Breed Your Own Fish: Guppies and Bettas

So you've been in the hobby for a few years and have possibly kept every community fish available. Now what? Many hobbyist try breeding their own fish. Breeding aquarium fish is very fun, exciting and interesting. There are many freshwater fish to try to breed that range from easy to difficult. I have a short list of these possible fish and their breeding requirements to aide you in your choice. This is a two part series and will only entail the general setups to start breeding your own fish.

1. Guppies (Poecilia reticulata): Guppies, I would personally consider to be the easiest fish to breed. In the group of live-bears, these fish do not require any specialized conditions other than males and females being in the same tank.

A breeding setup would require a large aquarium (10 gallons +), heater, thermometer, and a divider. The water should be heated to 78 to 80 degrees F and should have an air source (bubbler). The males and females can be easily identified especially when breeding guppies. The male guppies usually have large, ornate fins while the females are more plan. Other defining characteristics are the shapes of the anal fin. Males have a round, rod shaped anal fin while the females do not.

When introducing the males to the females be sure that the females out number the males 3 to 1. If the males out number the females they can easily pick, bite and beat the females to death. Once a female has been fertilized she does not have to maintain interaction with the male to continue to reproduce. Females store male sperm allowing them to produce a number of offspring without the male.

A divider is used in the aquarium to allow the fry an escape route away from the adults because the adults will eat their offspring. Any fish in the family Poecilia would be easy to breed and maintain. Many hobbyist have developed special types of guppies like the cobra (picture at right) that sell for some great cash.

2. Bettas (Betta splendens): Bettas are possibly the first fish any young child tries to breed. Not only are bettas easy to care for but breeding them is just as easy. A typical breeding setup includes a 5 to 10 gallon aquarium, hurricane glass, heater, thermometer, plastic plants for cover and some plastic wrap.

The male is put into aquarium filled half full with the heater set to 82 degrees F. You want to add some plants or basically anything the male can attach his bubble nest to and to aide the female in hiding from the male. After the male has gotten use to his new surroundings you can put the female in the tank inside the hurricane glass. This allows the male to see her, but not touch her just yet. With the addition of the female the male should start to make a bubble nest and display at the female.

Once the nest is finished the male will swim towards the female displaying and slowly tying to coax her over to the nest. The female should be fat with eggs, have her ovipositer showing and be displaying dark vertical bars. Easily slide the hurricane glass out of the aquarium releasing the female to the male. The male will chase and nip the female around the aquarium for a period of time but, eventually the female will follow the male to the bubble nest where he can embrace her to squeeze the eggs out.

Once the eggs are out, the male catches them in his mouth and places them in the bubble nest. After all the eggs have been released the male will chase the female away, which is why many breeders remove the female promptly. Bettas can release 400 to 500 fry during one spawn which is why it is important to make sure you have the space and the right equipment to raise all of the fry to adulthood. The fry should hatch in 48 hours meaning you need to have fry food readily available.

I would recommend if you are planning on breeding bettas or breeding guppies to do some quality research at wetwebmedia.com because this is just an overview and I haven't even gotten into the specifics regarding the care requirements of offspring and the major details for the setups!

I will post the second part to BreedYour Own Fish with three more suggestions for which types of fish to try breeding in the home aquarium. In the meantime, share your breeding stories in the comments section!