Breeding Bettas

Since no one else seems to have this posted anywhere, I thought I'd do it. This is the best setup and method I know for breeding and rearing bettas.

Water Conditioning:
This part is especially important if you're using city tap water. I recommend using NovAqua to precondition the clean water for water changes before adding it to your fishes tanks. This will neutralize harmful chemicals, reduce stress and add electrolytes. AmQuel Plus can also be used for individual betta "bowls" or single-fish tanks to neutralize ammonia and help keep water quality ideal. However, don't use AmQuel in the breeding/fry tank as it will kill biological filtration. Preconditioned water should be set aside for 24-hours prior to use to ensure proper conditioning and temperature. You can use clean milk/juice jugs for this.

Breeding setup:
partially fill a 10-gallon tank. You want a 6 to 8 inch water level. The bottom should be kept bare so that fallen eggs and fry can be easily retrieved by the male. A sponge filter should be used for the breeding tank as betta fry are quite tiny the first couple weeks. You may want to adjust the airflow so that it isn't especially strong the first couple weeks. The hood should be tight-fitting to prevent drafts during early development, so plastic should be taped in place to seal any potential air leaks around the hood while allowing the lid to be opened. You will also want to subdue the lighting for these delicate fry by placing a piece of paper between the light and the hood. Construction paper works nicely if it's thin enough to let moderate light through. For this setup, you will also need a styrofoam cup and a glass chimney from an oil lamp. Cut the styrofoam cup in half from top to bottom and tape it to the inside of the aquarium so that the lip is against the glass and the cut edge just breaks the surface of the water. The chimney should be wide enough to get the female into but not too tall for the tank and should be placed several inches away from the cup. You should also provide a hiding place for the female to retreat to. Java moss is the best for this as it serves a dual purpose as a natural source of microscopic foods for newly hatched fry. You will need to setup biological filtration during the conditioning period. You can speed this along by using a water additive if necessary.

Conditioning the Pair:
The ideal age for breeding is about 6 months old. You should choose either a sibling pair or a compatible match of similar size. Females should be nice and round with eggs prior to breeding. Males should be building bubble nests in their containers before the spawning is setup, but should be fine as long as they start building nests during the conditioning period. Conditioning should last a week or two. During this period, the pair should be fed on live foods 2 - 3 times per day as much as they will eat in 5 minutes. Practice will help determine just how much each fish can handle without overfeeding. As a rule of thumb, you want a nice round full belly, but they shouldn't look like they're carrying around a marble in their gut. lol Frozen foods can be substituted, if necessary. Their water quality should be kept optimal during this time, so they should each have at least a one-gallon container that is given about an 80% - 90% water change daily. I do this using a length of airline tubing or a bit larger flexible tubing as a syphon rather than removing the fish. Make sure to remove as much of the waste as possible.

Live/Frozen Foods for Adults:
White worms/Grindal worms - can be gut-loaded for feeding; great adult/pre-adult food, but fattening if overused
Wingless melanogaster fruitflies - excellent food for adults, more difficult to collect and feed
Baby brine shrimp - easily hatched and a great addition to the diet, but energy-consuming food for adults to eat due to size
bloodworms (mosquito larvae) - can be harvested from standing water, but don't recommend "culturing"; rinse THOROUGHLY before feeding
frozen brine shrimp - excellent food choice either live or frozen
frozen bloodworms - excellent food choice (these are bettas' staple diet in nature)
frozen daphnia - another great food choice
freeze-dried foods are also an economical option, but not really recommended

The Spawning Process:
Once the pair is conditioned and ready to breed (make sure they've taken an interest in each other), they should both be introduced to the breeding tank at the same time. There are two ways to do this. Either you can have the tank heater set to 80F or so for 24 - 48 hours prior to introduction and float the fish in plastic cups to acclimate them. OR you can place them both directly into the water before turning the heater on and gradually raising it to 80F or so. Whichever way you choose, you will need to place the male free in the tank and place the female inside the glass chimney so the male can see her but can't get to her just yet. Barring unusual circumstances, the male should start building a bubble nest under the cup within a few hours. Continue feeding both as usual. Once he's built a decent nest and starts spending more time showing off for the female (after about 24 hours or so), check the female's behavior. If she's overly aggressive toward him or shows no interest, they may not spawn. Ideally, she should be colored up and may show submissive behavior. If it looks like they're both ready, gently lift out the glass chimney to release her. You'll wanna keep it handy for separating her again once they've finished or in case of an overly aggressive male. If the male hasn't built a nest after 24 hours, try raising the temperature a few degrees (85F is max recommended) and wait another 24 hours. If there is still no bubble nest, you will need to remove the pair and try reconditioning for another week or condition a different pairing (conditioning additional fish simultaneously will eliminate the need to wait).

When ready, the male will draw the female under the nest (some females will simply swim over to it) for spawning. They may circle each other a few times, nudging each other's sides before embracing. Normally, there is no biting once spawning has commenced, but it happens occasionally. The male will wrap himself around the female and float for a few seconds as the female releases her eggs. The eggs are fertilized as they fall. Once the male releases the embrace, he will scoop up the eggs in his mouth and spit them up into the nest. The female will usually remain still while he does this. Some females may help collect the eggs, but watch closely as many females will EAT the eggs rather than spit them into the nest. The pair will continue to embrace and then rest this way until the female has expelled all of her eggs. It's best not to disturb them during the spawning period unless one or the other becomes overly aggressive and is in danger of killing the other. After they've finished, the male will chase the female away from the nest to begin tending the eggs. At this time, gently remove the female by scooping her up into a plastic cup. She will need to acclimate again before returning to her bowl/jar/tank or whatever else she normally lives in. The male should be left to tend the nest until the fry are free swimming (about 3 days after hatching).

Rearing the Fry:
Hatching will take a few days, depending on temperature. Newly hatched betta fry are very tiny and difficult for some people to see with the naked eye. They will appear as very tiny sets of eyes in the bubble nest with hair-thin bodies hanging down. The male will tend the nest until the fry are free swimming. At that time, the fry start feeding for the first time. Some males are safe to leave with the fry longer, but many will begin to eat them at this point. So you'll want to remove the male once it appears most or all of the fry are free swimming. Water quality is of utmost importance during fry development, but care should be taken not to allow any drafts into the tank.

There is some debate as to the best first food for bettas. Some swear by baby brine shrimp. Others insist on using micro-organisms first and then microworms or vinegar eels before feeding baby brine shrimp. In my experience, baby brine shrimp work fine as a first food and if you use java moss, it will provide micro-organisms for any fry unable to eat the baby shrimp. My opinion is that the optimal diet for the fry the first week is a mixture of microworms and baby brine shrimp. You can culture both microworms and vinegar eels fairly easily. But they can both be somewhat smelly cultures to deal with. Microworms are easier to harvest since you can just scrape some off the side of the container. Vinegar eels are trickier. Both have to be rinsed in fresh water before feeding. Baby brine shrimp should also be rinsed if a freshwater collection vial isn't used. Plastic pippettes or droppers work great for feeding. Betta fry should be fed about three times a day. Be careful not to overfeed. If there are still uneaten worms or brine shrimp, don't feed them again yet. As they grow, switch foods to drop foods that are unnecessarily small and add new foods that are a bit larger. As long as they can easily fit it in their mouth, it should be on the menu. lol Growing fish should be fed mostly on live or frozen foods. Freeze-dried foods are an acceptable alternative once they're large enough to accept them. Manufactured foods really shouldn't be given until at least the second month, but aren't recommended at all. At two weeks old, betta fry will only be about the size of some livebearer fry (approx. 1/4 inch).

A few alternatives if you can't use live foods are frozen artemia (baby brine shrimp), frozen rotifers and frozen cyclops. These can also be found in liquid suspensions or freeze-dried (not recommended unless you have to). There are also powdered first foods for fish fry, but I really don't recommend using them except in case of emergency since they will cause a rapid decline in water quality. There are also decapsulated brine shrimp eggs on the market which can be fed directly to fish. If you can't hatch brine shrimp or buy frozen, this is a much better alternative.

After three weeks, start adding a gallon of water each day until the tank is full. Slow-syphoning with a length of airline tube is best to avoid stress on the fry. The same length of tubing can then also be used to syphon water and waste OUT of the tank for daily water changes. After four weeks, small partial water changes can begin. This is where things aren't so cut and dry. I recommend using an ammonia alert card in the fry tank to monitor water quality. This will help you determine when water changes are really necessary and figure out how much to change. You want to keep a balance between leaving the fish alone to grow and keeping the tank clean. Obviously, the size and number of fish will determine how often and how much. But overfeeding will cause water quality to decline more rapidly, as will using manufactured foods. Even frozen or freeze-dried foods can if overfed. Live foods are less harmful to water quality, even if overfed, as they will usually survive for hours in the tank rather than immediately beginning to decompose. After at least a month, you can also begin gradually turning up the air to the filter.

Depending on how many you're trying to raise, you may need to move the juveniles to a larger grow-out tank after 6 weeks or so. I used to use a 20L for this. A 29-gallon works nicely, though. Bettas produce ENORMOUS spawns. So don't plan on raising all of them, unless you either have the space and means to do it or have only a small to moderate hatch-out. Most breeders start culling the smaller fry early to give the larger, healthier ones a better chance. You won't be able to determine anything about fins or color really until at least six weeks.

Jarring the Males:
At 3 months, you should be able to tell the males and females apart. At this age, they will begin to fight and males should be separated into individual containers to prevent damage to delicate fins. Females can either be left in the tank or given individual containers as well. Once jarred, your babies should be ready for new homes unless you plan to keep them.

I did my best to be thorough. If I missed anything, just let me know and I'll add it.

I went through all of this last summer. Quite the adventure...

Only thing I would add. If available, pond water is great for feeding, just make sure to take out any larger organisms that might pose a threat. My pond was primarily live daphnia, and the fish loved it- and since they live just fine in the tank I didn't have to worry about rationing it out to keep the tank clean from dying food.