Strange turn of events......

[The_Gilly]

brought a pair of bettas from bettaman ready for our breeding project. Wasn't going to well and it appeared there was no chemistry between our mating pair. As a last ditch attempt we thought we would get another male and put him in a jar next to the breeding tank. Well we thought we'd go buy a cheap un from pets at home. Well can you believe we found a lovely (healthy!) deep red crown tail! Cost just under 5 pounds so we snapped him up.

When we got him home we decided to pop him in the breeding tank (yes we let him settle into his new home before doing this) as we had read that making the males flare and have abit of ruff and tumble would make them breed. Well, the original male was alittle wimpy and just hid. The female in a jar in the breeding tank went totally mental for the new betta! he also did the same to her and was much more active then the original black one.

By 10PM last night he had started to put a very small nest together and she was displaying bars!

So we decided to let him have a shot at the title and removed the black one.

I know he's not been conditioned (female has) but they just seem to have clicked so we are going to take a chance.

Going to let the female out at about 3PM today after work so wish us luck!

 

[Ben]

whoa,thats lucky you found him

good luck with the spawn

DD

 

[Joby]

Good find!

My only concern about the male not being conditioned is that its hard work for him tending the nest. When the babies start dropping its an almost constant job for him to blow them back up again.

Having said this, my male wasn't conditioned although they are always fed twice daily and usually pellets/frozen foods, when he accidentally spawned. He did a good job and didn't eat any eggs or fry that I saw. He was in there for 3 days all together with no food and looked ok although he was a little pale and visibly tired by the end.

I would just give him a hearty meal of bloodworms or something while he's in there making his nest so that at least he's got something in his belly for the next few days

Keep us updated

 

[The_Gilly]

exactly my thoughts. We're off to get some live worms for him before releasing the girlie. Fingers crossed!

 

[-cAtFiSh-]

whats conditioned?

good luck btw

 

[The_Gilly]

conditioning- feeding a fish well for a period of at least 2 weeks prior to breeding

otherwise he (they actually as the femal needs it too) might not have the energy to complete his task

 

[The_Gilly]

just saw my first embrace...........only thing is he hasn't made a very big nest............he doesn't seem to be able to get the bubbles to stay

 

[Bettaman]

cool gilly its because he is the same colour red that she has taken to be fair you only had the black a day and he had done a 24 hour trip, he did build a nest for you, and she wasnt ready, dont worrie about the nest if she accepts it he will build it as they go along, i have the same thing happen, this other female your having will be better suited for the mustard gas male, this should be interesting red male crown,and red halfmoon female, keep us updated............

 

[The_Gilly]

they are on the job as we speak. She's eating a few but he's doing his best with the nest he's got.

you're right he's blowing big bubbles with a few caught eggs in at the time.

it's soooooooooo interesting to watch although claire is worried the female will eat them all.

Yeah it was probably abit unfair on the mustard fella..........



Will keep updating throughout the evening as I had a gut feeling tonight was the night so I got a cheeky bottle of wine in to watch the turn of events.

 

[Bettaman]

is she eating them or is she putting them in the nest as well if she goes under and blows a bubble or looks as if she is putting something in their between embrace then she is putting them up as well ............just dont worrie about it and WAIT repeat WAIT untill he is actually chasing her away from the nest before taking her out..........

 

[Nuttygal! :0)]

Good luck!

 

[The_Gilly]

) school boy error she is indeed lending a hand and putting them back in the nest.

We've got 10 min obs going at the moment just to be sure.

Quality..........

What's the chances of getting the other fish and microworms sent on Monday? If there's no chance we'll have to go hunt some out over the weekend......

 

[The_Gilly]

Lets get it on!

Dad collecting

 

[Bettaman]

i was hoping Tuesday as on an Early Monday 5AM but don't get home till 5pm ,you shouldn't need anything till Thursday, use the hard boiled egg yolk if i haven't got the m/worms to you, and use that just a small amount in water or if you have plants live ones in the tank get some liquifry for egg layers tomorrow and put that in by time they start feeding 3-5 days from hatching their will be infosuria in the tank...must be the weather i have just been in fish house and new black hmoon building nest and spawning with female black........ ..just leave them to it and all should be fine, get some containers IE margarine tubs ready for the m/worms to start another culture when it arrives take about a week for them to really get going and climbing the wall to take off to feed the fish.......

edit also get some BBS eggs to hatch and feed them.....

 

[Joby]

Wohoo! nice pics

Glad its going well. My female Fleur also helped the male collect the eggs when they spawned

I like the idea of the bottle of wine to celebrate

The liquifry no. 1 is a good starter as I used that till my worms arrived from Bettaman and got climbing up the sides of the container.