Breeding with your Siamese fighting fish

Welcome to the world of the Siamese Fighting Fish. Free tips about keeping Siamese fighting fish. Lots of Siamese fighting fish news and much much more on Siamese fighting fish, your Home and family pet’s home.

Breeding Siamese Fighting Fish / Betta!

Well they are difficult to breed and are not recommended for beginners. I would suggest that you first get your pet, learn how to take care of him and then when you feel that you are ready and want to take the chance of breeding, get as much help as possible. This is a very exciting time.

You will need two separate tanks, one for the male and one for the female. Another way is to have your male in his tank with a glass divider. This way you segregate the two. You can also put the female in a small jar and position it next to the breeding tank.

When he becomes aware of the female’s presence, he will swim up to the glass and flare his fins, and extend his gill covers. The female will become agitated eventually and she will try to find a way into the male’s tank. The courtship lasts anything from one to twenty four hours.

To condition your Siamese fighting fish for spawning, it is recommended that you feed a variety of foods i.e. live and frozen foods. You could also change their water every other day. Lots of clean water and better foods helps to get a pair into condition to spawn. Lots of live plants and a 50w submersible heater.

The male will begin the process by building a ‘bubble nest’. He does this by swimming to the top and takes a breath of air. While the air bubble is in his mouth he covers it with a mucous and then spits it back again. He will repeat this over and over again until he has a nest floating on the top of the tank about four to six inches across. He likes to have something to stick it to and this is where the favorite bettafish live plants come into it. Your female will let the male know she is ready to begin spawning by swimming beneath the nest. The male will follow and curve his body in a u-shape over her. They both turn upside down and she will begin releasing her eggs with the mail fertilizing them. Fascinating!

She could release anything between 350 - 400 eggs. When the eggs fall down towards the bottom of the tank, the male will swim down and pick them up in his mouth and return them to the bubble nest and gently place the eggs in the nest. In could take him a few hours before he has all the eggs placed in the nest. Try to keep the water in the breeding tank no deeper than 4 – 5 inches. This will make his job much easier. If the female does not help the male, remove her back to her tank.

Within 36 hours your Siamese Fighting Fish baby eggs should begin to hatch. Three or so days after they are swimming horizontally you can take the male out of the tank.

They are tiny - you now have to now take care of them.

You can obtain tablets that are mixed with water to produce ‘baby bettafish food’ from most pet shops. They need to eat lots of tiny food particles. You may find that they won’t usually eat for the first five of six days after hatching. But then you can feed live food and small flakes or pellets. Check with your pet store.

We have no experience with breeding Siamese Fighting Fish. The information that I have gathered is small bits and pieces to give you an idea of what it will involve. I think it will be a fascinating route to take once you decide to go ahead. Can you imagine breeding your own little baby fish! All your friends will be delighted when they come around and your children will have lots to talk about at school as well as to their friends. I’m sure you will derive a lot of pleasure if you go this route. I will be posting some articles on breeding Siamese Fighting Fish/Betta in the near future.