Oh God, What Am I Doing...

[BWBettas]

Well...

After a total of 6 failed attempts at spawning. If this current one doesnt work out. Im going to leave it for a while. And even worse. I may stop keeping bettas altogether All these failed attempts are getting to me, and i'm starting to think im a bad Betta keeper because none of my bettas apart from one of the attempts at spawning have made me bubblenests in the last 4 months. I've already got my family into trouble about my fish (leaving heaters and filters on the floor so the carpet melted and spewed everywhere) and i'm not sure i can take it all anymore. Of course if i did give up, i would still come round and visit you in the Bettas section but just not to post about my fish or spawn...

I dont know what to do

Bret

 

[CAC]

My advise would be to check out bettatalk.com
she has loads of info on spawing etc and you can even ask for a personal consultation (even though its like £12 (($20)) )
if not i dont know what you could do other than check out other Betta sites and because i havent spawned or even tryed yet i cant give any further advise...
sorry, hope you get this spawn though. Good luck.

 

[BWBettas]

Ohh.. i know what to do with breeding bettas.. It' just not happening for me...

 

[liz2]

well calm down for a start! I got heater burn on my carpet in back room, you just have to keep a coffee table over it so you cant see it.

Perhaps your fish are not ready to breed. Sit back and enjoy them then try again in a few weeks. Are you conditioning them enough? (not sure what that means but I have read it somewhere ) I almost rescued a puffa (dwarf) today that looked really bad all by itself but I havent got any space. Now thinking to myself..I shouldnt differentiate between sick fish..a sick fish is a sick fish! Is it raining down your way?

 

[BWBettas]

Aah but when your renting a house with a contract that says no pets and you have:

1 Cat
10 Fish Tanks
2 Hamsters
And My Brother... Heh

It doesn't work out for the best

Bret

 

[Taridan]

you could check with the landlord, but a lot of places I've looked at for renting when they say no pets they mean no mammals / birds/ rodents... most places don't include fish as pets since they can't make messes on the floor or try to escape or leave hair or feathers everywhere for people with allergies. Of course, most places don't consider the dropped heaters, breaking tanks, ect.

 

[Amerce]

OK lets start from basics ..... exactly what is your routine with the fish before you even put them in the breeding tank.

If we go over it step by step maybe we can sort out what you are doing wrong

I mean we can tell you what to do, but are you actually doing it or putting your own swing onto it ?

 

[BWBettas]

Right well...

Feed for 2 weeks on Bloodworms in the morning, brine shrimp at lunch time and mosquito larvae for 10 days.
Then i place the male in the tank for 1 day on his own. Then i place the female in a coke bottle chimney bang in the middle of the tank. I leave them for a day and i feed them bloodowrms before bed. If a nest has been attempted and the female is barred up i will release in the morning and check every 2 hours during the day.

That's what i do and ive had 6-7 failed attempts!

Bret

 

[OohFeeshy]

Meh, same here. How many different combos have you tried? All of mine are first timers and haven't a clue, the males bubblenest lovelly but then decide that ripping the female to bits is much more fun. There's another teqnique described for bettas who haven't bred before, but where it is, i can't recall.

 

[BWBettas]

4 differents combinations... some older fish.. younger fish.. new males... new females... NOTHING WORKS lol i need a fix for all this failure

Bret

 

[OohFeeshy]

Maybe pick the pair that seemed to work best then do everything OTT. Condition them for longer, leave the female in the jar for longer, perhaps transplant bubblenests so there's an extra large one, use IAL or similar....

 

[TammyLiz]

I've not tried breeding yet but my recent research leads me to make a suggestion. It could be water quality. What are your water stats and what do you add to it for the breeding tank? I've read where people had problem after problem and then added some extra blackwater extract or something and BAM!

 

[ezrock]

Great point tammy. For the first 6 tries or so, I was trying in a town that had really hard water. I was never successful there. Then I tried after I moved to a different town with water that was more 'normal' (ie not hard) and they spawned (unfortunately I had left the male in too long and he ate all but one or two of the fry).

Then, I moved to my second university for my second degree (so yet a third town) and I tried there. I had problems at first due to not conditioning them properly. Then, after conditioning them for a few weeks, I went away for a weekend. Right before I left, I filled a 5 gal halfway with aged water, turned the heater on, put the male in, then put the female in without a chimney because they had already been visible to eachother. I had already put in the plants, styro cup, etc. Came home on the Sunday and they had spawned (probably on the saturday) and eggs were already hatching.

I owe that success to the proper conditioning, fresh water, correct temperature, and most of all to my not checking in on them every few hours. Perhaps you have a separate room that's not occupied much where you can leave the fish undisturbed for a day or two to see if that works for you?

-Ian

 

[Amerce]

That's it ezrock, the water quality does make a big difference to the breeding success as does the fish's health at the time of spawning (cause it takes a lot out of them, courtship/egg quality etc).

OK Bret you seem to be doing it right when it comes to feeding the prospective breeding pair, but are you getting your breeding tank right.

I use IAL leaves or blackwater extract, the water has to be clean with plenty of plants (synthetic or live), I know Bettaman doesn't but then it is down to personal preference and whether you are willing to risk your female being harrassed a lot.

I also put my male in the day before to get used to the tank, I present the female to him in a container so that she can egg up more (she should already have been slightly eggy before hand), then maybe the next day if she looks as though she is fairly huge with eggs I release her into the tank.

I've done this with new boys/girls and had no problem, if they show no problems with each other I'll leave her in the tank overnight and check the next day (no peeping constantly, you are interrupting them).
One session where I did this it took the male 2 days before they finally got down to it, but this was his second spawning and I knew he would be OK with the female, not a nip in sight, and I am currently watching his fry swimming all over the tank.

So before you give up, try it one more time, but remember the breeding tank has to be right as well, not just the fish

 

[BWBettas]

Yeah, not sure on the new house's water but my old house had water with a pH around 6.8 something like that and all my betta were active whether or not they had heaters. But in this house they mope around even though they are now, ALL heated i added around 3 1" by 1" pieces of IAL in one corner of the tank and started a small sponge filter. Also i added about 10 big fluffy stems of hornwort. This is what i have done for EVERY spawn and nothing has happened!

Bret