How long does it take for Bettas to mate?

Question

I have two males and one female betta. (the two males seperate of course)
There is one male who puffs up a little and chases her and does a dnace in front of her but she always swims away.
Is that normal? This is the first time together too.
The other male will do nothing, sometimes she'll chase him and he'll run off or swim off.
Is this normal in the start?

Answer 1

It sounds like your fish are not in breeding condition. I would suggest you keep all of them in separate containers and condition them well for a few weeks. You will know they are ready to breed when the male makes a bubble nest and the female is pump with eggs and her egg spot is showing. That's when you put them together. Once they are in proper condition, they will breed in a few hours. Here's how I breed my bettas

I have been breeding bettas for show and for sale for over 20 years and this system 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 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!

MM

Answer 2

The Breeding Pair:
Make sure that the male and female are relatively the same size. Females are usually somewhat smaller than the males, but do not try to breed a very young male or female with a much older mate. Someone will get hurt.

Condition the Pair:
Feed well, preferably with live food (brine shrimp) and keep their water very clean. Allow the two to see each other for a couple of days and then remove the female from the male's sight before placing him in the breeding tank.

Breeding Tank:
Use a small tank (I use 5 l/2 gallon) with approximately no more than 4-5 inches of conditioned water; a corner sponge filter; submersible heater set at 80; a plastic lid or piece of Styrofoam cup cut for the bubblenest; and plastic or live plants so the female can hide when needed. Do not have any rocks or substrate in this tank.
Put the male in first. Let him get used to his surroundings for about an hour or so. Then introduce the female by putting her in a hurricane globe so the male can't get to her right away. They should show some interest in one another, and he should flare at her and start working on the bubble nest. (I had the experience a couple of times that the female was already full of eggs and very shortly after introducing her into the globe and seeing the male, she started to release her eggs very quickly. She had been bred several times before with the same mate. I released her immediately and the spawn began.)

Breeding:
When the bubblenest is fair size, and she displays vertical stripes and stands "on her head" in the globe, you release her. Also look for her breeding tube to be protruding. It is visible behind the pelvic fin. There can and will probably be some nipping and chasing during this time. As long as they are not sparring too badly, leave them alone. If one or the other is being torn up very much, they are not ready. Put her back in the globe. Some sparring will occur as this is the ritual of their mating but should not be permitted to last for great length of time.
The process of the pair "being ready" can take from l hour to 4 or 5 days.
When they are ready, he will entice her to the nest, and she will eventually follow. The mating process can take anywhere from 1 hour to 4 or 5 hours. He will "embrace" her, squeeze the eggs out, and the eggs will fall to the floor of the tank. She will look like he has killed her, being very still and motionless for a few seconds, like in a trance. He will catch or pick up the eggs from the floor of the tank and "blow" into the bubble nest. (I had one pair in which the male would not have anything to do with the eggs, and the female was the one who picked up the eggs and put them into the nest.)
When the spawning is complete, she will swim away from the male and hide. He usually won't bother her as he is busy picking up eggs that fall from the nest. When spawning is done, remove her immediately (taking care not to disturb the nest) as she may become interested in the eggs and start eating them. The eggs are white and are a little bigger than a grain of salt. You will probably need a magnifying glass to see them hanging from the bubble nest.

Answer 3

How To Betta Fish Mate