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I just picked up a new male Beta fish last weekend. He is the same deep royal purple as the female I have been keeping in a vase for the past couple months. I heard this is an extremely rare color for this species and it may be worth trying to breed them. I have to agree as I have only seen those two out of the hundreds of Betas I have seen. They are both absolutely exquisite fish and I would love to see them passing on their genes.

Does anyone know how to go about breeding Betas? I know it is a difficult and dangerous process. Betas are known to kill each other, and even a male and female under the wrong circumstances will end in one of them dead.  

I did a little research on breeding beta fish and found out just how hard this is. After learning more about it, I'm amazed any of them survive the whole ordeal to make it to pet stores. If it's done wrong, they will kill each other. The male actually makes a nest out of bubbles, and after the eggs are laid, he will take care of them, and scoop them back into the bubbles if they fall out. I'm still going to give it a shot because it looks like both my fish are ready to breed. It has to be done very carefully, though, or as usual, they will kill each other. I can't emphasize enough, these are very violent fish. So here's how it's done:

First, get everything ready. You have to make sure both fish are very well fed for about 2 weeks before they will be even ready to lay eggs. The female will get fat and you may notice bubbles at the top of the male's tank. You will also want to either pick up some fish fry food from the local pet store, or make your own by leaving a jar of grass or leaves in a windowsill to collect microorganisms. You also need to set up a tank with a clear divider so the fish will be able to see each other but not contact each other in any OR THEY WILL KILL EACH OTHER.

Next, put the fish in the new tank and make sure they can see but not touch each other. They should fluff out their fins and gills at each other. Then the male will make a little raft of bubbles at the surface of the tank. When he's done with this make sure you block out about an hour of your time to watch them closely to make sure they don't kill each other. When they're ready, you can remove the barrier and let them get close to each other. They may nip at each other and seem somewhat violent. This is actually normal and they may get pretty beat up in the process. Just make sure to referee them so they don't get TOO violent (or KILL EACH OTHER). If it looks bad, take the female out, let her recover for a couple days and then if you want to try again, you can. If all goes well, they will mate, the female will drop her eggs, and the male will start scooping them up into the bubble nest. While he is distracted with the eggs, scoop out the female and put her back in her tank.

The male will protect and nurture the eggs for the next couple of days the eggs will hatch, and a couple of days after that, they will start to swim around. When they swim out of the nest on their own, you need to get their father out of the tank or he may decide to eat them. From this point, you just feed them tiny microorganisms or fry food until they are about an inch long. At this point you need to separate them into their own containers... or they will kill each other.

So there you have it. It sounds really difficult, but the mere existence of the species attests to the fact that it must be possible. Just make sure they don't kill each other and it will all work out fine.  

Well I gave it a shot with breeding the betas this weekend. I'm not sure if it worked though. It looks like the eggs didn't get fertilized properly and they may not hatch. I guess I will find out in a couple days. The good news is, the parents made it through alive and healthy and are doing great. They didn't kill each other which is very good news. They will be safe for another try soon if these eggs don't hatch.

I put the fish close together and they were very interested in each other. The male didn't start his bubble nest at first. I knew he needed a nest for them to successfully breed so I left them together with a clear divider so they could see each other. I hoped the fish would see each other and this might inspire the male to start building. Well in the morning I got up to find the male had made his bubble nest and was now ready. But there were eggs all over the bottom of the tank. Apparently the female didn't have the patience to wait for him and dropped her eggs. I thought she might have more or they might still be fertilized if they mated, so I let them get together. The male was definitely into the idea, but the female wasn't anymore. He chased her around, but she wasn't receptive anymore and I had to take her out to protect her. He started scooping the eggs like normal, but I'm not sure if they ever got fertilized. So there's still hope of baby fish, but most likely they just won't get fertilized and will never hatch. The good news is, the female is happy and healthy, and eating like a pig, and the male seems to be just fine and ready for being a parent. I might try this again soon and see if I can get the timing right this time.