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Oh No: My Eggs Have Fallen Out of the Nest

8.8K views 14 replies 6 participants last post by  Myates  
#1 ·
I woke up this morning and discovered that a bunch of tiny whitish specks were all beneath the bubble nest. I see my poor little male trying frantically to put them back in and I am upset.

I have no idea what happened, maybe part of the nest fell apart or something, but there were at least a hundred eggs spread beneath the nest and I just have a feeling that I'm not going to be having a fry any time soon. The poor male hasn't eaten (or slept probably) since the spawning and now this disaster has happened.

I'm disappointed.

I just found out that my female is actually a copper half-moon (not dark silver) and my male is royal blue crowntail with red tipped fins and I thought they would have very unique looking and cute fry, so I'm upset.

How could this have happened? If they don't hatch in the next few days, shoudl I just take the male out and recuperate him and try again in a couple of weeks?
 
#12 ·
i did so some research
I dunno...I think it would benefit you to have read more before you started on this.

First off, I would congratulate you on making it this far since many first time breeders don't get nearly as far as you have. But it seems everything you're "panicking" about on your various other threads (including this one) have all been descriptions of NORMAL betta breeding activity that are easily learned if you would've just read or watched some videos.

I wouldn't bother the male right now. Let him do his thing. Don't intervene until the fry are free swimming. The more you bother him (esp him being a virgin) the more he will screw it up. Again, all of this is stuff you can easily have found online or other websites about betta fatherhood.
 
#4 ·
Some research.. I suggest doing lots.

Eggs normally fall from the nest, and so will the fry. The male will pick up the viable ones and place them back into the nest. Why it's very important to condition them properly before breeding, so he has enough nutrition/energy to keep up with them. Whatever he doesn't pick up most likely aren't viable.. if he misses any there is still a chance they will hatch.

Do you have the fry food ready? What are you planning on feeding them?
 
#6 ·
Eggs are going to fall out of the nest and so are fry, it's all perfectly natural. Spawning is a stressful and physically draining exercise but like someone else mentioned, this is why proper conditioning of the male and female is so important. Those eggs and fry are going to run him ragged until they become free-swimming, and so he is going to seem frantic and stressed until this happens.

Just let your male do his job and stop freaking out. Sounds like he is a good father and has a handle on what he is doing.
 
#10 ·
Yay! Now don't start hatching your brine shrimp yet.. wait until the 2nd or 3rd day to start it up.. otherwise the BBS will die or be too big or not have the egg sacs left and not be edible for the fry.
 
#13 ·
okay thanks for the tip i won't hatch the brine shrimp just yet.

i did do some research, I read some blogs and websites and purchased a book but READING it and seeing it actually happen are two different things, i just got a little bit hyper i know.

but it seems to be going smoothly for now. i'll just have to wait until the start free swimming then take the male out and then i'll be able to see whether the baby betta on the bottom are dead or just not able to swim yet.

and thanks everyone for all the great advice.