When I was still somewhat new to breeding bettas, I came across an interesting female Betta in my favorite pet store The Reef. She was a lovely candy pink color(not Cambodian) all over with black edges to her scales. she had one white spot on her dorsal fin so I called her cotton candy. I thought she was really cool so I was going to breed her. I put her in a ten gallon with the rest of my females and she proceeded to become 'top fish'. Nothing new here; my females always have a sort of heirarchy. A few weeks later I tried to breed her. When introduced to a male instead of being chased she fought back. Every male I tried she fought with and intimidated to the point that he was running from her. I had basically given up on her an I had been spawning other fish. My first fully developed male was a red and blue male I named Skittles. He was just lovely his fins were wide and glorious. For some strange reason I put them together accidentally for only a few minutes in a 2 gallon tank. I suddenly realized what had happened. I ran back to my rood and cotton candy had literally shredded little skittles. He was cowering in the corner away from cotton candy. I was so mad that I netted her out of the tank and unthinkingly flicked her with my finger. I put her in another jar and she looked dead. Instantly I felt awful, thinking I had killed her. But I carefully brought her up to the surface to breath and slowly she recovered.- She was still mean as ever though. After that I got to thinking that maybe if I bought the meanest male I could find maybe I could get her to breed. I bought a large red Cambodian male I think I named him Julius (after Julius Caesar). He finally managed to bully her enough that she spawned!
The Giants
One day I was shopping in a tiny hole-in-the-wall fish store in Brownsburg Indiana. He had a very large Blue Cambodian betta. He was about three and a half inches long or so much larger than any betta I had ever seen then or since. Thinking that breeding for size might be a cool idea. I bought him- at an exorbitant price. I took him home and he immediately showed signs of being TSTL(too stupid to live).Undaunted I was in Wal-mart the weeks following the purchase and came across a gigantic female. A ha I said to myself and promptly purchased her. Well I tried time and Time again to breed the both of them to each other and to others but in the end it was all for nothing. Dang.
The Fish from California
Well a couple of years ago I went to California. I was determined to find some good Bettas there. Mom Promised me that if I found anything good I could take it home with me. We only went to one pet store and the bettas they had were rather poor quality but I found a red male that had elongated and sort of flowing pectoral fins. I immediately decided to buy it thinking that the trait was unique. I kept "escondido"alive in a cup for several days and then we bought a coffee mug to I could carry him on the plane. I bought one with a cover that had a button flapper so I could give Escondido some air every so often. I simply carried him on the plane in a cup all the way from San Diego to Indianapolis. When I got home I noticed that many of the Bettas in our pet stores also had "flowing"pectoral fins. Escondido proved to be TSTL,however he was one of my longest lived pet store bettas at nearly a year since purchase. He was also probably my Mom's only favorite betta because he reminded her of California.
The Lotus spawn
I have a large(50+gal) flower pot that I have turned into a pond with a yellow flowered lotus in it. As I was leaving for California this summer I noticed that the pond was full of mosquito larvae. Not wanting my home to become infested with mosquitoes, I plopped a store bought male and a female from a previous spawn into the pot and left. When I came back I noticed that both were still alive. A few weeks after that I was looking into the pond and there were LOTS of baby bettas swimming all around in the pot. I grabbed out a few of them and took them up to school but I still have about a dozen or so in the pot. Just in case anyone thought that breeding bettas is really hard. :)
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