First Time Breeding Betta

[keith1964]

I bought a male and female betta about a week ago. I kept the male in a small tank with the female place inside a separate glass container. Last night I placed the cover over the tank wake up this morning to feed them and discovered that she had jumped out of the container, male had built a bubble nest and discovered that they spawned during the course of the night or morning. I removed her and placed her back inside the container and lowered her water leave. Male is quite is constantly rotating the eggs inside the bubble nest.

I was quite surprise that the female had spawned as she look extremely young. I have breeding tanganyikan cichlids for 3 years and decided to make a change.

[tpocicat]

Good luck with your surprise spawn.

[keith1964]

When does the eggs start hatching?

[tpocicat]

Usually between 36 to 72 hours. Not long at all.

[Oldfishlady]

Welcome to the forum and congrats......

Depending on water temp and pH- eggs usually hatch within 24-36 and you can see the tiny tails hanging from the nest and sometimes the fry can be seen bouncing or how I refer to it...lol....bouncing babies...

In another 36-48h- again depending on temp/pH the fry as they absorb their yolk sac will start to free swim leaving the nest to seek food....usually this is when some breeders will remove the male-but you can also leave him long term- but risk him eating the fry-some males do and some don't...

What food do you plan for the fry.....

Can you tell us more about your spawning tank and plans...and as you already found out....spawning is generally the easy part...but rearing fry can sometimes get tricky...It can be rewarding and lots of fun rearing your own Bettas from spawn to adults-but since you breed cichlid you already know how much fun it can be breeding fish....lol.....

Love to see pics of the spawning pair......

[SpookyTooth]

I don't know the slightest thing about breeding but just wanted to congratulate you on the surprise spawn!!

[bettalover2033]

I would also Like to see pictures of the spawn. This is pretty interesting. What colors and tail type are they?

OFL covered pretty much all of it.

Bettas are very different from cichlids, though raising your own fry is very fun! Cichlids are very aggressive, but can live together in peace on most days. It's completely the opposite for bettas. Though I'm sure you'll do fine since you have experience with breeding fish in general.

Good Luck! Let us know a few updates here and there.

[keith1964]

What i have noticed the male is continuously rotating the eggs. Eggs falling to the tank surface and he collects them and spit them back into the bubble-nest. He is re-building the nest all the time and moving the eggs around. Is that normal behavior?

My breeding tank size is 30cm x 21cm x21cm and the water level is 12cm.

The batch of eggs is not very large.

[bettalover2033]

Well to answer your question, YES, this is normal behavior. The father will always keep building new nests to be sure his fry are safe or if he wants to move them he definitely will.

And when the eggs are falling then he will continuously be putting them back into the nest or moving them to a new nest. This is all normal. He might even go to the farthest part of the tank away from the nest and wait there a few minutes before going back to the nest. It's almost like he is taking a break lol.

[keith1964]

wake up this morning he was just laying around the top, the nest was gone and eggs where floating on the surface, do i need to keep the light on at night? he had rebuilt the nest and collected the eggs that was floating around and also the ones that was lying at the bottom.