Breeding!

[Juice]

I picked up a female to accompany my male which has been in the tank a couple months now, I wanted to breed but my lfs never got any females. I looked there today and found females, $1.50 picked one up.

The couple was "love at first sight" as I floated the bag in the tank. The male, named Funtop (pronounced fun top), went right up to the female on the other side of the bag wall. As soon as the female was netted out, Funtop was already showing off his gills and fins.

Will they be able to breed in my tank? Theres guppies, tetras, cory and pleco in there. Its kinda like a planted community/breeder. Its a 15 gallon. Exact stock is as follows

6 guppies 3m/3f
2 scissortail tetra
2 glo lite tetra
1 cory albino
1 common pleco 3.5 inches

betta pair

so theres these 14 fish in my 15gal. I decided that I needed to start breeding when I noticed my male repeatedly making bubble nests around the edge of plant leaves sticking out of the surface. The filter would keep plowing the bubbles away, failure. I picked up a female and put in a little plastic lid, and Funtop has already noted the lid and has started with the bubbles there.

Right now he is chasing his girl around, hopefully they will make a good couple

Should I scoop the bubble lid and the male into a breeder net when I notice the eggs? Its one of those little net boxes for injured fish or whatever. I just want them to be safe from the cory. Also I read that the male will kill the female when she does the egg thing, so I want to put the male with the bubbles.

How long can I go without seperating the baby males? I dont have alot of places to put them, I guess I could get a couple little plastic gallon divided into 2 sides, then give them away when I have no more space.

Wait my female was just floating under the bubble nest i thought she was dead. Was she going to do the egg thing? I had to poke her and she swam away. She really looked dead.

 

[constantine03]

You have a lot of reading to do before you attempt this. You need to take either the male or female out, now. They should NEVER be placed in a tank together unless for breeding. Your tank is not set up for breeding, and since you JUST bought the female, it's highly unlikely that she is in condition to breed. Separate them, read a LOT, and then try again after you have read a lot. Again, SEPARATE THEM now. You cannot breed the two in a tank stocked like that.

 

[Juice]

You have a lot of reading to do before you attempt this. You need to take either the male or female out, now. They should NEVER be placed in a tank together unless for breeding. Your tank is not set up for breeding, and since you JUST bought the female, it's highly unlikely that she is in condition to breed. Separate them, read a LOT, and then try again after you have read a lot. Again, SEPARATE THEM now. You cannot breed the two in a tank stocked like that.

I put the female in the net box, can you elaborate please?

 

[constantine03]

There is a sticky on the top of this forum that elaborates a little more on breeding. It is, by no means, a total guide for what you should do to breed your bettas, but it is an excellent reference and start.

Also check out this site: Betty Splendens

You should also just search on google or what not for "betta breeding."

 

[Juice]

So from what i've read, it looks like I need a different tank.

 

[bronzecat]

Hi Juice

Apart from the breeding side of bettas, your fish in your tank are not really suitable

Male bettas aren't normally good mates with male guppies, they can see them as a threat. Also, most Tetras are prolific fin nippers. You really do need to change things a bit. The male needs to come out before someone gets seriously damaged. Cory's should be kept in groups and the common plec will get too big for your tank.

At present you have over 20 inches of fish in a 15 gallon which makes it slightly over-stocked

Sorry to put a dampener$ on it but its better you know

 

[Juice]

Ok I managed to pull together a little plastic 5 gallon for them temoprairaly. They are both in there since yesterday. Yesterday the female got pretty beat up and she was cowering behind a pot in the corner. She came out today and the male and female are swiming and eating together. The female has pretty bad fins now and im treating the tank. He stopped nipping her so its all good. Male is bubbling it up i gave him a plastic lid and theres bubbles there but mostly around the edges of the tank. So yeah the females pretty torn up at the pelvic fin but shes swimming fine. I want to put her in a healer but I think the male might beat her up again if i take her out.

 

[Hawkins]

The pair should not be kept together unless you are breeding.. you really need more space, can you not get another tank and give them a tank each? 2 gallons plus is good enough for them, and they are quite cheap aswell.

if you cant do this then you should probably take the fish back to the shop.. think whats best for the fish, not how quickly you can get some fry

 

[Netty]

Sorry to put a dampner on things but you still need to separate them or you will end up with a dead female They need to have been conditioned properly for at least 2 weeks before attempting to breed them. Also do you have food lined up for any fry that hatch and if you were to end up with 100+ babies, will you have individual containers to separate all the males into once they reach about 2 months old and a way to keep them all warm.

It sounds abit like you are rushing into things and it's much better to have all the info and equipment ready before you try to start breeding them.

We spent months researching before we started and even now we are learning different ways of doing things better. Once you have everything in place then give it a go and we'll all be here to give help and advice

 

[Juice]

I am breeding HELLO. They have done the embrace just a few minutes ago I already have a bubblenest full of white eggs. I'm waiting a little to pull the female out because only about the size of a coin is filled with eggs. Both male and female are spitting the eggs in the bubbles so I dont really know why you guys think I need to seperate them... I'm gona go buy food and jars soon, just wanted to make sure they would at least give me some eggs first..

But anyway i'm quite happy I got eggs already and i'm carefully observing now to decide when to remove the female.

 

[Netty]

Sorry but only 4 days ago they were in an unsuitable community tank (which Constantine told you 2 months ago was NOT suitable). They obviously haven't been conditioned for breeding first, but you obviously know what you are doing, so I will butt out and let you get on with it!!!!!

So if they hatch within the next 24hrs I hope you WILL have food for them or you will end up with dead fry

 

[newfishy]

juice, breeding bettas is not to be taken lightly, and you are ignoring good and sound advice, if you dont want to listen, fine, but you will most likely end up with lots of dead fish.

fry need microworms or newly hatched brine shrimp to survive, even grinding up adult betta food is a poor substute.

you must remove the female as soon as they are done wrapping, or, to protect his babies the male will hunt down and kill her. and you need a bigger tank to raise the fry, or else the water will sour quickly from too much food and poop, and the babies will stunt and never grow to full size.

 

[azulfire24]

you really didnt read anything constine said did you. male and female cant live togather and 5 gal is too small to house fry, they will be stunted and sickly, and baby bettas need very small live food, it takes a 24 hour time space at least to hatch food so if ur babies hatch you will be starving them. and after they are done spawning the male will kil the female cause he wont want her near the nest then, then he will probally eat all the eggs cause he is stressed, so where are u gonna put the male and female once the babies were hatched? female and male cannot live togather long term and they will eat the fry...... these things are not live bearing guppies, you dont know what you are doing and if you dont want any advice on how to do it properly the why the h@#$ are you even on this site? several people have told you that you are not doing it properly and you just ignore them, well have fun with ur dead fish and i hope you wont come back on here b@#$%ing cause they died or you lost al ur babies... a i told u so isnt even enough!

 

[newfishy]

azul, you are always saying the things Im thinking.

 

[Hawkins]

harsh words but its true