Betta breeding?

Question

My 2 bettas will not breed. It looks like the female is plumped with eggs but they will just not breed. I had this problem for a long time already. Also, my male doesn't build a bubble nest. I really want baby bettas really bad. What should I do?

Answer 1

You are inexperienced and you fish know it.

First of all SEPERATE THEM.

Now, in there seperate tanks, you need to condition them. Feed them up on rich foods like bloodworms. Add a ketapang/Indian Almond Leaf to their water and let them relax for awhile.

Set up your breeding tank. It should be bare of everything but a spongefilter and heater. Put clean water in and run the filter and heater (25 degrees C). You can add a breeding trap and put the female in. The male will need something to build his nest to and I suggest a piece of tinfoil floating at the top of the water.

Let the male into the breeding tank. He should be able to see and sense the female for a few days but not actually get at her. They will only fight.

She will become fat with eggs. He will dart at the breeding trap and be aggressive.

You will know they are ready when:

He has built a big bubble nest.
She is fat with eggs and has vertical stripes down her body.
He no longer darts and flares at her in her trap.
She tries to follow him around.

When you see these signs, you can release her.

She will hang around under the bubble nest and her head will go down with her body showing the vertical stripes. She is ready and is showing him she is submitting.

He may chase and nip at her but you should only let this go on for a short time. Dont let him do it repeatedly because if he wants to spawn with her he will try and keep her under his nest.

Make sure you clean the tank of all debris so it is ready for the spawn.

The male will then wrap his body around the female and her eggs will drop out. She will go catatonic as if she is dead while he goes to collect the eggs from the bottom of the tank.

She will snap out of her trance and help him or maybe eat some. He will blow the eggs into the nest and repeat the body wrap.

You MUST watch them and take her out as soon as she has is done. He WILL attack and kill her otherwise.

Now you can leave the male in with the eggs for around 4 days. Do not feed him during this time. When the fry can swim freely and not require him to help them to the surface, you can take him out and feed him up again.

They fry MUST be kept warm and fed often on BBS, Liquifry and microworms. Do not clean water for first 2 weeks.

Most of the fry won't make it but some might. They take months to grown.

One final tip - pet shops often sell male short finned betta fish called plakats, as females. They looks just the same and even have the oviposter. Make sure your female is really a female by seeing those vertical and NOT horizontal stripes!

Join a betta site and get more advice.

Answer 2

I have been breeding bettas for sale and for show for over 20 years and this is the system that works 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 separate 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 adding 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 success. 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 separate them. Once separated 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!

Answer 3

It's not as simple as that. You don't just dump one of your fish into the other's tank and wait. You need to condition them; other answers have already told you how. Also make sure you have sufficient space for breeding. At least 10 gallons would be about right.

Please do some research before you attempt to breed bettas; you could easily end up with both fish dead and deformed fry.

Answer 4

I found out something astonishing approximately Bettas that i'm passing directly to you. do you comprehend that bettas are rather no longer an aggressive fish and that once you get them you are able to retame them to be very dosile even around different fish. We did. Bettas have been first bred to be in betta fights that are banned now in many states and engaged on being banned very just about everywhere, merely like **** and canines combating is. For some reason they nevertheless are available those dinky dishes on the puppy shops. Betta's are saved in those dinky little fish bowls for the objective of bobbing up them aggressive because of the fact they do in comparison to small enclosed environments. because of the fact it is turning out to be outlawed, i do no longer comprehend why they do no longer provide up putting them in the small packing containers. in case you ought to make your betta doscile, first get a 10 gallon tank and placed it into the tank for a era of one month with the aid of itself. then you definately can introduce it right into a larger tank that has some woman bettas in it... ie 20 gal. and enable them to be for somewhat. study up on the ambience that works ultimate for breeding bettas and make your woman tank that environment. We ultimately placed all of them right into a 50 gal. tank that had different fish into it as properly bettas and that all of them lived very luckily at the same time. there have been numerous matings previously we gave our tank to our nephew as a present day because of the fact he became into so facinated with them. He nevertheless has the tank and all the fish are super, residing at the same time merely super. while the infants have been born, we took them out of the tank so that they does not be eaten with the aid of the different fish as nutrition. Then while they have been sufficiently super, we gave them away in pairs to neighbor young ones.

Answer 5

I do exactly as magicman does except I place my female inside the tank. I place her in a new oil lamp globe in the center of the tank until the male builds his nest.

Answer 6

more research, are you conditioning them right, is the tank set-up right, what is the temp of the water.

Alot of factors can affect your bettas, and breeding isnt something to rush into.

Answer 7

if the feamale is preagnate just wait, and maybe the male won't build a bubble nest because he is not happy. try a water change