Betta Spawn!
From 2002 to 2005 I spawned Bettas on a somewhat regular basis, I think I had 4 or 5 spawns in those 3 years. I didn't work with anything special, just marble veils to get a feel for color/fin inheritance, raising a quality group of fish efficiently etc. I distributed everything I had in 2005 to pet stores as I just didn't have enough space to carry out breeding them the way I wanted to.
In 2006 we bought our house, which meant a fishroom. Which meant room for bettas. I purchased 3 pairs of green halfmoons from 3 different lines, with the expectation of an easy spawn. The fish were awesome quality, I was stoked. All I had to do was set them up like I always did, wait for the male to build a nest (which should take no time at all), introduce the female & wait for the spawn. The bubble nest never came. No matter what I tried, the males had no interest in building a nest or in spawning. I gave up. 2 years later... I tried again with different fish. Same result. 2 years later... again. In the meantime I had luck with B. channoides spawning but they never held eggs to term. Wild B. picta spawned with no problems. So inducing mouthbrooders (which are generally more difficult than B. splendens) tospawn posed no problems. In early 2012 I was able to get a pair of wild Betta imbellis, another bubble nester. No luck. I also obtained some juvenile plakats from a line carrying orange, red, and yellow genetics to grow out for hopeful spawning. No luck. I recently picked up some female crowntails and a nice turquoise/orange bicolor (most would call it a mustard gas) halfmoon male from petsmart in hopes of spawning them as well.
It's been an incredibly frustrating 7 years, so I made a private resolution for 2013: that I would spawn Bettas again! It didn't take long. I set up 2 males last week; the male halfmoon from pet smart and one of my red plakats. The red plakat built his nest almost immediately, despite not building one LAST time I set him up. His mate was the red crowntail from petsmart. The halfmoon built his nest yesterday; I'd like his mate to be the steel blue crowntail female from petsmart, but she's a little small and not ready to spawn yet. So he's getting a yellow plakat female as a mate for this attempt. Today the red pair has spawned! Hopefully the male cares for the eggs well, but even if he doesn't this is a step in the right direction. I'll post updates with pictures soon... I hope.
In 2006 we bought our house, which meant a fishroom. Which meant room for bettas. I purchased 3 pairs of green halfmoons from 3 different lines, with the expectation of an easy spawn. The fish were awesome quality, I was stoked. All I had to do was set them up like I always did, wait for the male to build a nest (which should take no time at all), introduce the female & wait for the spawn. The bubble nest never came. No matter what I tried, the males had no interest in building a nest or in spawning. I gave up. 2 years later... I tried again with different fish. Same result. 2 years later... again. In the meantime I had luck with B. channoides spawning but they never held eggs to term. Wild B. picta spawned with no problems. So inducing mouthbrooders (which are generally more difficult than B. splendens) tospawn posed no problems. In early 2012 I was able to get a pair of wild Betta imbellis, another bubble nester. No luck. I also obtained some juvenile plakats from a line carrying orange, red, and yellow genetics to grow out for hopeful spawning. No luck. I recently picked up some female crowntails and a nice turquoise/orange bicolor (most would call it a mustard gas) halfmoon male from petsmart in hopes of spawning them as well.
It's been an incredibly frustrating 7 years, so I made a private resolution for 2013: that I would spawn Bettas again! It didn't take long. I set up 2 males last week; the male halfmoon from pet smart and one of my red plakats. The red plakat built his nest almost immediately, despite not building one LAST time I set him up. His mate was the red crowntail from petsmart. The halfmoon built his nest yesterday; I'd like his mate to be the steel blue crowntail female from petsmart, but she's a little small and not ready to spawn yet. So he's getting a yellow plakat female as a mate for this attempt. Today the red pair has spawned! Hopefully the male cares for the eggs well, but even if he doesn't this is a step in the right direction. I'll post updates with pictures soon... I hope.
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