Anyone have any luck breeding Giant King bettas?

[sharkweek]

I would love to breed my big beautiful boy Elephant but it is just not working. I have a lovely HMPK female that is super ready to go but he just keeps chasing her around the tank and not spawning. She LOVES him and wants to be next to him at all times but he just keeps chasing her away. They are in a heavily planted 10 gallon with plenty of places to hide. They have been in together for 4 days now. I have fed them blood worms- made their environment perfect ect- He has made a small bubble nest but still nothing. Is it because he is so big and she is so small?

[indjo]

Breeding kings/giants is the same as breeding regular bettas. All the signs of readiness are the same (bubble nest, flirt swimming/dance swimming, etc). If they don't show these signs, I suggest you separate them for a few days.

Try flaring him to another male or mirror - some say for 5 minutes, but I usually do it for a much longer time (up to 1 hour). Put the tanks next to each other with a divider. Lift the divider 1/4 - 1/3 of the tank so they can only see each other at the bottom. If you choose to do this my way, only do it once don't repeat it the next day for the same period of time (they might become stressed if they're not used to it).

IME, after a good sparring match, the male usually will start making a nest. If so, float the female, if they flirt you can release the female or wait a few days before releasing her. All you can do then, is wait and let nature take its course.

I must worn you though, you may not get any kings/giants in F1, specially if the HMPK is regular. You would have to selectively inbreed. As a guide (?) giants can grow to 2cm/>1" in their first 2 weeks, 5cm/2" in 4 months (body only).

good luck.

[1fish2fish]

Where did you get your male? If he is a "king" from petco he does not have any giant blood and will not produce any actual giants in the offspring. Petco kings are just a line of large PK, they are not the same thing as the giants seen on aquabid. Bred to a normal size female you will get a very small percentage of large bettas.

If it has been four days and they still haven't spawned I would remove the female and re-condition the pair with lots of frozen or live foods. Don't let them see each other during conditioning.

[MrVampire181]

I've attempted several times but never succeded. Like 1f2f said they're not giants. My blue dragon HMPK is a little smaller than a king betta and he's only 5 months old so he may grow bigger, but Kings are just large PKs. Certain lines are bgger than others. True giants can reach 7-8 inches at full length, but most are aroun 5-6 inches,,,king bettas are about 3 1/2 inches maybe a little bigger.

[sharkweek]

thanks for the advice guys-
I actually purchased him from a really nice LPS that only has really primo bettas. I have seen petco kings and he is considerably larger/ taller and looks nothing like any of em. I do spend a lot of time at petco looking at bettas too I got my gorgeous butterfly half moon boy at this same LPS and neither of em were cheap! I am really not wanting to breed him for colors or fins (although i think he is the cutest fish on earth).I really want to breed him for his wonderful personality. I currently have 6 females in my sorority and three males (all separate of course) and he has by far the most amazing personality of all of em! I will separate them and condition them both a bit more and try again in a week or so.
Oh- and here is elephant if you are interested http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=46600

[1fish2fish]

If your not going to breed for form or finnage please don't breed. Personality is a great goal but structure is the MOST important thing. If your goal is to not produce the best fish possible than its better to just enjoy your fish as a pet.

[sharkweek]

Originally Posted by 1fish2fish

If your not going to breed for form or finnage please don't breed. Personality is a great goal but structure is the MOST important thing. If your goal is to not produce the best fish possible than its better to just enjoy your fish as a pet.

personally i dont agree with you on this at all. to me personality is everything. I could care less what color or tail type the fish is as long as it has a good personality and interaction with me. My HM male is a beautifull fish but he seems just dumb as dirt. I stare at all my fish a couple hours a day and they all have different personalities and it seems that some are far more intelegent than others. I am kind of weirded out with people inbreeding brother and sister betta fish just to get a fin or color. If you do that with dogs- you get really retarded (but good looking purebred) dogs - why is it different with fish? I dont care if the my fish come out ugly- i plan on giving the fry to my extended family and friends as gifts. I would love to give away bettas that have even a fraction of the personality of my elephant.

[indjo]

When breeding giant to giant, you will have some regulars, some kings, and some giants. The most anyone has produced is 30%. So kings are of the same genetic but different mutation. It is said that giants were produced by selectively breeding specially large regular bettas. So theoretically you can produce giants from kings. But it may take much much more generations. You need to get as many of the offspring to survive to get all the possible genetic percentages. Take the largest and inbreed them to get more large offspring.

As for personality, I suppose you would get more of the regular betta than Elephant's (nice fish by the way) because regulars are still dominant over giants. I'm not really sure about breeding personality.