How do you choose?

[bettalvr]

Ok, I have some questions for everyone and I hope we get lots of responses. I am very curious about some ideas behind breeding selections so here goes:

*How do you choose your breeding pair?
*Do you cross-fault male/female trying to get better offspring than the parents?
*Do you outcross, linebreed, or very tightly linebreed(some define as inbreeding)?
**If you do a tight linebreeding, what generation do you outcross?
*Do you match or cross colors? Pre-planned with genetic info for outcomes or just to see what is produced? Different colors, patterns, finnage, etc?
*If your male is an egg eater at the first spawn, do you give him a 2nd chance or cull him?

Enough questions for now. Hope you all answer (will give me even more info)! If you haven't bred, but are thinking about it, your input is valued also as I feel sure you have thought about some of these things at some time. Please tell me your reasoning behind what you're doing or plan to do, especially the last 4 questions. And please no flaming - no 'you shouldn't do that, etc.' I am using this to gain valuable information from as many sources as I can, not to hurt anybody's feelings. Thank you in advance! You guys are great!

BettaLu, you game for this? You can offer ideas from abroad and locally since you've worked closely with some friends overseas!

[divy]

i like to line breed (silbing female to brother and cross back to father)
but depend on what you want the outcome to be
better finnage i chose best finage and females and males with not too much rays to prevent any rosetails popping up, also out breed with dts to get a stronger longer dorsal

i like to line breed too to improve colour but sometimes theres only soo far i think you can go with line breeding before they become too inbreed so a outcross comes into play just to ''clean up'' the line


i havnt crossed breed tails eg: ct to hm but i will try to cross breed colours just because im curious and i like to see what colours pop up

if my male is a egg eater i give him up to 3 tried but then i just stop trying with him (i dont cull him)

[BettaLu&Meg]

Selecting the Pair

Different breeders have different ways of doing this. In general, it starts with selection of a good breeding pair. The appropriate age of spawning pair should be 4-8 months. But personally i like to use pairs 9 months or older . The body length of the male should be approximately 10% longer than that of the female, so as to allow good control of embracing during spawning. It is a good idea to choose male that is actively making bubble nest. Some say this is a good indication that the male is healthy. It is also a guarantee that the male knows how to build a nest and there will be a nest for spawning. The pair are conditioned for about two weeks by given live and/or frozen food. Freeze dried i personally use and thats fine too.

I've crosbred my CT and my VT to get better color and finage quaility of the parents, but the parents of my crosbred fry are i believe as perfect as can be. No sickness ever, strong immune system. always energetic and ready to breed. Even earlier than the 3 weeks time period for the female to produce her eggs. she's always ready to go. (But in knowing that letting them go early can result in less eggs being produce i pair them up in the breeding tank when neccessary) In breeding, Breeders always want the outcome to be "somewhat Better" than the parents gen. but knowing where they come from and who they bred with is difficult to determine if store bought bettas were perchased.

I don't imbreed for the reason of wanting more traits for other genes of the parents, i also do try to pair the same color but thats up to the bettas themselves. My bettas actually don't like the same color males as them.
As for the males they seems to like what they can get. But everyone's bettas is different and cant take individual info into consideration without taking another. Outcomes, breeding pairs, and fry numbers can vary if your bettas is sick, healthy, ready or not.

I do personally try to go for certain patterns in color, As all breeders do! But the outcome isn't really up to use, thus culling is usually a factor taking place in breeders, especially overseas (cull-kill). I do have a male thats not a breeder at all, and is mostly a ball buster, but i will and do not take a life of any of my bettas, nor ever think of it.
but thats just me and i'm sure theres out there that cull to get the best color outcome and lower the number by getting rid of unwanted color, deformed fry.
I take what i can get and work with it from there.

If i didn't answer some or one questions please let me know, i'm a little busy running around today i will get back ASAP. Thanks for this thread tho betsy, any one even breeders who been doin so for a while can learn something from everyone's input!
And i would appreciate replies also from other breeders to compare ways of breeding and contrasting them thanx!!!!!!!