When to put the female in with the male

[nkucharski]

Hi all. I just recently got a female "ice" Betta. The male "fire" has been very busy making his bubble nest. My question is when can I put the female "ice" in with "fire"? She keeps looking at the glass divider where he is sitting. I think she's looking for a way to get to him. I'm not sure if it is real noticeable when she's "excited". Please help

[KikiNBatta]

I'm not exactly an expert, myself, but I'd reccomend NOT doing that.

1) They WILL breed - unless the female is killed first.
2) if there is only one female, who does not want to breed (and not many places to hide in the tank) the male could kill her. You need to have multiple females in the tank at the same time so that one (unwilling) female is not singled out, and hurt.
3) It takes a lot of attention and know-how to raise betta fry
4) How big is your tank? I was shocked to learn that 5g is reccomended for one betta and perhaps one other fish!! Definitely not what you hear from the stores!

Fire and Ice are nice names, BTW! My betta's name is Blaze :)

[nkucharski]

I have a 2.5g tank for the both of them. He is in 2/3 of the tank and she's in the remaining 1/3. I purchased my fish from a tropical fish store that specializes in all tropical fish. The man their told me that she'll try to get into the tank with him when she's excited. So not putting her in there is kinda ridiculous. Once I put her in there I have to watch and wait for them to be done mating and then immediately remove her so he doesn't kill her. I guess my question really is how do I know 100% when she's excited? Is there something noticeable I can see in her that will tell me ok she's ready?

[KikiNBatta]

I think that the attacking goes on BEFORE they mate, not after. If the female doesn't want to, the male will attack her. So the danger would happen before they mate.

In the end, it's your choice, but I'd really, REALLY suggest you not breed them unless you have a bigger tank (they can have hundreds of fry) and have done a lot of research.

[Cody]

And if they do have fry, you will need a large tank, and then a lot of other seperate tanks and/or a way to sell the males. When the males reach maturity they will start to fight and kill each other off.

[SST]

2.5 gals isn't enough for one betta.

Plus, once the fry get to a certain size, you need to take out the male as well, otherwise he'll eat them. That's 3 tanks you'll need. Then you'll need space for the males, individual cups. And special fungicide to put in the tanks. And fry food.

You need to do a google search on breeding bettas. You don't have enough information yet.

[Oldman47]

I have never even tried to breed bettas in less than a 10 gallon tank. If the female is truly receptive, she will have dark chevron shaped markings pointing forward on her body. Its a sort of zig zag pattern like this >>. At that point if the male has a good bubble nest built and you have enough room for the breeding and to raise the young, you could remove the divider.
The fish will bite each other at first no matter how ready they are. They may mate if the female doesn't run off and hide.
When they mate the male will wrap himself around the female and sort of sqeeze the eggs out of her. He will then go down where thay have fallen and place them in a bubble in his bubble nest. This will be repeated over and over for quite a while getting maybe 5 or 10 eggs at a time. When the egg production stops, the mating ends.
After the mating is over, you need to get the female out of the tank or risk her survival. The only betta that I have ever seen a male tolerate or more than a few hours is his own fry.
The male will care for the eggs by blowing them back into the nest whenever any fall out of the nest. He will even try to return new born fry to the nest for a while. When the fry are free swimming, its time to remove the male.