Why Does This Always Happen?

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LauraFrog

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Queensland, Australia
They're frustrating me AGAIN. I've been trying for over a year now and still no successful spawn. This time it's really, really worrying me because I've been given the females to fix up, they are so swollen with eggs that there's going to be trouble if they DON'T spawn.

Done everything by the book. As per usual. Female has been in the chimney for over 24 hours, male has built a nest. Within 5 minutes of initial release, she was head down under the nest and barred up, and the male came at her, fully flared, and bit her hard. So she panicked, took off and hid. I left the pair for a few hours, most of the time the female hid at the opposite end of the tank from the male, occasionally ventured closer to the nest but was immediately driven away by the male. I put her back in the chimney, 2 hours later released again, the male attacked her straight away, she hid. I put her back in the chimney, where she is at the moment.

THis is EXACTLY what happened on my last attempt. Both times I've had a 10 gal, half filled tank set up exactly as it's supposed to be and conditioned pair. Last time nothing was happening after days of trying, the female was receptive but the male didn't seem to know what to do, attacked her, and she got scared and hid, every time I let her out after that she was too scared to go near the male or the nest, so nothing happened. That was a different pair, I'm not using either of the same fish this time. I don't understand why this keeps happening. What am I doing wrong? Why can everybody else get them to breed, but even when its' a positive emergency I can't?
 
Hi Laura..... I've been caught by surprise a number of times where I set them up to breed, and nothing appears to happening.... Then suddenly one morning, I walk in and find that the fry are freeswimming already......

When the male's behaviour changes from chasing her (and merely biting her) to a blatant downright attack on her, chances are that the eggs are in the basket...... They are very difficult to see & will best show up if you look from bottom upwards through the nest with a good light above the nest..... The bubbles will appear to be a milky opaque if the eggs are in. Siamese fry are probably the smallest of all fry I have ever dealt with.
 
They're doing it AGAIN. I let the female out, she was barred up and head down under the nest, the male was circling her and she was turning to follow him. Receptive behavior 101. And then with no warning and apparently no reason, the male flew at her, another big chunk out of her tail, and she is once again wedged into the smallest space she can find, with no sign of coming out.

There are definitely no eggs in the nest. I know what a nest with eggs in it looks like, even though much to my endless frustration I have never seen one in my own tank. How the hell do you just walk away and come back a few days later? I've been checking on them every few hours and the female does not move from her chosen place when she's out.
 
some males dont get along with all females.

just like in humans not everyone has the same taste, so although thats the female you want to breed it may not be the one that he want,

it took me 6 females to find the right one for my male and although it was not the female i wanted it was still nice to finally get a spawn from him
 
some males dont get along with all females.

just like in humans not everyone has the same taste, so although thats the female you want to breed it may not be the one that he want,

it took me 6 females to find the right one for my male and although it was not the female i wanted it was still nice to finally get a spawn from him

Completely agree with this, they do have preferences LOL Do you have more females conditioned?
 
Well, that's the whole problem. The LFS has given me some severely eggbound females to try and spawn them, because they are all going to be in a bad way if the eggs dont' come out. And I don't have enough conditioned males to go swapping them all around... I'm going to try again with this pair tomorrow. Getting really worried though, these females look horrendous.
 
Well, that's the whole problem. The LFS has given me some severely eggbound females to try and spawn them, because they are all going to be in a bad way if the eggs dont' come out. And I don't have enough conditioned males to go swapping them all around... I'm going to try again with this pair tomorrow. Getting really worried though, these females look horrendous.

:crazy: I dunno, I don't think egg stripping works for bettas.. not sure though. You could try... acting like a male squeezing the eggs out, use some cotton wool or something and squeeze a bit. No idea if that's possible, and think it would be extreme measures as well! Heard it for mouth brooders, but really not sure about bettas.
 
Hi Laura, totally understand why you feel so frustrated, I would be too.

I know most people use a chimney, but I use a breeding tank which has a glass divider instead & I've had good results so far, first spawn didnt work out, but they were both willing & spawned straight away, its a bit less stressful I think as the female can stay in her section for a few days if needed, without being too cramped & stressed.

What does the male use to build his nest under?

I'm far from an expert, but it sounds as though you have a pretty aggressive male, do you have another male you could try with?
 

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