An expencive tip to Aquabid

[anasfire23]

Ok my business partner and I have just bought a Black Blue Devil HM sibling pair (see pic below) from Aquabid, now if I were in the US this would not be interesting at all....but we're in Australia! The pair cost $45USD, plus we have to pay $25AUD importing fee and $15AUD to have them freighted to us when they clear quarantine! so all up we are paying something like $93AUD for 2 fish and the female is travelling for free coz we bought them as a pair and the importer has a special on at the moment! So a very expensive trip to Aquabid indeed!

We noticed that there is a complete absence of HM's available in Australian LFS' and no Bettas being sold on the aussie Ebay so when/if we get a spawn to maturity we will be focusing on these 2 marketing areas. We will also be breeding a CT line to try and get the elusive purple betta.

I would like to know if anyone has any tips for getting bettas to mature size in 3-4 months like the show breeders do? The last spawn I had took 9 months to reach a decent size and 6 months to reach a sexing size. I think the main mistake I made last time was not having them in big enough containers for them to grow...so the container size slightly stunted them. I've started collecting 2L soda bottles already for them to be put in from the moment they need to be separated. Last time they were in 250ml cups then 500ml jars and finally 2L bottles so I'm hoping the immediate introduction to 2L containers will speed their growth. I will also be feeding them a different food from hatching then last time (baby brine shrimp) this time I'll be feeding vinegar eels mainly with bbs only 25% of the time. If anyone else can throw some other ideas in there that might help me It would be appreciated. And even if you would like to comment on the fish, his breeding and tail type (eg if u think he's pretty or more technically what the fry might look like and percentages etc) feel free

Thanks

[Ice Prince]

very expensive but pretty betta. so your gonna try for the elusive purple betta? ive seen a picture of a purple halfmoon. very cool betta. ive read they dont breed true.

[anasfire23]

I've got a Red male CT and a female CT with steel blue in her and I'm going to try and see if they produce purple fry. I don't really care if they don't, I just want a CT line...been trying for one for a while but never managed to get them to hatch (mum ate eggs then dad ate them and then both parents died) so it'll be good just to succeed in breeding the CT's but this Devil HM line will most likely be our bread and butter. You can only order HM's in at our LFS and they are $30+ to order in....so even if we are selling them at $20 ea we are making some nice $$.

Wish me luck and thanks for your comments.

[Damon]

To answer your questions yes.

Keep in mind that IF they are true HM (Most ebay bettas are not), yOu will be lucky to get 10% showing hm. The rest will be delts and sd...........

Water changes and high protein foods is the key. Waterchanges every day or every other day is your best bet. Poor water tends to cause droopy fins in bettas. Feed 5 times a day live foods such as bbs, microworms, vinegar eels and grindal worms when they are large enough to handle them. Did I mention waterchanges????????????????

Temp should be kept at ~ 81 degrees.

Separate fry early (like 3-4 weeks).


Waterchanges.
Feed 5 times a day.

I know I repeated myself but I cannot stress those 2 things enough, especially for HM bettas.

[anasfire23]

LOL damon, I did 90-100% water changes everyday with my last spawn and fed them bbs 5 times a day. This time though I'll be mixing it up with bbs, vinegar eels and microworms and when they get big enough live brine shrimp (got a tank full of them at the moment) I had to separate my fry last time at 3 weeks because they all started fighting...ended up having to cull about a dozen off them too because they'd had their fins eaten off completely and looked like baby swordtails instead of Bettas. I've also had an idea of how to keep their individual tanks heated to around 81F..I've been given a 4ft tank which I plan to put a heater into, fill it with water and then place their 1/2 soda bottles into that so the water around them is heated and it will in turn heat the water inside the containers.