HELP FOR OUR AMERICAN BETTA BUDDIES BREDDING THEIR PRIZE BETTAS 

The differences in the water and climates between Thailand and the USA gives the US breeders more of a challenge than in their homeland. These simple steps will help make sure you have a nice spawn of healthy bettas.
1. Make sure your breeding pair is healthy. Feed them live food twice a day like brine shrimp and blood worms. If live food is not available in your area, just use the frozen ones found at you local pet stores.
2. Use a 15 or even 20 gallon tank. But only fill it to about 5 inches. Use reverse osmosis water. You can usually buy this at your local fish store too. If not, use distilled water. Add one teaspoon of sea salt per gallon of water used. The PH should be at 7.0 so adjust it if necessary.
3. Use a submergible heater. And let the tank stabilize to 82 degrees. Hint: you can put your heater is a glass jar inside the tank. This will keep young fry away from your heater. Do not put gravel in the tank. The gravel will make the males job of gathering fallen eggs too hard.
4. Place a sponge filter in the tank and let it run slow until you are ready to add the breeding pair. Then turn if off.
5. Bettas and fry like live plants like java moss and java fern. But only plant them on one side of the tank. Leave the other side clear for the males bubble nest. The female can use this planted area to escape from the male if he gets too aggressive. Also the newly hatched fry like to find food on these plants.

6. Float either an almond leaf or a styrofoam cup cut in half on the empty side of the tank. This is where the bubble nest will probably be built.
7. Place your breeding pair side by side in different jars for a couple  days. The day or two before breeding, don’t let them see each other. Also, do not feed the pair once they are in the breeding tank.
8. When the tank is ready, add the male. Let him get used to the tank for a day before adding the female. He may start to build the bubble nest at this time. If not, don’t worry. On the second day, add the female but put her in a glass chimney or a jar inside the tank. This way the pair will get use to each other again. The females bars will show vertically. This means she is ready. After a few hours, release her into the breeding tank.
9. Most new breeders want to watch their pair breed closely. But bettas are shy fish when breeding. Your constant watching may hinder the mating or keep it from happening completely. One way to stop this is to cover the tank in newspaper. Leave only a small hole big enough for you to see the bubble nest. The actual mating can happen right away or may not happen for two days. When you see the tiny white or yellow eggs in the bubbles, quietly remove the female without disturbing the nest. Put her in an isolation tank or jar and add some meds to heal any wounds she may have received in the breeding process.
10. The male will tend the bubble nest. If the eggs fall out, he will pick them up and place them in a new bubble. In about 48 hours, the fry will hatch. You can see their tiny tails hanging from the bubbles. After another 2 days, the fry will become free swimming. Their swim bladders are formed and they should be swimming horizontally. At this time, remove the male to an isolation healing tank as well. When you have reached this point, you need to move on to our fry raising section.