trying my luck at betta breeding

[goatnad]

so for the last month i have been reading up on breeding bettas. well today is the day i finally give it a go. i recently bought a female betta from petco and she is already gravid. i put my bumblebee betta male(second picture) in the breeding tank and fed him frozen blood worms and brine shrimp for 3 days. he didnt build a bubble nest yet so i figured i would put the female in there in a clear cup and see if i could get him interested. well after 24 hours he doesnt at all seem interested. he just hangs out in the corner behind some java fern. i did notice though that my nieces male betta had built at least one bubble nest and possibly 2 bubble nest all though the second could just be bubbles from the slow filter i have on there. i have moved her betta into the breeding tank and we will see if over the next day or 2 he builds a bubble nest.

pictures go as this:
pic1 breeding setup
pic2 failed first betta
pic3 female betta(think it said something like platinum dragon scale?)
pic4 nieces male betta
pic5 his bubble nest
pic6 possible bubble nest
https://imgur.com/a/T66F59i

 

[Delapool]

Good luck! Great fun and really interesting.

 

[goatnad]

Well.... This just didn't go so well. My neices betta nor my mustard gas male took to any of the 3 gravid females I introduced them to. Both made giant bubble nest and one male made 2 nest. In the end 2 females have some fin damage and my mustard male took a good bit of fine damage. I now have them all separated and letting them heal back up. I guess this project is put on hold for a bit.

 

[Delapool]

That’s a shame, hope it goes better later if tried again.

 

[Assos]

How big is your tank?
Usually the male stresses the females too much so the females usually needs a lot of space to stress out and you usually need 3-4 females for one male

 

[goatnad]

How big is your tank?
Usually the male stresses the females too much so the females usually needs a lot of space to stress out and you usually need 3-4 females for one male

The breeding tank is a 10g with a few java ferns thrown in for hiding places. Are you saying put 1 Male with 3 to 4 females in one tank?

 

[Assos]

usually yes as far as I know that is the proper analogy otherwise the male will focus on one and stress her out before she lay the eggs.
I had similar issue and the result was that the stressed female burst.
Although I believe the tank is a bit small for this kind of breeding, but I might be wrong

 

[goatnad]

usually yes as far as I know that is the proper analogy otherwise the male will focus on one and stress her out before she lay the eggs.
I had similar issue and the result was that the stressed female burst.
Although I believe the tank is a bit small for this kind of breeding, but I might be wrong

I havent seen anyone attempt to breed them this way and I can't find anything on it. Putting that many male and female bettas together sounds like serious trouble. For the tank again all I see people using are half filled 10g tanks or shallow plastic tubs.

 

[Assos]

I was talking about having only one male and 3-4 females

Usually the females are not as aggressive to each other as the male
They are territorial fishes so as long as they have their territory it should be fine.
But again this is just my personal opinion.

 

[fearlessfisch]

Water bridge?

Not saying this is a way to do it, but just offering this story because I remembered it and found it interesting:

There's someone who used to post online who claims to have success breeding bettas with a two-tank setup and a water bridge between them. He says that the two tanks give the fish ways to escape from each other and also come together for breeding when desired. I think he had several females in one tank and a single male in the other, but they used the bridge to find one another for mating

I can't find the site I saw before, but here is a video on youtube of a similar setup, but using two males. I wouldn't do it with two males myself, and I think the tanks in this video are way too small, but you can see the bridge concept anyway. I could see a disaster if a male and a female met on the bridge and tried to mate there, but he claimed they just used it for going back and forth.

Someone else posted once that he spent a lot of time and effort making a bridge, and his crayfish immediately took up residence there and wouldn't let anyone else pass by.

 

[goatnad]

Water bridge?

Not saying this is a way to do it, but just offering this story because I remembered it and found it interesting:

There's someone who used to post online who claims to have success breeding bettas with a two-tank setup and a water bridge between them. He says that the two tanks give the fish ways to escape from each other and also come together for breeding when desired. I think he had several females in one tank and a single male in the other, but they used the bridge to find one another for mating

I can't find the site I saw before, but here is a video on youtube of a similar setup, but using two males. I wouldn't do it with two males myself, and I think the tanks in this video are way too small, but you can see the bridge concept anyway. I could see a disaster if a male and a female met on the bridge and tried to mate there, but he claimed they just used it for going back and forth.

Someone else posted once that he spent a lot of time and effort making a bridge, and his crayfish immediately took up residence there and wouldn't let anyone else pass by.

thank you for sharing. that is an interesting concept.

 

[goatnad]

decided to introduce these fish to each other. note these are not put in together. the male is in one of the plastic cups you get them in. they both flared at each other for probably 5-10 mins and then the female seemed to go kind of limp. like she just didnt want to try and swim. i know when actually mating the female will let the male curl around her and go limp then. could this be something similar? do you think the flaring and then that action shows they "liked" each other? the male has been removed and she is back to her speedy little chipper self.

 

[Delapool]

Any update?

 

[goatnad]

Any update?

Yes and unfortunately its bad news. I was trying the technique of letting them see each other a few times a day for 3 days. I had the female in the cup she was bought in and I forgot to put the top on it. I came in yesterday to find her dead next to the cup. I'm pretty pissed and to the point I really don't have an urge to breed anymore. She was my most beautiful female and I've had no luck with any betta combinations and have nothing but torn fins and a dead female to show for it. Guess breeding just isn't my thing.