Hi, could someone please answer these? :)

[moonsand0wls]

Hello, I am new to breeding Betta and I am hoping to do so. I've spent the last few weeks searching up about it, but I can't get a straight answer! There's always a DO THIS and a DON'T DO THAT to the same thing! So, I looked on here and found these questions and they're basically what i'm trying to find straight answers to.. Could you please help by any chance? :)


9) How do you pick the best breeders?
10) What are the general tail types and what happens if you cross them?

11) What is conditioning?
12) How long do you condition?
13)What foods do you use to condition?

14) What items do you need for the spawning tank?
15) What temperature should the spawning tank be?
16) How do you properly introduce the breeders?
17) What do vertical bars mean?
18) How do you know when to release the female?
19) How can you tell the difference between normal and abnormal aggression?
20) When do you remove the female?
21) When do you remove the male?

22) On average, how many eggs are produced per spawn?
23) On average, how many fry usually survive to adulthood?
24) How long does it take eggs to hatch?
25) How long does it take the fry to become free swimming?

26) At what day should you introduce foods to the tank?
27) Which foods are better: live, dried, or frozen?
28) How do you get live foods?
29) What foods are appropriate for newly hatched fry? 1 month old? 2+ months?
30) How often should you feed fry?

31) At what point should you start doing water changes?
32) What is the stunting hormone?
33) How often should you do water changes?
34) How much water should you change?

35) At what point do you jar males?
36) How do you keep jarred fry warm?


Sorry for all the questions! I just want to know honestly!
Thank you. :)

[BettaHeart]

these threads help with most if not all of these questions

http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=116065

[moonsand0wls]

OMG I fully didn't see that! Thank you!

I was also wondering if you could help me out with this? I've looked onto the forum but can't find an answer (looked on the genetics, no help)

What would happen if I bred a male veil tail (I think he's butterfly, he has a black head, steel blue body with blue on one side of his tail, turquoise the other, and they fade out to pink and then white. His frontal fins (the long ones, can't remember their name..) are red going into white, with a wild type similar female with a red body and black fins?

I'm not sure what the female actually is, I asked the people i'm buying them off tomorrow to identify them through a website I sent, and they said she looks like a wild type.

What would the fry mostly look like?

Sorry, and thanks :D

[homegrown terror]

i'll answer as many as i can

9) How do you pick the best breeders?
check out their entire stock, not just the ones you want to buy. look for color and finnage consistency, and keep a weather eye about for any irregularities they might try to hide.

10) What are the general tail types and what happens if you cross them?
there are lots of threads already on here about tail types. as for mixing, it's generally not recommended for new breeders since it's unpredictable at best.

17) What do vertical bars mean?
vertical bars indicate the female is "in the mood" and looking to mate.

20) When do you remove the female?
most people remove her as soon as she's done dropping eggs as the male might see her as a threat to them.

21) When do you remove the male?
most people remove him once the fry enter the free-swimming stage.

22) On average, how many eggs are produced per spawn?
anywhere between 10 and 150, though a spawn of 200is not unheard of.

23) On average, how many fry usually survive to adulthood?
that all depends on both the age and quality of the parents, and your providing them proper care.

24) How long does it take eggs to hatch?
24-48 hours usually.

27) Which foods are better: live, dried, or frozen?
initially, the free-swimming fry will only respond to live foods.

28) How do you get live foods?
brine shrimp hatcheries are the most common method.

31) At what point should you start doing water changes? as soon as safely possible.

32) What is the stunting hormone?
it's a hormone the fry secrete to slow the growth of the total population. they do this as a manner of protection for so many in a small environment.

33) How often should you do water changes?
34) How much water should you change?
most people change 50% daily.

35) At what point do you jar males? as soon as they start showing signs of aggression.

36) How do you keep jarred fry warm?
by either floating their jars in a heated growout tank, or using a drip/drain system of barracks feeding from a heated water reservoir.

[moonsand0wls]

Thank you :D

[homegrown terror]

i think the best general advice would be to read a LOT, but don't take any one person's word as gospel. a lot of people have a style or method that works wonderfully for them, but might not work for the next guy. think of it like painting: there are a lot of WRONG ways to do it, but no single way that's universally RIGHT. one more thing to ask yourself, do you want to be the one who paints vast, beautiful works of art, full of expression and personal meaning that are hung in galleries and admired by multitudes, or do you want to paint the bland, banal, mass-printed crap that gets bolted to the walls of cheap hotel rooms, all for a quick buck? if you answer the second i'd have to say you should reconsider your goals, since the only people who get rich breeding bettas are the ones who do it on a bare dime in conditions that rival those of puppy mills.

[BettaHeart]

Originally Posted by homegrown terror

i think the best general advice would be to read a LOT, but don't take any one person's word as gospel. a lot of people have a style or method that works wonderfully for them, but might not work for the next guy. think of it like painting: there are a lot of WRONG ways to do it, but no single way that's universally RIGHT. one more thing to ask yourself, do you want to be the one who paints vast, beautiful works of art, full of expression and personal meaning that are hung in galleries and admired by multitudes, or do you want to paint the bland, banal, mass-printed crap that gets bolted to the walls of cheap hotel rooms, all for a quick buck? if you answer the second i'd have to say you should reconsider your goals, since the only people who get rich breeding bettas are the ones who do it on a bare dime in conditions that rival those of puppy mills.

awesomely stated

[indjo]

First of all; There are no RIGHT nor WRONG way to keep, breed, and raise this species. Use whatever method that works for you. You may also need to make few alterations to suit your needs/limitations.

Originally Posted by moonsand0wls

9) How do you pick the best breeders? I go by form. Learn the IBC form standards. But sometimes I use what ever is available as long as they show signs of desired genetics.

10) What are the general tail types and what happens if you cross them? Veil tail and Plakats are the classic types. Now you have Delta, Halfmoon, Rose, Crown tail, show PK - and of course the double tail which is available in all types. Unadvised to cross breed at this point. Later, when you have gained more experience, ask again and we'll discuss it.

11) What is conditioning? Conditioning is fattening up your breeders with nutritional foods, preferably live or frozen.

12) How long do you condition? It is advised to condition for 2 weeks.
13)What foods do you use to condition? answered above

14) What items do you need for the spawning tank?

15) What temperature should the spawning tank be?

16) How do you properly introduce the breeders? Just make sure that both are in breeding mode. To be safe, you place the female in the jar for a day or two (specially first time female) while the male is free in the breeding tank. Then release her.

17) What do vertical bars mean? Pale vertical lines which means female is in breeding mode (mature female)
18) How do you know when to release the female? You don't, really. By keeping the female in a jar may 1. stress her 2. make her release unfertilized eggs. But that method is safest for newbies. I release both male and female at the same time - just before dark and they usually spawn the following day.

19) How can you tell the difference between normal and abnormal aggression? mainly by experience. Watch as many videos as you can to understand their behavior. If the female is not moving in one corner (either top or bottom of tank), remove her. But if she is still swimming normally and constantly returning to the male, give her time to do her thing.

20) When do you remove the female? When spawning is complete - she will stay away from the male and the male will attack her

21) When do you remove the male? After fry are free swimming

22) On average, how many eggs are produced per spawn? Fully grown classic types (VT or PK) 1000 - 1300. Rather smaller modern type - about 700. Fully grown - about 1000.

23) On average, how many fry usually survive to adulthood? With good care 300 - 400 but average around 200. Newbies usually have less than 100.

24) How long does it take eggs to hatch? 24 - 48. (assuming they are healthy) This also depends on temperature. At lower temps, it may take more than 48 hours.

25) How long does it take the fry to become free swimming? It could take up to 3 days to become free swimming. This also depends on temp - higher, usually faster. But it's not advise to "speed up" the process by raising temp.

26) At what day should you introduce foods to the tank? Since free swimming or at least 3 days after free swimming. This depends on your setup - does it contain micro critters for fry's first few days.

27) Which foods are better: live, dried, or frozen? Live. Some fry won't take non live.

28) How do you get live foods? Buy them - buy cultures or eggs

29) What foods are appropriate for newly hatched fry? 1 month old? 2+ months? What ever they will eat. Preferably high protein and fat (worms and shrimps/shrimp like critters such as daphnia).

30) How often should you feed fry? 2 - 3 daily

31) At what point should you start doing water changes? If you're using new clean water, as soon as you start feeding - 50% 1-2 days. Natural, cycled set ups can take up to a week before it needs changing.

32) What is the stunting hormone? It's a hormone that fry releases to obtain better surviving chances - against other fry.

33) How often should you do water changes?
34) How much water should you change?

35) At what point do you jar males? When they start tearing each other apart.LOL .... seriously - depends on your goal. If you plan to show, at 2 months (about 9 weeks). Other wise you can keep them together until they show too much aggression.

36) How do you keep jarred fry warm? float them in a heated tank.


Sorry for all the questions! I just want to know honestly!
Thank you. :)

[indjo]

Originally Posted by moonsand0wls

OMG I fully didn't see that! Thank you!

I was also wondering if you could help me out with this? I've looked onto the forum but can't find an answer (looked on the genetics, no help)

What would happen if I bred a male veil tail (I think he's butterfly, he has a black head, steel blue body with blue on one side of his tail, turquoise the other, and they fade out to pink and then white. His frontal fins (the long ones, can't remember their name..) are red going into white, with a wild type similar female with a red body and black fins?

I'm not sure what the female actually is, I asked the people i'm buying them off tomorrow to identify them through a website I sent, and they said she looks like a wild type.

What would the fry mostly look like?

Sorry, and thanks :D

Red body with black fins? Do you have pictures?
By wild, what do you mean - wild species or wild type/coloration?