Breeding Bettas

[StrontiumDog]

Hello, I purchased 2 unrelated female dragon bettas from a good breeder. I was very pleased with them as they are stunning fish, but within a week I realised that one was a male, just an immature male. (they were around 4 months when I got them and he did look VERY much like a female)
Well, the breeder suggested I tried breeding them. I purchased them as pets but as I have plenty of tanks, I though it would be fun to give it a go. I did a lot of reading online and made sure everything was set to accomodate them.
They have been seperate sinse I realised one was male, in this time the female has become rather large, slightly rounded and the egg spot on her underside protrudes ALOT now.
I set up the tank then introduced them at around 10 am this morning. The male, luckily, has been very gentle with the female, he hasnt nipped her so far. He has been displaying almost constantly, showing off his fins and flaring. He has chased her a few times aswell. Dispite his best efforts she seems completely uninterested, avoiding him and trying to keep out of his way. Also, when he was alone he built bubble nests, sinse I introduced the female he has been obsessed with showing off to her and has made a very very poor attempt at making a bubble nest with just a scattering of bubbles. I dont know if it is because they are inexperienced or they are simply incompatable. Luckily there has been no fighting at all. (i've been watching them all day because i dont want to lose either as they are much loved pets)
Thanks for reading, anything you can tell me would be great.

Which method did you use to introduce them, chimmney or dividing the tank? and how long for? has the female shown signs of breeding stripes (virtical stripes)?

The reason why the male has stopped adding to the nest is because he's now more intrested in breeding because the female is in the same tank with him and he has access to her. The reason she will not spawn is because she has not yet developed the eggs yet for spawning.

I think she just doesn't "fancey" him...
I think I might put her back in her original tank and try again in a week or so. I dont want to cause her to much stress and I dont want to risk things turning nasty in the night.

You either need to divide the tank or use the chimmney method, and try to use either live or froozen foods too beef both of them up.

 

[StrontiumDog]

There is good advice here, ensure the water levels arent too deep for the male in the case of a successful spawn as he will exhaust himself chasing the babies. Ensure they are both conditioned well with meaty foods. The chimney is the best way from what I have read,(divided tank from my experience works just as well) it helps to get both into the mood and the male create that all important nest, (This sometimes fails as the male is more intersted in the female even if she is separated) once the female is out he should focus on her, hopefully the chimney is getting her in the mood, especially if she is full of eggs. The first spawn may or may not be successful depending on their previous experience..whether the male wraps properly, whether you remove the female soon enough so she doesnt gorge on eggs, (With my first spawn the female ate the eggs to start off with, but ended up helping the male out them in the nest) also if the father is a good one and doesnt end up eating his own eggs or fry. Best of luck not the easiest of fish, go with advice above ensure there are microworm cultures getting mature now ready for the wrigglers to come ( Totaly agree on, get a culture started asap). Also be prepared with the fry that you may end up with many and high ratio of males which all will need separating as they come of age and start turning on each other as well as some females that may need separating. Also you will need to consider homes in the long run, are there LFSs that will be willing to take these? Friends and family?

You should get some good tips on here, I can recommend aly_starh above (as having created her own spawn to very beautiful babies)

You stated you're doing it for fun, it's not fun it's hard work, a lot of time and alot of money.

 

[StrontiumDog]

Sorry forgot to add, Its probly better to have a bare bottom tank for the male to find the eggs he's missed, but saying that I have sand in mine and it didn't seem to much of a problem.

 

[betta fish]

The male must be placed in the breeding tank at least a week or two before placing the female in the chimney within the tank, he needs to be able to get used to the tank as his own and build a nice bubblenest under a polycup, if you introduce them at the same time to a tank that is unfamiliar to him he will not concentrate on building a bubblenest to begin with, only when the male has a nice large bubblenest should you then introduce the female in the chimney for a day or two if she responds well to him i.e flares, tips nose down when he approaches and generally follows him around the tank do you know she is interested and should be released, don't expect it to all be plain sailing though there is likely to be some chasing and fin nipping usually by the male before the act of spawning, but it usually happens within a few hours or sometimes immediately if they are ready, if it hasn't by the end of the day it is best to remove the female back to the chimney to continue conditioning for a couple of more days, but as others have said it is not something to be taken lightly, it is hard work but if you are prepared enough it can be done, goodluck

 

[StrontiumDog]

The male must be placed in the breeding tank at least a week or two before placing the female in the chimney within the tank, he needs to be able to get used to the tank as his own and build a nice bubblenest under a polycup, if you introduce them at the same time to a tank that is unfamiliar to him he will not concentrate on building a bubblenest to begin with, only when the male has a nice large bubblenest should you then introduce the female in the chimney for a day or two if she responds well to him i.e flares, tips nose down when he approaches and generally follows him around the tank do you know she is interested and should be released,(she maybe intrested and follow the male but will not spawn because she is not ready, her eggs are not delveloped yet) don't expect it to all be plain sailing though there is likely to be some chasing and fin nipping usually by the male before the act of spawning, but it usually happens within a few hours or sometimes immediately if they are ready, if it hasn't by the end of the day it is best to remove the female back to the chimney to continue conditioning for a couple of more days, but as others have said it is not something to be taken lightly, it is hard work but if you are prepared enough it can be done, goodluck

Keep on reading, peoples breeding exeriences, it helps alot.

 

[betta fish]

The male must be placed in the breeding tank at least a week or two before placing the female in the chimney within the tank, he needs to be able to get used to the tank as his own and build a nice bubblenest under a polycup, if you introduce them at the same time to a tank that is unfamiliar to him he will not concentrate on building a bubblenest to begin with, only when the male has a nice large bubblenest should you then introduce the female in the chimney for a day or two if she responds well to him i.e flares, tips nose down when he approaches and generally follows him around the tank do you know she is interested and should be released,(she maybe intrested and follow the male but will not spawn because she is not ready, her eggs are not delveloped yet) don't expect it to all be plain sailing though there is likely to be some chasing and fin nipping usually by the male before the act of spawning, but it usually happens within a few hours or sometimes immediately if they are ready, if it hasn't by the end of the day it is best to remove the female back to the chimney to continue conditioning for a couple of more days, but as others have said it is not something to be taken lightly, it is hard work but if you are prepared enough it can be done, goodluck

Keep on reading, peoples breeding exeriences, it helps alot.

This is why conditioning for 2 weeks first is so important, it allows the female to ripen with eggs alot quicker due to the enriched diet of live food (or frozen live food ) placing her in the chimney for 2 days beforehand not only allows her to familiarise herself with the male but also get egged up more so in rediness to spawn, vertical breeding bars are often a good indicator that the female is mature and ready to condition for spawning one other thing I would like to add is after spawning the female should be placed in a very clean tank which has regular water changes as her fins may be badly nipped which can then introduce bacteria and she will be tired after spawning so her immune system will be low and unable to fight any bacteria, females and sometimes males can die after spawning if conditions are less than ideal.

 

[StrontiumDog]

The male must be placed in the breeding tank at least a week or two before placing the female in the chimney within the tank, he needs to be able to get used to the tank as his own and build a nice bubblenest under a polycup, if you introduce them at the same time to a tank that is unfamiliar to him he will not concentrate on building a bubblenest to begin with, only when the male has a nice large bubblenest should you then introduce the female in the chimney for a day or two if she responds well to him i.e flares, tips nose down when he approaches and generally follows him around the tank do you know she is interested and should be released,(she maybe intrested and follow the male but will not spawn because she is not ready, her eggs are not delveloped yet) don't expect it to all be plain sailing though there is likely to be some chasing and fin nipping usually by the male before the act of spawning, but it usually happens within a few hours or sometimes immediately if they are ready, if it hasn't by the end of the day it is best to remove the female back to the chimney to continue conditioning for a couple of more days, but as others have said it is not something to be taken lightly, it is hard work but if you are prepared enough it can be done, goodluck

Keep on reading, peoples breeding exeriences, it helps alot.

This is why conditioning for 2 weeks first is so important, it allows the female to ripen with eggs alot quicker due to the enriched diet of live food (or frozen live food ) placing her in the chimney for 2 days beforehand not only allows her to familiarise herself with the male but also get egged up more so in rediness to spawn, vertical breeding bars are often a good indicator that the female is mature and ready to condition for spawning one other thing I would like to add is after spawning the female should be placed in a very clean tank which has regular water changes as her fins may be badly nipped which can then introduce bacteria and she will be tired after spawning so her immune system will be low and unable to fight any bacteria, females and sometimes males can die after spawning if conditions are less than ideal.

betta fish, I was not arguing a point, just pointing out why the female is not fully intrested, you are now stating only 2 days before hand? Different fish = diferent times, it's not a given facter, may take longer.

 

[betta fish]

The male must be placed in the breeding tank at least a week or two before placing the female in the chimney within the tank, he needs to be able to get used to the tank as his own and build a nice bubblenest under a polycup, if you introduce them at the same time to a tank that is unfamiliar to him he will not concentrate on building a bubblenest to begin with, only when the male has a nice large bubblenest should you then introduce the female in the chimney for a day or two if she responds well to him i.e flares, tips nose down when he approaches and generally follows him around the tank do you know she is interested and should be released,(she maybe intrested and follow the male but will not spawn because she is not ready, her eggs are not delveloped yet) don't expect it to all be plain sailing though there is likely to be some chasing and fin nipping usually by the male before the act of spawning, but it usually happens within a few hours or sometimes immediately if they are ready, if it hasn't by the end of the day it is best to remove the female back to the chimney to continue conditioning for a couple of more days, but as others have said it is not something to be taken lightly, it is hard work but if you are prepared enough it can be done, goodluck

Keep on reading, peoples breeding exeriences, it helps alot.

This is why conditioning for 2 weeks first is so important, it allows the female to ripen with eggs alot quicker due to the enriched diet of live food (or frozen live food ) placing her in the chimney for 2 days beforehand not only allows her to familiarise herself with the male but also get egged up more so in rediness to spawn, vertical breeding bars are often a good indicator that the female is mature and ready to condition for spawning one other thing I would like to add is after spawning the female should be placed in a very clean tank which has regular water changes as her fins may be badly nipped which can then introduce bacteria and she will be tired after spawning so her immune system will be low and unable to fight any bacteria, females and sometimes males can die after spawning if conditions are less than ideal.

betta fish, I was not arguing a point, just pointing out why the female is not fully intrested, you are now stating only 2 days before hand? Different fish = diferent times, it's not a given facter, may take longer.

Woah! neither was I think we may have got out wires crossed here! it's difficult to talk via email as people cannot read your mood, of course each fish is different, what I find works for me may not work for other people, everyone has their own way of doing things I'm just stating what works for me which is around two weeks conditioning for both and then female in breeding trap for two days in males territory to watch him build nest and familiarise herself with him it has always worked with me it does sound like the other person did not allow the male to build up his territory in breeding tank first and this could be why it failed, many people do this but the male needs time to get used to his breeding quarters if he is busy parading a tank checking it out with no bubble nest the female would not have been interested in him, I also find girls egg up alot quicker if they are able to see a male