In January, paid $45.00 for a gorgeous male from Thailand. The guy says he was only 4 months old. Having raised fish, I say he was over a year. My plan was to raise bettas to sell at the market this summer.I bought a female from Petco. I put "her" in with afformentioned male in order to make more bettas to sell at the market. They didn't do anything. The gorgeous male didn't even blow a bubble nest, but kept chasing the "female" away from the area he should have been building. I pulled them out, cleaned out the tank and started again a couple of weeks later. The female attacked him...but not for long, and so I left them alone for about a month. I bought a second female - this one from WalMart - in order to get her ready to spawn. In the meantime, female #1 killed the male. So, she got her own tank. I kept watching her and thinking, "That's a male"...the fins were growing and there was no ovipositor (where the eggs come out).So, on a whim, I put the two "females" together....and sure enough, "female #1" built a bubble nest, and they made eggs....which he ate 3 days later, just before they hatched. So...I don't have the gorgeous male, and I don't have any fish...but at least I now know that I CAN sex bettas. (I knew I could, I just trusted Petco's supplier too much. LOL)Anyway...my tax lady gave me a tank of guppies, and it is set up; the plecostimus that I bought at Petco had a disease that killed my goldfish and him in the 30 gallon tank. And....the bettas are living separated in a tank with some guppies who are making babies to give the bettas some extra protein....I will get to breeding...maybe. LOL Right now I have too many other things on my plate. So...eventually.....maybe. <grin> I like the hobby....I just don't have time right now.
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Fish? Really?? You "betta" believe it!
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| This set up ran along 4 walls and there were anywhere from 100 to 500 (I think that was the most) bettas. I had a tank of betta imbellis also, I love them....they are peaceable and don't need to be separated! |
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| I lived in Palm Bay, Florida from 1993 to 2006.
In 2002, Andy gave me a betta for Mother's Day. That began a new hobby for me. The beautiful betta got sick, and in researching his ailment, I began learning about bettas.
I joined the International Betta Congress and learned more.
I learned how to spawn them, raise them, show them, sell them and display them.
Some of my bettas won, placed or showed in their divisions in Betta Shows.
I put one spawn in a kiddy pool under the pepper tree in the back yard, and promptly forgot about it! I remembered it when I needed to weed eat, and in the middle of the weeds I came across the pool, half full of dark water, surrounded by tall grass, but curiously enough, no mosquitoes. I had punched small holes all around the pool about an inch down so that it wouldn't overflow. Good thing! It had been quite a few months since I had put the teeny tiny fry out there!
I started slowly adding clean water until I could see the fry. They were gorgeous! They were a beautiful color, about the color of this page, and fat and healthy. They'd lived on --- mosquitoe larva and whatever else had fallen into the pool.
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| grow out tank with fry, anubias and snails |
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I don't recommend this method for the normal spawn anywhere else in the US but in Florida!
Florida was very conducive to betta raising. Perfect spawn atmosphere is 80o and up and humid. The water needs to be neutral. We had well water and it was perfect.
Spawn after spawn I would throw the fish together, he would blow awesome nests, they would spawn and I would take them out and in a couple of months be selling or showing fish.
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| A bubble nest full of eggs. |
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| This couple threw absolutely gorgeous spawns. Her coloring is called "Cambodian", he is a "Butterfly. They are both double tailed, and he was a "halfmoon" at full flare. The problem with spawning 2 dt's is that often the fry have crooked spines. |
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| The courtship. |
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| checking out the nest |
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| When they are both ready, the male flips the female upside down, wraps himself around her and squeezes her in a very tight betta hug. |
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| His embraces force eggs out of her egg depositor. He inseminates them in the water. As they embrace, they slowly sink to the bottom. |
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| The embrace finished, he slowly releases her. It's slow because they both are a bit paralyzed for a few seconds. |
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| After the spawn, she needs to be removed from the tank, otherwise he will attack her. His job for the next day or so is to keep the eggs and hatchlings in the nest. |
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| He picks them up, cleans them off and sticks them back up in the nest. While they are in the nest, he will continually be rearranging them to keep them clean. Once the hatchlings begin swimming horizontally, it is time to take him out of the tank. Horizontal fry look too much like dinner to keep him in there! |
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A couple more spawns.......
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| Her horizontal bars (she's "barred up") are visible signs of her readiness to spawn. |
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| sometimes he doesn't get her flipped right, or will embrace just her fin, it doesn't always click...this is a nice tight embrace. |
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| she's still paralyzed. He's ready to work. LOL |
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| A few eggs at the edge of the nest. This picture is about 10x the size of the normal eggs. |
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| This poor guy was incredibly busy! This is the spawn that ended up out in the pool. I was trying various methods of raising spawn. I would read how someone else did it, and try it myself. Why not? The worst that could happen was failure. The best that could happen was an easy spawn. Truly the "spawn 'em and forget 'em" method was the easiest. I lost over half of them, but still ended up with over 50 healthy and beautiful fish.
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| The circling prior to the spawning reminds of a wagon train. LOL |
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So, now I live in Oregon. I sell my jewelry every summer in the Farmer's Market and a couple of other events. I decided that this year I would have more than just jewelry. I am revamping my table cloths and creating other things to sell.
Jewelry reaches one venue in the market. This year I am making more than jewelry, and growing plants, and selling vegetables, and....raising bettas.
How's it going? I bought my male from a breeder in Thailand and the female from Petco. He's a Mustard Gas Double-Tailed Halfmoon, she's a pretty blue.
I put them together....and for 3 days he chased her around the tank and they went to the top for food every time I walked by. She did bar up at one point, but nothing progressed from that. I have separated them again, cleaned out the tank and am waiting for some plants to arrive, and am thinking about purchasing some almond leaves to get the water conditioned properly.
Oregon water is different that Florida water. Maybe they know it. There are times when I actually miss Florida.
I'll post pictures the next time I put them together. I have some great pictures....on my cel phone. LOL
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SO!!!...... 2 months later? He's still trying to figure out what to do. I have never had this much trouble geting fish to spawn! I am not done. .... yet. LOL
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