Betta eggs?!?

[VioletEmber]

So I notice my betta is looking at the heater and I go over to check in her and this is what I find.











In a different thread there seems to be debate on whether female bettas ever make bubble nests. I actually was starting to wonder about "saphy" and whether she was a plakat male... Then this. I have had several female bettas, even three with a very docile male before and I have never seen this. Are these eggs? What the?

 

[ocean]

I see a bubble nest, your she is probably a he.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

She looks like a she to me but I'm no expert!

 

[VioletEmber]

I don't know if you can see them in the pics, but there are tiny white things in there too... It would make sense that he is a male cause he was harassing the other females he was in with. Now s/he seems to be guarding the nest...

 

[VioletEmber]

Either gender- where did the eggs come from? Do females "lay" eggs just for the heck of it when males aren't around?

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Idk. You got me there. Have you googled pictures of Betta eggs? Usually the bubble nests are huge. That one looks pretty small. Maybe she needed to lay her eggs and had nowhere so made her own nest........ Just guessing here I really don't know lol

 

[VioletEmber]

Ok- I've been wracking my brain on possibilities because --- well, a few days ago she was going bonkers in the tank after a water change and adding a new fish ... she got all stripey and was doing these crazy wiggles all over the place. I thought she was just stressed so I moved her to her own quiet tank. She kept up with the stripes and crazy insistence that she HAD to swim out of the left side of the tank. Then, she calmed down and she's been ok for the last few days. I just read that what she was doing was showing she was ready to spawn!

So I think I can establish that she is female And then who is the male? Is this one a male? I just took a good look and there is no "white spot" at all...











Is there anyway possible they spawned together and then I moved her without knowing and she released the eggs days later?

 

[ashleynicole]

when bettas spawn the male wraps around the female and fertilizes the eggs while the female releases them. The male then takes the eggs and places them in the bubble nest. If the fish was alone when it made the bubble nest, then there would be no eggs in the bubble nest.

 

[VioletEmber]

Essentially what I want to know is if there is anyway these eggs are fertile. If so, I should move her out and move the female imposter in and see if he has any paternal instincts. Worse thing that can happen is that he eats them all - and considering that I doubt any of them will turn into Bettas anyway... Right?

 

[ashleynicole]

I am sorry but I don't see any eggs, just a very small bubble nest. That nest doesn't even look big enough to hold eggs.

 

[VioletEmber]

when bettas spawn the male wraps around the female and fertilizes the eggs while the female releases them. The male then takes the eggs and places them in the bubble nest. If the fish was alone when it made the bubble nest, then there would be no eggs in the bubble nest.

Yeah! I know! It's so weird. Very bizarre- probably just me getting excited over nothing- but I've never seen the white eggs in a bubble nest before.

 

[ashleynicole]

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f82/betta-spawn-log-attempt-2-a-186832.html

That is a link of my most recent attempt to spawn my bettas, in this attempt the female didn't release her eggs and hid from the male after a few embraces, however check out the size of the bubblenest in the picture.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f82/how-do-you-spawn-your-bettas-183715.html

And that is a link from my first spawning attempt, I even have a link to a youtube video with the female releasing the eggs. The eggs must be fertilized at the same time they are released.


The only possibility I think is that it was a male and he did spawn with one of the females and may have been holding some eggs in his mouth, then he built a small nest and put what eggs he had in his mouth in the nest. Is there a white spot underneath? Usually females will have a white spot underneath.

 

[ashleynicole]

I took another look at those pics, it does look like there are small specks in the bubbles. My best guess is what I said before, it is a male and was holding the eggs in his mouth. When you say he was "swimming around like crazy", was he flaring? He may have been showing off for the females, check out my youtube videos of my bettas spawning. Notice in this video how the male starts "showing off" after the embrace

http://www.youtube.com/user/ashleysaquarium?feature=mhee

 

[VioletEmber]

Wow! What a gorgeous pair! The male is just stunning, how did you find him? Love the video of them spawning- at the end you can almost hear him saying "yeah baby!"

 

[ashleynicole]

Wow! What a gorgeous pair! The male is just stunning, how did you find him? Love the video of them spawning- at the end you can almost hear him saying "yeah baby!"

Got the female at a petco and the male at a local mom and pop pet store.

 

[ashleynicole]

So what was the outcome? If they were fertilized you should see something in 2-3 days.

 

[VioletEmber]

Well, I woke up this morning and checked it out... Seemed like there were fewer eggs, and then I noticed that she had the longest string of poop I have ever seen on a betta! Guess who was up all night eating eggs? By now they are pretty much all gone.

So this is my current hypothesis: Saphy is a female and perhaps the other female Betta she was in the tank previously was actually a male. She got herself into the mood to spawn - which I misinterpreted as being stressed - and moved her to her own tank. Then she released the eggs on her own in a state of fishy sexual frustration (or maybe she has a rich fantasy life?).

And then she ate them.

All in all it was an interesting 24 hours, and now I'm all excited to try my hand at Betta breeding for real. I caught the bug!

 

[tsogamraf]

I've heard stories of females laying their own eggs and then eating them. Perhaps that's what happened?

 

[VioletEmber]

I've heard stories of females laying their own eggs and then eating them. Perhaps that's what happened?

That is the only explanation that I can imagine happening, I just didn't know they did that!