why are bettas sold in pairs?

[Guest delerious]

Maybe a silly question but just wondering if there is an advantage to buying a 'betta pair'? Have seen them advertised that way... My guess is they are siblings and so breeding them together would increase the chances of recessive traits being expressed? Or???

[Guest delerious]

Nobody knows??? Come on people, somebody must know! Pretty please? :)

[Chuckie]

yep, what you said. Also saves you looking around for 2 compatible fish if you can get both at once.

[Guest delerious]

Thanks Now that reminds me of another question hehe what makes them compatible? I've noticed people talking of finding good matches too....

[Chuckie]

it's like breeding anything. Decide what you want to achieve, and then select fish that maximise the chance of getting it.

[paul]

It's like Lisa said... people usually buy the look or colour they want, so, if they're going to breed more fish, they usually want more of the same fin category or colour, so, fish are usually sold as sibling pairs so that you have the best chance to get more of the same kind of fish when you breed them.

What makes a suitable/compatible pair... again depends on what you want. You want more of the same fish, get a sibling or similar genetic backgound fish...fin type, colour etc. You want to modify something in a particular line of fish (may take many generations of selecive breeding), but you can add certain characteristics by breeding into different "lines". For example many people like the appearance of a broad dorsal fin. They have achieved the colour and fin shape they want, but to improve the dorsal fin of the breeding line they may choose to breed with a similarly coloured fish but with a double tail. This charachteristic is recessive, but if you look at pics of DTs they have a broader body and broader dorsal fin... this feature is partially/incompletely dominant... so the babies won't be DT's but some/most should have a broader dorsal fin. Hence although the pair is not "compatible" by way of matching fin types... you can choose two fish with different genetic backgrounds to achieve a goal. This will alter the appearance of your subsequent generations (hopefully in a good way), thereby making them a suitable pair.

Breeders can get quite particular about what they choose for, and can be highly selective when breeding. The genetics of crossing lines can also become really complex... but for loads of us, we just want more pretty fish, and whatever comes our way is great!

I want to get into breeding a copper male that I have, and currently I'm trying to figure out some genetics... will then figure out if I want to have more copper fish, or to add a little spice by finding him a metallic female of different colour background to get lots of different coloured metallic fish... also have to figure out if I want long or short fin female so that I can get some plakats in subsequent breeding of sibling pairs.... planning way too far ahead, but I love the idea! Choosing a wife can be difficult! :(

[gb86217]

Find one good quality betta is already hard enough, two with same color and tail shape, mission impossible.

[zhong89]

That's why it's advisable to get sibling pairs you get both from the same place and problem solved. But I have heard that if you keep inbreeding them further down the road you might get some genetic abnormalities. Don't know if that's true...

[Guest delerious]

That's why it's advisable to get sibling pairs you get both from the same place and problem solved. But I have heard that if you keep inbreeding them further down the road you might get some genetic abnormalities. Don't know if that's true...

I'd think it would be true. I know for humans inbreeding increases the chances of diseases that are often recessive. If you use the same gene pool over and over again the number of disadvantageous traits will build up because natural selection can't do its thing in selecting the best from a wide range of options and getting rid of the weaker ones. Also a lot of traits are ok if they are partially expressed, sometimes its even good but if they are the only copy of that gene that is expressed then the organism may not be able to function. The likelihood of that happening increases the more you cross the same gene pool again and again.

Something like that! lol not sure if theres more to it and someone please correct me if I'm wrong

Thanks for all the info everyone I read online somewhere "a suitable breeding partner can be provided", sounded to me like suitable and not suitable rather than what I would have thought of choosing what you want to mix with what but yeah am thinking that betta splendens as they are now are the result of many generations of inbreeding so continuing it would be a short cut option rather than diversifying the gene pool over again.

[Guest delerious]

oh and Paul I'll be looking forward to seeing pics of all these fish, sounds like you have quite the plans! :(

[gb86217]

Yes, some professional breeder in Malaysia told me that better bring some new genes every three generations

[Chuckie]

Line breeding generally entails at least 6 generations before an outcross is performed. None of the amazing traits our bettas have these days could have been achieved if we were all focussing on diversity instead.