BettaTim Posted January 13, 2012 Report Share Posted January 13, 2012 Ok, so i'm only new to breeding Betta, but have spent the past few years successfully breeding Cichlids and Bristlenoses. I currently have only a few betta from my LFS to play around with, waiting on JHA to get some stock in. 1x Black CT Male with a dark blue VT Female and Red VT Male with a Red VT Female. Am i Stupid in thinking that you can breed a CT male with a VT Female? Or a HM Male with a CT Female? I have been introducing the female to the male tank 20mins per day, and the male goes nuts for her, doesn't bite at all, just a bit of chasing. My plan is to have matching HM pairs, with matching colors, but just wanted to start practising with the fish i already have Thanks in advance Tim. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kermadum Posted January 13, 2012 Report Share Posted January 13, 2012 You can breed any of the tail varieties together and you will get fry, but the tail types of the fry won't necessarily be desirable and you may have trouble finding homes for the fry. A CT crossed with other tail types will usually give you a combtail. Which can be nice, but can also just look kind of raggedy. http://www.bettysplendens.com/articles/page.imp?articleid=1482 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BettaTim Posted January 13, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 13, 2012 Thanks! Exactly what I needed to know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bettarazzi Posted January 13, 2012 Report Share Posted January 13, 2012 Agree with kermadum in principle but sometime you might do those crosses if you can't find suitable matched pairs or if you're trying to transfer a particular trait from one to another. For example, I currently have a spawn of a steel crowntail with a full mask super blue delta. The reason I did that is to try to transfer the masking from the delta to the crowntail with the ultimate goal being to create a fully masked super blue CT. The super blue colour is a more intense blue than ordinary blue iridescence. This will be a long project. It could take up to 5 generations to get good CT finnage back again. But at least I'm going into it with my eyes open. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melbournebetta Posted January 13, 2012 Report Share Posted January 13, 2012 Yah, tricky one if you have several tail traits and no pairs / willing pairs. But take a moment, sure you might cut your teeth on getting the courtship and the spawning process worked out... (which I suggest you do) But at some point you'll be spending a rather involved 3-6 months feeding the 20-100 little noodles once, twice, thrice a day, culturing different things for the buggers to Nom on. It's pretty involved, you get them to full-enough-grown and you want to be sure you can move them to sensible homes.... Mongrel tail types aren't terribly desirable. (unless your a mad scientist like razzi and used to the idea of working on traits over multiple generations) However huge numbers in early Spawns are irregular... So you might be in luck & find a handful unwilling mates to pawn them off on to. Set the tank up, condition them... Watch and let them teach you how things work in the fishy boudoir. Good luck, you'll be right, off ya go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
les Posted January 13, 2012 Report Share Posted January 13, 2012 I agree with all that has been said. I would advise to learn as much as you can about Betta genetics, whilst putting cheep LFS pairs together so that you know you have some good technics for getting the right results whilst doing this you will be able to culture the foods that you will need to raise a spawn and see what is involved before you outlay larger sums of money on the more fancier types of Betta. doing this can save you a lot of heart ache but first and formost ask questions, when in dought ask first then you can make a more informed decision. Cheers Les Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melbournebetta Posted January 14, 2012 Report Share Posted January 14, 2012 I responded to this quite late and quite horizontal last night... however I've been thinking about it. If you're happy to wait for the JHA fish - which tend to come pretty quickly - go ahead, but if you are interested in a breeding pair, I wonder if I don't maybe have a hairy spare pair of HM's you could try. (let me know) Anyhoo.. Of all the tail combos, I'll be honest and suggest anything you cross back to veil tail is a rather large step backward... takes a long time and too much energy IMO to expand the tails again to get back to halfmoon. Now that they're more and more common in Australia, best to start with something with a big tail. Really excited for your breeding adventures - please keep us posted we'd love to help if/where we can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BettaTim Posted January 14, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2012 Appreciate the open and honest feedback. Glad you guys stopped me in my tracks - The last thing I want is to have a tank full of fry that i've put my heart and soul into raising, only to have a tank full of fish that really don't look that appealing. With this in Mind, not going to pursue the original idea. On another note, I would like some advice on some Betta that I have picked to today. I'll get some pictures up after this post. Unsure of the age of these fish, but they are quite young. Pure white HM Female is around 2.5cm and quite skinny, and my HM Dragon is around the 3.5cm mark. Any idea how old they might be, considering the size? Also the compatibility of breeding a mix of these 2? Melbournebetta, would definitely be interested in working something out if you have any HM's you could spare? I spent about 2 hours looking at Razzi's post of his Copper/Blue spawn for sale, writing down the ones that I wanted, only to find that they were all gone... I always scroll the whole topic now Tim. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BettaTim Posted January 14, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2012 White HM Female: The HM Male: (I think Dragon) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melbournebetta Posted January 14, 2012 Report Share Posted January 14, 2012 Hey Tim, These two are really interesting - hopefully some of the genetic nerds pipe up here and let us know what colour combination you'll end up with if you spawned them, I would suggest some multicolours with red wash and some dragon scaling and copper (if she's metallic) It's easiest to critique them on their form when they're in full flare... but he looks close enough to halfmoon, nice tall dorsal and round topline. You're on the right track if you want to spawn these two. Unfortunately unless you end up following spawn threads or know the breeder, it's impossible to know what age these fish are, you can't open their mouths up like horses and guess within a few years. Although these dudes last significantly shorter than horses - this is irrelevant and I am swerving dangerously off topic. I quite like the female too - neither of these are mutts, you could have a really lovely first spawn. do lots of research, so long as you're okay with the occasional humane cull, culturing your own worms and weird things, we've got your back! The tough bit of breeding is when they're tiny enough that they are too boring to sell, but agro enough to start doing damage to eachother, they need jarring at around 8-12 weeks and then water changes every 2-3 days thereafter so they don't get stunted. This is pretty involved, but turns into a labor of love when you watch them sprout and grow. Personally I like spawns of around 20-30 in number, and I will elect to cull at some point so I have these numbers, this is a decision I've reconciled with as a breeder so I can give them the energy they all need to thrive. keep us posted with how you go... the female I would put with this male (from my tank) isn't any better than your white gal... so get going! -Ness Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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