Preparation of the aquarium: The breeding aquarium may be small (at least 8 liters) or it may be large, I advise using a 20 liter (40x15x20), the more spacious the aquarium is, the better the female will be able to escape from the male and when the fry are born they will have more oxygen in the water. The aquarium should be with the water level at the maximum of 12cm, I advise 8cm, this not to cause too strong pressure on the fry when they are born, and facilitate the male’s job to catch the eggs. The ideal temperature is 27 degrees and the minimum temperature for reproduction is 24 degrees. A 15-watt bulb should be installed to illuminate the aquarium for 24 hours. To support the nest can be using floating plants or a dehydrated trunk, I advise the trunk, leave the trunk with a tip out of the water, otherwise, it will be useless in the aquarium. In the water of the breeding aquarium.
Placing the male in the aquarium: Put an adult male (more than 5 months old), which is larger than the female you will put in the aquarium, this is very important, if a female is the same size or even larger than the male “Bridal” embrace may be impossible to happen. The male should be handsome, with flippers trained, preferably males who always build a bubble nest in their individual aquarium, as it already has an advanced reproductive instinct.
Placement of the female in the breeding aquarium:Cut in half a clear two-liter bottle, the traditional Coca bottles, wash well, fill with water up to the water level that the breeding tank is, ie if it is at 8 cm, fill up to 8cm the bottle, to have the ideal balance weight within the water and the ideal male view. Put the female (ovate, notice if she is with the ovipositor in sight and with vertical stripes) in that bottle and soon after putting the bottle in the breeding aquarium,
The relationship:The male will open its beautiful flippers and opercula when it sees the female in the bottle, the female will become a more accentuated and agitated color, then it will spend about 2 hours and the male will begin to build the nest if within two hours he does not build the nest, join the male and female in the aquarium for 15 minutes and separate again, only to excite the male more and he will have more courage to build the nest, but if he does not build the nest, take a spoon nest of another Betta,no matter if it is small, the male just looking at a piece of nest will start the construction
Making the total of spawn on average is 250-500 eggs (eggs). At the same time the eggs are expelled the male releases the sperms to fertilize them, and soon after laying the eggs in the nest (many females help the male in this task). When you notice that the female does not spawn anymore, take her away, as the male will attack her until she kills her, as she is an intruder in the male’s sight and soon after laying the eggs in the nest (many females help the male in this task). When you notice that the female does not spawn anymore, take her away, as the male will attack her until she kills her, as she is an intruder in the male’s sight and soon after laying the eggs in the nest (many females help the male in this task). When you notice that the female does not spawn anymore, take her away, as the male will attack her until she kills her, as she is an intruder in the male’s sight
Hatching eggs:For 24-48 hours the male will be watching the entire aquarium to see if no “intruder” is around to eat the eggs of his litter, he will treat the eggs very fondly after 24 or 48 hours (depending on temperature, when the eggs will hatch, the hatchlings with their yolk sacs, where they will feed them for two days after birth, they will stay horizontal, when they swim vertically, withdraw the male of the aquarium, because it will no longer be useful and it can happen that the male eats his own puppies after 4 days after hatching.
Development and fattening of fingerlings
The fry are very small, they need very small food too, after the second day of birth I advise to give infusoria, after the 5th day of life of artemia salinas newly hatched (buy dehydrated eggs in a fish shop), with fresh salt marshes hatchlings will grow rapidly, because of the amount of protein that has in the body of arthropods, when the fry already have 2 weeks of life, start making water changes (attention, let the water rest for a day to make sure that it is free of chlorine, and make sure the temperature is the same), you need to change at least 20% and at most 70% of the water, replacing it with new water, water, because each fry in the aquarium will release hormones, which will prevent your brothers from developing quickly, so the more water changes you make in the period of 2 weeks to 1 month of life, the faster the fry will grow. When your pups reach 5 months old they can reproduce them, but never mind Breed relatives, such as brothers, parents, etc., because the genetic code can suffer many malfunctions because they are alike resulting in a lot of death of badly developed fry and fry.
Feeding of fingerlings
By the third day of birth, no food should be given, as they will be feeding on the yolk sac itself,
– from the fourth day of birth – newly hatched salmon arthropods and micro-organisms may be supplied; At least three meals a day should be given.
– from the 15th day of birth – may be added to the previous menu enquitréias. During this period five to six meals a day are suggested.
– from the thirtieth day of birth – from this date, the female may receive adult Artemia, enquitréias, ox heart shavings, pates and the flocked and pelleted, industrialized rations that should be included in the menu gradually.
Important: Excellence in eating in the first 30 days will directly influence the performance of the beta, so we insist on “many daily meals always in small quantities”. You should notice the fish’s belly, it should be “very full, looking like a ball”.
Important Note: Although most articles on fingerlings feed the infusories as the first meal – I do not recommend them and I make the following comments:
– many aquarists prepare an infusion of water with lettuce, turnip, dung, etc., which exude bad smell and generally contains no living organism and has a tendency to “break” the physical-chemical and biological parameters of water, killing the fry. This infusion – badly smelling – also increases the ammonia content, as well as that film that occurs on the water slide, which impairs the rise of the fry to breathe.
The placement of plants in the breeding aquarium for the protection of the female will provide enough microorganisms to supply those fingerlings that have already absorbed their yolk sacs by the third day and by the fourth day they will already eat microbes and nauplii of artemia recently hatched saline.
Separation of male cubs
From two months of born the more developed males will begin to differentiate themselves from the others by the appearance of colors in their body and the development of the main fins, mainly the caudal and anal being the latter is more pointed.
Males also have a more elongated body than females.
In this period they will begin to show their aggression, through small battles; they face the front, open the opercula and stand in a combat position.
From this stage, the breeder should be aware because they will bite and rip each other’s fins, so it will be convenient to separate them into individual containers
I hope I have helped your betta have a perfect mating.
