Breeding Bettas

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Betta Splendens.

Betta Splendens are Labyrinth fish. This means they have a special breathing organ called a labyrinth organ which is used to absorb air. So without access to air they will drown.

The male builds a bubble nest which will later support the eggs. After spawning occurs the male will protect his nest and generally chase the female away. To promote breeding the parents should be conditioned by feeding plenty of good food such as live blackworms or frozen bloodworms. A low water level and warm temperature (around 28°C) is also needed to promote spawning. Live plants should be included. 

The eggs take between 1 and 3 days to hatch. If you have live plants in the tank the fry will get their first feed from the infusoria in the water. Other foods need to be introduced later, such as microworms and baby brine shrimp. 

How we breed bettas

There may be different variations used but the principle is the same. At the end of the day it comes down to what works for you. This is what we do: 

Tools of the trade: 

What next?

The lucky couple should have been conditioned for at least a week with good food and maybe letting them have a sneak preview of things to come. 

Set up the tank with aged water to a level of 5 to 6 inches with no gravel or substrate, just plain glass. Run a cycled sponge filter with enough plants to cover at least 1/3 of the tank, float a palm sized piece of Almond Leaf (if you have some),  add some Ketapang Leaf Extract or Blackwater Extract, and set the heater to 28 degrees and cycle for a few days. Check to make sure the temperature is constant over this time and adjust accordingly so that the tank remains the same constant temperature. With a good cover on the tank you should generally see the humidity in the tank which is important for fry development especially their labriynth organ. 

Once the tank has been cycled for a few days, turn off the sponge filter. You won't need to turn on the sponge filter fully for about 2 weeks but one week after fry are free swimming try turning the valve on a bit to allow a bubble every few seconds.  Arrange the plants to cover the end of the tank around the filter which provides a safe haven for the female and then later for the fry. Cut the styrofoam cup down the middle to create two canopies. Take one canopy (the other one can be used for the other spawn tank) and put it in the furthest corner from the sponge filter. We tape it in place to create a dome. This is generally where the bubble nest will be built. Make sure there is enough room to place the chimney in between the plants and the nest area.

When the tank is set up we introduce the male and leave him on his own for about 24 hours. Then we introduce the female but leave her in the chimney until she looks ready to spawn. We always release our females in the mornings and more times than not they spawn at this time. At least that's what they do for us normally. We have had pairs in the spawn tank for weeks at a time before they spawn or they have several attempts and may not get it right for some time. The thing to look out for is that one of the pairs isn't getting too beat up or harassed. If they are it may be time to remove one and either try again later or try another partner. The spawn process can be quite aggressive. It doesn't happen often but a death can sometimes occur. We had one Plakat male who killed two of his partners before deciding he liked his third. And in one instance we had a female who took a dislike to her male partner and proceeded to show him who was the boss. This guy we got out before it was too late. This is something you need to be aware of and you need to make a decision on whether you let nature take it's course or intervene. Having mentioned this I must say it is a rare moment that it gets to this stage.

Pictures of our spawn tank setup:

        Front view                                                      Top View

Female planted area               Nest Site (hopefully)

What should happen is that the male will show off for the female. He'll flare and dart about and hopefully find some time to get started on a bubble nest under the cup. If he doesn't build a bubble nest then we'll steal some bubbles with a teaspoon from another male and put it near the cup. This will hopefully prompt him to do the job himself. If not.......well we have had one bubble nest free spawn of VT's and they were all fine.  We've had some build tiny neat bubble nests and one that covered half the tank. Each fish is different. Bubbles are the better option though.

When the female is ready to spawn she will hopefully show vertical stripes and have a swollen belly full of eggs with her egg dot very visible. Not all females will get vertical stripes however. When she is ready let her out of the chimney.

There could be some tail biting and torn fins but this is part of the mating. There could be none or at least very little too.  He might act the gentleman and she submits straight away. Generally both fish will get damaged though. He'll dart about, chase her and flare to entice her out of the plants and under this beautiful bubble nest he is building. She'll hide in the plants until she is ready to spawn. She might be waiting for the nest to look just right? 

When she's ready she will swim head down towards the nest and approach the male. It might take some days for the mating ritual to be complete. It might only take a few hours. They might have a few false starts so be patient. However if the female (or male for that matter) gets too injured then you might want to consider removing them and wait a while until they recover.

When it is the right time she'll turn herself upside down and the male will wrap himself around her. All things going to plan, eggs will start falling to the bottom. The male will then swim down to the eggs, collect them in his mouth and blow them into the bubble nest. Sometimes the female will help. 

****If you want to see a video clip of our Blue OHM male and Blue HM female spawning then you can view it here (it's in QuickTime format and about 8mb in size so please be patient as it might take some time to download depending on you internet connection)

Video Clip of spawning

Gallery/Royal Blue OHM and HM Spawn.MOV

Actual spawning might last a few hours but when one of them has had enough it ends quickly. Either the male will chase the female away or she will do it on her own, avoiding him and the nest. We generally remove the female after the spawning is finished and then pamper her for a few days in her own jar with some Melafix for any damaged fins. A good feed is probably in order too.

The male will tend to the nest after the spawn. There could be any number of eggs. 20, 50, 100 maybe 300!! If it's a big spawn he will have a tough time ahead of him. He'll pick up any falling eggs, he might re-arrange the nest a bit, he'll fan the nest with his fins and clean the eggs. We had one male decide he didn't like the location at all and moved the entire nest away from the cup to the filter on the opposite end of the tank. He moved all the hatched fry, which included some free swimming fry, with him. It wasn't a good location for us since he and fry were hidden from view but he was happy and he could relax on top of the sponge filter while keeping a watchful eye on his babies.

Sometime between 24 and 48 hours the fry will start hatching. You'll see lots of little hairy fingers under the nest which look like tiny tadpoles with eyes. Some will fall out of the nest only to be picked up by the male.  After a few days and the fry are all free swimming (and not falling) carefully remove the male and avoid any fry. We try to not use a net since you can catch the fry as well. We use our hands and scoop him up placing him into a cup which we have carefully placed some spawn tank water in. Then he gets some pampering in his own jar with some Melafix and a good feed. 

We generally don't feed our males during this nest tending period. If he's looking a bit haggard and worn out we might give him a little bloodworm but that is not too often. We keep a light on over the tank 24 hours a day until the fry are free swimming so that dad can find the falling eggs and fry. Once they are free swimming then lighting should go back to normal. Fry can take up to 3 days before they are free swimming and it is something you need to keep an eye on. 

The fry will live off their egg sac for the first day or so until they are free swimming. And then they will be on the look out for food. They'll chase down any infusoria from those live plants in the tank, but be ready to feed them after this. We start feeding them microworms on day two after free swimming, just a little bit at first and slowly build the feeds up to a regular twice a day routine. We also place some Apple snails into the tank to help keep the bottom clean and to remove any excess food that has not been eaten.. 

Raising Fry

OK so the lucky pair have spawned, you have free swimming fry all over the place and both parents are retired in their new homes and a life of luxury away from the kids. What now?

The food: If the tank is well planted you won't need to feed the fry for two days because there should be enough infusoria in the water for them to eat. On day 2 put a little microworm or vineger eels in the tank. Don't over feed at this stage. Feed MW and VE for the first week. Maybe add a little BBS at this week stage. Feed MW / VE / BBS for between 2 and 4 weeks preferably mixing up their diet a little. 

Try a little finely cut frozen bloodworms or live blackworms or small mosquito wrigglers at week 4 along with their other regular foods. Depending on the fry you should be able to slowly wean them so that they should be off the MW / VE and BBS and eating these other foods. You can start introducing some pellet foods for more variety including a bit of spirulina based foods such as algae discs -- the snails love these as well. Try a piece of Zucchini in the tank. Tie it to a rock with an elastic band and it makes for a great feed. The snails will love this as well. Introducing new foods can be a guessing game since fry develop at different rates but give it a go. If they don't take to it then wait a little while longer before trying again. Sometimes the food is too big for the fry and you have too simply wait until they get big enough to eat it. 

If you can't find a pellet small enough then a trick you can try is to place larger pellets into a pepper mill and grind them up into the spawn tank. Also freeze dried blood worms are great at this stage and can be rubbed into smaller pieces between you fingers. Mosquito wrigglers are also a great source of food and it is free. The bottom line is don't over feed with large amounts of food as it will pollute the water and can cause problems such as fish with no ventrals. Regular smaller amounts is the best thing and a variety of foods from an early age makes for healthy fry. 

The water: For the first week do not turn on the filter. Then turn on the air so a bubble or three comes out every now and then. Less is best. From about 2 weeks add about 1 litre of aged water. Start adding 1/2L of aged water every 2nd or 3rd day until the tank is full which usually is by the 4th week. You can turn up the filter a bit more too but don't have it bubbling like mad throwing the fry all over the tank. A steady flow of bubbles is good but you don't want a washing machine effect.

At the 4 week mark or when the tank is full we do a 25% water change being very careful to not syphon up any fry. This is the tricky bit and it is inevitable that at some stage the odd fry will venture up the syphon hose. Have a close look in your bucket of water and grab these fry in a cup / net and return them home. 

Then every week do a 25% water change. Watch them grow and be prepared to start separating the males and/or aggressive ones (male or female). You may want to transfer the whole spawn into a bigger grow out tank instead of separating them. We use 3ft grow out tanks for this and it is much easier than having jars all over the place. 

Bettas can grow at different rates and in every spawn you will have larger fry and you will also have the runts. Larger spawns need more room to grow in and one thing we have noticed is that the more frequent the water changes the better the growth rate so in our opinion water quality is a major factor in having good healthy bettas. What we have found is that jarred bettas with regular water changes will generally grow quicker than their siblings left in the grow out tanks. Coincided with a good diet and you are giving your bettas the best chance they need to develop. But individual care takes time and more effort so the choice is yours.

These are some pictures of Double Tail bettas at 6 weeks old. They are still in the original spawn tank and just about to be moved into a grow out tank.

And the same bettas 2 weeks later (2months old) after some growing up in a larger tank:

This is the largest male DT from the same spawn at 2 months old. He was moved into the barracks:

Jarring your bettas:

Generally we don't jar our bettas before they are 6 weeks old and we try to leave them in the grow out tanks as long as possible because it is easier to take care of them which makes our life easier. But at some stage you will need to separate your bettas, especially the males, and this is something you need to decide on at the time as each spawn is different and they can grow at different rates. Any bettas we see in the grow out tanks that start to show any good potential in form and general appearance will be jarred to give them some individual attention.

Either way when it comes to this stage of breeding bettas you will need a lot of jars and bench space available. We still use jars, especially when a big spawn comes along, but to make our work a little easier we have built a barrack system. Each jar is 1.5 litres in size and each jar separated by plastic cards for training / flaring purposes later on. The water flows through each jar at about 3 litres every hour which overflows into a drain system, through filtration and into a sump. It is then pumped from the sump by an underwater pump through plastic irrigation pipes. The total water capacity including jars, drainage, sump and a filter box is about 200 to 220  litres. So with 72 jars they effectively get nearly 3 litres each. The system is heated in winter and filtered through bio balls, filter wool and a UV filter. The filter media is cleaned ever two weeks and each jar is syphoned of waste every week and the water level replaced with aged water. In the summer months we have to top up the water level due to evaporation and for this purpose we use aged water that does not have any salt added to it. At some stage the jars will need a clean too but lately we have found baby apple snails do a fairly good job of this. It doesn't mean we can avoid cleaning the jars outright though especially with algae build up.

Our barracks set up.

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