[kelikani]

Hi there. I had a thought while looking at adorable baby fry pictures people post on the Spawn Log board. Does anyone ever breed Betta for keeps? What I mean is breeding a pair and keeping all/the majority of their babies.

Now I realize that there can be 500+ fry after one breeding but what if people culled or reduced the number of fry several ways, such as leaving the male in with the babies longer, etc. so there'd be around 50 or so for them to keep?

Don't worry, I do not plan on breeding Betta's anytime soon, I'm just curious.

 

[MattsBettas]

While it is possible, I have no clue why you would do it just because they are cute.

1) You could get 500 babies (which you have addressed) and you would have to cull the vast majority of them, even the healthy ones. IMO that is extremely cruel. You should be responsible for the life you bring into this world.

2) Breeding is a lot of hard work.

3)Breeding is expensive and you won't make back any money by just keeping them.

IMO you should just go and buy a baby betta from petco. You would be rescuing one from those tiny cups, you wouldn't need to deal with culling, and their is no risk to your fish which would be the parents.

 

[kelikani]

Thank you for your reply.

I dont plan on breeding any bettas just for fun, I was just curious if some people breed to keep the babies as pets.

 

[LittleBettaFish]

Since my bettas have much smaller spawns, I have kept nearly all the fish I have bred up to this point in time.

That leaves me with the grand sum of 58, and some more still in with their parents.

However, the big difference with me is that I am able to house my fish together (for example I ended up with 20 males and 5 females in one spawn and they all live in the same tank) because they are bettas but not splendens.

This means I do not need individual tanks or jars for every single male from my spawns.

I let my bettas spawn mostly for the purpose of adding to my personal collection. I have a lot of fry growing out this time around so I will sell some on, but the rest will stay here with me.

I still have the first fry I bred and raised, who is around 20 months old.

I just get too attached to my fish, and because they have very specific care requirements I would find it hard to just drive down to the LFS store and dump them off there where anyone could buy them.

 

[Artemis]

I for one feel leaving the father with fry is fine. Articles here: http://bettysplendens.com/articles/page.imp?articleid=809
http://bettysplendens.com/articles/page.imp?articleid=839
I would only keep one or two young and sell the rest or take the females from a few spawns and get a home grown sorority.

 

[indjo]

Most people I know will only keep a number of them from each spawn - only the ones that are breed worthy for the goal in mind.

 

[Myates]

To me, if it's a hobby you want to do for fun.. then do it.. just know it is a lot of hard work - hours a day spent on water changes. A lot of money spent on water, electric, equipment, etc. It will be hard to kill so many babies, especially after a couple months of raising them.. and kill them for no other reason than you don't want them. I would look into seeing if a local fish/pet store is willing to take any you don't want - even if for free.. at least they have a chance at finding a home.

But if you don't mind spending easily over $500 for a couple of fish.. then go for it. Just make sure you have a way to keep them all after you bred them.