Basics of fighting fish breeding
Fighting fish mating. Photo: Caroline Eggert
If you want to breed Betta splendens, you should prepare your fish and tank some time before you actually start breeding.
The selected fish should be fed a little more vigorously.
In addition to the (probably usual) flake food, it is important to ensure that live food is fed.
The fish need enough strength for the act of spawning and the subsequent care of the brood.
So that both animals are ready to spawn, strong live food is helpful. Frozen food and other food can also be given.
Mating bettas Photo: Caroline Eggert
Suitable are e.g. B. Black and white bloodworms, frozen or alive, fruit flies, mosquito-sized insects and smaller earthworms.
Because breeding Betta splendens is very exhausting, males and females are fed frozen or live food once or twice a day.
The temperature when feeding can be around 25°C.
If the animals still don’t want to, the water is changed and the temperature may be increased to 27°. Higher temperatures are actually not necessary.
If both animals are placed in a special breeding tank, the female must always be placed first.
Top4 for breeding bettas:
breeding tank
Betta splendens Photo: Malte Tied
A simple pool with the edge lengths 40 x 25 x 25 is completely sufficient. Dark background is recommended. Floor material can be dispensed with. The bottom of the pool can B. be painted dark from the outside. At the very least, a single-colored, dark pad should be placed under the tank.
The male also finds eggs lying on the ground. The yield is correspondingly higher. A few eggs will always fall out of the nest onto the ground, especially when the water level is about 10 to 15 centimetres, as is often recommended.
In larger aquariums, the water level should possibly be lowered to about 15 centimeters.
A heater is sufficient as a facility. The temperature can be between 25° and 28°C. 25° to 26° C is usually a suitable value. Higher temperatures are recommended to help older or flabby males get ready for breeding. At higher temperatures, the young swim freely a little faster, but high temperatures damage the parents.
There should be hiding places for the female, e.g. Legs half coconut with two exits. If there is also a larger stone under the coconut, the female can hide well.
Floating plants or a piece of Styrofoam should be present on the water surface. A feeding ring or a piece of hose can also float on the surface of the water to help with nest building.
Betta splendens mating Source: Image on Wikimedia Commons License: CC Attr. 3.0 Author: ZooFari
The male can build the foam nest under a 1 centimeter thick and approx. 10 centimeters diameter Styrofoam plate or cork bark. According to one report, after spawning, the male retrieved the nest, bubble by bubble, from under the cork bark.
According to other experiences, bettas build the foam nest on the open water surface and not under a plate like gourami.
Although peat filtering is not necessary, it does not do any harm either and brings its positive effects to bear in the breeding tank.
Water hardness and pH are not particularly important if the values are not too extreme. The water can be soft, with a pH of 7. But breeding is also possible in water with a total hardness of 20 or a pH of 7.5.
A 15 liter tank can also be used for breeding, which is densely planted with java moss up to the water surface. A problem with this breeding method is that the juveniles have difficulty surfacing when they fill their labyrinth with air. This can be prevented with timely implementation.
Some breeders generally only cover 90% of breeding tanks for labyrinths. These breeders do not add aeration or filtration to the breeding tank. But the animals defecate. The bacteria that break down the faeces could result in a lack of oxygen. This can lead to the death of the clutch or the larvae. When the cover disc is slightly open, gas exchange takes place across the water surface.
It is possible to use an oxygen stone that produces small bubbles. Some breeders do not aerate the tank until the young have hatched.
Recommendations for breeding tanks
There are commercially available tanks specially designed for breeding fighting fish:
The female is chased away by the male
It is normal for the male to initially chase the female. The female is not yet ready to spawn. The so-called driving is part of the reproductive ritual so that the female is ready to spawn. It then gets a fright coloration, ie the body shows longitudinal stripes.
If the female is chased too hard, the female is taken out of the breeding tank and placed in a small tank next door. The male must be able to see the female.
When the male has built a foam nest, the female is placed back in the breeding tank. If the female is still ready to spawn, she is removed from the tank.
The female clearly indicates her willingness to mate. A female in spawning mood has a swollen belly and shows a lighter cross-striped, vertical spawning coloration in the middle part of the body.
In most cases, the female then actively approaches the male. After a strong drive, a female in the mood to spawn can also lie in a corner, torn and exhausted, and show her spawning colouration.
During mating, the male embraces the female. The female floats upwards as if dead when she is in what is known as spawning rigidity. The next mating takes place a little later.
Betta fish do not need oxygen-rich water
Oxygen-rich water as with other fish species is not required. In the areas of origin, Betta splendens live in muddy water, in flooded meadows and in rice fields. The water level is usually between 10 and 30 centimeters.
There, a relatively large mass of plants rots away in relatively little water. Temperatures rise quickly and sharply to over 30°C during the day.
So the water has little oxygen. An advantage is that the bettas have no competition from more sensitive fish. In addition, the food supply is very high during this time.
A good supply of food is important for bettas. When bettas are really fed up, they breed, because then the young ones will probably also be fed up.
What is a mess for certain fish species is a wonderful healthy habitat for other species. Dirty broth is therefore defined by the special fish species. Water that Betta splendens still thrive in can be fatal to other species.
Fighting fish have adapted to low-oxygen water with the labyrinth organ. The eggs and larvae are supplied with oxygen with the help of the foam nest. To ensure that there is enough oxygen for all the young, the male constantly rearranges the brood, regularly repacking the young in fresh bladders.
The hatching larvae are always packed into the nest with fresh bladders as long as they are not yet swimming freely. The free-swimming larvae usually swim directly on the water surface, where the oxygen content is likely to be higher than in the lower water layers.
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