Round Two!! Finchy + Ruby

[Iggy]

Not sold yet!

Well, I showed up the day before I was supposed to trade my female bettas for store credit (I had to pick-up a new heater - I broke my other one during a tank move) and loe & behold.. they already had a tank full of female bettas!!!

Hey! they were supposed to take mine right? Well, when I found the guy he looked a little guilty and told me he forgot. So anyway, I have to wait another week or so before I can bring any in.

I have contacted a few other stores, like Petcetera and PJ's here in Edmonton. Unfortunately, Petcetera will not buy from anyone who cannot supply all their stores (ya sure) and PJ's is making me play phone tag... telling me its a different person each time I call.

Anyway, I plan on showing up in person to PJ's so I can get a straight answer. I don't like getting jerked around!

But, I did anticipate this... most stores are not eager to take stock from private breeders. So I wil bide my time and trade/sell them as I can!

I also did my first major jar cleaning. They were looking pretty green, and I lost 1 more male betta due to unknown reasons overnight.

My males are now over 1 inch in body size (bout 1 1/2" overall) with long growing fins. About one or two more months for my males!

 

[Iggy]

Sold 40!

Well, it finally happened tonight... I traded in 40 of my betta females for store credit today.

I also lined-up another store who will be taking 100 of my females tomorrow.

By next week this time, I should be practically out of female bettas. Apparently, they are in demand right now, so the local stores (not the chains) are willing to accept them.

So, tomorrow I deliver 100 females which will leave me with only a dozen or so plus all my males.

I am both happy and a little sad about loosing them. I got used to having a few hundred fish get excited whenever I come into the room!

Oh well... I guess my kids are growing up and moving out. My males are large enough to sell privately, so I will start putting word out and calling around to see if some of the smaller shops are low in stock.

140 down, 95 to go!

 

[Iggy]

I sold my first male/tank today. My sister wanted a betta for herself, so I picked out an nice male, a 1 gallon tank filtered tank, conditioner, food and printed out an instruction sheet. Total price: $25.00 for a nice small setup.

I will encourage people to by the 3 gallon tanks ($40.00) with my fish as often as possble, but I rather they end up in a proper 1 gallon system than a cup or heaven forbid a vase!

I printed about 50 mail flyers I will drop off to my neighbors to see if I get any bites, I also created a few bulletin board sheets with tear-off number for the local grocery stores and any other locations I can post my Bettas for sale.

I am selling one for $4.00 or two for $6.00*,(*provided the get a divided or seperate tank for each male).

I have a 1 galllon, a 2 gallon and a couple 3 gallon divided tanks I will sell with the fish as I get calls.

1 down - only 83 left to go!

 

[naive_beta]

wow i have just loved reading this thread. it is so interesting and i knew nothing about breeding. not that many people down here are serious betta owners. its cool that you are so devoted to them! i wish i had the time, knowledge and resources to do a little breeding myself!

 

[Iggy]

I just got an order for 40 betta males. I was visting the pet stores where I sold my female bettas (I miss them) and they asked if I had any males ready for sale. I guess the males sell-out so quickly, that they don't want to special order another interm batch before they other varieties of fish get low.

Basically, for selling males, it appears timing is the determining factor. I will get $1.50/ea in store credit, which is not terrible.

Just in case your wondering, from the 40 females I sold them a week ago, only 8 are left. From the 50 females I sold the other store, only about 6 are left. Apparently, betta females are just as high in demand as males.

So, tomorrow afternoon, I will be packing 40 of my males and bringing them to their new home.

I also found a male I want to buy to breed with my female. He is a crown tail, butterfly patterned opaque purplish wash with white outside edges. If he is still there tomorrow - he is mine!

 

[Iggy]

Down to 36 males and 1 female.

I pretty much decided to keep only 2 males and the 1 female. I will keep my most red male and my most blue male from the Finchyspawn.

A local store (PJ Pet Center) will take my remaining 34 males this Friday if they have room.

So far, 76 males have gone to stores ($1.50 ea) and 140 females to stores ($1.15 to $1.25 ea) and I sold 6 direct to customers ($3.00 - $4.00 ea)

Total Sale revenue: $304.00 on fish alone.

My setup (tank+heater+jars+food) cost about $200 give or take.

I have decided to spawn other batch, I will post a new thread.

Thanks for everyone's comments and supportive words

 

[Iggy]

All sold!

I sold my last 33 males today. I have 2 males and 1 female that I am keeping from the original spawn.

Total time 10 months from start to finish.

Looking back, I really enjoyed the process. My jar bookself looks really empty with only 10 adult jars remaining.

Well, time to sanitize the old jars, and get ready for ROUND 3!

 

[Lotus]

Bumped for anyone who is interested in breeding bettas.

 

[infant340]

sticky sticky??

 

[Iggy]

Update:

Round 3 of breeding was a pretty big failure. I lost all but 1 fry, and both parents died a few months later.

Round 3 was with crown-tails, and they seemed a lot more fragile than my FinchySpawn. So, be warned.

I am not currently breeding more bettas for now. I am down to 4 active tanks, 6 betta bowls and 1 pond for now and keeping it that way for a while.

However, I might setup a small guppy breeder, mostly to feed my 2 Tiger Oscars (Sid & Sam).

A few parting tips:

a) Don't jar the fry to early. Keep them in the community tanks as long as you can. They seem to get a little weaker when you first jar them, so you want them as strong and as big as possible before you stress them.
b) Remember that some batches will fail completely, and it may have little or all to do with what you are doing. Research first, then do it again to be sure your doing the right thing. If you still loose most of them, sometimes it happens.
c) Avoid having kids and other hobbies/distractions while your breeding bettas - its easy to forget about them in those cases and water change frequency can easily take a nose-dive and cost you a lot of fish loss.

Other than that - have fun!

 

[GeraldTheMouse]

This thread has inspired me to try breeding bettas over the summer.

 

[avidcichlovr]

bettas

hello there, sometime in the very near future me and hubby want to get a 1 gallon or a 20 gallon for a betta i want to get (dont know what kind yet, still doing the research), and can someone tell me what small fishies can go with a betta and which betta can grow the biggest. In my late 20's to early 30's i had 2 betta (separate times of course) they were with mollies gouramis neon tetras and loaches(the wormy kind of loach) and both bettas lasted for 3 years. and as times change so do fish aggressiveness. and can we put any kind of small barb in the tank.

 

[drake53]

your loach was a kuhli loach or snake fish

 

[Dan Steveo]

that was an excelent thread. i have almost everything i need for the breeding. my female even got a verticle line after seeing the male for just 4 mins =]. im gunna remove the swordies and envoke the conditions tonight. even though she is purple and he is red i think theyell do something good. shes young too so i expect small numbers of fry.

 

[Anabantid Guy]

Can you get a picture of the bottle Ruby is in? It may help her get into spawning condition even better if the ccontainer is largerl. Also it really helps to feed live food, in case you didn't already know.

 

[Moshi-Cat]

Wow, this thread inspired me NOT to breed my bettas. Especially the "parents die" part.

 

[Betta_Blu]

I think Iggy was pretty successfull not only in breeding, but in selling them all. I don't know how the stores he sold them to care for their fish, but around my area fish are stored in old mayo jars (500ml or 17oz) and most end up dying before they are bought by people who will also keep them in similar conditions.
I've got about 100 fry at the moment, they're nearly 1 month-old, but I'm not sure I'll have the guts to send them to pet stores.

 

[Newman]

sell them on aquabid then?

 

[Fishman1995]

Ive read threw the thread, congrats on your spawns. My male Romeo blows a bubble nest ALL THE TIME. Maybe he's just bored or do you think he wants a gf? He's in a 2.5 gallon tank with a small filter and a small cave he can fit in and a large plant he lays in. I bought him out of one of those multi square long rectangular things that hang on the side of a tank. Most of the bettas i see in there dont blow bubbles on the top of there square but the other day i did happen to see one doing it. Do you think i could breed Romeo?

 

[Newman]

no, unless you have tons of money, time, space for tank setups and jars. Speaking from experience breeding these guys is a bit tough financially if you dont own your own house/apartment and you dont have a decent job. in other words being a kid or teen, I would not try it unless you REALLY are into it.