Breeding Bettas, Siamese Fighting Fish,  Part 4 – Buying Betta Fish for Breeding

This is the fun part and I don’t mean it tongue in cheek. I find this really enjoyable going to look at lots of different types of Bettas and deciding which ones I’d like to take home to hopefully turn into even more Bettas.

But before we get under way here’s some important considerations right from the start. Although I’ve called this Part 4 you can obviously do this before you set up your Betta breeding tank. In fact it’s probably better if you do, so you can get a head start getting them ready for breeding.

So the first question is where to buy your Bettas from? You can by Bettas from pet shops, aquariums and of course Betta Breeders. I think that by far the best place to get them, especially if you’re new to breeding Betta Fish, is from a breeder. Firstly most of the Bettas in pet shops are either too old, not in good condition or as what some Betta hobbyists might call “rubbish”. In other words they aren’t very highly regarded. They are mostly Veil Tails and although they might have a fantastic color combination or look great to an uneducated eye they are still regarded mostly as “common”.

Therefore understand this, if you are successful you might just breed a few hundred Bettas in your first spawn and then find that because you made the wrong selection you end up with a lot of Bettas that you may have trouble even giving away. Therefore you will find that most breeders will have better quality Bettas to sell you.

The next thing you will discover is that most breeders will be helpful and give you some information that you just won’t find in a pet shop. Don’t become a pest though and hassle them all the time but on the other side of the coin though if you find a breeder that won’t give any information at all then go find one that will (unless they’ve got some really great fish of course). At the end of the day though you will find many breeders actually love what they do so I’m sure most won’t have any trouble talking about their fish.

I’ve purchased Bettas from two different breeders and found both were a wealth of knowledge and gave me tips that I would never have found anywhere else, including the internet.

The next reason you might want to buy your Betta Fish from a breeder is an important one. You will be able to buy juvenile Bettas that are brothers and sisters. That’s right brothers and sisters! Unlike we humans breeding brother and sister Betta isn’t a problem and it does have it’s advantages. Firstly, there is no guarantee your Bettas will get along so bringing together two siblings that have already, previously shared a tank will increase your chances (or their chances) of success. Now just in case the two you select don’t turn out to like each other the solution is to buy 2 males and 2 females. The theory being that out of the 4 Bettas you should be able to find 2 that will get along and mate.

The other thing you will discover about juvenile Bettas is they are much more virile. Believe me they are ready to mate. Now when I bought my first Bettas for breeding I didn’t know about buying 2 pair and just bought 1 pair. As it turned out we came home with three Bettas because the breeder found out it was my daughters birthday and gave her one extra female as a present (thanks for that). When we got home I placed them in our 4 Berth Betta tank, with him in the middle (my daughter called him Spyro) and one female either side. He kept going from one to the other flaring his fins and basically showing off and within a couple of days started to build a bubble nest. The copper female formed vertical stripes which was an indication she was ready and the other female actually got under the dividing glass and into his tank twice and started chasing him around. In the end I could have paired him with either female.

These Bettas were about 4 months old when I bred from them and you will find that when they get to about 12 months the likely hood of breeding diminishes.

Another advantage of buying Bettas from the same spawn is typically the males will be larger than the females and if not, at least the same size. This is important as the male wraps his body around the female during breeding so if his relative size is less than the female he will have trouble accomplishing this task and in the end it just won’t happen. So the male needs to be larger but make sure he is not twice her size as this could present problems as well. At the end of the day though, discuss this with the breeder and he/she will help you select Bettas that are matched.

So these are the basics to selecting some Betta Fish to breed from and to be honest what I have touched on here is just the tip of the iceberg. Other considerations are breeding to achieve certain characteristics, such as color and fin variations and these things are probably best discussed with an experienced breeder.

Therefore you can see there are many advantages in buying your Bettas from a breeder and I tend to think it is the way to go. There is one train of thought though, that suggests that for your first attempt you should just get some “run of the mill Bettas” from the pet shop and experiment with them. I think the underlying message here is that you probably won’t be successful so don’t waste your time on quality fish??? Well as far I’m concerned, that’s just one way of looking at it.

To my way of thinking though, I find this a bit negative. I think that if you plan to be successful there is a fair chance you will be. After all there is an amazing amount of information available on the internet, here in this blog, from Betta eBooks written by experts and of course from the breeder you buy your Betta Fish from.

Breeding Bettas, Siamese Fighting Fish,  Part 5 – Betta Conditioning

Possibly Related Posts:

• Cleaning the Betta Fry Tank
• Breeding Crowntail Bettas
• Do Bettas Take Breaks While Spawning
• Breeding Bettas During the Cold Weather
• Microworms