betta breeding spawning?

Question

ok here is the problem with my bettas. my female betta show all the sign of ready to breed. she have the white tube under her belly, stripe on her side, head down tail up. the male already build a huge bubble nest. when i put them together, the normal stuff happen like male chasing female. they have already been together in the tank for more then a day and still haven't spawn yet. what is the problem am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

You need to take it step by step carefully and even then sometimes they aren't ready even when all appearances say that they are. It sounds like you are doing ok, the part that isn't happening is all up to the fish, nothing you can do for that part except to make sure they are in great condiiton before you put them together and be sure you are providing the conditions they need for breeding such as large enough tank, water not too deep, correct temperature, etc. Here's what works well 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 temperature 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

It may take up to three days or even more for bettas to breed... in fact some attempts fall through completely. Don't get discouraged though. Keep trying different approachs such as adding another female to stimulate the male, check the temp of the water(should be around 80 degrees), make sure you've supplied a place for the female to hide (or vise versa females can be aggresive too). I've been breeding Bettas for about two years and have only had 15 successful matings that produced about 50-75 fry. Keep experimenting and eventually you'll find the way that works for you and your fish.