Basic Breeding Information
Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2025 3:38 pm
Basic Breeding Information
Breeding Bettas is something you really need to think long and hard about. It requires a lot of planning, including deciding whether you’ll be able to keep up with the work that’s involved throughout the entire process.
Unlike other fish, Betta fry need to be separated at a certain age, just like how adult males need to be kept seperate. This means you could potentially end up with 500 fry to individually jar, heat and clean.
This post will be fairly long because there’s so much information involved with breeding. Please also note that everything doesn’t have to exactly match what I’m suggesting, there are different ways to do it and we will go more into details regarding breeding at a later date. However for now this is just a basic guide to let people know all that’s involved.
Choosing your pair.
- The first point I’ll add about choosing your fish is you are better off picking ones from breeders and independent sellers. As a group we promote Simon Borton as his fish are top quality. I will include the link to his band group in the comments section for those interested. Pet store fish aren’t as high of a quality so by obtaining them for breeding projects it’s not setting you up with the best chance of healthy fry. They are also not kept in the best conditions meaning that you could end up with a fish with a weakened immune system that you might end up not being able to breed or even potentially ending up with issues with the fry because of this. I’m not saying all pet stores are like this, but there are a lot so it’s worth mentioning this since it is important.
- Breeders are also able to tell you more history about the fishes genetics, age and some even go on to tell you if they’ve bred them before. This is important because breeding is strenuous on them so if they’ve just been bred recently you wouldn’t really want to do it again so quickly.
- Choosing your pair also doesn’t come down to them looking pretty colour wise. You are not guaranteed to get the colours you want because it all comes down to genetics and colour layering but that’s a whole other topic which we will discuss in another post more in detail. Today’s one is more a basics on breeding.
- You want to select fish with perfect form, if they don’t have the correct shape then the chances are you’re going to get fry that may have undesirable traits and can take multiple spawns to correct this issue, so you are better choosing ones that set you up with an advantage.
- When selecting the female for the male you need to take into consideration that during spawning he wraps himself around her, so if she’s so much more bigger than him he will have trouble doing this.
- When you’ve decided which type you want to breed your next thing to consider is do they have the correct span of fins to this breed. For example a halfmoon betta spreads it’s caudal (back) fin to look like a D shape, so if he doesn’t fully meet this specification then he wouldn’t be your best shot because you can then end up with fry who also don’t match up to this either. Betta delta and super delta are actually halfmoon bettas that didn’t meet that D shape.
- There is so much more involved with selecting Bettas on their genetics over their appearance but we will go further into that at a later date.
Preparing to breed
- So you have your pair that you’re totally happy with so the first stage is to quarantine them. You can’t just buy a fish and immediately start breeding it. You need to make sure they are free from disease otherwise if they have white spot for example this can wipe the male, female and fry out, so you need to make sure they are healthy before breeding.
- It’s recommended to quarantine for 4 weeks as this is the incubation period for some diseases. There is a file under topics on diseases and conditions.
- They also need to be conditioned for 2 weeks before breeding, this means feeding them with high protein foods twice a day to allow them to gain strength. It’s best to feed live or frozen foods during this period because spawning is strenuous on them and they need all the energy they can get beforehand. Some pairs won’t eat at all during spawning so that’s why it’s important that they have enough sustenance to allow them to spawn and then the male to look after the fry. Part of conditioning them is flaring them daily. This gets them exercised and strengthens their muscles. It’s so important to flare them twice a day for 5 minutes because during spawning they will constantly be behaving like this so it prepares them for it and improves their health.
Skipping the conditioning stage is risking the health of your male and female as breeding takes a toll on them, this means if they aren’t fully prepared due to the stress and strain the male particularly can die or take a massive impact on his ongoing health. But not only this it also affects the quality of the fry that’s produced during spawning. It’s a step that’s vital and cannot ever be skipped.
- Quarantine and conditioning can be done in a heated jar or tub and it’s best to do this so you can maintain optimal water and monitor exactly what’s being eaten. Since this is a temporary measure it can be of smaller volumes, I personally like 6L jars for this purpose. Since the jars won’t be filtered it’s best to do 80-100% changes every 2-3 days. Some choose to do daily. But you can also test your water in the jars and if there is any signs of ammonia then it's recommended to do a water change sooner.
- They can start to be conditioned on the last 2 weeks of quarantine.
- If you already had a pair in advance and you’re now going to breed then you don’t need to carry out the quarantine period but you should still move them to a separate jar or tub to be conditioned.
- You need to have a separate tank for breeding purposes, you can’t put a female into the males tank as it’s his territory and he will attack to defend it. It needs to be neutral ground.
- Betta fry are tiny so before even putting them in the breeding tank you need to culture some live food for them. They are so so tiny that they can’t and won’t eat adult betta foods or pellets. Good first food choices are infusoria, vinegar eels, micro worms and baby brine shrimp.
Breeding tank set up
- You want this tank to be especially longer than taller. You don’t want to exert them during breeding.
- Something like a 54L is good because then it can be combined to allow the fry to grow a little before transferring them to a grow out tank. This gives enough length for the female to get away to safety.
- The actual breeding tank set up itself can be super basic. The one thing you don’t want is any substrate, this means that the eggs are easily found when the female drops them on a bare bottom and saves them being lost in sand or gravel but also makes it easy for cleaning as well.
- You need a heater and it’s best to have it around 30 degrees during spawning and this means the eggs will hatch usually within 24 hours at the warmer temperature.
- You want somewhere to offer the female to hide from the male, this can be some guppy grass or a terracotta pot. You can add some moss balls. That’s enough to offer the female some hideaways. The guppy grass and moss ball would be enough on their own though so it’s just up to you what you want to add.
- For the male to build his bubble nest you can get some bubble wrap and tape this to the side of the tank, this will give the illusion of a bigger nest and then you can place an Indian almond leave (IAL) on top.
- It’s best not to have a filter in the tank for the spawning stage as this prevents disturbing the fishes and nest. Once you have free swimming fry then it can be added, but it needs to be cycled beforehand otherwise it won’t be equipped to deal with the ammonia. There is a file under guides about cycling a tank. So although we’re not cycling this breeding tank we need to cycle the filter. It can also be run in another tank alongside another one until you’re ready to move it into the breeding tank.
- You only want to fill the tank about 5” deep, this means that the male doesn’t get too tired going back and forth gathering the eggs from the bottom. When adding the water you want to mix a high concentration of tannins in to provide antibacterial and anti fungal properties. The best way is by making a tea. You can use IAL, alder cones and various other botanicals to make this. Pop a leaf or cone into a 2L jug and fill with boiling water, then leave overnight. I’d add the full 2L into the tank to get a high dose.
- You can also add a few IAL into the tank as well.
- You don’t need a lid on at this stage but you can cover with cling film to keep moisture in. This will help preserve the males nest.
- You can just set up this tank before introducing the pair.
Introducing the pair.
- I think it’s best to introduce them together to the tank so let the male be free swimming and isolate the female in a clear glass, clear tub, nesting box or chimney. Just something that lets the male see her but keeps her safe for the time being. Some introduce the male the day before the female but I think it’s best together.
- The female will remain there for 24 hours and this allows them to see each other. You’d want to see them flaring and trying to get at each other and this is normal behaviour. This is why it’s important to condition them properly to make them strong enough to endure this process for longer lengths of time. They will exert so much energy trying to get at each other and flaring.
- The male should start building his nest and coming back and forth to see the female. This process will just carry on for the duration of the 24 hours that the female is cupped.
- The next day it’s time to release the female, just monitor them carefully when she’s released. If the male hasn’t built his nest there is no point releasing her. They should start flaring at each other and he’ll start nipping at her and chasing her away. He’ll then go about tending to his nest. She should be submissive to him.
- The female will come out from hiding to inspect the nest to see if it’s suitable enough and if she approves. If she doesn’t approve then she’ll either swim away or try and destroy it to tell him to do better.
- This type of behaviour will continue for a while until she’s satisfied enough and then they will start spawning. He will wrap himself around her. This part can be concerning for people because after she’s released the eggs and the male goes to retrieve them the female will look stunned. She will float to the waters surface and seem rigid, she will come back out of it so don’t panic.
- The male will go about gathering the eggs and placing them inside the bubble nest. Occasionally the female will also help and theyll work together.
- This process can be repeated multiple times over durations of hours.
- When the female moves and shows no more interest or the male gets aggressive towards her then it’s time to remove her for her safety so the male doesn’t attack or kill her.
- She can be moved back to her tank and you can feed her straight away as she'll probably be hungry.
- You can offer the male something like bloodworms but there is a chance that he won’t eat until he is removed. All males react differently.
- The male will stay in this tank with the fry tending to them in the nest for approximately 3 days or until they are free swimming and able to remain at the surface on their own.
- As soon as the fry are at this stage then the male can be removed and placed in his own tank and also fed.
- It’s worth noting that either male or female can sustain injuries during spawning so they may require treatment as in plenty of tannins etc to help heal if this is the case.
Tending to the fry
- Now that you have free swimming fry you can pop the sponge filter into the tank to start removing waste that the fry will produce.
- You can also pop cling film over the top as a lid to keep the humidity in which is important for the fry developing their swim bladders.
- Now the hard work begins looking after them. They are so tiny you need to start feeding them from the foods that you’ve cultured, it’s good to start off with infusoria and microworms for the first couple of days. They can then have vinegar eels as well for a couple of days and then from day 4 onwards you can add baby brine shrimp. From around 3 weeks they can have some cyclops and repashy and then from week 4 they can have frozen daphnia, brine shrimp, bloodworms all cut up. From this point you want to give them a really varied diet.
- You should aim to feed them 3 times a day to provide them with enough nutrition to grow.
- You want to check your water tests regularly while the fry are growing out. You don’t want there to be any spikes of ammonia or nitrite and you want to keep your nitrates down. You’d be aiming for a water change twice a week 50%.
- The good thing with not having any substrate is you can turkey baster out any uneaten food or poop regularly. When it comes to a water change the best way to do this is with an air pump hose since the suction is so small, this means it won’t suck up the fry but it’s enough to remove poop and debris.
- Depending on the size of your spawn you are also going to need a larger tank for them to grow out in as well. If you end up with hundreds of fry a 54L tank isn’t going to allow them to grow to their full potential so you’d need to have another tank that is bigger and cycled to transfer them into.
- The fry can show aggression from week 4 onwards, but mostly it’s usually at 6 weeks ish. At this point you need to tub any aggressors individually to separate them.
- There’s a variety of options for tubbing, some people choose to use 2-3L tubs and other can use 2-3L cups. Both need lids so that they can’t jump out. The lids need to have holes for air.
- When they are tubbed it’s good to flare them twice a day for 5 minutes each time to exercise them and keep their muscles and fins strong, which in turn keeps them healthy.
- Because they are tubbed they still need to be heated, you can use reptile heat mats or heat strips for this purpose. Some people also use these and thermal blankets to keep the temperature right. The heat mats need to be connected to a thermostat so they don’t overheat.
- The tubs need regular water changes daily to every second day since there is no filter in there and you don’t want a build up of toxins. Most people tend to do 100% changes but some opt for 80%. Either is fine but they are very resilient fish and can handle 100% changes.
- They can be sold on from 12 weeks providing they have grown enough. Some may need a little longer but 12 weeks is the most ethical time to not sell before.
- When it comes to the time to sell you need to have the correct packaging to send them safely, you’d need polystyrene boxes and a heat pack to keep them warm and safe during transit.
- Now during the process not all of your spawn is going to survive or be perfect. You will no doubt have fish who are deformed or poorly and they need to be culled. It’s not the pleasant part of breeding but it’s a very important part because it’s not ethical to sell on poorly or deformed fish. The process you would use is aqua sed or clove oil. There is a step by step guide in the disease and conditions guides section which goes into detail how to euthanise.
Now that’s pretty much the basics. There is so much more work involved when it comes to breeding and every stage is crucial. It’s something that needs to be planned out properly to ensure you have everything you need to keep them alive and thrive.
Breeding Bettas is something you really need to think long and hard about. It requires a lot of planning, including deciding whether you’ll be able to keep up with the work that’s involved throughout the entire process.
Unlike other fish, Betta fry need to be separated at a certain age, just like how adult males need to be kept seperate. This means you could potentially end up with 500 fry to individually jar, heat and clean.
This post will be fairly long because there’s so much information involved with breeding. Please also note that everything doesn’t have to exactly match what I’m suggesting, there are different ways to do it and we will go more into details regarding breeding at a later date. However for now this is just a basic guide to let people know all that’s involved.
Choosing your pair. - The first point I’ll add about choosing your fish is you are better off picking ones from breeders and independent sellers. As a group we promote Simon Borton as his fish are top quality. I will include the link to his band group in the comments section for those interested. Pet store fish aren’t as high of a quality so by obtaining them for breeding projects it’s not setting you up with the best chance of healthy fry. They are also not kept in the best conditions meaning that you could end up with a fish with a weakened immune system that you might end up not being able to breed or even potentially ending up with issues with the fry because of this. I’m not saying all pet stores are like this, but there are a lot so it’s worth mentioning this since it is important.
- Breeders are also able to tell you more history about the fishes genetics, age and some even go on to tell you if they’ve bred them before. This is important because breeding is strenuous on them so if they’ve just been bred recently you wouldn’t really want to do it again so quickly.
- Choosing your pair also doesn’t come down to them looking pretty colour wise. You are not guaranteed to get the colours you want because it all comes down to genetics and colour layering but that’s a whole other topic which we will discuss in another post more in detail. Today’s one is more a basics on breeding.
- You want to select fish with perfect form, if they don’t have the correct shape then the chances are you’re going to get fry that may have undesirable traits and can take multiple spawns to correct this issue, so you are better choosing ones that set you up with an advantage.
- When selecting the female for the male you need to take into consideration that during spawning he wraps himself around her, so if she’s so much more bigger than him he will have trouble doing this.
- When you’ve decided which type you want to breed your next thing to consider is do they have the correct span of fins to this breed. For example a halfmoon betta spreads it’s caudal (back) fin to look like a D shape, so if he doesn’t fully meet this specification then he wouldn’t be your best shot because you can then end up with fry who also don’t match up to this either. Betta delta and super delta are actually halfmoon bettas that didn’t meet that D shape.
- There is so much more involved with selecting Bettas on their genetics over their appearance but we will go further into that at a later date.
Preparing to breed- So you have your pair that you’re totally happy with so the first stage is to quarantine them. You can’t just buy a fish and immediately start breeding it. You need to make sure they are free from disease otherwise if they have white spot for example this can wipe the male, female and fry out, so you need to make sure they are healthy before breeding.
- It’s recommended to quarantine for 4 weeks as this is the incubation period for some diseases. There is a file under topics on diseases and conditions.
- They also need to be conditioned for 2 weeks before breeding, this means feeding them with high protein foods twice a day to allow them to gain strength. It’s best to feed live or frozen foods during this period because spawning is strenuous on them and they need all the energy they can get beforehand. Some pairs won’t eat at all during spawning so that’s why it’s important that they have enough sustenance to allow them to spawn and then the male to look after the fry. Part of conditioning them is flaring them daily. This gets them exercised and strengthens their muscles. It’s so important to flare them twice a day for 5 minutes because during spawning they will constantly be behaving like this so it prepares them for it and improves their health.
Skipping the conditioning stage is risking the health of your male and female as breeding takes a toll on them, this means if they aren’t fully prepared due to the stress and strain the male particularly can die or take a massive impact on his ongoing health. But not only this it also affects the quality of the fry that’s produced during spawning. It’s a step that’s vital and cannot ever be skipped.
- Quarantine and conditioning can be done in a heated jar or tub and it’s best to do this so you can maintain optimal water and monitor exactly what’s being eaten. Since this is a temporary measure it can be of smaller volumes, I personally like 6L jars for this purpose. Since the jars won’t be filtered it’s best to do 80-100% changes every 2-3 days. Some choose to do daily. But you can also test your water in the jars and if there is any signs of ammonia then it's recommended to do a water change sooner.
- They can start to be conditioned on the last 2 weeks of quarantine.
- If you already had a pair in advance and you’re now going to breed then you don’t need to carry out the quarantine period but you should still move them to a separate jar or tub to be conditioned.
- You need to have a separate tank for breeding purposes, you can’t put a female into the males tank as it’s his territory and he will attack to defend it. It needs to be neutral ground.
- Betta fry are tiny so before even putting them in the breeding tank you need to culture some live food for them. They are so so tiny that they can’t and won’t eat adult betta foods or pellets. Good first food choices are infusoria, vinegar eels, micro worms and baby brine shrimp.
Breeding tank set up- You want this tank to be especially longer than taller. You don’t want to exert them during breeding.
- Something like a 54L is good because then it can be combined to allow the fry to grow a little before transferring them to a grow out tank. This gives enough length for the female to get away to safety.
- The actual breeding tank set up itself can be super basic. The one thing you don’t want is any substrate, this means that the eggs are easily found when the female drops them on a bare bottom and saves them being lost in sand or gravel but also makes it easy for cleaning as well.
- You need a heater and it’s best to have it around 30 degrees during spawning and this means the eggs will hatch usually within 24 hours at the warmer temperature.
- You want somewhere to offer the female to hide from the male, this can be some guppy grass or a terracotta pot. You can add some moss balls. That’s enough to offer the female some hideaways. The guppy grass and moss ball would be enough on their own though so it’s just up to you what you want to add.
- For the male to build his bubble nest you can get some bubble wrap and tape this to the side of the tank, this will give the illusion of a bigger nest and then you can place an Indian almond leave (IAL) on top.
- It’s best not to have a filter in the tank for the spawning stage as this prevents disturbing the fishes and nest. Once you have free swimming fry then it can be added, but it needs to be cycled beforehand otherwise it won’t be equipped to deal with the ammonia. There is a file under guides about cycling a tank. So although we’re not cycling this breeding tank we need to cycle the filter. It can also be run in another tank alongside another one until you’re ready to move it into the breeding tank.
- You only want to fill the tank about 5” deep, this means that the male doesn’t get too tired going back and forth gathering the eggs from the bottom. When adding the water you want to mix a high concentration of tannins in to provide antibacterial and anti fungal properties. The best way is by making a tea. You can use IAL, alder cones and various other botanicals to make this. Pop a leaf or cone into a 2L jug and fill with boiling water, then leave overnight. I’d add the full 2L into the tank to get a high dose.
- You can also add a few IAL into the tank as well.
- You don’t need a lid on at this stage but you can cover with cling film to keep moisture in. This will help preserve the males nest.
- You can just set up this tank before introducing the pair.
Introducing the pair. - I think it’s best to introduce them together to the tank so let the male be free swimming and isolate the female in a clear glass, clear tub, nesting box or chimney. Just something that lets the male see her but keeps her safe for the time being. Some introduce the male the day before the female but I think it’s best together.
- The female will remain there for 24 hours and this allows them to see each other. You’d want to see them flaring and trying to get at each other and this is normal behaviour. This is why it’s important to condition them properly to make them strong enough to endure this process for longer lengths of time. They will exert so much energy trying to get at each other and flaring.
- The male should start building his nest and coming back and forth to see the female. This process will just carry on for the duration of the 24 hours that the female is cupped.
- The next day it’s time to release the female, just monitor them carefully when she’s released. If the male hasn’t built his nest there is no point releasing her. They should start flaring at each other and he’ll start nipping at her and chasing her away. He’ll then go about tending to his nest. She should be submissive to him.
- The female will come out from hiding to inspect the nest to see if it’s suitable enough and if she approves. If she doesn’t approve then she’ll either swim away or try and destroy it to tell him to do better.
- This type of behaviour will continue for a while until she’s satisfied enough and then they will start spawning. He will wrap himself around her. This part can be concerning for people because after she’s released the eggs and the male goes to retrieve them the female will look stunned. She will float to the waters surface and seem rigid, she will come back out of it so don’t panic.
- The male will go about gathering the eggs and placing them inside the bubble nest. Occasionally the female will also help and theyll work together.
- This process can be repeated multiple times over durations of hours.
- When the female moves and shows no more interest or the male gets aggressive towards her then it’s time to remove her for her safety so the male doesn’t attack or kill her.
- She can be moved back to her tank and you can feed her straight away as she'll probably be hungry.
- You can offer the male something like bloodworms but there is a chance that he won’t eat until he is removed. All males react differently.
- The male will stay in this tank with the fry tending to them in the nest for approximately 3 days or until they are free swimming and able to remain at the surface on their own.
- As soon as the fry are at this stage then the male can be removed and placed in his own tank and also fed.
- It’s worth noting that either male or female can sustain injuries during spawning so they may require treatment as in plenty of tannins etc to help heal if this is the case.
Tending to the fry- Now that you have free swimming fry you can pop the sponge filter into the tank to start removing waste that the fry will produce.
- You can also pop cling film over the top as a lid to keep the humidity in which is important for the fry developing their swim bladders.
- Now the hard work begins looking after them. They are so tiny you need to start feeding them from the foods that you’ve cultured, it’s good to start off with infusoria and microworms for the first couple of days. They can then have vinegar eels as well for a couple of days and then from day 4 onwards you can add baby brine shrimp. From around 3 weeks they can have some cyclops and repashy and then from week 4 they can have frozen daphnia, brine shrimp, bloodworms all cut up. From this point you want to give them a really varied diet.
- You should aim to feed them 3 times a day to provide them with enough nutrition to grow.
- You want to check your water tests regularly while the fry are growing out. You don’t want there to be any spikes of ammonia or nitrite and you want to keep your nitrates down. You’d be aiming for a water change twice a week 50%.
- The good thing with not having any substrate is you can turkey baster out any uneaten food or poop regularly. When it comes to a water change the best way to do this is with an air pump hose since the suction is so small, this means it won’t suck up the fry but it’s enough to remove poop and debris.
- Depending on the size of your spawn you are also going to need a larger tank for them to grow out in as well. If you end up with hundreds of fry a 54L tank isn’t going to allow them to grow to their full potential so you’d need to have another tank that is bigger and cycled to transfer them into.
- The fry can show aggression from week 4 onwards, but mostly it’s usually at 6 weeks ish. At this point you need to tub any aggressors individually to separate them.
- There’s a variety of options for tubbing, some people choose to use 2-3L tubs and other can use 2-3L cups. Both need lids so that they can’t jump out. The lids need to have holes for air.
- When they are tubbed it’s good to flare them twice a day for 5 minutes each time to exercise them and keep their muscles and fins strong, which in turn keeps them healthy.
- Because they are tubbed they still need to be heated, you can use reptile heat mats or heat strips for this purpose. Some people also use these and thermal blankets to keep the temperature right. The heat mats need to be connected to a thermostat so they don’t overheat.
- The tubs need regular water changes daily to every second day since there is no filter in there and you don’t want a build up of toxins. Most people tend to do 100% changes but some opt for 80%. Either is fine but they are very resilient fish and can handle 100% changes.
- They can be sold on from 12 weeks providing they have grown enough. Some may need a little longer but 12 weeks is the most ethical time to not sell before.
- When it comes to the time to sell you need to have the correct packaging to send them safely, you’d need polystyrene boxes and a heat pack to keep them warm and safe during transit.
- Now during the process not all of your spawn is going to survive or be perfect. You will no doubt have fish who are deformed or poorly and they need to be culled. It’s not the pleasant part of breeding but it’s a very important part because it’s not ethical to sell on poorly or deformed fish. The process you would use is aqua sed or clove oil. There is a step by step guide in the disease and conditions guides section which goes into detail how to euthanise.
Now that’s pretty much the basics. There is so much more work involved when it comes to breeding and every stage is crucial. It’s something that needs to be planned out properly to ensure you have everything you need to keep them alive and thrive.