Concerning Mating

[melwoot]

Hi everyone!

I'm currently in the process of trying to mate my most recent pair and having a bit of a difficulty. It's been over a week now, the female has the brightest vertical bars and he's been making a lovely bubble nest.

The only problem is, whenever I let her out- seeing as they seemed ready to mate and are interested in each other, she all of a sudden gets stress stripes and zooms around the tank.

Ive let her out twice. The first time thinking- since she's never been physically introduced to a male, she's afraid of course- so I then put her back in her clear vase, and she'd soon develop her vertical stripes again after a short period of time.

The second time, after a couple of days, she was calm and he seemed proud of his bubble nest. So I decided to let her out- and the same thing happened- The stress stripes came back. So I scooped her back in the vase and am stumped.

I'm afraid to put her back in. I don't want to overstress her. He didn't seem real nippy, but he acted ego-hurt that she wasn't interested in doing it. lol


Should I try another female? Or another male?
Maybe I should separate and condition them again, then re-introduce?

Any help will be appreciated. Thank you. :]

 

[melwoot]

:[

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

If you've tried a few times and it hasn't work I'd be tempted to say try another female

 

[BethK]

are you letting her out for a long period? or short period? the tank you have them in, is there enough coverage for her to hide? there will be alot of chasing and could be a fair few hours before they spawn.

if it's not working out, it's not meant to be.

how long are you leaving her in the chimney/breeding trap, before releasing her?

 

[melwoot]

I've been letting her out for an hour. I wasn't aware it could take several hours for them to spawn, all of my past matings have started no longer than 20 minutes.
I have them in a 10 gallon tank with half of the tank covered in plants.
I had her originally in the chimney for about 2 days, and released her when he made his bubble nest and she had the vertical stripes on her.
When the first time didn't work out, after I placed her back in- It was for 3 days, then I released her again.

 

[BethK]

see, if an attempt fails, you should really start the conditioning process again, remove her from the tank, feeding etc, then 7 days, put her back in the chimney.

That's what the betta breeder I had my girls from, does. I had an 'accidental' breeding, female got into male's side of the tank, they were at it for 6hrs by the time it had finished

Part of their ritual is chasing, he will chase her for a bit, then she hids and rests for a few mins, then chasing starts again. 20 mins isn't long enough to let them get 'at it'. Recondition her, then 1 more attempt but leave it longer than 20 mins. I

 

[melwoot]

Okay, thanks so much. :]