Female betta destroying Male betta's nest!!!?

Question

I have male betta(red color) and he already had his small nest build. I bought a female betta(blue color) today and was
observing closely.. Male betta definetely reacted to this.. and showed his typical male aggressiveness.. He started chasing female betta and chase went on for a while. Surprisingly female betta attacked and destroyed his nest. This was definetely not an accident. She had her eye on this nest and when she got chance she just attacked the nest destroying it completely. Can someone throw some light on this and tell me why would she do that? Does this mean female is not ready to mate? Male betta again went back to his nest busy rebuilding and this time he made it bigger than what he had before.. !!!
Not he is back chasing female betta.. But now I put partition between both of them. I know male can kill female sometimes..
Any tips highly appreciated.. :)

Thanx
Trushar

Answer 1

There are a few possibilities here:

One, your new female is no female at all bt instead is a short finned male.

Two, the new female wasn't properly conditioned so her reactions to being forced into a breeding situation and in a confined space may have caused this to happen. Both fish must be in proper breeding condition before being placed together.

I would highly recommend you separate them in such a way that they can't see each other for at least a month. In this time you can properly condition them for breeding and allow your new fish to develop enough you can be very sure it's a female and not a young or short finned male.

Condition your bettas with plenty of water changes and plenty of live foods and frozen foods as well as a quality flake or pellet. You will know when the male is in breeding condition as he will build and maintain a bubble nest for at least a day. The female will be plump with eggs and her egg spot will be showing.

Before placing them together to breed have live food available for the fry. Infusoria and microworms are the best starting foods.

One other thing to consider before breeding them. Are you ready for all the work required to raise all the fry? It's not easy and will require hours a day. Also, assuming you have a good spawn, what are you going to do with 100+ Bettas? Don't assume a pet shop will buy them, especially with mixed colors like you will produce.


MM

Answer 2

Well I wouldn't breed the betta anyways because of the risk. But if you insist, no the female is not ready but you'll need to get her used to the male betta before she is adn that would mean making them stay together adn not fight. But the male betta is ready because he keeps building it bigger trying to impress her. She is interested because she eyes his nest but she isnt quite ready yet. Good Luck!:)