how do i know when my fighters have breed

[Dragon_Lord_Tia]

my fighters are in togeather and the male has his nest,and the female is ready but how do i know they have breed the male has been showing his gills around her and he as been going ip and down under the nest if thats any help im not sure

[Heady]

I assume you mean siamese fighting fish, or bettas.

Look in the bubble nest for little white dots. These are eggs. If you watch the fish long enough, you should see them breed. It is really neat to watch. The male kind of grabs the female with his body and they kind of turn around. Then she'll release eggs, he'll fertilize them, they'll let go and just sit there for a second then he'll run down and grab the eggs in his mouth and spit them out up in the bubble nest.

Be careful that you don't leave your female in there too long. If she's not ready to mate, he may beat on her pretty bad.

[Heady]

One more thing, if this is the first time the male has been bred, he may not know quite what to do. He may let all the eggs drop to the bottom and just sit there, then he may actually eat some, then he'll probably figure out he's supposed to just pick them up and spit them out in the nest. Eventually, he'll figure it out, but you may not get quite as many fry out of it in the end (at least with the first breeding).

While the eggs are developing and even just after the fry hatch, he will keep grabbing whoever falls out of the nest and shove them back in. Sooner or later it will be too big of a job with fry swimming in all directions and he will give up. At that point, it would be a good idea to take him out of there because he may start thinking of them as food when he stops taking care of them.

[Dragon_Lord_Tia]

yeah it is his first time as far as i know ill go and check the nest for white dots then

if i wanna keep the male in the tank and mov the fry how would i do it
(1)with a realy fine net
(2)syhons
(3)with a normal net

[pinballqueen]

don't move the fry, temporarily move the male until the fry are old enough to be handled like a normal fish.

[Heady]

Did I mention you should remove the female after they are done breeding?

I agree with pinballqueen. However if you bred them in a small bowl, that would be the only exception I would make because they will not survive in there.

If they have not bred yet, and you are trying to breed them in a small tank/bowl, you should move them to a decent size tank (at least 10 gallons). You can use a cheap rubbermaid container if you like, that's what I did.

If they have already bred and they are in a small tank/bowl, I would wait until the fry are free-swimming and the male abandons them. Then I would remove the male and put him somewhere else. Make sure you have a decent size tank set up already, then I would POUR all the water and fry from the bowl into the larger tank. You may have some losses but it will be much less than if you tried to raise fry in a small bowl.

Do not try to net the new fry or eggs. If you actually get them, it may kill them.