Tried everything, what am I doing wrong

[bettafish15]

Originally Posted by jschristian44

could this thread get any more off topic than it is. 30 pages of useless non sense. shouldn't there be an offtopic thread.

Us? Off topic? Pffft.

[ChelseaK]

=)

[dramaqueen]

Off topic? Us? Never! lol

[BettaHeart]

we're off topic when there is actual listening and following of good advice lol

[19wEEdmAstEr25]

Originally Posted by jschristian44

This is probably going to be my last post on this. I bought another set of breeding females and tried again. Well you all knew I would. But I conditioned the male and the females at the same time, introduced them in a glass container for a few days and released the female when she looked ready and the male had a big bubble nest. They just fought and fought and never spawned. I left them in for like a day, etc. Then I saw my male was getting a little rough. It seems like the females have strong vertical bars but then whenever I release her, they just chase each other and nothing happens. I just don't understand what I am doing wrong that I cannot for the life of me get these fish to breed. I have pretty much given up on trying because I have tried everything and I don't want any more to get hurt and my frustration has just peaked. I even emailed the breeder I got my fish from and she said I was doing everything right, she doesn't know why they won't breed. I mean is it really THIS hard to get them to spawn? I have researched all I could find and asked for advice. Please help me and don't just say stop breeding. If anyone knows what I am doing wrong I want to hear. There must be one thing that is wrong that they will not spawn. I have tried 2 different pairs of males and 4 different females already. So basically one male and 2 females. What is wrong? Is the female not full of eggs enough that she won't go into her submission? Her belly is super white and large so I thought she was full of eggs.

Had a similar experience before but, eventually, my fish pair pulled through. I had success in spawning twice but I kinda suck in rearing fry that’s why both attempts resulted in nothing, well, that’s my case.


Anyway, I’ve observed on both attempts that even if the male has built a large convincing bubble nest under the styro cup (almost filling the shadowed area beneath it) and the female displays her willingness to mate (after 24-36 hours of pairing) still it takes, roughly, another 24 hours or so until they do their lovemaking. For my first attempt, of course, as we all know, for the first few hours some nipping and sparring happens but I started to doubt what I’m doing when the sparring continued, as if they weren’t interested with each other. Sorry but this may sound dire, well, it came to a point that I wanted to remove the female because she’s getting roughed up badly (from what I learned, cancel the spawning when the female sustains massive injury). However, I decided not to because the extent of her injuries doesn’t impair her ability to swim and burst herself out of danger or to court with the male for that matter, but what really kept me from aborting the process is a weird behavior of the male. When the female goes submissively under the nest he attacks and chases her away but comes back under the nest to build more bubbles, although it’s a big nest already (I think he’s a perfectionist), as if he’s really looking forward into mating but is the one dictating the mood. Sometimes she’s the one attacking, sometimes the male fetches her but she refuses and rushes away but the aggressions do have some rest intervals of 15-20 minutes. Quarrel then rest, quarrel then rest… for several hours. I was exhausted watching them so I left them there to sleep (waking up in the middle of the night just to check). The next day, a few hours before noon, they did it. I think they were exhausted with fighting and decided to have some makeup lovemaking. She may have looked a little bit nasty because of her nipped fins and tail but she was fit enough to withstand another 4 hours of mating. I got her out immediately after she was spent.


The second attempt 3 weeks after, I was already armed with patience. This time I slept w/o interruption (no more waking up and checking on them). And like clockwork, with the same prolonged aggressive ritual shown before, they pulled through. Same time of day, late morning. Anyway, taking care of newly hatched fry, I really have to dig more about it.


I hope this helps. Good luck.

[tracyalexa]

Originally Posted by Emmalea

Here is what you should do to get your betta to breed, You really need to do this! honestly it works every single time!

Step one, you will need to get two tanks each should be at least 2.5 gallons and need to be complete with a heater, gravel and you choice of live or silk plants. Do not use plastic plants as bettas do not find them very romantic and they will not set the mood well.

Step two, place one betta in each tank. The tanks should be kept in separate rooms if possible. Make sure the water is a consistent temperature of 78-80. Now comes the fun part. Start feeding them a well balanced diet, pellets will work great! You also get the fun of doing water changes one every other day of so should do the trick.

Step three, Repeat step two. Bettas take a super long time to condition for breeding, normally between 2-4 years. Anyone who tells you that you can condition them in 14 day is lying, 2 years is the absolute minimum time but longer is better.

Step four, Now is a good time to put away all of your breeding equipment, since bettas take such a long time to condition it will no longer be good by the time they are ready to breed. You should also still be repeating step two.

Step five, Now is a great time to do some research. While still repeating step two you should be getting all the info you can on breeding bettas. Your local library should have lots of helpful books, look at web sites and read and ask questions on fish forums, those people really know their stuff. :)

Step six. After about a year or so you should give breeding Sea monkeys a try, they are a great first project and you can get a kit that will include every you will need from you local toy store. Don't forget to keep doing step two.

Step seven, After two years have passed you should put the two tanks next to each other, if the male has not built a bubble nest in the first five minutes then they are not a match. Sad as it is, a lot of the time bettas will just not be attracted to each other. Same as with people you can't force chemistry thats not there.
At this point you should let your bettas live out the rest of their lives in peace.

When you buy your next pair you will need to start from step one again, I know breeding bettas takes a super long time and is not for everyone, sometimes it can take an up wards of ten years to get a spawn.

And this my friend is how you should breed bettas.

Funniest comment I've read on here yet!! Love it.

[bettafish15]

Please check dates before posting so you dont revive an old thread, pushing down newer, more important ones.