will he ever give her a break

[mellcrowl]

Turned the lights out for bed and well my male is chasing my female to mars in the spawning tank. Being that this is my first spawn I'm a bit anxious watching Venus being chased all around. Every time she comes up for air/ makes any sort of appearance Dynamo darts after her. Am I just paranoid? Do you guys think she'll be ok over night? Or should I remove her?

[LittleBettaFish]

If he is just chasing her incessantly and she is not doing anything but swimming away and hiding I would say she isn't ready to be introduced yet.

I would personally remove her as I don't think it's good for the females when the males hound them like that.

[louisvillelady]

Do you have anything in the tank, and is she displaying the breeding bars? I always have plenty of places for the female to hide if she wishes. Sometimes we think the male is being overly aggressive, when actually the female is enjoying the attention If she has the breeding bars, and has places to hide, I wouldn't worry too much. If she doesn't have the bars, I would pull her. If you don't have places for her to hide, I would just jar her for the night.

[mellcrowl]

I ended up pulling her out. She is celephone so you can't see the vertical bars and I decided I'd just put her back in the morning. She has 3 plants to hid in and I'm hoping to get her a tunnel or cave today.

[Myates]

Chasing is part of it, but there definitely needs to be lots of flirting too.. the male should be trying to lead her to the nest, not keep her away.

Make sure she is ready to pop with eggs - how did you condition them, and for how long? Does she look big with eggs? How was she acting prior to releasing her?
Keep a nightlight on around them to give them some light may help - I have a female who is real docile, but as soon as the lights are out she goes to town on the male pretty bad.

[mellcrowl]

Yeah when lights are on they're fine, lights out and it's game on. When I put them in she was swimming up to him, flirting, and even challenging him a little. I conditioned them for awweek on pellets and blood worms and she's pretty darn plump.