Betta Breeding Help

[nikki128]

Hi All-

I am a new betta owner and a friend told me I could put a male and female together. They got along well but started breeding and I don't have the means to raise fry. I seperated them and now they both look sad. I am not certain if any eggs were saved. The male put them in his mouth but there was not a large bubble nest just some bubbles along the top of the tank. Any suggestions on how to keep the two happy and how to I handle if any eggs were fertilized and I get fry?

thanks,
desperate new betta owner

 

[WILDER]

Hiya and welcome to the board, ask a mod names in blue at the bottom of the forum to move this for you to the betta section, you will get more replies, i know you cannot keep a male and female betta together.

 

[nikki128]

Hiya and welcome to the board, ask a mod names in blue at the bottom of the forum to move this for you to the betta section, you will get more replies, i know you cannot keep a male and female betta together.

Thanks I had no idea that they would try breeding within a day. My friend kept a male and female together for years with no breeding incidets.

 

[WILDER]

Ask a mod for you to move it, good luck.

 

[ILM]

Yea, they breed when you don't want them to, won't breed when you do. Generally, a male + female = breeding. If your pair did spawn (and you must have missed it, which is sad, it can be such a sweet, gentle process) your male will be very attentive to his nest, and within 2-3 days (if the tank temp is kept at about 80F degrees with no drafts (drafts will breaks the bubbles and kill the eggs), you'll see very very tiny moving things darting around the bottom of the tank under the nest and a frantic dad trying to grab his young and spit them back into the nest. Once the babies begin to swim on their own (usually in a day or 2 after hatcihing), you should remove the dad and then baby care is up to you alone.

If none of the eggs were viable, or if the daddy let them die, or if they didn't actually spawn before you separated them, then there won't be any babies being birthed/hatched. Fish have rather short memories so if you keep your guys otherwise happy, they will adjust to being alone. You can set their tanks close together so they can see each other, but the female may become egg-bound if her hormones get going and she has no outlet (usually she'll just reabsorb them or release them but sometimes not).