crazy question

I have a female and a male betta in separate tanks next to each other. My male has decided to quite swimming around and it looks like my female is building a nest. Can anyone give me any advice on this.

if the female has a small white nud on her belly she is endacating her willingness to breed. the male is the one that builds the nest.

I knew that he built the nest but I thought it was weird she was doing it. He is lazy so he hasn't gotten the ambition to do it yet. Thank you foor the help

If he's building a nest he's not a female but a short fin male. Do not put them together. Sometimes You get them sold as females.

If he's a 'King betta' he will have short fins like a female - but be rather large. Sounds like you need to go a buy a nice true female and give her the other male's side. Good luck!

Sometimes Walmart and other stores that buy big quantities from fish farms will sell short finned male bettas as females.

when I bought it it had horizontal stripes on it's bodies and is very dull color. Both are half moons

Sounds like a male plaket betta to me. Where did you get him?

I got it at walmart. But it doesn't look like any of those type of males that I have seen before

Fish farms breed so many that they are all hybrids they try to get only the one that look half decent the rest they feed to the other fish but every now and then a strange one gets through.

maybe it is one of those that got through then. That ok with me I still think they are awesome and beautiful fish

On occasion a female will blow bubble nest too. If it has vertical stripes then it's a female. Males don't get the stripes. That is an indicator that she is ready to breed. You should be able to see the little white egg tube on her belly. That is not an indicator that she is ready it just shows that it is a female. They get the egg tubes when very young.

thanks whisper. She has the stripes vertical now and the little white tube. I would like to breed them but my male just acts like he doesn't want to get in the mood for it.

Do you have the jars or what ever you keep them in right up next to each other so they can see each other. Or put her in a container and put that right in his tank for a few days. That will usually get him real interested. What size tank are you using for the spawning? Do you have a Styrofoam cup cut in half the long way in his tank for him to build a nest under? Have you conditioned them good before trying? If you got them from a LFS you will have to condition them good. What is the temp in the spawning tank? Between 75-80 is good. I only use 2.5g tanks for spawning.

my tank is a 2 gallon. I just got her so I haven't gotten everything ready for them

If you just got her I would bulk her up and condition her good with frozen bloodworms and BBS. Some for the male. If you got her from a LFS she is no were near ready for spawning. Give her about two weeks to get conditioned and full of eggs.

thanks whisper for all the help I have the bloodworms and have been feeding it to both bout once a day and feeding them once a day just the regular food. She is still small so I'm going to wait till she gets bigger to do anything with them

Where did you get them? What is the regular food you are giving them. I don't feed mine anything but Atison's Betta Pro. It is a will rounded food with a high protein content. Do you hatch live BBS? You should be feeding that too. Also if you do get any fry you will have to feed BBS to them for the first three weeks along with Walter Worms. Walter Worms are very easy to culture and you can keep the cultures going for quite awhile by periodically starting new ones. Another thing I feed to the fry for the first two to three weeks are Vinegar eels which also are easy to culture. When you are ready I have cultures of all of these. Just let me know.

I got the female at walmart and don't remember wher I got the male at. I feed them the brand of betta food at walmart and frozen bloodworms. I am going to petco today to see what kind of food they have for bettas. I know they have some food that is live there. I will let you know when I am ready tp order stuff from u

Go to aqualandpetsplus.com, they have an excellent article on breeding betas, I think on of the better ones I have ever read, it has good illustrations also, I hope this info helps.

I have posted a Betta Breeding Tutoral on this forum with pictures. Go to the Betta section and on the second page it's there. By whisper

My female HM betta occasionally builds bubble nests. Not very often, but occasionally. I have her next to my male in a divided 10g tank.