She really wants to put off breeding them, until she has the space to raise the fry. That one gallon tank would be an awfully confined space to even breed the adults. Removing the female w/o trashing the nest would be difficult and the fry would be very vulnerable to velvet in such a confined space.

I thought that there was something from GL on Breeding Bettas. The references below may be of some use though.

I like to breed Bettas and everything else "small" in ten gallon tanks chocked full of plants. The plants clean the water some, provide shelter and are home for all sort of microscopic life, smaller than newly hatched brine shrimp. Guppy and Betta fry can often be observed nibbling in stems and leave of plants. Probably they are hunting down rotifers and even smaller foods.

Hornwort is inexpensive and grows well. Najas, which I helped get started in my local Killie club, is so plentiful locally, it sells for only a buck a bag at meeting auctions. It is also nicknamed guppy grass.

If you have a fish club within your general area, someone would have a starter of those plants. If you are in a major urban area, there are undoubtedly members of the IBC (International Betta Congress). Sometimes a local IBC chapter is near too. If you lived near, I'd offer Najas starters to whoever could get a ride over.

Greenwater can also be used to feed really small fry such as Bettas, Dwarf Gouramis, lampeyes (small mouthed killies) and blue eyes (a type of rainbowfish). Keep a couple of pond snails in there and supplement with a little powdered egglayer food. Used a very gentle stream of bubbles from a piece of hard airline tubing. Any filter will began to filter out the greenwater. ;)

Additionally mosquito egg rafts can be collected and, one at a time, put into small fry tanks. Newly hatched mosquito larvae are softer-bodies than brine shrimp and a lot smaller than baby brine shrimp. However if a mosquito larvae avoids getting eater, at the age of one week, it might be able to take a baby Betta! I would watch for larger mosquito larvae and turkey-baster them out and in with the adult Bettas. (A good turkey baster, used only for fishy things, is a great fishroom tool!)

While your friend is saving the $ for a ten-gallon tank, heater, light, sponge filter, one piece of hard airline tubing, an airpump and airline, you both might start saving jars (soap-less and clean). People have purchased that weaving mat (plastic) from craft stores and cut it to fit over jars so the male Bettas don't jump out!

Some sort of tank top, even plastic wrap with a small hole in the middle, is useful to keep the humidity and temperature up in the space above the water. That aids nest building and seems essential for the proper development of the young. That hot, humid zone reproduced the air in their natural habitats.

Your friend will have to begin removing male Bettas, at a certain size, and putting them individually in jars. She will also need a warm place for those jars. (78-82 degrees F/ 26-28C is good.)

I have seen a couple of neat "Betta rooms" in closets. A light bulb heated one. A computer cooling fan circulated the air. :0

Hope this helps a little. You and your friend have gotten together some good info.

All the best!
uncle scott

As community fish
http://www.guppylog.com/story/2004/11/18/221140/36

Mosquito egg rafts & Betta fry
http://www.guppylog.com/story/2004/4/2/7012/03095

Guppy stuff, useful aside on velvet, a threat to Betta fry too
http://www.guppylog.com/story/2003/11/19/01418/836

Generating Greenwater:
http://fins.actwin.com/killietalk/month.200010/msg00329.html
http://fins.actwin.com/live-foods/month.200204/msg00007.html

This is a Rainbowfish mailing list article, but it suggests some fry foods that worked well with his rainbows and possibly your Betta fry when very small:
http://www.peter.unmack.net/archive/rml/rmlmar98/0089.html