Help on breeding betta's
- Thread starter gar man
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Yes, of course you could. What he is saying is that when you do breed them, you will probably get a bunch of ugly randomly colored fish, because the genes they carry from their ancestors for color are unknown.gar man;2236961; said:
For example, that red fish could have recessive genes for blue, green, yellow, or whatever. You just don't know. They might crop up in the offspring and make them look fugly.
If you got that red fish from a breeder though, they will have been linebred so that going back 10 generations the only color the fish have ever been are red and the only offspring you will ever get are red.
It just depends on what the genetic properties (recessive and dominant) the parents hold. The best way to do bbs shrimp (and the cheapest!) is this:
Get a medium powered airpump, some tubing, and some split valves, and some airstones (most of us have this laying around), get some mason jars... however many batches you want at a time. Just remember that after 48 hours bbs use a lot of their nutrition for growth and are nutritionally worthless. Also, you don't need very much at a time, so I think 2 jars would be enough. Poke a hole in the top, split off the airline tubing and attach an airstone. In the jar mix some dechlor water, about 1/2 tsp of salt (exactitude doesn't really matter) and enough baking soda to up the pH and hardness a bit (I used tanganyika buffer because I had some that wasn't being used for anything else... but that's a super exp way of doing it).
Add your eggs according to package and wait 24 hrs. Now with the same equipment you are only limited by the size of your air pump. Discard every 48-72 hours. You can order eggs online.
Go on aquabid and get some Indian Almond Leaves (super cheap) and throw them in the tank. This will recreate the conditions that most bettas spawn in in the wild. I like to add the male and "beef him up" with bloodworms while doing the same with the female in a diff container, breeding is tough business on bettas. Add the female to the breeding tank inside a hurricane glass (like that glass top on kerosene lamps) to get to them use to... they should start showing breeding behaviours.
When they are used to each other, life the glass. If he beats up on her too much, take her out and try again later/with a diff fish. Remember, the male will guard the fry and not take nice to the female after a while, take her out and quarantine for a few days to let her get back to strength.
This method also works for most types of gouramis! The sky is the limit.
Good luck!
Get a medium powered airpump, some tubing, and some split valves, and some airstones (most of us have this laying around), get some mason jars... however many batches you want at a time. Just remember that after 48 hours bbs use a lot of their nutrition for growth and are nutritionally worthless. Also, you don't need very much at a time, so I think 2 jars would be enough. Poke a hole in the top, split off the airline tubing and attach an airstone. In the jar mix some dechlor water, about 1/2 tsp of salt (exactitude doesn't really matter) and enough baking soda to up the pH and hardness a bit (I used tanganyika buffer because I had some that wasn't being used for anything else... but that's a super exp way of doing it).
Add your eggs according to package and wait 24 hrs. Now with the same equipment you are only limited by the size of your air pump. Discard every 48-72 hours. You can order eggs online.
Go on aquabid and get some Indian Almond Leaves (super cheap) and throw them in the tank. This will recreate the conditions that most bettas spawn in in the wild. I like to add the male and "beef him up" with bloodworms while doing the same with the female in a diff container, breeding is tough business on bettas. Add the female to the breeding tank inside a hurricane glass (like that glass top on kerosene lamps) to get to them use to... they should start showing breeding behaviours.
When they are used to each other, life the glass. If he beats up on her too much, take her out and try again later/with a diff fish. Remember, the male will guard the fry and not take nice to the female after a while, take her out and quarantine for a few days to let her get back to strength.
This method also works for most types of gouramis! The sky is the limit.
Good luck!
gar man;2237656; said:
No, you will not get purple. In the case of bettas, red + blue does not equal purple. There are a few Thai breeders that have managed purple, but it's almost always a black (melano)/metallic derivative...nothing you would ever get out of the fish you've got.
It's pretty much a guarantee that if you breed your fish, you'll end up with multicolor bettas...something like this:
It's a personal choice whether you think a fish like the above is nice. I don't, and I think you'll have a hard time getting rid of the fry. Other breeders won't be interested in them, so you'll have to find more of a "pet" outlet.
gar man;2238055; said:
If you really like veils, go for it. Again, though, no breeder is going to want to take those off your hands. You'll have to find a "pet" outlet for the fry.
It's no easier to breed veils than any other tail form (it can actually be more difficult because you have no idea of the age of a petstore betta).
I'd get a decent halfmoon pair, personally. You don't have to buy a $100 pair from Thailand, but you can find decent pairs fairly reasonably on Aquabid.
IMO, this pair would be a decent starter pair. http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwbettashm&1222727873
The male definitely has some faults compared to a show specimen, but he'd give you promising offspring. You can also tell that he's still young. The seller also has other females available...ALWAYS a good idea to get extra females. The male may kill the female, or they may just not get along well enough to spawn.
Or, if you're looking for even less expensive, there's this trio:
http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwbettashm&1222731709
I'm not a huge fan of the male, but he does have some nice features. He has nice long outer rays on his caudal. While he doesn't have a halfmoon spread, he's still very young, and that should improve with proper training. He'll never be a show winner, but he should throw some decent offspring, again.
Would you mind posting some other promising pairs? More expensive ones too. I've thought about doing this for a long time and your critiques are very informative.Titania;2240050; said:
i really would like to get those halfmoonsaglarond;2241230; said:
There aren't very many pairs on Aquabid at the moment. But, I'll post up a few males that I really like. Most breeders will sell you a sibling female if you ask. Looking over Aquabid, I'm not familiar with most of these breeders...looks like the really good ones I used to work with aren't posting fish right now.
This guys is fabulous! Really good strong dorsal (you can tell he carries DT genes...DT = double-tail), EXCELLENT caudal and I LOVE his full ventral fins. My only gripe is his anal fin is a little bit longer than I'd like to see, and he's got a couple of short rays at the very edge of his caudal.
http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwbettashm&1222384199
Another fish with a really great dorsal. His outside caudal rays are much more even than the male before, but I would prefer his caudal be a bit longer. http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwbettashm&1222385609
This guy is looks great now (his anal fin is too long, IMO), but his finnage is VERY heavy, and I don't believe he'll be able to hold it as he ages.
http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwbettashm&1222385609
Awesome fins on this guys, too. His only downside is...yep, his anal is a tad too long.
http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwbettashm&1222385609
Here's a really sweet female...she's a plakat (short fin), but it's very common to mix plakat genes into longfin lines. The plakat genes serve to strengthen the finnage. http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwbettashm&1222385609
These photos come from one of my favorite betta breeders...Suporn of Blue Betta. If I were in the market for breeding stock, he's where I'd start. http://www.bluebetta.com/bluestore/index.php?main_page=page&id=27&chapter=0
It's REALLY hard to get better finnage than this guy's got. Look at how EVEN everything is. It all works to create a really harmonious picture. And the fish carries it all well.
Look at this female! She's exactly what I look for in my girls. You can tell she carries DT because of her extended dorsal.
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