Just got Betta

[Fresh]

Hi,
I got a male and female betta on Saturday. I put them in a 1.5 gallon fish bowl (with a large plant).
I had no idea that you are not supposed to put a male and a female betta in one bowl. Any way, soon I realized that the male is hitting the female. The female would just stay on top of the plant and won't move. I figured somthing is wrong so I got on the web and did some research. Then I figured out that the female is hiding from the male! I instantly seperated the two (Sunday). On Sunday I saw that the female is pretty happy and is swimming arround.
Today (monday) morning I saw that there are lots of buble on top of the male's bowl. Doing a little research on Sunday, I soon realised that this is a boble nest!
I put the female with the male to see if they are ready to spwan. The male started to showing off for her. The female was OK for a couple of minutes and they were swimming together but after a while it appeared that the female is trying to runaway from the male, so I seperated them again.
How can I know if the female is ready?

Thanks

 

[endparenthesis]

You desperately need to do a couple more hours (or days) worth of internet research on this before you put them together again.

 

[bulldog188]

when the female is receptive to spawning then she will display vertical bars along the length of her body and yes a lot more research should be done

 

[Fresh]

Thanks,
it seems that varius equipment and special food is required to prepare the male and female.
I can mamage to get the food, but is the equipment also necessary?

 

[endparenthesis]

Depends on if you want the babies to live or not.

Seriously, if you don't do a bunch of research on this you're going to be very disappointed.

 

[zeddsdead]

i just purchased a female betta from walmart. she has the horizontal stripes on her right now. should i fatten her up on bloodworms before i introduce her into the male's tank? will she be ready then?

btw, he is currently in a 20 gallon tank that is about half way full. no bubbles or nothing from him. he hasnt seen the female yet. im guessing ill need to purchase a sponge filter and get a divider to have them spawn on one side of the divider is this correct? there is no gravel in the tank and he has been in there for roughly about 1 week.

i have another larger female that is a wonderful green color, she's seen the male plenty of times from a different bowl but has yet to get any stripes on her.

Thanks for reading.

 

[modernhamlet]

Vertical (not horizontal) stripes indicate when female betta are ready to spawn.

Horizontal stripes generally indicate stress. Hopefully, she will lose them as she acclimates to her new home. Keep a close eye on her for the next few days.

 

[zeddsdead]

i see. thank you.

cool i just found an example for anyone interested:

and another:

thanks to this site

 

[snowyangel]

Here's a picture of my female with her "horny" stripes. But it's to be expected since i sandwiched her between two males

 

[zeddsdead]

boy u werent kidding at all about them stripes...im even more pleased with her colors today than the day i bought her. i think she will be ready soon enough, she looks much better now. thanks again.

very sweet pics snowyangel.