My fish are doing fine: A few updates

[Iman]

Well I am heating the room my betas are in to 80 degrees. The water temperature inside the tank is generally 79-80. (I plan on breeding them with a water temp of 85) Well my male is doing great, and so is my female. They are eating a lot of food (although the female has really slowed down on her eating??????) Well the female has her normal dark blue color again, but she still has horizontal stripes. She has around 7-8 of them going from her head to her tail. (when I showed her to the male she had two very thick ones) now the stripes, or lines are really thin. Ummm, I think her scales look almost like they are outlined in black (not sure, I will have to check again) Also her eyes have turned the same color as her body (a deep blue). So what are your thoughts?

[monroe0704]

Horizontal lines? Those are typically stress lines. The barring associated with breeding creates vertical lines. I'm not sure if she's ready to be bred, but continue conditioning and see if that changes! Good luck!

[Iman]

Thanks :D But, what puzzles me is she has her normal color???

[monroe0704]

Maybe she's only slightly stressed; not enough to lose her color? She's probably nervous of the male, and that's why they're more prominent when seeing him. Having her see him a bit each day may help eliminate her anxieties.

[Iman]

Well, as soon as she sees the male she gets really pale and gets the think brown/black stripes. (at least last time I tried )

[Iman]

Ok, I showed the female the male and he went flaring and showing of and stuff. And for the first 1-2 minutes the female retained her normal color and then she began to lighten up slightly and get darker stripes so I put the black piece of page between them (I am separating their tanks by a black piece of paper). I think she is already recovering her normal color. So at least she isn’t staying all pale and stuff like she did the last time. For some reason I think the male is over doing it. I think that she may be the kind of well betta that prefers a more quite and subtle courtship…

[monroe0704]

Hehe, that's sweet of her. It'll take time, but eventually she'll get use to a male presence. I forgot how, but there's a method to bring out the aggressive side in the female. I had read it on another thread, but I guess keep doing what you're doing since she spent less time showing signs of stress! :)

[Iman]

Thanks :)

[Iman]

I would like the link to that thread that tells how to get a female to become aggressive. Also when I show the female the male she tries to get at him as he does to her. Does that mean she is already aggressive? They both try to get at each other through the glass.

[monroe0704]

It's a good sign. One thing you want happening when spawning is for the female to approach the male without being afraid. I'll try to find that thread a little later here. Hopefully someone else posts their experience here first!