Question about bubble nest!?

Question

Okay Im new at this and really want to give it a try,Im a really big animal and mammal lover so are my children,but do I have to put my Female in the tank with my Male Betta so he can build a good sized bubble nest?I have my Female in a bowl beside his tank but her bubble nest is bigger than his.Every answer is appreciated.

Answer 1

A male may (and often does) build a bubble neast without a female around. That's not unusual, but sometimes they don't until the female is actually in the tank with them. Some males build much larger and better bubble nests than others as well. There seems to be no connection between the size of the nest and how well he will tend it after the eggs are in the nest. Here's a method I have use for many years and has always worked for me.

Breeding tank: A 10 gallon makes a good breeding tank for bettas. Place in on a dark surface and set it up with no gravel or decorations. Use a small sponge filter and a heater. maintain the heat at 78-82, the temerature is not really that critical. Using a hood is a good idea to hold in heat and moisture.

Conditioning: Condition the male in the breeding tank. Condition the female in a seperate tank and be sure they cannot see each other. Feed well on frozen or live foods alternating with flakes or pellets for at least a week. The female should be plump with eggs and the male should be flaring and showing his best color, maybe even building a bubble nest.

Spawning: Drop the water level in the breeding tank to about 5" deep. Place the female in a bowl or other container next to the breeding tank so that the male can see her. As soon as there is a good bubble nest in the breeding tank add the female. Check for eggs in the bubble nest every few hours. You know they are finished when the female is hiding from the male and he no longer leaves the nest to chase her down. He will also not be trying to attract her to the nest. At this time remove the female from the breeding tank. If they fail to breed within a few hours go back and repeat the conditioning steps for a week.

Eggs and fry: The eggs will hatch in 2 days. At first the male will collect the babies and return them to the bubble nest, this is normal. Once you see that the babes are able to swim in a normal fashion, remove the male. Now is the time to start feeding the babies. Feed them newly hatched brine shrimp, micro worms or vinegar eels. Feed several times a day for the first week to 10 days. At that time you can start addig some powdered flake food to their diet and begin increasing the water level in the tank.

Care: The babies need very clean water. Do a 50% or more water change every day and be sure to remove any uneaten food or dead babies that you see. Keeping the water clean and changed very often is one of the major keys to sucess. Be sure you cull the brood. Culling is to remove unwanted fish. Remove any deformed fish right away and destroy them.

Rearing and selection: Eventually you will need to split the batch as they will over crowd the 10 gallon. Removing the females to another tank is the best way. The males can stay together without a problem. Continue to feed quality foods of increasing size working your way up to frozen or adult brine shrimp and continue to do large daily water changes. Once they begin to develop color, you should cull based on color. Keep the color you like and remove the rest. Even if you started with two reds you will get a few that are not red or are not evenly colored. If they are near adult size a shop should buy them from you or at least give you some store credit. Be ruthless, keep only the very best to breed with next time around.

The males can stay together basically for their entire lives as long as you never seperate them. Once seperated even for a day they will begin to fight so keep that in mind.

Best of luck and stick with it, you'll have baby betta before you know it!

MM

Answer 2

Your female has a bubble nest? Before you put them together you may want to double check that she really is a female. Females do not have the long flowing fins that many males have, but some males also have short fins (and they often end up in petshops being sold as females). There are a couple of signs that you can look for to tell a female from a shortfin male, females have a little white dot on their bellies that gets bigger when they are ready to breed, here are some pictures of females with egg spots:
http://www.bettatalk.com/images/how_to25.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/dchiayee/ovipositor1.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/dchiayee/ovipositor2.jpg

Also, females that are ready to breed often show vertical bars when they see a male or when they are excited (eg at feeding time):
http://www.geocities.com/dchiayee/f2.JPG

If you think that your female may be a male, never put them together or it will end in tears, even if she really is a female you need to keep a close eye on her and don't leave her in there too long.

Answer 3

If you put the 2 together they are either going to A Breed or B kill each other. Do you want to breed them? If not, then don't do it. He will make bubble nests no matter what. My little guy makes them all the time but he is not getting a gf, hehe. Good luck. They are great fish.

Answer 4

some men make bubble next for all time, like daily,he ought to kill the girls persons so till you get a solid betta e book on breeding then do no longer hardship, i think of breeding bettas want a 10 gallon and you will get rid of the girls persons whilst they have layed there eggs in his bubble nest and the toddlers (fry) are extremely no longer undemanding to maintain alive you may supply them a community to maintain from being sucked into the filter out. the best fish to reproduce are fancy guppies they're referred to as stay bearers they arrive in colours just about as alluring as bettas and the greater youthful are born alive and swimming no messy eggs the mummy and dad ususally do no longer consume them so which you would be able to have a tank finished very today, comparable is going for mollies and platties