# Breeding Bettas Black Mumbas Way



## Pamela

I am not the author of this. Black Mumba wrote it & I hope that Black Mumba is okay with me posting it. I had copied it because it has so much great information. 


NOW WITH VIDEO SEE MY REPLY TO THIS POST Hey some people have been asking about doing a breeding thread... I posted one a few months back in another thread, I felt it was detailed enough to copy and paste it for you all to read. There are a few additions as I learn something new each and every spawn... 

So, I will add key Notes above to note in this log:

KEY NOTE 1: I have breed sucessfully with temp 75 degrees... but now trying with a higher temp.. because I have noticed the baby fry color up more, and grow faster... but either or I am sure works.. 

KEY NOTE 2: Humid air, I heat my jars in a tub with a plastic tub over top.. this has really improved coloration.. I will add a video later... their bubble nests seem to stick better in a Humid condition.

okay now for the Mumba's way... 

There are many ways and versions of breeding betta's out there.. but I thought I would post how I successfully breed betta's.

1. Healthy happy male is needed... usually he is already blowing a bubblenest.

2. Healthy happy female conditioned to breed.. Usually you will notice vertical barring.

3. I use a 2.5 gal tank to breed, most of my methods are traditional Thailand way.. I use the Atison's method..

4. I drop a sack full of peat into my water.. a day or two before spawning, with an almond leaf... *almond leaf isn't always required* if you don't have almond leaves, they will spawn without anything in a 2.5 tank.

5. small heater I have my heaters at 75 degrees steady... no filtration none is needed.

6. I introduce the female to the male with a glass divider, leave them together a couple days so the male can build a beautiful nest.

7. after the couple days I remove the glass divider.. and leave the couple do their dance for about 24 hours.

8 the male will chase the female around trying to lure the female to look at his nest... he will bite her, nip her she will look horrible, this is normal.

9. after awhile she will be willingly mating with the male... they will swim around each other.. he will attemp to rap himself around her, to squeeze the eggs from her vent... the first few times.. he won't be successful.. not to worry this is normal... he will get the idea... 

10. once they embrace he will squeeze her tightly, she will be knocked out and float almost dead looking don't panic its normal again...you will see tiny white dots float to the bottom... the male will quickly race down and gently put the eggs in his mouth... and gently put them into the nest... some eggs he will miss he will get them later... 

11. the female awakens sometimes she will swim to the bottom to pick up some of the missed eggs and place them into the nest.. the will embrace many times over.. again and again.. Usually takes about 4 to 5 hours to complete. Leave them alone they know what they are doing 

12. You will notice that once the female is hiding and doesn't want to come out it is then you should remove her from this tank into a recovery tank with clean water and rest... she will need it. Careful not to knock the nest when getting her out.. if you accidentally knock the nest don't panic the male will rebuild the nest and replace any dropped eggs. 

13. The male will resume responsiblity for the nest and eggs.. he will continueously take the eggs from one part of the nest by putting them into his mouth and washes them and places them back, he knows which eggs are fertilzed and which are not.. you will then be able to see very white patches in the nest, these are the eggs.. 

14. you could get approx 500 to 1000 fry.. in one batch... in captivity the success on a batch that large is rare.. usually any where's between 20 to 30 are reported... for my success has been greatly larger with batches up to 200 to 300 in a 2.5 gal tank... :eek

:*NOTE DO NOT FEED THE MALE WHILE HE IS RAISING THE FRY*

15. after two or three days you will notice the eggs have tails sticking down wards.. the male will be working over time the fry are moving and releasing themselves from the nest he replaces them individually doing this non stop.. 

16. two or three days after you see the tails pointed downwards you will notice very tiny fry swimming.. the male will still try to replace them in the nest.. but he finally gives up trying... 

17. this is the time you will need to remove the male from the tank, carefully scooping him up with a net.. the fry are extremely tiny and you could catch a few in the net with dad.. 

18. put the male into a tank with clean fresh water.. and feed that poor fellow he hasn't been fed for awhile... 

19. Now you have a 2.5 gal tank full of little flea sized fry swimming around.. they will be eating the little micro bugs that are released from the peat and almond leaves.. I immediately put in microworms.. usually the worms are too big for the fry to eat but they nip at them they do try the peat provides enough food for them for the first couple days.. 

20. I start to make up brine shrimp.. using a home made brine shrimp hatchery.. I will give instructions on how to make one that is inexpensive here shortly... they take up to 24 to 36 hours to hatch so prepare ahead of time.

21. I usually feed them two to three times daily.. 50/50 micro worms and brine shrimp.. up until they are 6weeks of age.. at 6 weeks of age I move them to the 10 gal tank.. where they grow this is where i start to feed them dry foods.. cyolops and blood worms.. making it small enough by grinding it to a powder.. I supplement the second feeding with 50/50 brine shrimp and microworms.. providing them with a high protein diet...

22. I change the water every second day at min 10% each time.. clean water helps them grow evenly... betta release a hormone that prevents their siblings to grow at the same rate.. you will notice some of your bettas grow faster then others its normal.. more frequent water changes the better they will grow.

24. at 6 weeks of age you can really see they are fully developed and starting to fight.. nothing serious just territory fighting.. give them lots of cover with plants etc... 

25. at 8 weeks start to take the largest of the betta's out put into a jar.. so the second largest will grow faster and continue to do this until all your betta's are jarred.. 

26. here comes the hard part... as you will notice you can't change that many jars.. so you have to make a decision do you cull some or keep all.. that choice is yours to make.. I have had to change up to 70 jars.. thats alot of work from just one batch... 

27. I hope you've enjoyed my methods and you've had a successful spawn.. good luck.. !! 
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## Earth Eater

Awesome thanks


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## plantedinvertz

Very Informative


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## trowachess

good starting list for any betta breeding beginners


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## Trinity

at what age is the female ready to breed so that the male doesn't kill her when her wraps around her


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## j2daff

Trinity said:


> at what age is the female ready to breed so that the male doesn't kill her when her wraps around her


If they are similar sizes and the male is able to wrap around her it will be fine


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## Fish Whisper

This is great, sticky worthy i think.


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## Madoku

Mumba's way works VERY well. Thats how I did my first 2 spawns. Except the one problem I ran into was, I changed the water everyday, started with small amounts and was changing 50% each day and my fry were Very small. My one year old fry is only 1 inch (body).


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## Scholz

Madoku said:


> Mumba's way works VERY well. Thats how I did my first 2 spawns. Except the one problem I ran into was, I changed the water everyday, started with small amounts and was changing 50% each day and my fry were Very small. My one year old fry is only 1 inch (body).


what are you feeding and how often?


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## Madoku

I fed literally everything that they would eat.
BBS (live), Microworms, Bloodworms (frozen), wingless flies (live), hikari gold pellets, mysis shrimp, tubifex worms (frozen), peas every so often.
They were fed 5x's per day, smaller feedings so they didn't get bloated, once they looked filled I would stop and feed them 5-6 hours later when their bellies looked empty.


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