Q:
I've spawn beautiful veil tail bettas for about two years and am now
moving on to the "REAL" thing. I want to know when do you
retire a betta from spawning or how do you know your betta must
retire? I have spawned many young ones many times and I feel that
I'm overdoing it (one female, Pinky, has spawned 5 times in her
life.)
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A: This
is a good question which all breeders out there can benefit from. So
I will cover the topic broadly and give you some info and parameters
to follow when it comes to spawning bettas.
| bettas can be spawned as late
as their health and energy allows. This could be 1.5 years old,
but rarely beyond that.
| bettas can be spawned year
round.
| bettas can be spawned anytime
they are willing and in good health.
| spawning bettas is very
stressful for them. Any betta that is not fully healthy and in
great shape will either not spawn or if it does, is likely to
not handle the stress well and immediately become sick after it
is done spawning and raising the fry. So never attempt to spawn
a betta that is not 100% healthy and in its prime.
| always allows at least 3 weeks
between spawns so that the fish can recover and replenish their
strength and stress levels have returned to normal, as well as
immune system.
| never spawn bettas you have
just received. They must be allowed to first acclimate to their
new homes, new water and new foods and to get over that
move related stress. Then you can spawn them. Otherwise you will
compound the stress of being moved to a new home to the stress
of being spawned and they might not survive (or at least their
health will deteriorate to the point where they no longer can be
used as breeders).
| each time you spawn a betta you
take a chance on killing it (both male and female). If you have
a very nice betta it is worth the chance, because you want its
gene to be passed on to as many fry as possible. But don't over
do it. I feel that 3 to 4 spawns would be a very maximum
for a betta's lifetime. I am sure some people out there have
spawned a betta more, or at least wanted to. I am not so sure
their betta was still in tip top shape to spawn after 3 spawns.
| if a betta ever gets sick with
ANYTHING, it is not in my book 'spawnable' any longer. Since it
is likely your breeders might come down with something after a
few spawns, it is not likely you will be able to breed them
again and again and again.
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My advice: Spawn your bettas while still fairly young, and spawn them one to three time each, no more. Usually you will want to move on to the next generation anyways. After 2 to 3 spawns, retire your betta and treat them well, they have after all, worked hard for you and deserve it. On that note I am happy to report that my 190 degree halfmoon Blue Moon male spawned for me last night and is now guarding a nest full of eggs. The female I paired him with spawned with him at lightning speed :) after only 8 hours in the tank. It was love at first sight. Such fast spawning is less stressful for a female and she suffered no damage since she was willing since minute one :). I was surprised to see that he did not blow his fins and suffered almost no damage at all. Which made me very happy because he has HUGE gorgeous finnage. I hope the eggs hatch and he doesn't snack on the fry and we will all be happy :). Earlier this week, my melano male spawned and also my crowntail geno DT geno Holy Grail male with a sister. These were however very small spawns, since the fish involved were so young. I will spawn both again in one month. Last but not least, a super delta bright red apache male is about to spawn with a very nice sister (she is checking the nest at regular intervals, inspecting it and so far it has not yet met her approval LOL, but I can see it is getting there LOL). In two other tanks, a pair of red/black/white splash (rare color) has just been set-up as well as another pair of apache with heavy pattern. Over the week end I will be setting up a pair of green halfmoon marbles and another pair of opaques. :) Last but not least, my last black/splash spawn is almost ready to start selling. It yielded some darn nice marbles!! The color is very vibrant and many of the fish show great marbling. I am very pleased because good marbles remain very hard to produce. Look for them on the stock page soon.
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