Wannabe Betta Breeders Beware
There are many small white crosses lining the road leading to betta breeding success. Which commemorate the fry failures of enthusiastic wannabe breeders who see a video or two and think they are ready to have a go at it. Only to find out three things.
- It’s harder than it looks.
- Enthusiasm only takes you so far.
- The odds are basically stacked against them from the outset.
Yes, producing fry isn’t all that tough for some. But the ease with which that happens belies how hard it is to raise them successfully as dramatic fry losses can happen seemingly overnight to unsuspecting owners.
Be that as it may, those looking to participate in Betta Breeding, the Rest of the Story would do well to understand the role conditioning plays. From this video you can gather there is not a lot of mystery to betta fish conditioning for breeding.
The big idea is to gorge your mating pair with a steady diet rich in frozen or live foods for going on two weeks at least. You’re looking at feeding heaping helpings of things like blood worms, mosquito larvae, daphnia, and brine shrimp. The idea is to get the pair in peak form for what lies ahead. To help them get there you want to ring the dinner bell two or three times a day.
All this nutritional conditioning is done for a reason. Being in peak form puts the male in position to go three or four days (or more) without eating while tending the nest, eggs and then the fry. That after completing his lead role in the mating ritual. While taking in all this nutrition is designed to bring the female to maximum health to encourage the production of a robust number of eggs.
Conditioned for Betta Breeding Success
Here’s one way to do that.
Check out these video takeaways
- Uses frozen bloodworms, not freeze dried. Easily defrosted before serving.
- Every morning and evening for 10 minutes let the pair see each other. You want to see them flaring at each other.
- The male, if primed for breeding, should be building a bubble nest.
- With this set up he does 100% water changes using aged water. Plus he’s got almond leaves in the jars.
Then here’s a slightly different take on the basic foods to use for conditioning.
This video places daphnia high on the list of conditioning foods. Offering them spirulina gives the a protein and packs an amino acid wallop. Usually daphnia are raised from a starter culture in jars with cabbage or lettuce leaves or some other bit of decomposing organic material. The takeaway daphnia culturing tip from this is to have three jars cycling all the time. A new one, a mature one, and one that is getting past its prime.
As the previous video, frozen blood worms also rank high as primo conditioning food. Which your fighting fish will gladly gobble up endlessly. You want to start to include this in their diet two weeks before you are looking to spawn them. This frozen conditioning gold is readily available at your local pet shop or even the “Pet-something” pet stores. You can see what to look for when you go shopping.
Beef heart should also make your list of beta conditioning foods. Another good source of protein and complex B vitamins. As you can see you can even puree this up yourself and freeze it.
Then when it comes to fry food, the always popular microworms are mentioned. But BBS (baby brine shrimp) is the staple diet once they are big enough to eat them until they are about five weeks old or so. Freshly hatched BBS are a good way to get protein, minerals and calcium into your fry.
So to condition your mating pair be sure to feed them the very best foods you can get. Good results are almost always obtained with things like frozen blood worms and live foods used in combination. The bettas literally go nuts for them! Often the male will commence bubble nesting superfast in response. Make sure to at least do this for 2 weeks before you start the actual breeding process to assure they are both in peak condition and ready to go at it.
Anyway seems those who hear the call of betta breeding find it a hard calling to ignore. Even though it turns out for many that divine intervention is apparently required to subsequently raise a spawn to breeder size – they still press on. There is just something about all this that is hard to resist. But at least now you know a bit more about conditioning and role it play in breeding success.
About Lucas
Putting a name with a face I'm Lucas Smatana. Like you I'm passionate about betta fish and hope to share my enthusiasm. The idea here is to make sure you get helpful info and useful ideas on betta fish care that really work. To insure your betta keeping experience is a good one both for you and your fish. So that you and your pet enjoy a long, happy and healthy relationship.
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