Oops, I Have Betta Babies

[ArnieStinger]

Well, the other day I needed to clean out the main tank, so I put my male in with my female for about 1 hour, theres alot of hiding places for her so she was fine


I was cleaning/moving the tank into other room, when I came back a massive bubblenest had been built and I could see eggs in the nest, the female was hiding in the corner


Needless to say I didnt kill the eggs, my betta has been looking after them

The eggs are abou 3 days old now, some are hatched and trying to swim about, others are falling from the nest and he puts them back in

Roughly about 30-40 eggs in total from what I can see.


It was unplanned, Weird that it worked tho, considering my male is huge compared to the female, expecting a mix between purple (red/blue) betta with a black mask and a metallic blue/emerald halfmoon female.

Im prepared to raise the young tho!

 

[electropunk06]

wow, from what ive read it is dificult too breed bettas, well done . what you going to do with the fry when they grow up?
Lloyd

 

[BethK]

have you removed the female? Once the fry are able to swim on their own, remove the male. Their water needs to be prestine too and I would remove the majority of ornamnets etc and leave one plant in, it helps the male pick up the falling fry.

Good luck x

 

[Jenste]

you also need to have a bunch of other thanks standing by for separating the males once they are a few weeks old.

in the future, I would refrain from putting the male with the female, even for an "hour during waterchanges"

betta breeding is one that should be planned carefully for genetics, time, space, equipment, knowledge, and experience.

 

[loraxchick]

i agree remove both parents once the fry are free-swimming. as far as feeding (As you probably dont have any cultures of microworms going)...folks have had just fine success with feeding pulverized flake food. just smash it into absolute dust. dont feed too much at a time as it will pollute the water. their growth may not be as stellar as on live foods but it is certainly possible to raise the fry on powdered flake food.. also either tie some filter sponge to the intake of the filter or turn the filter off for about a week or so (or risk the babies getting sucked up). you shouldnt have to do a waterchange for about the first week (and when you do, get some pantyhose to put over the siphon, even in a double layer, to prevent sucking up the fry. also check the bucket very very carefully before dumping). make sure the top of the tank is covered as the babies need humid moist air while their labyrinth organ is developing (even clear plastic wrap over the top is sufficient).
there is my two cents. good luck with the fry. dont beat yourself up if you lose lots or all of them. there is a very steep learning curve while raising betta babies (and other fry too). just start googling and reading all about the process if you havent already.
best of luck!!!
cheers

 

[RustedKnight]

Ah.. now in the same boat as you, just watched the male and female spawn.

 

[BethK]

Ah.. now in the same boat as you, just watched the male and female spawn.

No point, your bettas are in a community take, the male will destroy the bubblenest, due to the threat of other fish in the tank. I would remove the male, home him else where and keep females together

 

[RustedKnight]

Ah.. now in the same boat as you, just watched the male and female spawn.

No point, your bettas are in a community take, the male will destroy the bubblenest, due to the threat of other fish in the tank. I would remove the male, home him else where and keep females together

Yup, you got that right. The male destroyed the nest.

We've moved him and another girl into my empty setup tank, time to try again.

 

[BethK]

Ah.. now in the same boat as you, just watched the male and female spawn.

No point, your bettas are in a community take, the male will destroy the bubblenest, due to the threat of other fish in the tank. I would remove the male, home him else where and keep females together

Yup, you got that right. The male destroyed the nest.

We've moved him and another girl into my empty setup tank, time to try again.

That's not how you do it, you have to condition the pair now. If you leave them in there, just together, it's gonna cause undue stress. Remove her, let him build his energy back up and feed live foods on a daily basis to both of them. Read up on betta conditioning and have a look at what else you need. Because you will need a good 30 - 40 grow out tanks or big jars, that you can keep warmed and then you have to find homes for them. It's not as simple as 'plonking them in a tank'. You do know that the normal stress of spawning, can still kill a healthy female........now have a think of that poor female you have left in the tank with him. They've had no time out, they will both be too tired and narky, give it 7 days, before trying again

 

[RustedKnight]

Ah.. now in the same boat as you, just watched the male and female spawn.

No point, your bettas are in a community take, the male will destroy the bubblenest, due to the threat of other fish in the tank. I would remove the male, home him else where and keep females together

Yup, you got that right. The male destroyed the nest.

We've moved him and another girl into my empty setup tank, time to try again.

That's not how you do it, you have to condition the pair now. If you leave them in there, just together, it's gonna cause undue stress. Remove her, let him build his energy back up and feed live foods on a daily basis to both of them. Read up on betta conditioning and have a look at what else you need. Because you will need a good 30 - 40 grow out tanks or big jars, that you can keep warmed and then you have to find homes for them. It's not as simple as 'plonking them in a tank'. You do know that the normal stress of spawning, can still kill a healthy female........now have a think of that poor female you have left in the tank with him. They've had no time out, they will both be too tired and narky, give it 7 days, before trying again

Do you ever step back and think, how do these fish mate in the wild? There's no conditioning, no flaunting the girl infront of the male, and besides, it's not the same female, as I already stated above. And if a male and female fish cannot live in such a large sized tank together, then how the hell has the species survived in the wild for so long?

Don't take this the wrong way, but i'm going to disregard the above post. The two fish are alone in a 110 litre planted tank, if they want some rest away from each other it's perfectly simple.

Before just assuming we are ill prepared aswell, and giving a sarcastic post above, perhaps you should have asked if we had prepared.

As soon as we noticed mating behaviour we ordered a breeding colony of microworm, and have a betta isolation system being sent in the post tomorrow morning.

You've provided many interesting posts around, and I generally find you an interesting forum member, but when sarcastic posts like the above come into play, I start taking a dislike to people. We monitor our fish constantly and won't let any harm come to either, or any of our other stock.

 

[BethK]

no 'offense' but you don't seem to have researched, considering you would know the different between a wild and a betta splenden. The fish you have are genetically enhanced, are home bred, have no 'wild' in them. Betta Splendens were engineered to look pretty and be aggressive, wild bettas are a whole different kettle of fish so yes, i have stopped and have a long thought, I have experience with bettas.

If you can not take critism and step back and work from that, then you may need to have a rethink about things. Nothing sarcastic about my post at all, 2nd time you've taken offence today, by 2 diff members

 

[RustedKnight]

no 'offense' but you don't seem to have researched, considering you would know the different between a wild and a betta splenden. The fish you have are genetically enhanced, are home bred, have no 'wild' in them. Betta Splendens were engineered to look pretty and be aggressive, wild bettas are a whole different kettle of fish so yes, i have stopped and have a long thought, I have experience with bettas.

If you can not take critism and step back and work from that, then you may need to have a rethink about things. Nothing sarcastic about my post at all, 2nd time you've taken offence today, by 2 diff members

Yes, first members given me some flakk for a couple of days.

Ok, simple end to this, I'll do my own little thing, and you can not reply to me, I don't want to end up in another argument.
In general, me and people don't get along.

 

[ArnieStinger]

some of them are swimming, some of them have tails but are still in bubble nest


they look like tiny tadpoles, i cant see them without a light

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

When they are all free swimming you can remove the male

 

[aly_starh]

some of them are swimming, some of them have tails but are still in bubble nest


they look like tiny tadpoles, i cant see them without a light

Hey,

Ok, so im talking from experience. I have breed bettas before.

The female should already be out of the tank, once the fry are swimming horizontally remove the male. The heat should be at around 29C. Make sure the water is really clean by keeping a small sponge filter slowly bubbling.

Have you thought about what you will feed the fry? You can use microworms to start off with. This is a culture which you will have to make yourself. You can then use BBS.

I suggest you research, if you havent already done so!

Good luck!