Introduction
Before attempting to breed Betta splendens, we should think about what we are trying to achieve. Should we try it? To breed for pleasure? To breed? If we want to try it or breed warrior beetles just for fun, a few insights:
In normal spawning, warrior moths will produce 100-500 eggs (but more or less depending on several factors, the largest record was almost 1000 eggs).
After spawning, it is necessary to separate the female and the male separately from the spawn. Keep the temperature in the brood box at a minimum of 26 °C. Feed at least twice daily and change the water regularly. Read a bit about breeding them before they are already out in the world, and then we hesitate what to feed them and if we are willing to breed artemia…What about successful breeding? Do we have a subscription for them?
Right off the bat, it was worthwhile to familiarize ourselves with a few observations that may dissuade us from our plan to spawn warrior fish. If you just want me to always have beautiful males and no worries, you better buy them.
Fighting females will not hatch 10-15 that will live together. The fighting fish is an aggressive fish that is intolerant and territorial. When attempting to breed a pair nonstop together, tattered and finned fins are commonplace and not only the female, but the male will never have a full tail either. Their rubbing is not an affectionate act, but a constant chase, hard fighting and biting. Are we surprised? She’s a warrior and she didn’t get that name by accident.
It may seem overly negative, but it’s better to start with the facts that elude would-be breeders, and when they take on the rubbing, they are woefully surprised by the male’s courtship and try to cure him of his aggression by buying more females. Aggression does not decrease, it just gets divided by the number of females, and a good male can continually defend two females. The male is not trying to kill them, but to force them to spawn. However, since there is always another one swimming around, he cannot concentrate his courtship and over time he may become dull and not try to spawn.
The spawning tank is suitable from 15 litres upwards. If we use, for example, a 50 litre aquarium, it is sufficient to fill to a height of 15-20 cm and gradually top up. For smaller ones, e.g. 15 l, it is necessary to transfer the fish to a larger one after about two months so that they have room to swim and, in addition, so that the water stays cleaner for longer.
The use of gravel is up to the keeper, the disadvantage is that the eggs get stuck between the pebbles, where the male cannot remove them, and later on the uneaten food gets stuck, which is harder to roll away than from the empty bottom. On an empty bottom even the male can easily find a fallen egg or hatched spawn. So I do not recommend gravel at all.
Plants are an important ingredient. In addition to absorbing waste matter, they are home to spawners and other microorganisms that are excellent food for the fry in the early days. In addition, floating plants such as Riccia fluitans or Lemna minor, Ceratophyllum demersum, Pistia, Egeria densa are also suitable for nest building (support material) and are natural hiding places for the female. However, it is of course also possible to spawn warrior plants without plants.
Aeration is especially necessary in smaller containers, such as the aforementioned 15 l, where the 200 hatchlings would have nothing to breathe, as oxygen is also consumed in the decomposition and putrefaction processes when there is an excess of food. The fry breathe through the gills until the development of the labyrinth (a respiratory organ that allows them to breathe atmospheric oxygen by emerging with their mouths above the surface). I recommend aeration, especially if we have decided to have a rearing aquarium without plants.
The cover glass keeps the air above the surface warmer than it is in the room, which requires keeping the nest together, as the water is usually at a higher temperature than the ambient air. Plastic can also be used in place of the cover glass, but it must be stuck against the tank. The disadvantage of the plastic is that care must always be taken not to drop it, which would completely cover the surface and prevent the fish from being able to breathe (the warrior fish depends on the labyrinth as its primary source of air – beware of the possibility of suffocation!). Instead of covering the entire aquarium, we can use a polystyrene cover, which will keep the air warm and allow the male to make a nest underneath. It must have an arched shape.
A 20-watt heater is usually used. It is not the wattage that is important, but the size, so that it does not stand out, so it is possible to use e.g. 75 W.
A filtration that can be switched off or set to minimum power in the first stage.
Pair selection
It is up to the keeper which pair he chooses. Warrior fish are most active for spawning in the 3rd-8th month, but they are also active at a much older age. Store-bought fish are always at least 8 months of age, unless they are imports. Breeders in Thailand and the like usually breed males to 8 months until they are large and attractive enough. These breeders are not usually direct importers to all countries, so the assumption is that the fish go through multiple middlemen, which means that an import fish in the trade may be a year or more old. Good traders also dispose of old infertile males that are big and beautiful but minimally active.
Fish from home breeders can deceive by their size that they are young, but fish that are not properly cared for can be 9 months old and look the size of three. Irregular water changes, too low a temperature and inadequate feeding can be to blame.
Better quality fish may come from a breeder who is dedicated to fighting fish, although no one can guarantee that they will provide good quality fish. There isn’t much choice, but it’s good to be aware of how many factors and opportunities to hide them exist with fighting fish.
An important consideration when choosing parents is whether you want to achieve a certain colour or fin type by spawning them. In most cases, store fish carry different genes, which means that after spawning two unrelated fighters, neither of the young fish may resemble the parents. To achieve the desired colour or fin type, it is necessary to crossbreed related fish (this is possible up to the 8th generation of subsequent inbreeding without defects), where the colours gradually revert or repeat (meaning that by mating red and blue, for example, we can have green, blue, red, yellow… whatever the genes contain, and after repeatedly crossbreeding related fish, those colours repeat, i.e. the splitting into different colours slowly stops).
In the male, being active, building a nest, is important. For the female, it is adequate size to the male, the same or a little smaller. A female with a bulging abdomen is likely to be full of eggs, which is not a condition for success. The female always has eggs, but at certain times she has more.
Both parents should be fed live or frozen food before spawning.
Insertion of the spawning pair
The water temperature in the spawning tank should be 26-29 °C. Opinions on the order of insertion of the fish vary. Some start with the female to get her settled and find hiding places, but on the other hand the male needs to get familiar with his territory to choose a nest site. If the male is being given to spawn for the first time, it is a good idea to “introduce” him to the female for a few days so that they can see each other, which will, among other things, encourage the male to build a nest. A proven method is also the so-called chimney – putting the female in a cup that is full to the surface. The male shows off in front of the female and cannot hurt her, the female is less afraid of him and his showing off prepares her for spawning.
The female’s readiness is indicated by vertical stripes (faded from the base color). Females with pale bodies have harder to see stripes or none at all. Sometimes the female is ready before the male. During nest building, she swims in and the male pushes her away with his tail; the reason is an unfinished nest. Otherwise, the nest is finished and the female is still hidden and has no vertical bars.
When both are ready, however, the male lures the female under the nest with outstretched fins and gills. This whole process is accompanied by a rather fierce fight and proper chases, which is a normal phenomenon. When the female swims in, the “wriggling” begins. The male wraps himself around the female and squeezes to expel a few eggs from the female, which are then fertilized. While the female rises in ecstasy to the surface, looking as if she is dead, the male begins to collect eggs along the bottom. After collecting a few, he wraps them in saliva in his mouth and spits them into the nest.
The act is repeated dozens of times over a period of 2-6 h. The male decides the end of spawning. He begins to drive the female away from the nest, his aggression increases, and the female must be removed.
First-time spawning males sometimes take several days for spawning to occur, building nests around and relocating them. Sometimes they don’t even spawn at all, or the spawn is unsuccessful by leaving the eggs unnoticed after “spawning” or letting the female eat them. Or they also wriggle around the female, but can’t squeeze her properly and can’t get the eggs out of her. With first mating males, unsuccessful brooding is very common. Just wait at least 2-4 weeks and repeat the spawning.
Growth of the fry
The spawn will float after 24-40 h depending on the temperature. The potter is very miniature and it appears as if only the spawn has grown a tiny tail. The spawn begins to fall out of the nest and the male collects it and returns it. Some of the little fighters swim themselves by a circular clumsy swim to the nest. From the bottom of the nest, all that can be seen are dozens of little tails sticking out.
The fallen spawn lying on the bottom appears dead, but it’s just resting. It can be seen trying to wriggle its way into the nest after a while. Beginner breeders are sometimes startled to see that after spitting a few young into the nest, more drop out than the male has placed, which is normal.
After 2-3 days, the fry will begin to float horizontally. At that point, the male’s attention and his catching of the lost chicks is no longer needed and the male can be fished out. When removed from the babies, the male may become depressed, may not receive food for a few days and may fade.
Most fry have already missed the yolk sac and are starting to hunt for funnels and other microorganisms. Some of the fry may already be taking in hatched nauplii artemia right away, others may not until 1-2 days later.
Feeding should be done at least twice a day. Live or frozen cyclops are also a suitable feed, as well as powdered food as a supplement.
Water changes are an important factor influencing growth. Nitrate build-up and excess ammonia from faeces and uneaten food block growth and can even kill. Water changes are normally started after 1-2 weeks, 20-50% per day depending on the number of fry and the size of the aquarium. It is always exchanged for water that has stood for about 24 h (to evaporate the chlorine) and the same temperature (with a variation of max 1-2 °C, since it is a spawn, it is really best to have the same warm water without variation).
Even after 24 h, the water standing in a larger container can be 4 °C lower than the temperature of the fish. The water can be warmed up by heating some of the water (e.g. 1 l for 10 l) and pouring it back in, stirring and measuring the temperature. Or boil e.g. 2 dcl in a kettle and pour in the rest, stir well and measure with a thermometer.
Changing the water without sucking the waste out of the bottom wouldn’t be that effective. Drainage is possible with an air hose, a trickle down effect. Straightness and easy handling of the hose is achieved by tying it to a skewer or thicker shank. Few people like aquarium water, so use a syringe for suction, which is sucked in to create a vacuum, disconnected and the water flows into the container. The fry can handle the eventual slide without harm, so check the container after suction under a strong light (it is best to see the fry in light buckets, where even a 2 mm fish can be seen after shining) and put the participants of the slide back in (with a spoon or a strainer with a hard mesh).
The filter can be dropped more strongly, but not to prevent the spawn from swimming.
At 3-4 weeks of age, the fry are large enough to accept sliced snappers or coryta. It is also advisable to start with supplementary dried food. Dried food is not suitable as a staple diet, but it is necessary because it contains many vitamins that fish need and even live/frozen food does not contain them all. It is important to rotate the meals. A great live food is grindal, easy maintenance, tiny, suitable for fry, but I use it for adults too.
Separation of males
Around week 6-8, males and females begin to differentiate. Males have a longer anal fin and longer pelvic fins, females begin to develop a white spot from which they later release eggs.
Males begin to have small, non-life threatening fights with each other. However, their fins may be at risk; if fins are nibbled off at a young age, they may never grow back, or they may be crushed.
Separation of males may appear inconvenient to the uninitiated. However, males would kill themselves over time if they were not separated. The fish come from farms where they are reared, as in Thailand, in 0.5 litre whisky bottles, with daily water changes.
For adult males, 0,7-1,0 l containers are suitable. A female warrior fish spends 3-8 months in such a tank and is then sold. In shops, they are kept in containers of less than 0.2 l anyway.
Adult warrior fish should not be kept in such small containers all their lives; around 2 l or larger are preferable. A fighting fish grows to about 11 months old and in a 1 litre tank an adult would barely turn over.
Suitable containers for separating males are glass shot glasses or PET beverage bottles cut to the desired size. PET bottles have the advantage of greater volume but are less visible through them. Glass ones, in addition to their smaller volume, are heavy and a large number of them gain quite a bit of weight. Square or round, it doesn’t matter. Round versus square containers distort and have different rims.
Changing the water in the containers 2 times a week, which is every 3rd-5th day, 70-85% of the volume is sufficient, also by tubing. The addition of new water is possible by topping up, which causes a mixer effect. Our own funnels – the neck of a PET bottle closed with a lid and with an adequate hole at the end – help us to do this. When we have several of these funnels, we can put them in glasses and pour into several in a row, saving time before the water flows into the glass. Such a flow is more acceptable.
Over time, the jars become clogged with algae and sludge and need to be washed. At that time, a 100 % water change is also advisable.
The plants in the jars are a great help in consuming the waste substances in the aquarium. However, they must not take up too much space so that there is room to swim. Of course, root plants will not grow there, but the aforementioned floating Riccia and the smallest frogweed will endure and even multiply to the point of needing to be discarded.
The young warrior plants should see each other in the first few months so as not to be abandoned, but in 5.-6. In the 5th to 6th month, we will start to prevent them from continuously seeing another warrior cow by using postcards or cut paper. I only recommend uncovering a few times a day (once or noon is fine) for 10-30 minutes. This will prevent the males from lazing around or, conversely, hatching all day.