A Breeder's Handbook

A Spawning Introduction

If you're pretty sure you want to spawn bettas, you need to make sure that you are ready to do so! It involves a lot of equipment, time, and patience. Bettas will almost always breed- some take a day or so after introducing the female, others take a couple of days. After the spawning, you will need to take care of the fry (probably the hardest part of all) and find a place to put all of them!

Materials you will need

Here's the lengthy list! Most of the items can be found at Walmart for a cheaper price (pretty good quality too) although you can find them at almost any pet/fish specialty store. I hope this helps!
The Equipment and Where to Find Them Its Usage and/or Purpose
Must: A 25w Overhead Lamp/Light (A clip-on light is fine)- at all stores At night for fathers to pick up young; fry need light to survive the first couple days
Must: A 10 gallon tank- 9.97 at Walmart; can be cheaper at other petstores For the fish to live in of course =�. 5 gal may be fine, but I prefer andhave always used the 10 gal.
Must: A submersible, preset tempertature heater- Walmart, Petshops A non-submersible and non- preset heater will malfunction quite easily (from own experience.) The non- preset ones have temperatures that frequently fluctuate causing fish/fry to die (w/o set temperatures on it)
Optional: Decorations ( Don't use gravel!! )- Petstores A few decors are fine (I use only a centerpiece.) They can be useful as hiding places for the female/fry. I wouldn't use too many because it makes cleaning the tank harder. (Gravel makes cleaning hard and traps food; making ammonia higher.)
Must: Thermometer strip/plain aquarium thermometer (your personal preference)- Walmart This is just to inform you the temperature.. keep an eye on it!
Must: Although it doesn't matter to adult bettas, you need a deluxe pH test kit (Dr. WellFish) for fry Adult Bettas aren't picky about pH- (a good pH is about 7.0), but to fry, a pH of less than 6.5 may kill fry [if you know your pH reading already, you can add a pinch of backing soda to safely raise the pH].
Optional: Black Water Tonic - probably in specialty petshops (never bought it before) If your bettas won't spawn, this is your solution. It somehow "inspires" them to spawn.
Must: Sponge Filter (size does not really matter) - Fish, Petstores Even though you may think that you don't need it now, this is a must. In the first couple of weeks, you should not clean your fry tank (may suck up the fry) so ammonia will build up.
Must: Air line tubing, gangway valve, and pump - Walmart, petshops Hook up the sponge to the tubing, hook tubing to valve, valve to another line of tubing, tubing to pump, the plug it in! =�
Must: Syrofoam cup cut in half - everywhere The male prefers to build his bubblenest under this (also can use a 3"-4" small bubblewrap
Must: Plastic/fake plants, rocks - Walmart, petshops These be scattered at a corner away from the bubblenest. Real plants should not be used because it may decay, have some bad bateria.
Must: Your usual water additives and some more: declorinater, Methlyne Blue, Aquarisol, Maroxy, and a tablespoon of salt for every 5 gal. -Petstores, salt at Walmart Even though some addictives are good, don't use too many!! Methylne prevents egg fungus, aqurisol prevents ick/velvet, maroxy heals wounds for the parents after spawning.
Optional, but recommended: Small snails (Ramshorn are fine)- Petstores It's like a "live" filter- it eats the waste in the aquarium. Caution: It will eat small fry eggs.. you might want to add them after the fry are free-swimming.
Must: Liquifry #1 (Egglayer's)- Fish stores This formula is used for the first couple of days for fry. It's really not food for them, but for the infurosia that they eat.
Must: Tetra's Baby fish food for Egglayers, Tetra's BettaMin (crushed)- Walmart, Petshops Food for fry on day 2-6, the BettaMin should be crushed to be very fine, served when fry are around 3-4 weeks old
Must: Newly hatched Baby Brine Shrimp Click here for instructions how to hatch BBS- Petstores BBS hatches in less than 24 hrs andcan be easily raised. It can be used around the 5th day.. some fry can eat it on the 1st-2nd day, but unless you want to cull a lot of them, wait until the 5th day.
Recommended: Microworm and Grindal Worm Cultures- friends, A GREAT and cheap place to get any live foods Microworms are perfect for the first couple of days or week to get your fry a headstart. Grindal worms can be used much later, after the BBS and crushed food; in other words when they are getting really big
Have an unanswered question? Post it in the discussion board!

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