Horrible father great mother?

[DarkUmbreon]

So on my first attempt to breed my Green HM BF pair, the male was a bit lousy. He didnt make a nest so I had to steal a nest from another male. After I stole the nest he decided to make it bigger, by only a small amount. After about two days the female was already popping eggs out, so decided to introduce her to the tank. There was no nipping, only flaring. It took some time before they embrace more than 5 times.After the embrace the male would eat all the eggs (I even saw him crunch them in his mouth). One time he decided he wanted to eat the eggs DURING the embrace. The thing is the female didnt eat the eggs, she put them up on the nest, she couldn't put up much since the male would eat almost all of them while the female was floating after each embrace. I decided to take out the male since he was trying to eat the eggs. I also took the female out into another container, the next morning, she made a bubble nest to put her eggs in! She litterally made a bubble nest herself and put the eggs up besides the fact there was no male and it was infertile. So the question is, should I use the male again? Is he going to learn to not eat it? Is this normal female behavior?

 

[Crazyhermitcrab]

Yah put male back in. Maybe there is hope.

 

[hroom88]

Its usually the males who build the nest and care for it AFAIK.

 

[Andy Sager]

So on my first attempt to breed my Green HM BF pair, the male was a bit lousy. He didnt make a nest so I had to steal a nest from another male. After I stole the nest he decided to make it bigger, by only a small amount. After about two days the female was already popping eggs out, so decided to introduce her to the tank. There was no nipping, only flaring. It took some time before they embrace more than 5 times.After the embrace the male would eat all the eggs (I even saw him crunch them in his mouth). One time he decided he wanted to eat the eggs DURING the embrace. The thing is the female didnt eat the eggs, she put them up on the nest, she couldn't put up much since the male would eat almost all of them while the female was floating after each embrace. I decided to take out the male since he was trying to eat the eggs. I also took the female out into another container, the next morning, she made a bubble nest to put her eggs in! She litterally made a bubble nest herself and put the eggs up besides the fact there was no male and it was infertile. So the question is, should I use the male again? Is he going to learn to not eat it? Is this normal female behavior?

That's a good indication that the male was not ready to breed and the pairing will not yield any fry.
It's not totally abnormal for females to be part of the nest building and rearing of the fry. It's highly unusual, but not unique.
I would suggest to condition the pair again ( separately) and when you are ready to spawn them again, put the female in a container in the tank ( I use glass jars for the females) so that the male can see her and wait until the male builds a nest before releasing her. If the male shows no signs of building the nest within a couple of days, I would use a different male. ( Especially if the female is showing her breeding colors and that still doesn't excite the male to want to spawn. If the female does not go into color and the male doesn't build a nest, you need to check out the temp and conditions of the water as they are most likely NOT in to the fish's breeding preferences. I've had some of my Bettas spawn in as cool a temp as 76 degrees while others wouldn't even consider it in less than 80 degrees or warmer. You may just need to "fiddle" with the particulars to find what the fish want. You'll know you've got it right when the female is colored up and showing she's willing and the male is under his nest. Then it's "go time"

Hope this helps