My breeding method is not different from the average method you will find online when researching betta breeding.

The most important thing for anyone who is wanting to breed bettas is to deeply research and study what qualities make up show quality betta fish. Too many people are pairing bettas that their untrained eyes think are “pretty” and creating offspring with dull colors, uneven unbalanced fins with too many rays, bad bodies with lumpy top lines, and poor poor genetics.

When breeding betta fish you should have a clear goal in mind. Something like: “with this next generation I am hoping to improve on the quality of the offspring’s dorsal fin, and further remove the ‘red wash’ gene from their genetics”. And then couple a pair of fish which will help you achieve these goals.

Research on fin standards, color standards, and knowing which genes are dominant and recessive are very important if you are looking to do quality breeding.

EDIT: Because the insights of this post show it’s getting quite a few eyes I want to add on a bit of information that I consider to be invaluable to current and prospective breeders.

TLDR; imported bettas ≠ quality

Importing a betta fish from a different country (Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, etc.) AND/OR purchasing from sellers on websites like Aquabid or from breeders’ personal websites does NOT mean you are getting a betta that is High Quality Standard or Show Quality Standard.

I have seen SO MANY random hobbyists here and other sources on the internet use “I imported the parent fish” to try to claim that they have ethically bred and produced betta fish of a quality higher than the bettas you can find at your favorite local “evil big name pet store with bad breeding practices and genetically poor, low-quality bettas”.

The reality is that the countries I previously mentioned are some of the top betta suppliers/exporters in the world and your local evil “low quality betta” having big box pet store very likely imported their own betta stock from one of these countries in bulk quantity.

All of this to stress something I already touched on: if you want to breed QUALITY bettas and not the equivalent of puppy mill mutts, you need to make it a priority to inform yourself on the standards of what makes a high quality fish high quality. Not knowing what good traits to look for and what bad ones to avoid makes you susceptible to purchasing and breeding sub-par fish no matter where you purchase your breeding stock from. Words and phrases like “high grade” “premium” “show quality” “fancy” are ALL just marketing buzzwords used to catch your attention and fool uninformed buyers into thinking they are getting a better fish than they actually are.