i thought my male and female bettas were ready to mate, but i guess not!?

Question

thank you for all who helped me with the guppie situation,...... my male and female bettas live in the same tank with a plastis clear wall seperating them , my male was blowing bubbles and made a bubble surface (lik a nest) so i lifted the wall just a lil so my female could slip through, my male attacked he tried to charge at her, THANK GOD he MISSED and slamed the wall, now im scared to putt them together.(diffrent story) i put 5 lake guppies on the females side and she ATE not just attacked i thought they were sopposed to be good with other calm fish but i guess it was too smal, she wasnt hungrey but she ATE it i feed it 2-3 times a day!!!! thanx!

Answer 1

I have spawned and raised bettas on a few occasions, here is what works for me:

Breeding bettas is not easy, but can be accomplished if you are willing to do it right. You must keep them apart while you condition them with good high protein food for about two weeks. Once the female is fat and shows a white dot close to her anal opening, she is ready to spawn.

Both tanks must be kept at or about 78 degrees. The breeding tank should have an air stone that bubbles slightly so as not to disturb the nest (preferably in the opposite end of the tank from the nest).

Float her in a jar in the male's tank so he can see her. If he has not already started a bubble nest, he should start one in a day or so. If he has one started, he will add to it until it is roughly 3-4 inches in diameter and about a half inch high.

Once he has the nest built, slowly release the female, without disturbing his nest. You must now watch them for the next couple hours. If she is ready, they will start the spawning. They will wrap around each other and as she releases the eggs, he will fertilize them. Next he will pick them up in his mouth and place them into the nest.

They will repeat this until she has no more eggs to give him. He will then chase her away or kill her if she cannot get away. You need to remove her at this time to save her life. This will happen in the course of 2-3 hours or sooner if she doesn't have a lot of eggs.

The male will then tend to the eggs and keep up the nest until the eggs hatch in about 3-5 days. You will see lots of little tiny tails hanging down from the nest if you look closely at the under side of the nest. If one becomes dislodged, he will retrieve it and spit it back into the nest.

Once the fry start swimming on their own and straying from the nest he will give up trying to keep them under control and you need to remove him to another tank. Increase the air stone bubbles now so the water surface does not develop a film that could be fatal to the fry as they develop their air breathing (anabantoid) chamber.

Start feeding them VERY fine food three to four times a day as soon as they are free swimming. Infusoria is excellent, as is mashed up hard boiled egg yolk in water. When they get a little larger, start them on baby brine shrimp (BBS). These can be bought frozen at better pet stores.

If you do not feed properly, they will not grow and will develop deformities if the tank is not kept spotless.

Keep the fry tank perfectly clean (siphon debris with air line tubing) and do 30-40% water changes every 3-4 days. Keep feeding them good and in a few weeks the males will start fighting and you will have to separate all of them so they don't kill each other. Good luck!

BTW, the name is pronounced bet-tah, not bay-tah.