Betta Breeding Guide

Before you Begin

Breeding bettas is not something to take lightly.

It is expensive, time consuming, and doing a bad job results in sickly fish that have poor quality of life or are difficult to rehome. There are a ton of upfront costs, and it does not make your money back quickly. Before you decide to move forward with breeding bettas, ask yourself the following :

Can you dedicate 1-2 hours a day to the fry for 4-6 months? No vacations, no days off.
Can you house 50-100 individual bettas at once, each needing daily water changes, flare time, food 3-5x a day, and a gallon of space?
Do you live close enough to a large city with Local Fish Stores that are willing to buy bettas from you, or are you willing to spend the time advertising, selling online, and shipping fish?
Are you capable of euthanizing fish that have deformities or to limit the amount of fry you take to adulthood?

If the answer is no to any of these, you may not be someone who should breed betta fish.

I don't mean to gate keep the hobby, but I truly believe that anyone who decides to breed betta fish needs to understand the full impact of what they are doing. It is not simply a hobby, we are creating life and bear extra responsibility to the lives we bring into this world. If you answered yes to everything or are curious about the process, you can find my Betta Breeding guide below! It's filled with the knowledge I've gained over the past 4 years of breeding betta fish.

Choosing Bettas to Breed

Probably the most important part of breeding bettas is choosing a pair to breed. Choosing the wrong fish can result in deformed fish who die early, have bad quality of life, or are sickly. Knowing the lineage of a betta can help, but often we are not afforded this knowledge. Instead we must choose based on guidelines.

1. Read the International Betta Congress (IBC) Standards

The International Betta Congress is a worldwide union of betta enthusiasts. It was founded in 1966 as a non-profit organization with the goal of promoting bettas and research. The IBC has a set of conformation standards that betta breeders adhear to when breeding their fish.

Your first step as a betta breeder should be to familiarize yourself with the Standard. The Holland Betta Show (The Betta Terrirory) has the most complete visual guide to this, and can be found here.

(Image on right is from the Holland Betta Show PDF)

2. Choose what Betta Type you want to breed

Between Wild Types and Splendens, there are many types of bettas to decide from. In fact, there are at least 72 breeds of bettas! "Betta Splendens" is the breed of bettas commonly found in pet stores and will be the focus of this page. However, you can learn more about types of bettas and their history at the IBC History of Bettas page, as well as the Wikipedia page.

Here are some imperative things to know when choosing types

Doubletail bettas cannot be bred directly to other doubletails. This will cause severe spine deformities for the fry. A Halfmoon Doubletail must be paired with a Halfmoon Bettta, and a Plakat Doubletail must be paired with a Plakat to ensure the fry will have better health and form.
Halfmoons with excessive tail size can struggle to swim. Some will even chew off their own tails so that they can swim better. When choosing a partner for a HM with a large tail, consider finding one with a more moderately sized one. The same goes for bettas with the Dumbo gene.
Crowntail fins needs impeccable water conditions for their rays to develop cleanly. Your water parameters must be perfect for growth, with no hard water. Having access to an RO Water system is a must for this tail type. Halfmoons can have similar issues with fin growth in hard water.
With the exception of Doubletails, all tail types should be paired with the same type. HM to HM, CT to CT, PK to PK, etc.

Here are some examples of tail and fin types

Halfmoon
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Veiltail
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Crowntail
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Dumbo (Pectoral Fins)
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Traditional Plakat
Source - Me!

Asymmetrical Halfmoon Plakat
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Symetrical Halfmoon Plakat
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Spadetail Plakat
Source - Me!

Double Tail
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Doubletail Plakat
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Crowntail Plakat
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Wild Breeds
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3. What to look for in a betta for breeding

Betta fry will inherit the traits of their parents. If a parent has a small tail or head deformation, this can be exacerbated in the fry. Choosing the most perfect betta for breeding is not cheap, but is absolutely a must. There are a few key traits to look for in a betta for breeding, both physical and personality.

Clean Toplines :

The "Topline" is the shape of the betta's body from the tip of their nose to the base of the dorsal fin. A "Clean" topline refers to a smooth line free of any bumps or divots. This is for both males and females.

A betta must be flaring or posturing to get a proper view of their topline. As you can see from the example, the topline is drastically different between his Flared and Rest postures.

Below are additional examples of clean toplines

Examples of bad toplines, body shapes, or ones you cannot view properly.

Excellent Finnage :

This is where the IBC Standards really come in handy. You should be comparing every betta you consider to the PDFs provided by Holland Betta Show.

Bettas should be flaring or posturing so you can see their full finnage. Videos are best for this as photos can hide flaws or make flaws appear where they are not. If a seller does not show videos, ask! If they cannot provide them, look somewhere else. Always check that you are purchasing What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG ) bettas, and not a similar one.

Imperfections in a bettas fins can be a genetic deformity that repeats in your fry!!! Do not assume that a tiny tear in a fin is from an injury. They can be inherited. In the example below, 3 different bettas have the same divot in their anal fin next to a dark red stripe. Choosing any of these bettas to breed risks having fry with the same deformity.