I know bettas are picky but give me a...

[cherrylt04]

Hello ya'll.
I know bettas are picky about everything (food, enviroment, mates,ect.) but my male is above that! I have one red male betta (fantail i believe) and a blue-red female and turqious female. The male has made a wonderfully large nest at the top of the tank, and won't breed !! All he does it chase and nips at the females fins , I have shelter in the tank for the female, but the male tend to hind in it . He seems to have no interest in either of the females and they are both full of eggs and ready to burst, any suggestions??

thanks,
DPS

 

[LiquidLife]

A lot of male bettas have lived in virtual isolation for a large part of their sweet short lives so they need to be "socialized." I've had a few males who were so vicious to the females that the females became too terrorized to breed. What I did was to put the male in a container inside the female tank (my females are all in girl dorms) so the girls could look at him and he could get used to seeing females. I left him in there for a few weeks. He'd flare at the girls, a couple of the girls would be more interested in him then others--and those were the ones that I selected out as potential mates. When I put him in the breeding tank, and then a day later put one of the females in with him, he was courtly towards her, basically tended his nest and let her decide when she was ready (she came over to the nest and nudged him). Of course, I've had males who only want to display for other males, couldn't care less about females.

 

[cherrylt04]

thanks i have an empty 5 gallon that just got done recycling so i might try that, but my two females are quite a different size, would it be safe to put them together??

peace,
DPS