# Betta Breeding in an NPT



## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

Alright folks, here's my thead on breeding bettas in my 5.5 gal. NPT. I want to see how well the fry do and I'm hoping that in a planted tank like this there will be some infusoria or other small organisms to help feed the fry.

So, here's what I did, I put the M and F together, but I didn't follow the "recommended" procedures. Normally, you put the F in w/ the male in a hurricane lamp until he builds a bubblenest under a styrofoam cup. I put the F in the hurricane lamp but did not add the cup or wait until the male built the nest. I gave them about 5 hours and then released the F. They immediately began flaring at each other and about an hour later the M started building his nest and flaring at the F who would flare back. That was on Wednesday. Thursday morning I woke up and there was a kinda scattered bubblenest (probably due to not having enough floating plants or the cup...) but no eggs. Yesterday I came home and noticed that the female was in one corner of the tank and any time the male saw her, he'd chase her around the tank a bit. So I checked, and lo and behold, there were eggs in the bubblenest. Unfortunately, I missed the actual spawning. So anyway, I removed the female and was surprised to see that she suffered no fin damage, aparently this was quite a peaceful spawn.

So now the male is taking care of the eggs, as a good male betta should. The eggs, which were in a small nest up against the back glass (as you can see in the picture below), have been moved to a larger nest in the middle of the tank, amongst some water lettuce and duck weed that I added last night when I removed the female. Everything appears to be going just ducky! I need to make some oatmeal to start up a new culture of microworms which I'll start feeding a day or two after they become free swimming. I'll post more pictures as the eggs hatch and fry grow...

Here're some pictures...

Here're a couple of pics of the male and female in the tank:



















Here's a picture of the eggs in the nest. The eggs are hard to see in the picture, they appear as a kinda fuzzy white/cream patch amongst the clear bubbles. I don't know how many eggs there are yet as I can't really make out the individual eggs to count them. There aren't as many eggs as I hoped though, but I reckon that's good enough since this is a small tank.










Here are two pictures of the male tending the eggs (by the way, all of these pictures were taken last night). I haven't cleaned the glass so the pics aren't always as clear as they could be...



















Lastly here are two pictures of the male in all his splendor...



















Thanks for reading!

-ricardo


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## cs_gardener (Apr 28, 2006)

Wonderful! How long until the eggs become freeswimming? What type(s) of betta will result from these fish? As I recall, the female is a different variety than the male. Hope everything goes well.


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

cs_gardener said:


> Wonderful! How long until the eggs become freeswimming? What type(s) of betta will result from these fish? As I recall, the female is a different variety than the male. Hope everything goes well.


Hiya CS: The eggs will never become free swimming, the fry however, will! Seriously though, the eggs should hatch in about 36 - 72 hours. They will wiggle vertically in the bubblenest for about 3 days (any wigglers that fall from the nest are picked up by the male nad blown back into the nest).

The M and F are both Red Cambodian BF Piebald. (For those who don't know and/or are interested: cambodian is a betta with a light body and solid dark colored fins (most common are red and blue). BF means butterfly and is a color pattern where the fins have a band of color surrounded by a white band or could also be any two colors that form a band (as opposed to a marbled pattern). Both of these have the BF genotype, but haven't quite developed the patter phenotypically. Piebald is when you have a cream-colored face. When these are bred by Faith at Bettatalk.com, they are called Apaches. I have yet to come up with a name for my own strain of them.) The only diff. between them is that the male is a double tail and the female is a single tail. So what will this yield? Well, they will yield ST and DT red cambodians, w/ or without the BF patter and piebald face. The ideal ones will look like this:

apaches at a glance

-ricardo


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Betta breeding and the male's tending to the young is an amazing process. Much more interesting than watching plants grow.  

Thanks for posting the pics. 

Please keep us posted on how the babies do.


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## qpixo (Sep 9, 2006)

thanks for sharing with us your experience. It's quite interesting to read though.

i don't have any experiences with bettas yet when it comes to breed but I will buy one betta soon and it would be a male. But anyway, I was just wonderring, do u have to remove both male and female in the tank when you can see eggs in nest? or you only need to remove the female only??


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## qpixo (Sep 9, 2006)

btw, you have such beautiful red cambodian betta. He's awesome!!
Of course the female is less attractive than male. 
How long do u have them both??


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## sb483 (May 29, 2006)

qpixo said:


> btw, you have such beautiful red cambodian betta. He's awesome!!
> Of course the female is less attractive than male.
> How long do u have them both??


Well that depends... some like the elongated male finnage, some don't. If that's the female betta in first 2 pics up top, it looks good - a bit more natural looking imho.
Thank for sharing the pics. I'd also like to know if you remove the female from the tank or not; maybe with enough plants you don't need to.


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

qpixo said:


> thanks for sharing with us your experience. It's quite interesting to read though.
> 
> i don't have any experiences with bettas yet when it comes to breed but I will buy one betta soon and it would be a male. But anyway, I was just wonderring, do u have to remove both male and female in the tank when you can see eggs in nest? or you only need to remove the female only??


No, you remove the F once she's done depositing all her eggs (usually indicated by the male chasing the female around the tank and no obvious breeding taking place for a while.) You keep the male in the tank until the fry begin free-swimming. The reason is that the male tends the eggs and the fry until then. He puts the eggs in his mouth to clean them then puts them back in the nest. He also tends the nest, sometimes building a new one and moving the eggs (so far as I can tell mine's done this rebuilding twice, originally the nest was up against the back glass, the next day it was in the middle of the tank, and now it's back in towards the back again.) Also, once they hatch, the male keeps a close eye on the fish, as fry begin to fall to the bottom of the tank, he grabs them in his mouth and puts them back into the bubblenest.

-ricardo


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

qpixo said:


> btw, you have such beautiful red cambodian betta. He's awesome!!
> Of course the female is less attractive than male.
> How long do u have them both??


Actually, I like the female a tad better. The male has more imperfections (black splotch on his body and a colored face) wheres the female has almost none (her body is perfectly clean, and is beginning to show the BF patter, but her face isn't piebald.)

I've had both of them for about 1.5 - 2 months.

-ricardo


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

sb483 said:


> Well that depends... some like the elongated male finnage, some don't. If that's the female betta in first 2 pics up top, it looks good - a bit more natural looking imho.
> Thank for sharing the pics. I'd also like to know if you remove the female from the tank or not; maybe with enough plants you don't need to.


Yes, I definetly removed the female as she was being chased around by the male and while this was an incredibly peaceful spawn, the male was nevertheless chasing her any time he saw her and I didn't want to cause the female any unecessary stress.

-ricardo


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## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

Nice bettas. I can't wait to see how the fry turn out!!


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## CCBettas (Nov 6, 2006)

I have tried methods similar to this and found it was way better to spawn them this way. The female doesn't get nipped nearly as much if at all. I use a 10 gal packed with plants. 
Just for other people who were asking, there are other methods where you leave the pair in for several weeks and they will spawn several times throughout the duration. However, the female will usually die after she is done spawning several times. Another result, which is bittersweet, is that only the strongest fry will survive after they have made it not ot get eaten by their parents or older siblings. 

Carl Archie


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

Well, the fry have hatched and become free-swimming. Yesterday I took out the M and put him in his own 2.5 gal. Fry were fed microworms today for the first time. I'd take pictures but I don't have a digital (or otherwise) SLR camera and can't get a good shot of the fry. Not sure how many there are yet... I'll post more when I find out more.

-ricardo


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## riverspryte (Sep 16, 2006)

*Breeding Bettas*

I've had the most success with breeding in a tank with at least one live plant. I use a tank with no substrate, and a plant in a pot. When the fry start swimming, they dissappear into the plant for a long time, then one day they all get too big to hide effectively in the plant. I love having baby fish!!! Good luck with your spawn, and be prepared!
Are you going to feed the fry live food (BBS) when they get big enough?


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## Tentacles (Jun 25, 2006)

Is the male a doubletail HM?

Good luck getting BFs this time. Usually if you have a good female you get better looking fry... I think you're onto a winning formula with this pair.

I think it's a great idea to use a NPT.


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## qpixo (Sep 9, 2006)

what kind of food do you feed betta?
I just bought one male and I feed him with "hikari flake" but he doesn't seem to like it much. He just spit it back.


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

riverspryte: Thanks! It's very cool to watch them hide amongst the plants! I do not plan to feed BBS as of yet, but I might. Growing them is too much of a pain for me to bother most of the time...

Tentacles: Thanks, tentacles! The female is definetely a winner, so we'll see how these fry turn out. The male is indeed a HM!

qpixo: I feed my store-bought bettas Hikari Bio Gold pellets, Omega One Betta flakes and Tropical flakes, freeze-dried blood worms and daphnia, and frozen blood worms and brine shrimp. The other three (the pair that I bred and the extra free one I got from Bettatalk) eat only frozen blood worms and shrimp and live white worms. So far they have refused flaked food and did seem to nibble on the daphnia. Haven't tried the freeze-dried bloodworms yet though as I ran out.

UPDATE: Well, the fry are now almost a week old and are doing well, although I can only ever count 6 of them at a time, so this was a pretty small spawn, which I think I mentioned before. Anyway, that's fine by me, as it'll be an easier way to ease back into breeding bettas! I'll try to get some pics if I can.

-ricardo


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## onemyndseye (May 12, 2006)

flagg-

Interesting thread bro  It has led me to setup a little breeding experiment with my 2 mutt bettas. I setup a 10gal rubbermaid tub with floating plants and some rockwork for cover and the female is in there now being conditioned..... the male is in a 1 gal container off to the side.

Both are geting fed BBS, Freeze dried blood worms, and diced up earth worms. I'll drop the male in there in afew days time 

Take Care,
-Justin
One Mynds Eye


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## Tentacles (Jun 25, 2006)

The other way around, Onemyndseye. The male is the mommy nest builder and egg tender. He should be in there setting it up, making it his own, building the nest, then you add the female. Remove the female after spawning and leave him there to keep the eggs clean, the nest rebuilt and the eggs up there.


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## onemyndseye (May 12, 2006)

umm... yup, your right  I see now that I read again. No matter really... all I've really been doing is letting them get used to the container.

Have already caught a couple more mistakes I've made. Like when I first setup... I had it in my head somehow or another that bettas like harder water so I added alittle of Tom Barr's GH Builder to the water. Well...I read something last night that said Bettas actually prefere softer water though now I cant remember or find the article.

They probably will not be too interested in spawning for atleast afew more days anyways... The male is eating very well but the female is very shy and slow to eat... so I'll have to see whats up with that 

The male has a "bulletproof" temperment - I've had him for quite awhile and he's so used to me (and me having my hands in the tank) that pretty often I can cup my hand just below the surface of the water and he'll swim right into it and allow me to lift him up to have a look. 

-Justin
One Mynds Eye


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

UPDATE: Well, the thirteen or so fry turned into five and then into two and now into none. There was an ammonia spike shortly after the fry hatched and I'm pretty sure that's what killed them. Although, one of them did grow fairly big (for a fry that is) and you could clearly see his/her double tail. It was really cool! Well, at least I know the pair will readily produce DTs... I'm in Alaska right now, but when I get back I plan on breeding them again...

-ricardo


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## dawntwister (Sep 29, 2007)

I wonder if the pair were in a 29G tank, heavily planted, if they both could be left in indefinately. Anybody got an opinion?


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## dawntwister (Sep 29, 2007)

flagg said:


> UPDATE: Well, the thirteen or so fry turned into five and then into two and now into none. There was an ammonia spike shortly after the fry hatched and I'm pretty sure that's what killed them. Although, one of them did grow fairly big (for a fry that is) and you could clearly see his/her double tail. It was really cool! Well, at least I know the pair will readily produce DTs... I'm in Alaska right now, but when I get back I plan on breeding them again...
> 
> -ricardo


I hope next try will be more successful. Every find out what caused the ammonia spike? How do you plan to prevent ammonia spike from occuring again?


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## dawntwister (Sep 29, 2007)

How often do you have to feed the fry?


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## Haeun (Oct 19, 2006)

Good water changes should've taken care of that. Daily large water changes are highly recommended.

The ammonia spike may have been the dead/dying fry. No matter how many you have, you will always have die-offs. Survival of the fittest. My first spawn had about 150-200 fry initial, which quickly became 100, then 75 fry after a few weeks. After some culling and having the big fry eat the little fry, my final number was 40-ish? (Thank god. No way I could've handled 200 bettas.) Still was a lot of bettas to find homes for.

Fry should be fed often. Or at least I prefer to feed smaller quantities often. Just throwing a lot of food will have them things to pick at during the day, but it will rot and--yes--cause ammonia. Be prepared to have several staggered bottles of BBS going.


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## dawntwister (Sep 29, 2007)

qpixo said:


> what kind of food do you feed betta?
> I just bought one male and I feed him with "hikari flake" but he doesn't seem to like it much. He just spit it back.


I feed my betta tetramin flakes and bettamin tropical medley. I have seen betta on utube eat baby split peas. Read that the peas are good for betta when they are ill.


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

No, never did find out what caused the ammonia spike, but dead and dying fry certainly didn't help. By the way, I was wrong, two females survived. My friend Sal saw them when he was just looking at the tank. They are now healthy adults, showing nice finnage and excellent coloration. The double tail on one is really nice! Now I just need to find the right male to try my luck again.

-ricardo


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## dawntwister (Sep 29, 2007)

flagg said:


> No, never did find out what caused the ammonia spike, but dead and dying fry certainly didn't help. By the way, I was wrong, two females survived. My friend Sal saw them when he was just looking at the tank. They are now healthy adults, showing nice finnage and excellent coloration. The double tail on one is really nice! Now I just need to find the right male to try my luck again.
> -ricardo


Congradulations


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

My big stumbling block on breeding Rainbowfish babies was that I had too much water circulation. The little babies seem to gradually lose their energy and die fighting the water current?

When I raised Rainbowfish babies in still water, they did fine. I lost none of the babies.

I hope this helps you out on raising baby Bettas-- and other fish.


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## dawntwister (Sep 29, 2007)

onemyndseye said:


> flagg-
> 
> Interesting thread bro  It has led me to setup a little breeding experiment with my 2 mutt bettas. I setup a 10gal rubbermaid tub with floating plants and some rockwork for cover and the female is in there now being conditioned..... the male is in a 1 gal container off to the side.
> 
> ...


So what happened with the experiment of breeding betta mutts?


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

Just an update.... I still have the two female bettas. Just waiting to track down and be able to afford a suitable male. I didn't have any water circulation in the tank, as you mentioned Diana. The only filtration I've ever had on a betta breeding tank was a sponge filter, and that at a very slow trickle. Problem was going to Alaska and leaving the fry. I should have told me landlady not to feed them. I'm pretty proud of the ones that have survived though. One of them has an almost perfect double tale and has a real nice coloration (though not the butterfly patter I was hoping for, though she certainly has the geno...) Now if I could just find a male....

-ricardo


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