Mean Old Mr. Betta Doesn't Want Any Lovin?

[trickyspark]

A little background...

I bought a bright red betta about 2 months ago I would say, maybe a little longer. I've been keeping him in a 10 gallon tank with some
live plants and 2 big mystery snails. I'm feeding him Tetramin fish flakes and bloodworms. He also likes eating the algae wafers
I have been feeding my snails. He was pretty beefy looking when I got him, but now he's all buffed up.

I bought a female about a week after I got him, I left her in my 30 gallon tank with my mollies and guppies. I've been feeding her
the same diet, flakes and worms. She has gotten nice and fat in that time.

I put her in one of the see-through floating breeding cages and placed that in the 10 gallon tank with the male betta. He postured
and flared at her (she didn't seem to care) for about a day or so. I decided then to put him in the floating cage and let
her swim around freely. He keeps right on flaring and strutting, charging her when she swims near the cage (he can't get out).

I did this because I was afraid to place them directly together. He hasn't built a bubblenest, he just seems really aggressive. I've
had them in the same tank, but seperated for about a week now. They are both eating fine, and she keeps rubbing up near the
cage as if she might be interested. She's pretty fat.

I was wondering if he might be to old? I've heard pet shop bettas are hard to breed due to age, not sure how true it is.

Is there anything I can do to calm him, and maybe induce them to uhh...well you know? I don't want to endanger the female.

I have plenty of containers, fry food, and what not.

**Edit**

I almost forgot to ask, does the couple you want to breed need to be the same color? She is blue, he is red. I was wondering if
maybe this was the reason for hostility towards her?

 

[Ludwig Venter]

No... They do not need to be the same colour.... And (what I do)... I provide plenty hiding places plants and strategically placed rocks so that when he chases her,... she can go in one end of the rocks and re-appear at some other end whilst he is still searching for her inside the maze of rocks.... To the far side of the tank, I keep some floating plants where he will build his nest when he is ready.... But his flaring is only natural instinct and not a definite sign that he is ready.... If he does not build a nest.... I'd try her with another male.....

 

[DreyOfAud]

Floating plants will make all the difference. My male was not building much of a nest until I put some floating plants in his tank. Also, I let my male and female swim together in the same tank undivided for short periods of time under my supervision. (My female was just not getting eggy!) If he started acting too aggressive towards her, I'd place her back inside the breeder and try again when they were up to it. About a week of that and they were ready. He built a gigantic nest and she was dropping eggs, so I put them together for one last time and they went right to it. It took a while before they figured out what to do.. plus my female ate a lot of the eggs.. but it ended up okay.

Hope this helps!

 

[betta fish]

I would put her in the breeding trap and allow him to swim around freely, add half a polystyrene cup to a corner of the tank or some bubble wrap and he should start to build a nest in a few days.

 

[LauraFrog]

A piece of bubblewrap floating on the surface seems to work pretty well.

TBH breeding pet store veiltails is pretty much a pointless exercise. Both sexes are generally too old. The males lose their sex drive, and the females a) produce less eggs and b) have a larger body size so it's harder for the male to wrap them, which often results in a greater percentage of unfertilised eggs. Both sexes are more likely to eat the eggs or just fail to cooperate at all. On top of this, there is virtually no demand for them. You could end up with potentially 300 fry.

If you have homes lined up (people who want them, pet stores who will take them) etc. for 300 baby veiltails, and room to raise them all, and you can get the parents to breed, then there is absolutely nothing 'wrong' with breeding veiltails. It's just that generally it's easier to get the fish breeding when you start with quality stock (which are younger and have better genes to work with) and also there is a lot more demand for them, you might even get back what you put in in terms of money.

Females need to be 'conditioned' before breeding. I'd suggest bloodworms, as much as she'll eat, 3 times a day for a week or two. This is what I do, basically. (Bloodworms, whiteworms, live mosquito larvae when I can get them, and hikari pellets. Stuff them absolutely full.)
When a female is full of eggs and interested in breeding she will usually show dark vertical bars (these may appear as light when the female has a dark body. At any rate, like zebra stripes on her body.)
A male will generally flare at any other betta. If he does not build a nest after a week, you're probably not going to get anywhere with this pair. If he has not built a nest, there is absolutely no point releasing the female. Generally when you've got an eggy, barred-up female and a male with a nest built, letting the female out has two possible outcomes: a successful mating, or the male chasing the female around the tank. Without a nest, you basically have only one option. Unfortunately, it's not the one you want. Males not building nests has got to be up there pretty high on the list of REALLY FRUSTRATING things bettas do.

Sometimes a pair just doesn't 'click'. If you swap males or females, you can have surprisingly fast results from a fish you thought you'd never get fry out of.