J & J Bettas

It always begins innocently enough, that beautiful betta in the pet store catches your eye and you take him home.  After a while you start thinking to yourself, hmmm, maybe I should get him a girlfriend, and bam, just like that you are hooked.  So now you want to breed your two bettas, but before you go rushing into it here are a few things to consider.

 Before I explain in more detail what you need to do to breed bettas here is a shopping list of supplies:

5 or 10 gallon tank

Sponge filter

25-50 watt submersible heater

Plastic or silk plants

Glass hurricane

A net (for catching and transferring fish)

A Styrofoam cup

Some Saran Wrap

Frozen or live foods for the adult breeders

A microworm and/or vinegar eel starter culture

A quality pair of bettas

So now you have gone out and purchased everything you need and you are ready to get down to breeding your bettas.

Food

Proper nutrition is important for both your breeders and fry.  Breeders need to be conditioned by providing live or frozen food for at least 2 weeks before spawning.  This is an important step as the added protein and nutrients help the females develop a large reserve of eggs and gets the male ready for all the hard work he is going to have to do.  I use frozen bloodworms (red mosquito larva - make sure you get these from a reliable source like Hikari brand as they can carry parasites), frozen beefheart, live white worms, and occasionally frozen peas skinned and chopped, just to make sure they are getting a balanced diet.  I feed small portions 3-4 times a day working from the list above, although bloodworms and beefheart are the staples of their diet. 

NOTE:  Be careful not to overfeed your fish, as too much food leads to a whole host of problems such as stretching the stomach and lessening the amount of room for all the other internal organs, squishing them together.  Just ignore the directions on your fish food containers that say to feed your fish as much as they can consume in several minutes. I don’t know if the people that write these directions have ever kept fish, let alone bettas, because I am pretty sure any one of my bettas could eat every last morsel in that jar in several minutes!

Setting up the Breeding tank

            I like to use 5 and 10 gallon tanks, filled ½ way with aged water.  I add a heater and let it stabilize at a temperature between 79-80 F, but anywhere from 79-82 should be fine.  In my experience I have found that the warmer the water the quicker the eggs develop and hatch, but the fry tend to be a little weaker so I stick with 80 F.  Make sure the temperature is stable where you want it before you add your breeders, as developing eggs and fry are very sensitive to even slight changes in water temperature.  Next, add a sponge filter (I age it in one of my cycled aquariums for about a week beforehand to give it a head start on developing beneficial bacteria). In one corner, place a plastic plant for the female to hide in before and after spawning, and in the other corner a Styrofoam cup cut in half lengthwise and affixed to the side of the aquarium with tape.  All this equipment (other than the filter) and the tank should be sterilized before you start putting it together by washing in boiling or very hot water so that you are starting with the cleanest environment possible for your future fry.

Just to give you an idea of how to set up a spawning tank

Introducing your Breeders

            Once your bettas have been properly conditioned, you have set up your spawning tank, and your live cultures of fry food are going strong, it is time to introduce your pair.  To avoid excess damage to either of your bettas they need to be introduced in such a way that they can see each other, but not nip at each other.  The best way I have found to do this is with a glass hurricane (similar to what you see on top of old oil lamps) placed in the main tank near where you want the male to start building his bubblenest but not too close, as it needs to be removed after releasing the female,   This will be where you place your female for the first few hours so the male can see her and be stimulated into building a bubblenest, and you can judge her readiness to breed.  Start the introduction process by first releasing the male into the tank and allowing him an hour or two to swim around and check everything out.  After he is through surveying his new territory place the glass hurricane near, but remember not too close, to where you have placed the Styrofoam cup.  Release the female into the hurricane and watch her behavior.  If she gets vertical stripes and points her head downward it is a sign that she is ready to breed.  She may also flare back at the male when he flares at her but don’t worry, this is normal behavior.  Leave your pair like this overnight to give the male a chance to get a head start on his bubblenest.  By the time you check on them in the morning the male should have the beginnings of a bubblenest and be swimming underneath it.  You can now release your female, but make sure to check on them a few times in the next hour or so and look for any overt signs of aggression.  A little chasing and nipping, especially by the male, is normal and your female will usually look for places to hide at first but as long as she is not displaying horizontal bars (a sign of stress and fear) they should be alright.

                      NOTE: light color bodied females like Cambodians will not display vertical or horizontal bars                     so watch their body language for signs of receptiveness or stress.

The spawning process

            Depending on your pair, their age, experience, and individual personalities it may take anywhere from hours to days before they get down to business.  I once had a pair together for 5 days and was about ready to give up - they must have sensed my frustration because the next time I walked into my fishroom carrying a net and ready to separate them they were spawning.  Just be patient, young pairs especially take a little extra time to figure things out, but I find most of my pairs are spawning within hours of being released together.

            When the female is ready she will come out of hiding and swim to where the male has his nest to inspect it.  The male will flare and display and generally try to impress her with his lovely fins and fine nest-building abilities.  Sometimes the male will try to coax out a reluctant female by swimming to where she is hiding, flaring and wiggling from side to side, and then slowly swimming back to where his nest is, enticing her to follow.  If the female approves of both the male and his nest she will begin to nudge the male’s side and go into a head-down position.  He in turn will flip her upside-down and wrap his body around her in an embrace that allows him to fertilize the eggs as she releases them.  The pair will remain like this for a few seconds, then the male will disengage and begin to collect the falling eggs while the female floats to the top stunned (and looking dead) for a brief time.  It is alarming at first to see the female floating there motionless, but she will recover quickly and begin looking for the eggs she just released.  There is some debate within the betta community as to whether she eats the eggs or helps the male place them in the nest but I have found that this all depends on the individual female, and from my experience the bulk of them appear to be eating the eggs.  Don’t worry if the first few times your pair embrace no eggs fall, virgin pairs especially go through a number of dry runs before they get it right.  The whole process may take up to 5 hours, but you will know when they are done because the male will chase the female away from the nest and will be guarding it with a watchful eye.  Often you can see the tiny eggs, which are about the size of a grain of salt and opaque colored, clustered in one area of the nest.  At this point it is time to remove the female and put her in a clean jar with some BettaFix or similar medication to prevent fin rot on her torn fins.  The male will stay with the fry and care for them until they are free swimming.

Hatching

            For the next 48-72 dad will tend to his nest, catching any eggs that fall and keeping his bubblenest intact.  To make his job easier you should cover the tank with loosely fitting saran wrap; this will increase the humidity and help the bubbles stay intact longer.  After 2-3 days the eggs will begin to hatch and you will see tiny clear tails dangling from the nest, and the real work for the male will begin.  For the next two days or so the fry will fall to the bottom of the tank and dad will swim down, pick them up in his mouth, and blow them back into the nest.  As they wiggle around and try to wedge themselves back into the nest they will probably knock out a sibling or two and may fall again themselves.  Dad will tirelessly swim up and down, picking up fry and blowing them back into the nest.  He goes through all this to make sure none of his offspring drown, as they do not have fully developed gills yet.  After a couple of days the fry’s swim bladders will develop and they will go from this position ( | ) to this position ( --) and become what is called free-swimming.  At this point you should carefully remove the male as he will still be trying to keep all his children in the nest and may get frustrated and decide to snack on a few to make his life easier.  To remove him without disturbing the fry too much, entice him away from the nest with some food and then carefully net him.  Let him sit in the net, held just at the top of the tank so that he is still submerged but can not get out of the net, to give him a chance to spit out any fry he may still have in his mouth.  Your male will be tired and hungry so put him into a clean bowl and offer him something to eat.  Don’t be too alarmed if for a few days he doesn’t acknowledge the food or seems depressed; some males go through a post-spawn depression of sorts but usually perk up again in a couple of days. 

This guy figured he needed a nest that covered half of a 10 gallon tank!

Your male’s job is now over, but yours is just beginning - continue on to raising the fry