I am at a quandry. I finally have some decent fish but I have been put forth this dilemma. Which ones do I put in the spawn tanks? I have about 8 possible pairs and only 3 tanks. Some are a perfect match, others would be more of a roulette wheel spin on what the outcome would be. So do you breed for the odd colors or do you go with what's safe or kinda mix it up? Or do you just buy more tanks? :)

That is why when you are a first time breeder and you have a lot of pairs in your hand, you become over whelming. I been through that. LOL
Since you already got a pair going. That will be you trial and errors. Makesure keep record what you feed and what you doing to maintain those healthy frys than dying. Always add 1 inch of aged water perday into the raising tank for the whole week. Before you add any water, you can using the air tube attach with a plastic tube to suck out the bottom to a tupperware. Even if you accidently suck out some frys accidently, they will be fine and you can suck the frys back to the tank.
Now gets back to sellection.
Take a deep breath first. Firstly, look at your bettas. How big are they first. Arrange it accordingly by pairs. The biggest pair to the smallest pair. Then.
First choice.
Look at the few biggest pairs and choose the most you want especially the color and the type first. Example the color you admirer the most in your breeding program and also they are sibling. Do that three top choices first.
Others can wait. No rush. Do three tanks with top three sellection pair if you have the space for them.
In a month, you can transfer the babies to a bigger tank. Then you will have the space for the pairs to breed.
If you intention to buy more 10 gallons, then you can keep do the others. For me, I will wait another month for the second pick of the three breeding tank.

Pair up your fish so everyone is paired up. Pick 3 pairs and put them in the spawns tanks. Start conditioning your other three pairs. When the fish in the spawn tank fail to spawn simply place the next 3 pairs in and start reconditioning the first 3. If they are not too beat up they will be ready to spawn by the time you pull the current 3 out. If you buy more pairs simply place them at the back ot the line and just continue to cycle them out until you fill up your spawn space.

Leave the pairs together for about 72 to 96 hours. If they fail tp spawn pull them and feed them up to get them ready to go again in 3 to 4 days.

When left with the choice of making a solid line using sibling pairs and mixing your pairs up always choose sibling pairs. The key to making really nice outcrosses is pureity of blood. If you take two nice fish from different lines and breed them you will have no idea what you will get cause you never bred them to see what they carry when bred to a sibling. Fish you get from these crosses should not be sold/traded/given to anyone because you have no idea what they are going to breed. If someone sends me a Steel blue to cross into my lines it better be pure. I worked on my steels for 20+ years and if they polute my gene pool I will be very angry. If your fish are pure you can make a decent prediction as to what you should get by the genetic studies everyone else has been doing for 60+ years. Now if you send me a steel you can tell me that it was from a pure steel line crossed to a royal blue line. I can now expect that if I breed them to my steels I will get about 75% steel 10% turq 10% Royal 4% melano. Get where I am coming from?

Rob

Yes sir! Thank you very much for the insight! I do plan to see some sibling pairs on into the future. I do also have some that are similarly matched up due to a limited stock and budget.

Are you part of IBC?

Have you received your free pair yet?

Rob

No, though I plan on joining very soon. Most likely within the next few weeks.

After you join and make your Betta Pals Request contact me here on the board and I will make sure you get a really good pair!

Rob

Much appreciated! I will let you know as soon as I apply. Thank you again!

You are very welcomed!

Where do you sign up for ibc ?

Ohh. I have to put up how to sign in IBC as new member!!!! I forgot!! I got so much in my hands. LOL :lolo: I am going to post it in IBC section and PIN it up!!!

Rob. I haven't get a pair yet. LOL I want a pair of true steel hm champion line from you.
;)