Breeding Saimese Fighting Fish - How To Breed Fighting Fish

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Fish Breeding - How To Breed Saimese Fighting Fish

Breeding Saimese Fighting Fish

Betta Splendens - Labyrinth Fish

Saimese fighting fish are a labyrinth fish and originated in asia, surviving in shallow puddles due their ability to breath air from the surface of the water and hence can be kept in small jars and do not need filters, aerators or high water quality like other non-labyrinth fish. The male saimese fighter fish have long, colorfull fins while the females have much shorter fins and are not as near spectacular to look at in appearance.

When two males are placed together they will fight to the death and placed in view of another male or a mirror will display their long fins and become quite active and aggressive. When placed with a female however, they do not fight although the female can become injured and have her fins ripped as the male often becomes aggressive during courtship and breeding. The male when ready to spawn grabs mouthfulls of air from the surface, creates bubbles coated with saliva and groups them at the surface to create a large bubble nest for incubating the eggs.

Image Above: Male Saimese Fighting Fish

Once the female is ready to drop her eggs the pair will begin to approach each other, swimming around in a circle-like fashion until the male fighting fish wraps his body around the female and squeezes the eggs from her. He then quickly fertilizes the eggs, scoops them up and spits them into the bubble nest. This process is repeated until the female has no eggs left and then the male will maintain and protect the nest until the baby fighting fish hatch. The female should be removed after the breeding is complete as the male may kill her.

After the eggs hatch the male will pick up any fry that fall to the floor and return them to the nest but once the fry are able to swim to the surface on their own the male should then be removed as he will soon eat the young. A good setup for breeding fighting fish is a shallow, rectangular shaped tank with a divider placed & sealed long ways and several dividers consisting of a solid frame with a fly screen centre placed at intervals along each side. A slow running air pump driven spong filter can be placed at one end to allow slow filtration around the tank and through the dividers in a circular motion and this also allows the freshly hatched baby fighting fish to escape the male by swimming through the fly screen into the next divided section.

The fry are very small when first hatched and a liquid paste tube food is ideal or hard boiled egg yolk will provide the fry with enough food for a week until they are big enough to eat baby brine shrimp or finely graded dry food.