Breed Your Pet Fish - SIAMESE FIGHTER

Siamese Fighter fish aka Betta fish is one of the most popular variety of freshwater aquarium fishes famous for fighting.

What you need?

1. Tank Setup
1. 20x10x10 inch size Glass Tank (circular vessels/bowls will not serve)
2. 20x10x10 inch Fiber Top
3. 6" Glass Bowls - 3 numbers
• 1 Glass Bowl for Male Fighter
• 1 Glass Bowl for Female Fighter
• 1 Glass Bowl for food processing using Dry Hay for Fighter babies
4. 3x3 inch size Thermocol - 1/2 inch thick
2. Interior Decor
1. Live Water Plants - Hydrilla or Cabomba
• They help to hold and hide the babies
• They also serve as basic food.
3. Diet & Health
1. Live Tubifex Worms
2. Dry Worms
3. Hand full of Dry Hay
• Put Dry Hay into the a glass bowl with water and let it soak for 2 days for preparing Fighter Baby feeding culture.
4. Medicine - Blue Liquid
4. Siamese Fighter Parents
1. Male:Female ratio - 1:1
2. If bred in multiple tanks, put 1 pair per tank
5. Other Accesories
1. Fish Net

Common Aquarium accessories you SHOULD NOT use in Siamese Fighter breeding:

1. Air Pump
2. Water Filter
• Siamese Fighters are open air breathers by nature. Hence small space and little water are sufficient for them to live. They don't need aeration and filteration.
3. Interior Decorations

How to identify Male & Female?

• Male fighter is bright in color, much longer fins and tails 3 to 4 times than a female and will dance like a Peacock during fighting and romance.
• Female fighter is dull in color, got short fins and tails, fat belly and got vertical dull stripes over its body.


 

Steps for Successful Breeding

• Prepping the Parents
• Before breeding, put Male & Female in separate bowls kept side by side.
• Feed the fighters very well with Tubifex Worms for about a week.
• Frequently change water in both the bowls.
• Notice the male building a bubble nest in the bowl itself.
• Aquarium Setup (most simplest)
• Keep the breeding tank in a shadowy place without much disturbance.
• Fill the breeding tank with 1/3 water and put the live water plants in the water.
• Enter the Fighter
• On the 8th day, introduce the male fighter alone in the breeding tank
• Place the thermocol piece on Water level.
• The male fighter starts to build a bubble nest, by taking open air and mixing its saliva.
• In a day time it built a comfortable size of bubble nest beneath the thermocol.
• Finally, drop the female fighter in the breeding tank carefully and close it with fiber top.
• Dancing & Chasing & Breeding
• On seeing the female, the male fighter will dance and chase it.
• Female feels shy and tries to hide between the Water Plants, when the male continues to chase the female aggresively. At the same time it also strengthen the nest.
• Eventually, female is attracted to the male and comes closer.
• Squeeze Pregnancy
• The male takes the female under the bubble nest and gently hugs the female to squeeze its belly several times smoothly to extract the eggs.
• 

  
  

  For every squeeze, eggs keep coming out of female's belly.
• When the eggs come down, both the male and female catch the eggs and deposit over the bubble nest.
• Mating of Siamese Fighters is an Amazing Scene to watch!
• The male fertilizes the eggs while depositing them.
• The eggs can be seen through naked eyes like fine Rava/Sooji.
• Once you notice both male & female stop egg laying, take the female and move it to a bowl.
• Daddy Day Care!
• By the third day, notice the cute little fighter babies doing fun things
• Hanging on the bubble nest
• Sticking on the tank glass
• Trying to Swim
• "Trying to swim" is not actually very dangerous for the little ones as they may get hurt by hitting the tank floor.
• Male Fighters make the most sincerest DADs. For completely three days, daddy keep watch of his babies, catch them when they fall down and put them back into the bubble nest!
• Once you see young fighters swimming confidently, its time for DAD to say bye his babies.
• Move the male fighter back to its bowl and immediately feed Live Tubifex Worms and put blue medicine.
• VERY IMPORTANT!
• For the whole breeding duration, NEVER FEED both the parents.
• For Daddy Day Care, DAD needs to stay completely focused in taking care of the eggs and the babies even if it has to starve. Showing food will distract it from its Parenthood.

Healthy Little Fighter Babies

• Medicine
• Add some blue liquid in the tank and add 2" of water everyday.
• Food
• NO FOOD UNTIL DAD is separated from the babies
• Week 1 - Boiled Egg Yolk soaked liquid
• Week 2 to 4 - Wet Hay culture processed from Dry Hay
• Week 5 to 6 - Infursoria
• Week 7 to 10 - Dry Tubifex/Blood Worms
• Week 11 onwards - Live food

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Why to keep the Breeding Tank in a shadowy place with less disturbance?
• Parent Fighters don't usually get disturbed easily, but, touching or shaking the tank while breeding is certainly an annoying disturbance.
2. Why only 1/3 water inthe Breeding Tank?
• To reduce the parent fighter's strain in mating and catching the eggs for several times.
• To keep the fertiled eggs over the nest.
3. Why the female fighters should be moved immediately after egg laying is complete?
• Female fighters loses all its energy in the Squeeze Pregnancy.
• You may notice that for most of the squeezes, the female may be in a fainted state, while the male is busy catching the eggs and depositing them on the bubble nest.
• To regain their energy they try to FEED on the eggs. To save the eggs, we should move the female immediately after breeding.
4. After breeding, fins & tails of the parents are torn, esp., the female. Is this normal?
• This is very normal and nothing to worry about as for Siamese Fighters torn fins and tails will grow naturally in a few weeks.
5. Why no food to the babies until the DAD is separated?
• When Fighter babies hatch out of the eggs, they carry the yolk sack, which supplies them nutrition for the first few days.
6. When the babies are falling off from the nest, the DAD catches them in mouth and doesn't deposit them back in the nest. Is it FEEDING on the babies ?:(
• NO WAY! Remember Male Fighter are the most sincerest DADs of all.
• Fighter DADs are very Safety Consious for their babies
• After the eggs hatch, its main focus is to ensure the babies doesn't get hurt. So, it catches them in their mouth - Of course mouth is the closest they have to hold anything.
• Fighter DADs are very Protective of their babies
• If anyone is watching the tank, they get worried if they may hurt the babies. So, it holds them for a while. Once it is convinced that there will not be any harm to the babies, it puts them back to the nest.

* The facts/points given in the above article may be applicable in South Indian climate and water conditions. The author is not responsible of the breeding is not successful in other areas.