Breeding

[StarChildren]

Ok, got them all ready to spawn and make babies and introduced the female and did it by how everyone says to do it. there together in the 10g tank now. Zoom (my male) has a bubble nest like he's trying to reach for the sky with it. Rose Petal (my female), shows the breeding stripes and looks a lil bloated and will look at the nest without destroying it... Now heres the weird part, when they wrap around one another and start it its like they forget 5 seconds later what there trying to do and stop, she'll swim off about 6 inches and he'll begin blowing bubbles some more, they try again and again 5 seconds later they stop. One egg dropped out in one of the 50 times they've tried and stopped, neither of them picked it up off the bottom of the tank. And now, she sits about 6 inches from him and will swim over, look at the nest, take a breath and swim back to her 6 inch away post just to sit there. And my male will stay under his nest, staring at it and looking like he's depressed. I have yet to see more then that one egg drop and he doesn't chase her off, just sits and looks depressed (once in a while he will try to entice her over, and she will go and look and swim off). They have done this since yesterday morning, not picking on each other, just what I described. Is this normal, or do they just not let nature take over?
Its frustrating to sit and watch them do this, I have the tank covered for the most part with part uncovered so I can make sure no one gets hurt or killed. I have read the stuff on here about breeding and on other sites and even watched video of it on youtube and nothing like this have I seen or read about.

 

[Bubblenester]

lol I started to answer this before I realized who it was.

It's normal for them to have at least a few failed attempts before they get it right and eggs come out. Sometimes a lot of failed attempts. After a few hours of the male trying to wrap the female, I thought the parents of my current spawn were never going to make any eggs, but when I came home from work the nest was full of them.

There's really nothing you can do but wait and hope. At least they're trying to spawn- getting them to that point is the hardest.

Oh yeah, and the only thing I can think of that would really keep a pair from eventually getting the wrap right would be if the female is too large for the male. Ideally he should be about 1 1/3 her length (in body).

 

[StarChildren]

lol, yeah. i'm half tempting to just start building the community tank with females in it and have a couple males in the smaller tanks I have. 48hrs later and theyre still doing the same thing as before. i feel bad for them, im sure they are getting bored and tired of trying and failing.

 

[blue_betta]

sounds like she isnt 100% ready, id split them up for a week and pach her full of live and frozen foods. it sounds like she just hasnt had enough conidioning.
the way you describe them wraping is exactly how they are ment to and ive found it takes perhaps 10-15 wraps before any eggs apear, even then its only small numbers and eventualy they will be squirting out a dozen at a time if she is ready.

 

[Bubblenester]

sounds like she isnt 100% ready, id split them up for a week and pach her full of live and frozen foods. it sounds like she just hasnt had enough conidioning.
the way you describe them wraping is exactly how they are ment to and ive found it takes perhaps 10-15 wraps before any eggs apear, even then its only small numbers and eventualy they will be squirting out a dozen at a time if she is ready.

Hm, yeah, if it's taken that long then maybe her eggs aren't completely developed or something. Just re-condition her and try again, and you should be good.

 

[modaz]

its not that the female isnt ready, if she is barred and an egg has fallen they are ready, it takes time for a load of eggs to out at once, if this is there first time spawning then this is likely to happen, again if she is barred the eggs are ripe, a small swollen female will hold about 50 ish eggs in total, my bettas spawn and always leave some of the eggs on the base of the tank if not uncommon, she will venture away from him and rest, its natural, spawning can last for hours so leave her in there if he's not attempting to harm her, if she aint destroyed the nest and he doesnt beat her senseless this means all is well so be patient,

 

[StarChildren]

sounds like she isnt 100% ready, id split them up for a week and pach her full of live and frozen foods. it sounds like she just hasnt had enough conidioning.
the way you describe them wraping is exactly how they are ment to and ive found it takes perhaps 10-15 wraps before any eggs apear, even then its only small numbers and eventualy they will be squirting out a dozen at a time if she is ready.

Hm, yeah, if it's taken that long then maybe her eggs aren't completely developed or something. Just re-condition her and try again, and you should be good.

the only thing i fear with re-conditioning her is what people say about eggs backing up and causing blockage, if that hasn't already happened because when i was conditioning them they could see each other. maybe i'll try it and see if it makes a difference. i also think one or both of them may be two old, i cant really guarantee there age and that there fertile.

 

[modaz]

they dont need reconditioning, you havent left them long enough to get on with it

 

[StarChildren]

its not that the female isnt ready, if she is barred and an egg has fallen they are ready, it takes time for a load of eggs to out at once, if this is there first time spawning then this is likely to happen, again if she is barred the eggs are ripe, a small swollen female will hold about 50 ish eggs in total, my bettas spawn and always leave some of the eggs on the base of the tank if not uncommon, she will venture away from him and rest, its natural, spawning can last for hours so leave her in there if he's not attempting to harm her, if she aint destroyed the nest and he doesnt beat her senseless this means all is well so be patient,

He has never once really tried to harm her, he has chased her around a little but thats it. Its more her beating him senseless. I caught them yesterday and today where she looked like she was trying to slap him silly. She put her back tail to him and starting swatting him with her tail for a while and then swam off and he just stayed put under the nest. I plan on leaving them together, I figured if they ain't killing each other theres no real harm in it except that they've both stopped eating.

 

[modaz]

this tail slapping that she is doing is part of and typical of the females courtship dance.