross between the two. Lets hear from the betta breeders around here.

It depends on the actual colors and fin types of both parents. The various colors are actually distributed in pigment layers with certain colors in upper layers and some in deeper layers to produce the resulting color patterns. Some are dominant and some are more recessive traits. So not all spawns will be 40/40/20. Usually, they're more like either 50/50 or 25/25/50. But that's just the percentages for color. Percentages for fin configuration is different. Example: breeding HM to HM will likely only produce 10% true HM while CT is fairly dominant and will produce almost entirely crowntail or combtail, even if only one parent has the trait.

If I remember right, the pigment layers are: 1) iridescent layer 2) red layer 3) blue layer 4) black layer and 5) yellow layer...though the genes which actually control the intensity of the yellow layer are kinda tricky. Iridescent colors tend to be dominant. So is red. So breeding fish with any red on them at all will likely produce mostly fish with some degree of red wash and some multies.

Sometimes, even fish of similar color may not have compatible genes as the color may actually be a result of different gene combinations, so you end up with a tank full of standard multies. The good news is that when this happens, you can breed the offpring with each other and get some of the original parents' colors out of it.

Thanks for the information. You all have been very helpful!

Meet Booth. I got him a couple months ago at Petsmart. He was stashed hiding in the back of the shelf in one of those small plastic cups. It took me a good hour looking through all of the cups to find him. I thought he was so unique looking because of his bright blue eyes and his beautiful blue outline coloring. He is currently living in a huge brandy bowl sitting on my computer desk. He follows my fingers up and down the key board when I type. Hes by far, one of my favorite fish.

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He is very pretty.
Thats really cool that hes behaving like that.

Thanks He is really fun to watch and I think hes pretty. Is it really uncommon for Bettas to have Blue eyes like that? Ive never seen one and was wondering if the babies would get the same coloring of eyes.

Wow! I think you have my bettas twin!!! He actually has blue eyes also, but you can't tell because of the flash. Good luck with the breeding! You are braver than I am.


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Your betta looks like a mature male. He may breed just fine for you, but don't be surprised if he gets a little lazy with his bubble nest. I can't tell how hold he is from your pics, but even if he is an old codger, give it a whirl. You might get some great babies out of him. As long as you can raise the fry. Which usually means being a shut-in for two months.

If you want a better shot at getting similar patterns, try to find his sister or a fish that looks as much like him as possible. You still might get throwback traits, though, so don't be surprised if your pair gives you a red or blue in the batch. Best of luck! Love his eyes.

Breeding isn't really all that hard of a deal. I used to breed veil tails a few years ago, and am now stepping up to breed and specialize in HM bettas. and likely HMPKs as well. If anyone has any questions about breeding, I would be very happy to help you.