[Tamyu]

Apparently, one of the males from the same spawn as my pair recently placed in some sort of show.
I have had multiple people encourage me to breed my pair (brother and sister), and tell me they want some of the spawn. I was pretty into the idea, got everything prepared, and even made an attempt (they were friendly but no breeding so later separated.)

I have been conditioning again, but the more and more I look around I have to wonder if the pair is really breeding material at all, even if they do have a good genetic background.

I have considered just ignoring their background and keeping them as pets - I don't really want to breed them if they aren't decent quality... But I also don't want to waste the chance (and disappoint some people) if they do have potential.

Here is my male (the best photo I have showing his fins and shape):

And here is my female:

I have been told that she is better quality than he is, but I will be honest and say that I have no clue about females. :lol:

 

[Curlyfatbottom]

I agree on what you been told.
The male is not breeding quality
Female have a better quality
But will take some work to improve
Nice thick rays
But uneven branching
Anal fin not tong and don't come to a point(+)
Workable body and top fin

 

[Curlyfatbottom]

You should rate your female as the same as the male
But expect the tail fin ratio to body

 

[Basement Bettas]

I would not breed the male. Only 2 ray branching in some places, very rounded tail edges and I don't like either the dorsal or anal fins. Size wise he looks like the female is larger.. she may tear him up if ready to breed and he ***** foots around. she has much better genetics. Lots of branching on that tail, good shape and fullness in the dorsal and the anal is not bad. Needs better shape and could be shorter. Male an ineteresting color.. but really not something you can't get in a fishwith much better form and more worthy of breeding.

 

[betta lover1507]

there beautiful, they both have there anal's are a bit to long
and yes the female has more quality because she has a wider dorsal, am not sure about the caudal :|

 

[Creat]

I agree he isnt as great as her but thats the thing with breeding if you plan to do it for a while and start a line of fish I would do it. A long time ago (my first breeding) i crossed a delta and a vt lol bad idea but I kept at it crossing back to hm and such now i have nicer looking hm. They still have far to go but thats the idea . I would say if you plan on breeding for a while do it but be prepared to have lots of not so great babies that need homes. For me it ment culling hard and spendin a lot of money.

 

[betta lover1507]

creat is right, my first spawn was a delta and a veil XP i didn't even know about quality :lol:
but yeah, maybe a better male would do, or unless you want to breed him it's fine. if you choose to breed a different male, look for a wide dorsal and evened out anal and caudal.

 

[Tamyu]

Thank you for the honest replies!
I was looking more and more and seriously doubting he was breeding quality - good to have my feelings confirmed. I couldn't judge the female at all though.

In Japan, the long anals are favored - they are referred to as "skirts" and local shows actually judge favorably for length. The brother from this spawn had a very long anal and was praised for it... But it was not an international competition.

I will still consider the breeding, more as a way to test the waters without risking really good stock. The female is about 3/4 the size of the male, she just looks a lot bigger in the photo. The male has also grown quite a bit since the photo was taken (by the breeder, he hardly ever flares for me, and if he does he moves around like crazy so no decent photos).

Again, thanks for the opinions. I will feel a lot less wasteful if I ultimately decide to ditch the breeding idea and just enjoy them as pets. :-D