spawning questions

Hello, I'm trying to breed my two bettas, and I just put them both in the tank. The female in her little "chimney" and the male in the actual tank. But now everytime the male comes up to her she completely freaks out and just darts all over the place in her area and has a complete panic attack. Does anyone know what this means? Thanks.

I would suggest sending a PM to Whisper. She is our resident betta expert and regularly breeds beautiful bettas.

Okay, thank you (: I'll be sure to.

And also, she calmed down over night so I don't think it's a problem anymore, though.

Hi Kat. Does your female have her vertical stripes? She needs to have them before you release her into his tank. Has he started building his bubble nest? Are they both virgins. Sometimes in that case it will take them longer to figure it all out. Is the male flaring for her? What size tank are they in? I have found that 2.5g is the best. What ever the size you don't want to have the water level any higher then about 5".

Kat, Whisper will take care of ya she is good with the betta!

She is, wait for it.....................................the Betta Whisperer!

That's funny Vamp that you should say that. My username on another forum is Bettawhisperer

lol nice call vampy!!

Maybe I'll change it here to that.

whisper wrote:

Hi Kat. Does your female have her vertical stripes? She needs to have them before you release her into his tank. Has he started building his bubble nest? Are they both virgins. Sometimes in that case it will take them longer to figure it all out. Is the male flaring for her? What size tank are they in? I have found that 2.5g is the best. What ever the size you don't want to have the water level any higher then about 5".

Hi whisper (: Well, the problem with the female is that she is light-bodied so I wouldn't be able to see if she has them or not. And the male has not started a bubblenest yet but he is flaring at her everytime he sees her. And I have no idea about the virgin thing, since I bought them from petco.

They're in a 20 gallon tank (since I don't have any other tanks) that is filled with 4" of water. So probably quite a lot of water for them. lol

Yes It is way to big. Is there anyway you can maybe divide it down smaller to maybe what would be a 5gal. size? The reason we don't use big tanks is that the male has about 4-5 days of very constante work to do once you have eggs and then fry. Even if you divide it the fry will be able to get over to the other section that he can't reach. Is there anyway you can get a smaller tank? Also you should have the filter off now and the tank covered. any movement will brake his nest up. Did you take the time to condition both of them first with frozen foods like Bloodworms and BBS. You can't just through them together. Does the female look like she's fat with eggs? If not them you need to condition her good for about two weeks to get the eggs built up in her. Same with the male and conditioning.

Kat. Go to Bettas in the index. Scroll down in there. I have posted a Betta breeding tutoral. Read that it should tell you all you need to know. Step by step.

whisper wrote:

Yes It is way to big. Is there anyway you can maybe divide it down smaller to maybe what would be a 5gal. size? The reason we don't use big tanks is that the male has about 4-5 days of very constante work to do once you have eggs and then fry. Even if you divide it the fry will be able to get over to the other section that he can't reach. Is there anyway you can get a smaller tank? Also you should have the filter off now and the tank covered. any movement will brake his nest up. Did you take the time to condition both of them first with frozen foods like Bloodworms and BBS. You can't just through them together. Does the female look like she's fat with eggs? If not them you need to condition her good for about two weeks to get the eggs built up in her. Same with the male and conditioning.

I probably could, but I do actually have a 5 gallon tank that I totally forgot about! I could probably use that one instead. Or I could just go ahead and buy a little 2 gallon size tank from petco since they're super cheap and I just might as well anyways.

There's isn't actually a filter for that tank though, so there's no problems with that haha, and it is covered. And as for conditioning, I bought them about two-three weeks ago and I have been feeding them live blood worms and the female does look fat with eggs. And also, I went to check on them and found that the male has made a little bublenest in the corner of the tank! Even though I did provide a pringles lid as an anchor for it lol

Also, thanks so much for your help! I really appreciate it. (:

Ok sounds good. Do you have a styrofoam cup you can cut the long way to use for his nest? It will be a little deeper for the nest.

Okay, I've switched them over into the 5 gallon tank now. And no, unfortunatley we don't have any styrofoam cups. But I'll see if I can find something else that might work as well. Would a plastic cup work?

They;re funny to watch; the male flares at her and then swims around, still flaring as if he's dancing, and the female follows him and watches in her little container lol

lol thats great i just did my spawning but idk if it actually worked it hard to know since this is the first successful breeding, hopefully not this time but the next will be better.

Thanks (: And good luck with your spawn, I hope you get plenty of gorgeous babies from it!

lol ya i hope but it can be very dmanding and can be hard to do but good luck hopefully it works out great

Yeah, that's true. And thanks, I'm mostly just worried about being able to provide the fry with food, since my last attempts at hatching BBS failed but it should be okay anyways though haha.

Yes kat that's what we call it when they flare like that they are doing there dance. Then when they wrap and spawn it's like a beautiful ballet.

Kat did you find the tutoral?

Oh okay, I figured it was that. And yes, I did find it. Thank you! (: But I'm still confused on how I'm going to know when my female is ready, because I won't be able to see her stripes. Is there any other way to tell?

Not really. You will just have to put her in and hope for the best. Is she full of eggs? Don't be alarmed if they do the chase thing. That is normal. Courtship can be very hard to watch. But the spawning is like a beautiful ballet.

Okay, and yes she is. And also, I should put her in after the bubblenest is made, right?

Yes that's generally what to do, however I have had Males that don't build there nest until the female is in there but that is rare. Give him time.