Many new breeders have asked us how we spawn our bettas. We use a simple method that doesn't require a lot of chemical additives such as de-chlor, blackwater, etc. The more natural method that we use comes from a compilation of techniques used by others and what we have learned over the years. This method is highly effective and seems to work on the most stubborn pairs.

Proper conditioning is a must, yes the water needs to be conditioned. Let us start from the beginning. We use 35-gallon plastic drums; into them go water straight from the hose. In the drum, we have placed oak leaves to soften the water. This trick, we learned from Yohan Fernando a few years back. It works best if you bubble those leaves to keep them agitated. Agitating the leaves is not a necessity though. The next and perhaps key ingredient is boiled peat moss. After boiling a commercially obtained peat moss for a few minutes, we drain and place the moss in used clean hoses knotted on both ends. My wife is more than willing to donate her old stockings. She gets new pairs that way. Depending on the size container, we create what I call pillows. These pillows are hung along the interior wall of our water reservoirs. The water as it is used, raises and falls keeps the peat moss active in this process. The more pillows the darker the water gets. It should look something closely resembling tea. Some of you may be using BLACKWATER, a commercial product. It conditions the water just as our method does. We just can't afford to purchase the amount that we would be using. We are therefore forced to make our own. If possible allow this water to age for 5-7 days before use. Chlorine depending on the sunlight and heat will evaporate within a couple of days. Allowing the water to stand for 5-7 days insures that the chlorine is eliminated and the water is softened and aged to perfection. We use several large containers, as we draw one container down we just simply refill as needed. We do prefer to allow the freshwater to age for several days. If it becomes a necessity you can use a container that is 50% aged and 50% fresh without harming your fish. I do this as routine but you should be careful doing these type actions.

The next step is setting up spawning tanks. These can be of any size, your preference. We use 10-gallon glass tanks. They are relatively cheap and serve the fry through its early developmental stages. We also use 10-gallon tanks because we do not like to do water changes on very small fry. You may say, no water changes! Yes, not until the fry are 3/4 to one inch long. We fill the tank to half its capacity using the above mentioned water concoction. Once the fry are free swimming and strong, we add only freshly aged water without a lot of discoloration due to our mixture. Into the tank goes a sponge filter with tubing. The only other item beside fish going into the tank is a plastic can cover. We use plastic caps off coffee cans or even the fish food that we feed. I will tell you more about that later. The cover serves as a base for the bubble nester to anchor his nest.

At this point we make our pair selection.

You should predetermine what you are trying to accomplish when you select a pair for spawning. That is personal and that should be strictly your choice; can't help you there. Where we can help is to give you our clues on whether the female is ready or not. If the female has been feed well, she will be heavy in the stomach area. This is a common sign but for use, not the deciding factor. We look for vertical striping on her body. Some folks call these strips, submission strips. Once they have these and the male is in good condition spawning should take place within a 1/2 a day. Other factors such as size of the individual fish, fertility, water conditions, and even attitude of the male determines how successful the spawning will be.

The most important factor to remember is to KEEP THE SURFACE OF THE TANK COVERED to protect those developing labyrinth organ. Your fry will not live long without this protection. We use saran wrap. It is cheap and makes a great air seal. We simply cover the tank top and allow wrap to hang over all the side. At the upper edges, we drip water and then using the water just glue the saran wrap down.

Now, let us move onto raising the fry. After all isn't this what we are trying to achieve? After the spawning is complete the male will be aggressive with the female. At this time, he forces her away from the spawning site. She can be removed when you notice this happening. The male will continue to build bubbles and watch after the eggs. I find that the eggs hatch in day and a half at about 80 to 82 degrees. To high a temperature, they hatch to fast, resulting in weak fry. The next morning after spawning, we begin to feed infusoria. We grow our own, using lettuce or rabbit feed as a catalyst. Simply get you a container, one-gallon glass jars are common for this purpose. In the container place a small quantity of one of those catalysts and fill with water. Place in direct sunlight and allow the algae and microorganism to multiply. We keep a cycle of three jars going at all times. Refilling a jar as needed and adding new catalyst each time. We feed about a cup of the infusoria 3-5 times a day to each spawning tank. You can feed more infusoria, if spawns are unusually large. We feed just the infusoria until the fry are swimming horizontally. In other words free swimming. At this point they receive a combination of infusoria and newly hatched baby brine shrimp. As the fry grow larger they get more brine and less infusoria. If you have many very small fry in the batch, just keep giving infusoria. Over-feeding of infusoria is not a problem. When the fry are baby guppy size, we feed dried bloodworms ground between our fingers. As the betta fry grow, we reduce the brine in favor of the ground bloodworms. Watch the fry as they eat to determine if they are all consuming bloodworms. You should continue to feed brine until all fry are eating the dried food. Casually reduce the grinding of the bloodworms.

Other things to remember. Remove the male once he begins to lose interest in the nest. That will be after the fry are swimming horizontally. They still need him to help them stay at the surface, so leave him as long as he is working the nest. If he appears to be eating the eggs or fry, he may only be cleaning the eggs or helping the fry to the surface. Just watch and be patient. We usually take the male out 3-5 days after hatching. This depends on the male interest or lack of interest in his young. After removing the male the fry still need help breaking the surface tension of the water. Basically, the water is stronger than the fry. They just have a hard time getting air from the surface. The air from the sponge filter comes into play here by breaking that surface tension. Turn the air ever so slowly on in the tank after taking the male out. As the fry grow stronger increase the flow. Careful here, too much air will harm the babies. At first the trick is to gently turn the air on as to not hurt the young. As the fry grow, the filter then becomes a helpful tool in keeping the whole thing clean.

Here is where I need to get back to the water changes. The fry are growing, now about 3/8 inch. The water should have a nice green algae appearance starting. This is healthy for the fish. I now start to add aged clean water without the spawning mixture; very slowly and in small amounts on a daily basis. Add about a cup a day until the ten-gallon tank is full. This is our method of doing water changes. At this point the fry should be strong enough to take almost any water changes and easy to see. They may even be ready to jar. For those of us, vision impaired betta breeders, this is important. This would include cleaning the tank walls that have become dark with the alga growth.

Should all this fail to convince the pair to spawn, don't give up. Try this little trick. Place another male that is in a jar inside the tank. Jealously works wonders. Then re-apply the above technique. Should the spawning male refuse to build a nest, you might spoon another male's nest into your spawning tank. This has also worked for me to get a male excited enough to spawn.

Good luck and happy spawning!

Home | History | Price Guide | President's Notes | Betta Pics