betta breeding

[lycaon]

Has anyone bred bettas? I was wondering if anyone knew how long i should leave them together before removing the female. I tried it once and i took the female out because they had been together over night and still no eggs but as soon as i took her out she was dropping eggs everywhere! It took about 24 hrs for her to drop the eggs but I don't know if I should leave them together that long because I'm worried that the male may be too stressed after that to take care of the eggs. I'm posting on ultimatebettas too. If anyone knows anything about breeding bettas any info will be helpful. THANX!

[jm1212]

breeding bettas is ALOT of work.

the pair will lay literally hundreds of eggs, which the male will guard very fiercly for the first couple days. after the fry become free-swimming though, he will eat them so you'll need to raise the fry after that. they are absolutely tiny and need to be fed very tiny foods frequently.

the most arduous part of breeding bettas though is the fact that as soon as they are distinguishable as male or female, they need to be separated. at normal temps, this will give you about 50% males and 50% females, which can be hundreds of males that need to be kept separate. females can be kept together, but watch for late developers and aggressive females, as they will need to be separated as well. chances are you will need a series of fishbowls for all of these bettas, and daily water changes on each of them will be a task in itself every single day.

[SubRosa]

I used to put the female in the male's tank 1/2 hr after lights out the night before a day off. I'd try to wake when the rooster crowed to watch the spawn, which started as soon as it got light out. Usually it ended in a couple of hours and I'd remove the female immediately. The male will tear her up in defense of the nest, and it's another mouth in a tank full of eggs.

[lycaon]

Ok well I'll try to put them together then. I heard that the morning was the best time to put them together because that's when the usually breed just like you said yours did. I just don't know how long it can take for her to actually drop eggs or how long I should wait until I can know whether their ever going to breed or not

[daphilster08]

Just wanted to say that I did it in 7th grade!

This is how it went..

1. Few floating plants, even just uprooted ones
2. Female in a bag
3. Male outside of the bag swimming around the 10 gallon tank making a bubble nest.
4. Release of female.
5. Eggs everywhere!

Did this with NO filtration at all! :headbang2: