Baby Bettas

I was in Petco in Issaquah yesterday getting some dog stuff, and see an end-cap display with baby bettas. Cute little things. They appear to be all veiltails. They're about the size of my tetras. I debated getting one thinking that if they matured in my tank it would be less likely to be overly aggressive with the rest of the tank community. Though with my travel starting next week it seems like not the best idea timing-wise.

I asked the salesguy about them - curious if it's a new trend for the market (directly below them were the retail version of those little cups they're sold in - seriously?!). He said it's just a holiday thing.

Who here has experience with juvenile bettas? Do we have anyone currently successfully breading bettas?

Very interesting , just selling them smaller and smaller.

Pretty much any betta you get from a pet store like Petco or Petsmart are juveneilles. Even moreso these days.

If you do buy one, make sure you QT it well.

I've never breaded any, seems like they would cook up too small.

Fyurae wrote:I've never breaded any, seems like they would cook up too small.

LOL, I just caught the breading instead of breeding.

how much did these guys go for? We just lost on we have had for a long time and it would be cool to replace him!

it depends on the type. petco will have some that sell for upwards of 20$ but average is 3-5$ per male betta.

for the baby ones too?

I bred bettas for fun a few years ago
Raising it young with community probably won't make them any less aggressive, it's in their nature. At a couple of months the males will start fighting each other, and eventually the females.

DMD123 wrote:

Fyurae wrote:I've never breaded any, seems like they would cook up too small.

LOL, I just caught the breading instead of breeding.

Yep, they'd be pretty small. More appitizer than entre

I'm so dependant on my spell-checker.

@ megpie - The baby bettas were $2. I think the adults range from $5-15 depending on the variety.

From my experience, fancy male bettas will only pick on fish with large finnage like guppies. Otherwise they're too slow for most other fish when in a community setting. Also, they can become victims of fin nippers since their fins are so large.

Its totally hit or miss. the two bettas I have right now are complete opposites. My humongous veil lives in the guppy tank, and doesnt even eat the babies. My double tail used to get in fights with a dwarf gourami twice his size, and will try to attack my golden retriever through the glass.

I had a beautiful halfmoon male in my community tank and he did great with them. Granted he didn't want to be social with the other fish but he didn't go after them either. Unfortunately something happened when I went out of town for a couple days and he died the morning after I got back in town.