[Lenimph]

My Hawke and Isabetta

This is my Hawke that I luckily got at a LFS near my friends house for only 7$ Today was the first time I got to move him into his own 5 gal that I was using as a guppy nursery. He is absolutely in love with his pirate ship.

And this is my female Isabetta that I got on petsmart since she was on sale for a dollar and I felt sorry for her... she's kinda camera shy

 

[FrostSinth]

at Petsmart you can get females for 99 cents with a card, at least near me

LOVE Hawke's ship, he's very handsome! Pretty girl too :-D

 

[Lenimph]

Yeah I got her for 99 cents with my card but I don't always see females at my petsmart though. I'm thinking of starting a sorority since she's in the 10 gal with just some cories but I'm worried she might be too aggressive. She get's along fine with other community fish, even guppies... but whenever I've added a male to try to get her to spawn with things just don't end well. She tore a lot of Hawke's fins off in fact... I'm worried about how she'll act around another female.

 

[Bombalurina]

I wouldn't suggest spawning petshop fish anyway. You don't know their genetics and they could be carrying a variety of problems.

 

[Jessicatm137]

Pretty fish!

 

[KadenJames]

I wouldn't suggest spawning petshop fish anyway. You don't know their genetics and they could be carrying a variety of problems.

+1

It takes extensive research, space and money to correctly breed betta fish. Don't ever just throw a male and a female in the same tank on a whim; there are immense preparations you must make. The offspring will only be as good of quality as the parents, so I do not advice breeding pet store bettas, ever.

 

[betta lover1507]

beautiful fish

 

[betta lover1507]

Yeah I got her for 99 cents with my card but I don't always see females at my petsmart though. I'm thinking of starting a sorority since she's in the 10 gal with just some cories but I'm worried she might be too aggressive. She get's along fine with other community fish, even guppies... but whenever I've added a male to try to get her to spawn with things just don't end well. She tore a lot of Hawke's fins off in fact... I'm worried about how she'll act around another female.

you can't just put them together to breed :I there's lot's of stuff to do, but if you want to breed them, am okay with that. there is LOT'S of responsibility in it, and you need to condition betta's before breeding. just ask breeder's around here (am just a rookie, beginning to breed once again)

 

[Lenimph]

I have bred fish before (Angels, Guppies, and Goldfish, relatively easy probably to betta's but still) so I know just how big of an issue fry space and can be. I wasn't going in blind per-se but I have no intention of being a professional breeder I just wanted to see if I could do it. They were both properly conditioned, the female however has always had an attitude problem but is very healthy and so is Hawke.

Seems kinda mean that a betta can't be worth reproducing just because it came from a store. Especially since there will always be reject fry... I gave them a chance and it didn't work out and that's the end of it.

 

[KadenJames]

Keep in mind, too, that bettas can have hundreds of offspring in one spawn. It's a million times better to invest in quality stock and have quality offspring to show for your efforts, rather than lower quality pet store bettas. No breeder in their right mind would purchase a pet store bred betta.

I know what you are saying, but keep in mind the thousands of pet store bettas already sitting on shelves everywhere. If you breed, you should try and contribute to the Betta splenden species instead of breeding stock with scrambled genetics and issues.

There are several breeders, even on this website, that can offer you high quality fish for relatively cheap.

 

[Lenimph]

I guess I could shop around for a female dragon...

 

[KadenJames]

Shop around, as in at the pet stores? xD

 

[Lenimph]

Actually I do most of my shopping on the internet.

If I see one at a LFS which I never have except for Hawke then maybe. I do know that the man I got Hawke from breeds all his own fish and that my LFS(not petsmart) has super healthy fish. Plus my panda moor I got from them has actually kept its panda coloring so far so I trust them.

 

[KadenJames]

Nice.

You should checkout NiceBettas.com, she usually has some gorgeous dragon girls for sale. She's a real sweetheart, too.

 

[Keroro]

The red against his silver is stunning!

 

[lilyth88]

I think it's ridiculous to say petstore bettas are not good enough to breed. If I want to breed my beautiful fish, how is it any business of anyone else's? I understand that purchasing from breeders may result in "higher quality" fish with better form, blah blah blah.... but isn't that like saying only super models or only people with the best genetic traits should be allowed to have children? If that was the case, most of us wouldn't be born.

Lenimph. Breed if you want to breed. Just make sure you're prepared.

Sorry if I come off defensive... I just really don't agree with that.

 

[Lenimph]

Yeah the super model thing is pretty much how I feel about it too...

The red against his silver is stunning!

Thanks... the Iridescence of his scales ranges a lot more then I initially thought. Sometimes under the right light he looks light blue while other times they look as white as snow...

 

[FrostSinth]

ditto with the supermodel thing

I can't wait to see what you find!! :-D

 

[KadenJames]

Bettas can have hundreds of offspring per spawn. Breeding pet store bettas yields hundreds more pet store bettas. If the big pet stores get hundreds of customers a day, and you see the same fish sitting there for weeks and weeks, how long do you think it would take to sell your hundreds of offspring, without the number of customers? Few pet stores will buy the fish from you, or even allow you to donate them for that matter. They have enough fish on their shelves to sell. (Granted some smaller scale pet stores might take donation, but that's pretty rare.) You can give a few away to family and friends, but that potentially still leaves you with hundreds of unwanted fish in your care. You would need to find a way to properly house them, pay for food, medication, do adequate water changes. In the end it would actually be cheaper to buy breeding quality stock to begin with. Your main source of getting rid of the bettas will be selling stock to other breeders, which brings me back to the point of no serious breeder would ever buy a petstore bred Betta, the same as a dog breeder would never buy a mutt.

I'm only speaking from experience here, you certainly don't have to agree with me. It simply makes more sense. The supermodel thing is fairly irrelevant, too, because we don't have hundreds of kids at one time and sell them for profit. xD

 

[lissienen]

Hawke is a beautiful fish, and it's cute how he seems to love his pirate ship.