Female + Male Together

[lycaena]

I put one of my males with one of my females, in a breeding tank, maybe about 2 weeks ago. he made the BIGGEST bubble nest, and I let her out of the cup, they swam around together went near the nest, but never spawned. I watched for a while to make sure she wasnt getting hurt then put her back in the cup and tried again the next day. Same thing, then I put her back in the cup and tried again a couple days later. This time he just went about his business, not even bothering with her. and she went and wandered near the nest, but no spawning. I left them like that to do their thing. I ended up leaving them together for a few days. Every day I watched for a little to make sure he wasnt gonna bother her, theres plants in there in the opposite end of the bubble nest styrofoam cup so she had space to hide if needed. I inspected her to make sure he wasnt injuring her. and not one little bite taken out of her. They have been together for about a week now and it looks like they are BUDDIES. weird cus i always read that males and females never get along unless for breeding. I put them both back into his 6gallon area in the male fishy condos which is what i call my divided 30 gallon. Anyhow, they eat together, swim around together, and both of them look good, and chasing the ghost shrimp around. They seem happy! has anyone else ever experienced this? its real cute

edit: i dont want to put her back into my female tank because they are much bigger than she is, (they are older) and they have been together for a long while, and have already set up their heirarchy. she is easily 2/3 the size of the next smallest girl. When I got the little girl I was keeping her in a 2.5gallon on my desk because I was worried the other girls would beat her up too much because of her size

 

[aly_starh]

What tail type is the male betta?

 

[Assaye]

It can happen.

The reason we say never keep them together is for three reasons:

1) Many people who try to keep them together are very inexperienced
2) Most of the time it will fail and someone will get hurt
3) Bettas can be together for days/weeks/months and all it takes is one to get a bit annoyed and you've got a dead fish

I'll always say that it is a bad idea to risk the lives of the animals.

 

[lycaena]

the male is a doubletail