Hi, my name is Caroline. I have a beautiful betta named Chops, and a female named Claudia. I was trying to breed them but I wanted to make sure I have everything first. My main issue is what to feed the fry once they hatch. My local pet store said frozen brine shrimp and frozen blood worms were okay. is this true? I know pet stores are known to not be very reputable.
Frozen bloodworms/brine shrimp are way way too big for newborn fry to eat. You need live food cultures. Microworms and vinegar eels are generally used early on and then fry are generally switched over to baby brine shrimp, which must be hatched every 24 hours or so.
If you have never bred bettas before I would recommend reading up as much as you can on the subject. It is not just a matter of throwing two bettas in together. There is a lot that has to happen beforehand, and rearing fry can be an arduous and sometimes stressful process.
The first sticky on top of the sub forum here will tell you most of what you need to have/do to breed.. I would read up on that before attempting to breed, otherwise you will have hundreds and hundreds of hungry babies.
Breeding isn't an easy task, it takes hours a day to keep them alive, and hundreds of dollars in set up + care. Are you breeding them because you like the two you have, or are you serious in starting a breeding business?
Both, kind of. I have a pet store that loves my bettas, and they will buy them from me. I want to take my hobby to the next level, either in buying more fish or breeding them. I just love them and I'm learning so much just by this website, I feel like breeding will be a good experience, however, I just have to make sure I have everything. I still need to get a sponge filter, heater, and live food for the fry. So therefore, I havent started yet.
I am glad you decided to ask before diving in! Live foods are best... There are substitutes, like boiled egg yolk, powdered fry food, etc however none can compete with the live food since baby fish are more inclined to eat what moves.
I bought a big bag of decapsulated baby brine shrimp, to try out (not live). I too have to grab myself a microworm culture
Also have a goal to go towards - why not? Would you like to breed a certain tail type? Improve a form? Or go for color? Or perhaps both!
I want to breed a few veiltails since they're what I have. I also just bought a crowntail but the place I get my fish from have no crowntail females :( I want blues and reds. Also, weird thing happened. I just got this female from a pet store. She was pale in color with a little red on her fins. I got her home, started feeding her bloodworms, color enhancing pellets, and a few brine shrimp, and her color has vastly improved. She is so vibrant now. I'm wondering, is it because of the diet or new environment?
Well that is okay :) My first successful pair was a veiltail male and a plakat female who did a wonderful spawn and he was a perfect daddy! Since you are going for veils, try going for color then - and maybe improving finnage!!
As for the remarkable color change... Both environment and diet can definitely make a huge difference. I have a new female... She was an offwhite in the store and now she is showing a steel blue on her caudal, irridescent green on her body, and irridescent blue on her fins. In only a couple days.