Waiting on the Female!!

[Ripley]

I am in the process of breeding bettas at the moment, but have run into a problem I hav'nt had before. I have bred bettas several times before, but this time the female just won't go to the bubblenest. In the past the longest I have waited for her to do so was about 7-8 hours, but this female has been in there for almost 2 days. My question is, has anyone had this kind of trouble in the past when have bred bettas and did you do anything or just wait it out?

[trashion]

No idea, but WOW! How do you manage to keep auratus and bettas in a tank together? I would think the betta wouldn't last a day.

[emc7]

I've never bred bettas, so I can only tell you what I've heard 3rd hand. You can let the female choose when to visit the male, with a divider, or by putting her in a small cup she can jump out of. Or you can separate them for a week or two and try again. You don't leave them alone together unless you are there to watch them. I think it is fairly common that a pair not be "in sync" and be ready at the same time.

[Ripley]

From my past experience with breeding bettas, I found that the female is never interested right away, but as I said I have never waited this long. She is still barred up and the male is actually not being to rough on her. Because its taking so long I am continueing to feed them both and the female is eating a lot and doing good. I'm going to put some Melaflex in there to help fight any infections or anything like that. I was just watching them and he is still trying very hard to get her to come over to the nest, and he has actually made the nest twice the size now.So hopefully she will be impressed Lol.

Hahaha in terms of keeping the Auratus with the betta. Auratus are aggressive but I have found in the past that they don't bother any of the other fish. They just fight amoung themsleves. Also the betta was an impulse buy for the fact that it was a cheap short tailed male and they dont come cheap here at all.

[leafgirl115]

Hi Ripley dont wory about the time thing. Many dont breed fora few days... its hard to just leave them alone but its the best you can do. And like you said they are being gentile.

[shade2dope]

I have had it take up to a week.As long as she or he dont get beat up to bad then you should be fine.Right now I have my white pair together...waiting for him to build a bubble nest.

[khachdatinh]

Male bettas are ready most of time. You just need to make sure your female is ready. Whenever i wanted to breed, it only takes me a day at most as i always have plenty of females and just pick out the one that has biggest stomach. Sometimes i put in a female and they mate right away without even making the bubble nest first which is bad. So, here is how you do it if you only have 1 female. You give the female clean, good water, feed her daily, put her next the to male bottle, take out the divider and let her see the male about 10 mins every day. put the divider back. within a week, her stomach will get big not because of food but full of eggs. When there are a lot of legs in her stomach she will not run away from the male and she actually keep following the male till they mate. key thing is the female has to have a lot of eggs and is ready. You can see her stripes whenever you open the divider. Just like human, I never see betta males that don't want to mate unless they are sick or something.

[shade2dope]

one more thing Melaflex isnt good for bettas but there is a way to change that http://www.ultimatebettas.com/index.php?showtopic=4461

[Ripley]

Thanks for all the help, I guess I'll just have to wait them out. But as I said they are both doing well and eating lots. Luckily, as I said before he is'nt really that rough on her and her belly is getting much larger. She's still barred up and he is still making the bubblenest larger, actually its the biggest I have seen my bettas ever build. Hopefully it will be in the next couple of days. Thanks agian for the info and reassurance.

[shade2dope]

What do you use to feed? Right now I use vinger ells brine shrimp micro worms,. Then when they get older I use grindals first bite astisons betta pro growth spectrum micro pellets micro waffers.There are more but would have to walk to the fish room and I am too lazy lol.

[Ripley]

FINALLY!! My bettas bred last night. I have been feeding my pair flakes,brine shrimp, bloodworms and daphina. I would love to get some vinger eels and some micro worms, but it is impossible to get any cultures here. I have looked all over but no luck.

[leafgirl115]

Ya congrats!