King Betta Breeding Questions

[Myates]

Half breeds.. not quite giants, but a little bit bigger than "regular" splendens.. basically you see them at Petco and some other stores where they can charge a bit more because they sound "fancy". But honestly, they aren't popular, nor is there a category for them anywhere such as AB, IBC, etc as people rather want actual giants. They are what you get when you cross a regular with a giant - kings tend to be culls for giant breeders.

But.. who knows, there may be a market out there for them, I just haven't seen any being sold anywhere outside of Petco :)

[louisvillelady]

My understanding is that "giants" are genetically betta splendens. They were created by two men who kept choosing to breed their largest bettas. These were as large as 5 inches. If you breed a "Giant" to a normal sized betta, you would get "half giants" which would be on average 3 inches. In these spawns, you would also get normal sized bettas. It was once believed that there was one recessive gene that controlled this trait. There are some who are beginning to believe it is a set of genes that control it. The term "half-giant, which was coined by the original breeder, has now commonly been replaced with "king". Also, a lot of breeders call half giants, giants. However, even if you breed two true giants, you still will get some half giants. which is why some are beginning to believe that it is a combination of genes and not just one. Hope this helps.

[trilobite]

Ahhh so its just a commercial name for half giants? we dont have them in nz, I think giants have come into nz only once haha.
Thats interesting info about the giants genetics