Whats wrong with my female?

[Animal Lover37]

I am a bit confused about how my female is acting. First things first, this is my first time breeding bettas but i have done all research possible beforehand to make sure everything went well. I even came to this site quite often. So im trying to breed a pair of bettas and what the situation is that they are no longer embracing. Yesterday they have done it twice that was seen but they havent done it since. No eggs were released and the male isnt chasing the female from the nest. If anything he follows her so he can embrace her but she just swims a little farther. I understood that once the embracing process started he squeezed till all her eggs are out. My male is doing everything possible to get her attention and while my female is submissive and will even swim next to him without fear when ever he starts to try something he moves just a little bit so he cant. They arent even fighting anymore. While i really do want them to spawn im more worried about her being eggbound.
see the thing about my female is that i used to have two of them a cambodian and a little grey one and while i had them in a community tank with no males they got filled with eggs. so thats when i took the opportunity to breed them. well at least one at a time for i only have one spawning tank. so i tried my cambodian because she looked the biggest. i let the whole flirting process happen and let the male build his nest till i released her, all this while my other female was still in the community tank. Well just yesterday she sadly died and it couldnt have been anyother reason besides that she was eggbound so that is just my greatest fear. i want my male to squeeze the eggs out of my only female now so that the same doesnt happen to her.

what is happening or what do i do?!?!

[lvandert]

Do you have IAL in your spawning tank?

[Animal Lover37]

No I don't. I couldn't find any in my grocery store and I didn't want to wait to get it shipped to me since I didn't want my females to loose their eggs. Would that help with it? I knew it was a plus thing not a must.

[lvandert]

For breeding its kind-of a must, or at least most breeders I have come across use it religiously. It promotes breeding. it's also not a thing you find at the grocery store. Indian Almond leaves are a natural plant and normally you have them shipped to you from other parts of the country like Singapore. If you had added IAL to your spawning tank you might have had better results but then again she might be egg bound (IAL doesn't really help with that). If you planned on breeding then you should've had ample time to order some while you got things set up.

[Animal Lover37]

I did plan on breeding but not till I had everything together (plus ive only had my bettas two weeks) but then out of the blue my females had eggs so I got all my things in a rush. I just ordered some leaves for the future. Do you think it can still work? Or should I isolate her so she can expell her eggs on her own without anyone bothering and try again later? I really hope she isn't egg bound :/

[lvandert]

That is a good question. Maybe taker her out for a day or two and see if anything changes. If nothing changes it wont hurt to re-introduce her to the male after, see if he can't get something out of her.

[Animal Lover37]

Ya I'll just take her out for a few days. Give her a break from his insisting. Could that fact that it's their first time trying to breed have to do with anything? And while I isolate her should I fast her too because I read that that can help if she's egg bound

[lvandert]

I would fast her. It might not help but you don't need to add any potential bloat onto the issue.

[Animal Lover37]

That is true. Well i guess ill watch her closely and well go from there. thank you so much for helping me :)

[Oldfishlady]

Once the female is mature she will always have unripe eggs in her-She will either drop and eat the eggs or not or reabsorb the unripe eggs on a regular bases. While females can have issues with being egg bound-it is rare....Once the female detects the male her eggs will ripen and she will emit pheromones telling the male she is ready to spawn.

Its not uncommon for no eggs to be released with the first few embraces-especially with first time breeders.

Usually if she drops and eats her eggs or reabsorb the eggs-It is not uncommon for her poop/fecal matter to look different for a few days-It will look more creamy/white in color-not to be confused with internal parasites and treated needlessly.
*Just a note-white poop can also be related to stress in both males and females-as well as diet change.....

Anyway, what I would recommend-remove both the male and female to a separate containers-neither in the spawning tank-place them so that they can't see each other or any fish. Re-condition for at least 3 days with good quality varied diet 5-6 small meals/day..... or even better....mass feed live mosquito larva 3-4 meals a day.

In the mean time get your spawning tank ready.

Can you post a pic of the spawning tank, tell us what spawning method you are using, do you have live plants, do you have access to any Oak trees to collect naturally dried and fallen Oak leaves-you can use these in place of the IAL. Do you have any common snails and what cultures do you have growing for fry food or fry feeding plans.