why won't my betas spawn?

Question

my male beta started making a bubble nest, but he won't mate with the female in the tank with him. the female hides in the corner, and the male just stays over in his corner building a nest. why won't they mate? the male and female have been in the same tank for about 2 - 3 days now. no fights whatsoever.

Answer 1

You have had them together too long. Separate them and condition them properly with live foods such as black worms, blood worms and adult brine shrimp. Frozen foods work well too. Then once the female is heavy with eggs and her egg spot is showing try putting them back together.

MM

Answer 2

If you want them to have babies, the best thing for you to start feeding them is freeze-dried bloodworms and/or live brine shrimp (you can get them at local pet stores or aquarium shops). These foods are good at supporting hormone developement, and will make them want to have babies.

Within two weeks, the male will start to make a bubble nest. He will take in air with his mouth and make little bubbles on the surface. At the same time, you will slowly se a change in color in the female, and she will get fatter too.

When the bubble nest is about a half an inch tall, put the female in with the male. They will fight like how you see them now... remember, its normal!

When the time is right (within 2 weeks) they will begin their mating "dance." The male will wrap himself around the female and squeeze the eggs out. The eggs will fall to the bottom, (so make sure that your gravel isn't too big, or the male will lose the eggs.) Then the male will take the eggs one by one in his mouth and put them in the nest.

After this you must take the female out of the males tank. DO NOT RUPTURE OR EVEN RATTLE THE BUBBLE NEST EVEN A LITTLE BIT WHEN YOU ARE TAKING THE FEMALE OUT!!! It should be easy anyway because the female will be tired from laying eggs.

The eggs should hatch within 2 weeks.

After the eggs hatch, take the male away from his babies. You can feed the babies liquid fry food (which can also be found in a local pet or fish store) for about a month. But the babies will not eat for about a week, because for the first week of their life they feed off their yolk sack that they were born with.

After about 3 weeks to a month you can feed them betta food, but you should mash it up into a powder.

Then watch them grow!

Answer 3

My Betta's just spawned a few days ago. I put the female in a clear oil lamp globe in the middle of his tank and he started making the nest. I waited a few days and let her out. That night he continued to make his nest and never bothered her until the following morning and then bingo!! They started to mate.. How big is the bubble nest? Oh and BTW my female didn't have a large tummy nor were any eggs to be seen "popping out" until after they started mating. Here is a awesome website that I have learned so much from.. Good Luck!

Answer 4

It could be that they weren't conditioned properly. Bettas need a good 2-3 weeks of conditioning (being fed high-quality food such as live bloodworms, vinegar eels, etc) before they are ready to breed. When ready, the female will develop vertical stripes and her abdomen will noticeably be larger.

Another possibility is that your fish are too old. If they were purchased from a pet store, the chances are that they're already past the prime age for breeding. You may want to try www.AquaBid.com to see if you can order a younger fish. (3 and a half or 4 months old is a good age to start.)

Best of luck!