[bettagirl100]

My pair has bred before.
I released my female betta yesterday afternoon. The male hadn't built a bubble nest yet, and needs the female swimming with him to make one.
Before I released her, they were flaring at each other, and the male betta would swim around her cup, and she would follow.

My bettas' names are Neptune and Lola. For some reason Neptune looks more dark blue in the photo, but he is light blue with a little bit of turquoise. Lola is dark blue.
Neptune is the male, Lola is the female.

When I released her at around 2 P.M. yesterday, there was a lot of chasing until around 9 P.M.
I then decided to go to bed, hoping to wake up to eggs.
Overnight, Neptune built a medium sized bubble nest. I set up a camera and went to school. I came home to them spawning! I was able to record a little bit, but from past experience breeding these 2, I know they get very distracted so I only recorded a little bit and had to zoom in a lot because I couldn't go too close.

(In the video the water looks extremely dirty, it's because it is zoomed in. I also know that I have quite some algae.)
Also ignore all of the fish stuff, I didn't zoom this one in for some reason.

Well now I'm going to make a post about the eggs.

 

[bettagirl100]

 

[Eridanus]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

Neptune and Lola are beautiful kiddos!!
Looking forward to updates on their spawn! I bet their fry will look just as beautiful

 

[bettagirl100]

Oops, my Google Drive is out of space. I'm going to have to clear up that. I'll try to post egg photos tonight.

 

[bettagirl100]

Thank you!

 

[bettagirl100]

Neptune built his bubble nest on the far end of the bubble wrap. I can barely see the eggs, but know that they are there. He normally builds his nest up against the glass and puts the eggs there. Since he didn't do this, it's hard to see them. I tried taking photos of the eggs, but you couldn't see them because of the angle. I do have some cool photos from my last spawn from Neptune and Lola. I could share those.
Since it's winter where I live, do you guys think I should start hatching some BBS when the eggs hatch, because they will hatch slower since they aren't in 80 degree water?

 

[mollyyymo]

Neptune built his bubble nest on the far end of the bubble wrap. I can barely see the eggs, but know that they are there. He normally builds his nest up against the glass and puts the eggs there. Since he didn't do this, it's hard to see them. I tried taking photos of the eggs, but you couldn't see them because of the angle. I do have some cool photos from my last spawn from Neptune and Lola. I could share those.
Since it's winter where I live, do you guys think I should start hatching some BBS when the eggs hatch, because they will hatch slower since they aren't in 80 degree water?

I would start hatching once you see tails hanging down from the nest. Do you have another source of food for them that is a bit smaller, like microworms or vinegar eels? I like to start the fry off that way once they're free swimming since BBS can be a bit big for them but some people feed BBS all the way through.

 

[bettagirl100]

I would start hatching once you see tails hanging down from the nest. Do you have another source of food for them that is a bit smaller, like microworms or vinegar eels? I like to start the fry off that way once they're free swimming since BBS can be a bit big for them but some people feed BBS all the way through.

I once tried to culture infusoria, but it didn't work out. I did the exact directions sites said, but I never got any and all I got was a container that smelled so bad for weeks. I'm not sure what happened. I think I'll probably just stay with BBS, in my last spawn most of the fry looked like they had eaten them.
I doubt I could get any in time, but I guess I could try and look at shipping lenghts.

 

[bettagirl100]

Here are some egg photos! They laid around 200 eggs but I can only count around 20-30 sadly. Something did happen to them, but I prefer not to share it. The male or female didn’t eat them. (Sibling messed it up)

Anyways, here they are! The eggs are a strange orange color, it might be because of the tank. In real life they are the normal color.

 

[bettagirl100]

We have tails! From what I see, there is a pretty small number compared to other spawns sadly. Hopefully I still get at least 5 fry surviving. Neptune has loved moving these eggs around! He moved them around about 4 times, and do it normally twice a day and sometimes
make a whole new nest and switch locations. I think it’s time to start my BBS now, since it is winter I will have to monitor the temperature because I don’t have a heater. If I really need to, I could find a way to keep it above 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Well, I guess I have to get back to hatching baby brine shrimp often. I haven’t done it in a couple months.

Anyways, here are the photos of the tails! So exciting! The tank has some algae which makes it impossible to take photos and makes it look dirty. I tried to best!

 

[bettagirl100]

So the photo I posted was pretty bad, so I just wanted to share an amazing photo of tails from a previous spawn of these two.

 

[mollyyymo]

So the photo I posted was pretty bad, so I just wanted to share an amazing photo of tails from a previous spawn of these two.

View attachment 1038268

You really said "I hope I get at least five" earlier. 🤣 Congrats!

Oh, and regarding temperature and hatching BBS, truly don't worry about it. My upstairs fish room is a bit drafty and doesn't reach 70° during the winter like it should. My BBS hatch just fine, they just take a little longer.

 

[bettagirl100]

You really said "I hope I get at least five" earlier. 🤣 Congrats!

Oh, and regarding temperature and hatching BBS, truly don't worry about it. My upstairs fish room is a bit drafty and doesn't reach 70° during the winter like it should. My BBS hatch just fine, they just take a little longer.

Haha, that was from my previous spawn!

 

[bettagirl100]

The fry have started to wiggle, 2 have detached from the nest and are swimming. In around 7 hours it will be 3 days, and I will give them their first feeding. The brine shrimp hatched fine.
I will get a photo as soon as possible!

 

[betta4ever!]

I will get a photo as soon as possible!

Waiting!

 

[bettagirl100]

Almost all the bettas have started free-swimming! I tried to take Neptune out, but he caught onto what I was doing. I wait for him to take a breath, then he goes right back down when I try to quickly but carefully catch him. I have been doing it for at least half of an hour, I’m going to give it around 2 hours for him to calm down so hopefully I can catch him on the first try because he won’t be expecting it. From my experience with breeding him, he doesn’t eat fry, he just does his own thing and if he thinks they are struggling he brings them to the nest. He is very helpful, but does eat their baby brine shrimp. This is the only problem, and why I want to get him out. He eats all of it within a few minutes, leaving none for the fry.

Here are some fry photos! You may notice stringy things in the water, it is because of algae, because the tank is overdue for a water change, and because it is super zoomed in.

 

[bettagirl100]

I just finished with their first water change. I changed around 20%, although it took me a while. I had to suck some up slowly with a turkey baster, and inspect the container for fry before I dumped it.

I then had to go downstairs, get half a gallon of water into the pitcher, heat it, go upstairs, then do it again.

I’ve never actually seen the fry eat the BBS, I have seen them try to eat the eggs shells though, I saw one succeed in doing so, hopefully it doesn’t get harmed.

What an amazing way to start my morning off by taking forever to water change one tank, I still have 4 more to do today and it’s almost lunchtime..

 

[bettagirl100]

The fry look bigger already! I lay on the floor everyday to watch them, because my tank is just above the floor by a couple inches.

I had to freeze some BBS because it will be about 2 days before my fresh ones hatch, I should probably make 2 hatcheries but I will need another air pump for that, the one I'm using barely has enough power to do the BBS and some betta filters.

The water bottle that I'm hatching the BBS in started leaking, it started going into the container that holds the bottle in place. I screwed the cap on tighter and hopefully it stops.

For some reason, all the babies love to hang out in this one corner. I put some BBS in other places in case some aren't. I've also noticed that the fry sometimes sink to the bottom, stay there for a minute or two, and then swim back up with all their strength.

Once they start to get a little more noticeable growth I will take a photo!

 

[bettagirl100]

Here is a photo of the bettas! They look so much bigger! This time I am not as zoomed in, and they still look noticeably bigger! They swim around quite a lot, and there is still 15-20.

 

[bettagirl100]

I believe this is day 8. They are just over a week old! I posted tail photos 8 days ago, so I'm going to go with that.

I've started to watch them eat. For the first couple of days, I couldn't tell if they were eating. Now I know that most are, because I have seen them. This is my first time feeding BBS to start, so I'm happy it worked out and they were big enough to eat them. These poor fry attempt to get a BBS swimming around, and miss. The BBS had moved. They then try to do it a couple more times, biting the water, until they get it. I can actual see their mouth opening, which is cool. At feeding times when I put the BBS in, then come back a few minutes later, there are around 30 at the top. So I will just say 30 for now.

Unfortunately, there is one betta that has had a lot of problems. This fry eats normally, but is constantly sinking to the bottom. It then tries to swim back up and sinks back down, and after a couple minutes just lays lifelessly on the substrate. A few more minutes pass and the fry attempts to swim back up, and the whole thing repeats. This has been happening ever since it was free swimming. I think I should probably let my big boy eat he/she, but I would like your opinion on it.