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There are a few basic steps to breeding bettas. These steps are the general procedures for breeding and not absolute, meaning once you gain experience, you can vary the steps as you prefer.
Before breeding the bettas, choose the pair of
male and female with the characteristics that you woudl like to see in the fries.
For example, if you woudl like to have a extended red line of bettas, choose
a pair of extended red bettas.
Infusoria
Infusoria is a term for microscopic organism found in water. If you want to increase the amount of infusoria in your tank, just add a lot of plants or Liquifry. You could culture it too.
To start a culture take a cup of aquarium water or aged water and put a crushed lettuce leaf in the jar. Leave it at a place that receives lots of sunlight. The culture will develop after a few days. As to where these organism comes from, wonder on. Within a week the water should become cloudy. That means that bacteria is growing. Then the water will start to clear up as the infusoria is growing and eating the bacteria. Once the water is totally clear you will be able to see patches or areas that are filled with infusoria. Siphon them out and put them in your fry tank.
From my experience (which happens to be
a negative one), the infusoria is only good for maybe the first one or
two days. After that I would STRONGLY RECOMMEND baby brine shrimp for your
fries. My fries died of starvation because I fed them infusoria for too
long thinking that it is the best food for them. (Actually I had thought
to save the trouble of setting up a hatchery for the bbs)
Baby brine shrimps (BBS)
After a few days, (IMO two days the most) infusoria will not be enough to support them alone. The most popular and the best (in a lot of people's opinion) food to add at this point is live baby brine shrimp.
Brine shrimps aka Sea Monkeys are small aquatic crustaceans. Freshly hatched brine shrimp nauplii have a nutrient-rich yolk which is good for young fries. Brine shrimp can live in freshwater for around 5 hours before they die.
Buy some brine shrimp eggs from your LFS and salt (common table salt would do). Put water in a 1 or 2 L bottle and add salt according to instructions on bottle. Aerate the mixture vigorously w/o airstone.Depending on temperature and egg quality, hatching time should be about 24 - 48 hours. The quality of the eggs would affect the hatch rate. e.g.. 70% of the batch would hatch for average quality.
Careful siphoning is necessary because unhatched eggs and shells cannot be digested and may become caught in the stomach of small fish, thus leading to mortalities. Leave the solution to settle for about 10 - 15 minutes. This will separate the egg shells, unhatched eggs and bbs. The bbs would most likely be in the middle part of the bottle, with egg shells on top of the water and unhatched eggs on the bottom. Feed them to your fry 3 times a day.
Brine shrimp eggs should be maintained in a dry condition at all times. Store opened eggs in an air-tight container in the refrigerator or in a cool dry place.
Decapsulation for brine shrimp eggs.
Decapsulating the brine shrimp eggs would help improve the hatch rate and at the same time w/o the risk of the egg (unhatched and shells) getting stuck in fries bellies etc. But some people use it so that they can feed the eggs direct.
Here is what is done (by some):
Use the water that is left after one hatching
of the bbs. Put it in a cup and add some eggs. Aerate for about an hour
or more. Next add a volume of bleach that is about 2/3 of whatever water
that has been used. Aerate for some time after that. Once the eggs start
turning orange or whitish (in my case), stop the process. Strain the eggs
using a funnel and a cloth. Rinse the eggs thoroughly, at least three times
with fresh water. If you are worried about any chlorine left behind, add
some dechlorinator to your eggs.
How to differentiate between a male and female betta
