Polardbear
Fish Addict
After a year and a half of wanting to try spawning a pair of Bettas I finally decided to do it. I've read tons of articles on spawning and raising fry and of course countless posts here. I think what probably held me back the most was my fear of the pair hurting each other or the possibility of one killing the other. So with much aprehension I gathered my supplies together and looked for a quiet yet convenient place in which to set everything up. This proved to be more difficult than expected, all of my tanks are in my living room and there simply wasn't any room left for another tank let alone a quiet area. I finally decided to clean out one half of the closet in my bedroom and set up the tank in there.
I wanted to use live plants in the spawning tank but after unsuccessfully driving all over town to find some I decided to pick up some silk plants. Fortunately one of the lfs had a bunch on sale for 50% off so I loaded up on the small ones. The next day my regular lfs got in a nice shipment of hornwort so I picked up a couple bunches of that as well. My plan was to get everything set up on Saturday and start on Sunday. Saturday night though I went to a Killiefish club meeting to meet a local Swordtail breeder/collector and ended up staying longer than planned. The club had an awesome raffle and auction and I ended up with a bunch of raffle prizes and a huge bag of watersprite plants from the auction (for one dollar!). I also got a used copy of the Innes book Exotic Aquarium Fishes for a dollar. I ended up joining the club before the night was over even though I don't have any killiefish!
Sunday morning I set up the "spawning closet" and put a mix of silk plants, hornwort and water sprite in the 10 gallon tank and turned on the heater. By evening the tanks temperature was stable and I decided to put the male in and let him get accustomed to the tank. He was pretty excited about his new playground, cruised around checking everything out and then proceeded to build a small bubblenest under the styrofoam in the corner. The one thing I forgot to get was a styrofoam cup so I improvised with a small sytrofoam box (he didn't seem to mind). His nest was not real impressive as nests go but it was better than any of his previous efforts. After a few hours I put the female in a floating breeder box and watched them for a while. She was quite the fearless little girl and not at all intimidated by his posturing. She alternated between casually ignoring him and doing a little of her own flaring at him. Although every time he left her to go patrol his tank she'd rush over to the corner to try and see where he went. I left them like that over night and then Monday morning I released her from the box. He didn't seem to notice until she zipped over to check out his nest and then he looked rather startled and confused. That only lasted for a minute and then he decided to chase her away from his nest. It was so funny to watch him chase her away and then try to find her. She was quite adept at hiding in the water sprite. She's get right on top of one of the water sprite plants and then sit still while he was directly underneath her trying to figure out where she went. Then she would slip out of the plants and go look at his nest some more. After about an hour they started spawning and continued spawning for about 3 hours. She's a pretty small little girl so I could not believe the number of eggs she produced, I counted over a hundred in the first hour alone. The male pretty much ignored any eggs that landed on the bottom of the tank but she diligently picked them all up and spat them into the nest. I didn't think they were going to be able to get them all into the nest but somehow they managed. When she finally retreated to the plants I removed her from the tank and checked her over for damage. She was in perfect condition, not a fin out of place!
The male did an excellent job of tending his hest and by the next morning had tripled it's size. When the fry began raining down on him he frantically gathered them up and put them back in place and never seemed to get frustrated. When the majority of fry were free swimming I removed him and he also had sustained no damage. I was pretty amazed at how gentle they were with each other especially after reading that crowntails can be pretty rough on each other.
I have no idea how many fry I have at this point as the live plants are still in the tank and my eyesight leaves a lot to be desired but there are a whole bunch of the little guys swimming around. I've been giving them microworms and today (Saturday) they got their first batch of baby brine shrimp.
And now, the pictures....
The proud father, he's a little camera shy -
Taking camera shy to the extreme! -
A little more cooperative -
The little mother -
another shot of her
and here are a couple of pictures of the "backup female"
Isn't she adorable?
I had a hard time choosing between the females and may try spawning the backup female in a couple of weeks.
Here is the nest before they began spawning -
The "morning after" nest -
A close up of the nest with eggs -
I wanted to use live plants in the spawning tank but after unsuccessfully driving all over town to find some I decided to pick up some silk plants. Fortunately one of the lfs had a bunch on sale for 50% off so I loaded up on the small ones. The next day my regular lfs got in a nice shipment of hornwort so I picked up a couple bunches of that as well. My plan was to get everything set up on Saturday and start on Sunday. Saturday night though I went to a Killiefish club meeting to meet a local Swordtail breeder/collector and ended up staying longer than planned. The club had an awesome raffle and auction and I ended up with a bunch of raffle prizes and a huge bag of watersprite plants from the auction (for one dollar!). I also got a used copy of the Innes book Exotic Aquarium Fishes for a dollar. I ended up joining the club before the night was over even though I don't have any killiefish!
Sunday morning I set up the "spawning closet" and put a mix of silk plants, hornwort and water sprite in the 10 gallon tank and turned on the heater. By evening the tanks temperature was stable and I decided to put the male in and let him get accustomed to the tank. He was pretty excited about his new playground, cruised around checking everything out and then proceeded to build a small bubblenest under the styrofoam in the corner. The one thing I forgot to get was a styrofoam cup so I improvised with a small sytrofoam box (he didn't seem to mind). His nest was not real impressive as nests go but it was better than any of his previous efforts. After a few hours I put the female in a floating breeder box and watched them for a while. She was quite the fearless little girl and not at all intimidated by his posturing. She alternated between casually ignoring him and doing a little of her own flaring at him. Although every time he left her to go patrol his tank she'd rush over to the corner to try and see where he went. I left them like that over night and then Monday morning I released her from the box. He didn't seem to notice until she zipped over to check out his nest and then he looked rather startled and confused. That only lasted for a minute and then he decided to chase her away from his nest. It was so funny to watch him chase her away and then try to find her. She was quite adept at hiding in the water sprite. She's get right on top of one of the water sprite plants and then sit still while he was directly underneath her trying to figure out where she went. Then she would slip out of the plants and go look at his nest some more. After about an hour they started spawning and continued spawning for about 3 hours. She's a pretty small little girl so I could not believe the number of eggs she produced, I counted over a hundred in the first hour alone. The male pretty much ignored any eggs that landed on the bottom of the tank but she diligently picked them all up and spat them into the nest. I didn't think they were going to be able to get them all into the nest but somehow they managed. When she finally retreated to the plants I removed her from the tank and checked her over for damage. She was in perfect condition, not a fin out of place!
The male did an excellent job of tending his hest and by the next morning had tripled it's size. When the fry began raining down on him he frantically gathered them up and put them back in place and never seemed to get frustrated. When the majority of fry were free swimming I removed him and he also had sustained no damage. I was pretty amazed at how gentle they were with each other especially after reading that crowntails can be pretty rough on each other.
I have no idea how many fry I have at this point as the live plants are still in the tank and my eyesight leaves a lot to be desired but there are a whole bunch of the little guys swimming around. I've been giving them microworms and today (Saturday) they got their first batch of baby brine shrimp.
And now, the pictures....
The proud father, he's a little camera shy -
Taking camera shy to the extreme! -
A little more cooperative -
The little mother -
another shot of her
and here are a couple of pictures of the "backup female"
Isn't she adorable?
I had a hard time choosing between the females and may try spawning the backup female in a couple of weeks.
Here is the nest before they began spawning -
The "morning after" nest -
A close up of the nest with eggs -
the parents are very pretty, and I enjoyed reading your whole story.
) 
Congratulations. Very interesting setup.
