Betta Breeding Failure...Can Anyone Help?

[reavesinc]

I've been trying to breed my bettas for about 2 weeks now. I've been following the american method, using a 2 gallon tank introducing the female in a cup then releasing when she seems receptive. The problem is that once I release her she just runs away and hides. I've left them together for 4 days and nothing's happened. Just nipping and chasing. My male is VERY receptive. Any tips?

[5Bettamom]

I tried breeding my bettas too and gave up. I am going to try again sooner or later. Ive read she will hide for a while and from what I hear she will come out fearlessly and breed :huh: . No success for me. Good luck to you though. Make sure you dont release her until he has a bubblenest ready. My female was a little different than yours. Shed go right up to the male and when he'd nip shed run off, then she do it again :huh: . Very complicated buisness..lol. Nothing like my guppy breeding...

[TheMightyQueenPixie]

A few pointers
1) 2 gallons is way to small....10 gal min with 2 gals of water in it
2) brood stock- anything bought at the LFS is most likely too old to breed...This causes all sorts of issues...
3) temp and water quality.... Temp 80-82 water quality PRISTINE
4) conditioning- very important. Feed high protein foods like mosquito larva, combine with daily water changes and atleast 15 hours of light for atleast a week...Two weeks preferrably...

If this doesnt trigger the urge to spawn, then consider him/her retired.

[reavesinc]

The two are pretty big so she's probably too old. If I got another female thats youger would that work? everything else is pretty much consistant.

[chunkoblue]

I've read somewhere (don't remember where) that some males may not accept certain females as mates... perhaps that is what is going on here?:huh:

[BlueJax]

I have limited experience of breeding bettas (I got to the free swimming fry stage, but then the fry died before they could develop their labyrinth organ properly to breathe air).

The following are important:

1) The female must be small enough for the male to wrap his body around for the spawning embrace. If he can't wrap, they can't breed.

2) As above, conditioning is key, you need to feed them lots of live food.

3) A good method is to sue a big sweetie jar, put the female in that and put it in the tank so the male can see her and start to build a bubble nest (a sure sign of readiness to mate).

4) If he is to build a stable nest he needs floating plants/ a floating mop to hold the nest in place. Also there should be no surface disruption which might break the nest up.

5) For the female's benefit, it's good to provide some plants that she can hide behind in case things go wrong (and she'll need to get away once spawning is finished too, as the male will become very protective of nest and eggs).

6) There are two sure ways to know if the female wants to breed: firstly she will have a white 'egglaying spot', visible as a small white nub in front of the anal fin; secondly her colouring will change so she has vertical bars instead of horizontal stripes. In bettas, horizontal stripes tends to indicate stress, whereas vertical bars means they are in breeding condition.

6) Once you know the female is receptive and the male has built his nest, you can let the female out and remove the jar. Don't worry if the nest breaks up, the male will fix it. It is usual for there to be some violence while the pair test each other, but generally this process will result in breeding.

7) Remove the female after spawning is finished and put her in a tank to recover on her own or with peaceful fishes. The male will guard the nest and fry. Remove him once the fry are freeswimming. The need infusorians/ liquifry/ crushed egg yolk as a first food, and then I guess you could try live brine shrimp/ frozen cyclops.

8) The critical stage for the fry is when they are developing the labyrinth organ (around 1cm long). Some people say there should be no surface agitation, other say there should (to increase diffusion of oxygen into the water, apparently). Either way you MUST have a tight cover glass over the fry rearing tank to maintain the temp of the air above the water the same as the water itself, and also to allow maximum humidity above the water while this organ develops. I found this to be the hardest part of rearing this fish and it was totally gutting to lose all the babies, so be warned!

9) one final thing: male bettas prefer to build bubble nests under things that transmit yellow light, as this mimics the colour passing through the leaves of a particular floating plant in their natural habitat. I did a project on this at school a long time ago comparing yellow, red, green and blue 'leaves' that I made from fastening coloured acetate to petri dish lids and floating them on the water at the same time to allow males to decide where to build. They almost unanimously picked yellow. So if your male isn't keen to build then try making a yellow leaf from something (maybe a yellow margarine tub lid?)

10) on the subject of breeding - I have an excellent book on betta breeding by Walt Maurus, who is the daddy of betta breeding in my eyes. He tells in his book of an longevity experiment in the States where males were kept active every day by chasing them round their tanks. The experiment was still going strong at the time Maurus wrote the book and all the males were 9 years old and still capable of fertilizing eggs, so I'm not sure that LFS fish are 'too old', just not in the best condition i.e. I would still give conditioning them with live food a go. Probably best to buy a younger female though as they will a) be smaller than your male so that the embrace will work and b) be more capable of getting out of his way if things turn nasty.

I had the pleasure once of watching a young plakat-type male desperately trying to form a spawning embrace with a female nearly double his size. Both fish were desperate to breed, but there was no way it was going to work, so in the end the female got bored and swam off!

Hope this helps!

[TheMightyQueenPixie]

In the end, if you do get a sucessful spawning you are going to need alot of jars when the little ones grow out. Combine that with a rigorous water changing schdule an you are chained to the fish room for 4 months...If you are breeding fish from the LFS at best you may end up with a dollar trade in credit. Not worth the effort. If you are serious about doing it start with good pair from a breeder.

[weincsatyoi]

and what they forgot to tell ya is if the female is full of eggs and she doesnt release them the female will die. SOmetimes it may take two or up to four days for the female to summit to her man. Just be patient.

[Madcrawdad]

I also had a similar problem when trying to get bettas to spawn... Based on some info I picked up somewhere, I then added a conditioner to the water called "Blackwater Extract" (made by Tetra, usually available at LFS or online). Within 15 mins of adding, the pair was spawning.

I do agree with others that a 2 gal tank is pretty small for spawning. I usually would float a couple of plastic plants on top of the water in a 20 gal to give the female room to flee when the male gets a little too aggressive. 2 gallons doesn't give her much room to find any space to even get into the mood.

Best of luck.

[D-Man]

i have bred bettas a quite a few times, try keeping her by herself and u have to get her ready keep her at 80 degrees and feed her high quality foods for a couple weeks the best i have found to get her ready to spawn is bloodworms and frozen brine shrimp after u have ripened her put the male iin well i use 5 and 10 gallon tanks fill it about4inches with water again at 80 degrees cut a styrofoam cup in half place on top put the female in a mason jar and place in tank with the male after a day or 2 after the male blows bubble nest let the female go and then the should breed also have a lit of air in the tank with a slow steady stream


BETTA BREEDING

[WeeNe858]

D-mans got it... you have to let the male show you that hes ready.. a bubble nest and caring for it are signs.. and let the females sit in the jar or cup til the guy seems interested.. let her out and keep an eye on them..

[TheMightyQueenPixie]

and what they forgot to tell ya is if the female is full of eggs and she doesnt release them the female will die. SOmetimes it may take two or up to four days for the female to summit to her man. Just be patient.


Absolute BS. Fems donot die if they are not spawned. A healthy female can release her own eggs if she chooses. Females constantly have eggs from the age of 3 months or so until death. After spawning it takes about 7-10 days for eggs to be available again. The only time a female can die is if she has some sort of internal deformity that does not allow eggs to be relesed properly. The act of "embracing" can kill her if those eggs dont come out.

[5Bettamom]

Also, maybe one of them have lost their sex drive :huh: Not unlike old people! lolThat's what happened to my "old green man", Emerald. He can't tell the different between a guppy and a female betta :rolleyes: I love my old man. lol

[5Bettamom]

Absolute BS. Fems donot die if they are not spawned. A healthy female can release her own eggs if she chooses. Females constantly have eggs from the age of 3 months or so until death. After spawning it takes about 7-10 days for eggs to be available again. The only time a female can die is if she has some sort of internal deformity that does not allow eggs to be relesed properly. The act of "embracing" can kill her if those eggs dont come out.

Agggrrreed.

[reavesinc]

ive got the temp water food and all that down its the tank that i need to make bigger plus i think i need a smaller female. she has the tube but only displays horizontal bars. I'll keep trying. here they are.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a175/ReavesInc/DSC00015.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a175/ReavesInc/CIMG0991.jpg

[Madcrawdad]

my guess is that you don't need a smaller female, just a bigger tank. whenever my females were stressed/frightened their color would fade and the horizontal bars would be displayed. being in a 2 gallon tank with nowhere to hide from an over-eager male is probably stressing her out.

In a larger tank (I used a 20 long), stick a couple of plastic plants in for the female to hide behind. I used to suction cup some to the side of the aquarium for the female to hang behind at the surface. even when the female is ready to breed, she'll continually seek places to hide...the male will then approach her and do his little dance to coax her under the nest. Once she's comfortable spawning may take place.

Also, think about adding the Blackwater Extract...not sure why it works. Maybe the light tea-like color of the water cuts the light and creates a mood? It worked for me.