caring for and breeding female bettas

i have 6 male bettas that i would love to breed but every time i go to the store i dont now what females to pick and if there heathy or not most of the ones i see r small and then who do i now if the male and female r ready to breed and can they breed in a bowl or in a tank and can i say breed a regular female betta with a dragon scale betta and so one
any advice would help thanks

Females are always much smaller than the males in the pet stores.

If you get females I would get a good handfull per every male to lower the chances of the male killing the females.

Put the females in a jar inside the tank with an air stone flowing low to circulate the water (use a plastic lid on the jar and poke holes in it to allow air to flow out from the air stone). When the male makes his nest you can release the females into the tank. have the water on the surface of the tank be somewhat flat to avoid disturbing the male's bubble nest.

Have the tank temp up to around 82 degrees.

There is a member here who raises Betta and I am sure they will come along with better advice.

Condition, condition, condition before breeding. Feeding bloodworms for about two weeks twice a day. Then you can put the male in the breeding tank and the female in something like one of those hurricane lamps in the tank with him. Anything will work as long as he can see her. DO NOT put more then one female with him! Do not have any air stones or any other movement in his tank if he starts building a nest. Same with her enclosure. Bettas are air breathers so they don't need added air. The only thing I put over her is the canvas cross stitch stuff cut to size. This you can get at a craft store.You will be doing daily water changes anyway. If the male is ready for breeding he will build a nest. If the female is ready she will get vertical lines on her sides. When you do release her in the tank with him remember that there courtship is very violent and you will have the urge to remove her. This violence is very normal for Bettas. If you go to the Betta section in the index I have posted tutorials and everything you will have to know about breeding Bettas. Look for the ones written by me whisper. Also many pictures for help..........Also I have never breed the dragons but I have heard they are very aggressive so you might want to keep that in mind when picking you pair out. For that reason I have avoided them.

I totally agree Whisper. I would add some hiding spots for the female just in case she's not ready and needs a place to hide. Spawning is like rape very violent.

Dont worry about disturbing the bubble nest until the female is ready. Male can build another nest in no time. I breed them with a different method than Whisper. I keep the single female in the tank and male in the jar. When the female is well conditioned, you will see a white dot (egg) where the eggs will come out. Sometimes, a well-conditioned female (over conditioned) will even shed eggs a few at a time. This is a sign that she is ready to spawn. Now you can drop the water level in the tank to just a few inches to minimize the distance of each trip the male has to retrieve the eggs to the bubblenest. Release the male and let them do the thing. I use a lot of surface plants which help reduce the water ripple as well as give female hidding spot. A bare bottom tank helps the male to find the eggs on the bottom as he goes down to retrieve them after each embrace. Once spawning is completed, remove the female as she serves no purpose in attending the bubblenest or raising the fry.