How to Breed Betta Fish

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Chris from Aquatic Central in San Francisco and on the web at Aquatic-Central.com. Today I'd like to tell you how to breed Betta fish. First thing is to gather your required materials. Probably at least a ten gallon tank, a sponge filter would be ideal, something like this, so that fry and other eggs will not get sucked up into the filtration. You'll need a heater or at least be able to maintain the temperature at approximately 70 to 72 degrees Fahrenheit. Some kind of floating plants, preferably live, water hyacinth would be just fine or olivia, aka, anakoris will also suffice. You'll need to have some kind of food for the fry that you'll be having. Micro worms, freshly hatched brine shrimp eggs will be fine. You'll also need to plan ahead and have separate quarters for the male Betta, the female Betta and all of the subsequent fry. Or at least enough for all of the male fry and the female's going to have their own quarters. The third step will be to condition your water for chlorine and chloramine and probably run it for two to three weeks providing that it's been cycled and you can test this by checking for ammonia and nitrite levels. Then you may add a male and female Betta to the tank. Males can be distinguished from the females by generally having longer bodies and more elaborate finage, as seen here. Females will also have a white egg spot below the below the belly between the ventral and anal fin underneath the body. It'll be a white spot. Then, with proper water conditions they will both likely begin spawning or mating behavior generally associated by a little bit of fighting. Once a male has induced a female to release eggs this will be a great time to remove the female from the tank. Remember just to keep the water clean and if you see any dead eggs you might want to remove them in a timely manner. Then after about 48 hours you, the fry will begin swimming and this will be a proper time to remove the male from the fry. And it'll also be a good time to start feeding them. At approximately one month's time you will start to be able to distinguish the males and especially the more aggressive ones. At this point only by the elaborate fins and the longer bodies. You'll need to start removing these males if you want to keep them as they will be fighting, aggressive, and they may be killing others. And that is pretty much the process for how to breed a Betta. Again, my name is Chris from Aquatic Central in San Francisco and on the web at Aquatic-Central.com."