LauraFrog
Fish Gatherer
I have a really, really nice crowntail pair - solid silver - and I want to try and spawn them but no matter what I do and how closely I follow everything I've read about betta breeding I can't get it right. The last time I tried, the female wasn't conditioned properly because I ran into the same problem described below and fed less. The male beat the crap out of her. I thought she was eggy. She looked it, but within three days of being able to see him and the display she lost it all. She wasn't badly hurt, and I let her out several more times but he always went for her. After four days of trying I gave up. She's recovered now and I want to try again - day two of conditioning and I've already hit a brick wall because I know what I did last time's not going to work.
Everybody says that you're supposed to feed them twice a day, high protein foods, as much as they will eat when you're conditioning. Well last night I fed them about fifteen hikari pellets each (my other bettas get 5-7 depending on size, every day except Sunday, and are all healthy) and they were STILL going, so I figured I'd best stop before they exploded. This morning, I fed them again, and they kept on taking the pellets, about another fifteen each, until I stopped feeding them. So I went off to school thinking I'm too bloody soft, I have to do this properly and feed them until they won't take anything else. I get home and what do I find? Both of them constipated, bloated, and looking extremely uncomfortable, resting on the bottom and breathing too fast. The female looks like every picture I've seen of 'totally full of eggs' which is impossible because she was slim yesterday, so I can only assume 'totally full of undigested food'. The male looks the same, and there's no way he's full of eggs!
Neither will take peas, even garlicked ones, I have tried that enough times to know that both of them will refuse anything except pellets, mozzie larvae and termite eggs. I even have trouble getting them to accept frozen bloodworm. I have epsom salts but I don't know how to use them. Water quality is perfect.
Everybody says that you're supposed to feed them twice a day, high protein foods, as much as they will eat when you're conditioning. Well last night I fed them about fifteen hikari pellets each (my other bettas get 5-7 depending on size, every day except Sunday, and are all healthy) and they were STILL going, so I figured I'd best stop before they exploded. This morning, I fed them again, and they kept on taking the pellets, about another fifteen each, until I stopped feeding them. So I went off to school thinking I'm too bloody soft, I have to do this properly and feed them until they won't take anything else. I get home and what do I find? Both of them constipated, bloated, and looking extremely uncomfortable, resting on the bottom and breathing too fast. The female looks like every picture I've seen of 'totally full of eggs' which is impossible because she was slim yesterday, so I can only assume 'totally full of undigested food'. The male looks the same, and there's no way he's full of eggs!
Neither will take peas, even garlicked ones, I have tried that enough times to know that both of them will refuse anything except pellets, mozzie larvae and termite eggs. I even have trouble getting them to accept frozen bloodworm. I have epsom salts but I don't know how to use them. Water quality is perfect.
