# Are there eggs in these bubbles?



## Granberry

So last night I set everything up just right, and even added another little heater (8v). When it was time to remove the female from the hurricane bowl, I did so, and the male got right to work building a bubble nest underneath a piece of bubblewrap that I put in there. I turned off the light and went to bed, and now this morning there's a nice bubble nest. Sometimes he comes out of it and flares at the female and chases her back into her hiding place, but she never stops to do the mating dance. However, I wonder if there are already eggs in the bubbles from the night. Much of the time, he stays under the nest, rearranging the bubbles. Sometimes she swims over there and messes with the bubbles too until he chases her away. Thoughts? Anyone?


----------



## indjo

It's hard to see from the pictures. Specially if the bubble nest is that thick. But according to your explanation, I doubt if they've spawned. After spawning females will no longer do the mating dance. They may remain submissive with head down but will soon dash off.


----------



## Granberry

I wish someone would delete this pictures since they are huge and I can't edit them any more to delete them myself. I'm going to learn how to post smaller pictures, today, I swear.

They just spawned about 15 minutes ago! I know many of you have done this dozens of times, but I have never bred any critter other than rabbits when I was little (they were food, not pets), so this is kind of amazing to me! After the first "embrace", the female looked dead, and the male wiggled his tail a lot beside her, presumably sprinkling the eggs. Then she revived and seems to have helped him a bit picking up the eggs. 

The first thing I did was pull up the awesome article Indjo has posted and emailed me and start flipping through for info. It was very helpful! And very comforting too, like I had a friend walking me through it! I am ready for this male to start chasing the female away though because geez louise how many times can 2 fish spawn? !


----------



## Granberry

Here's a blurry video of one of their little embraces...I think there were a dozen before I decided she was done. That being said, he wasn't too rough on her.


----------



## indjo

If you intentionally want fewer eggs, pulling out female early is alright. She should release th remaining unfertilized eggs.

However if you want the whole batch of eggs, some pairs may spawn a full day before they are done. Most only need a few hours.

Btw. Congratulations on a successful spawn.
, . . . . . . . 

After years of breeding, I still find the whole process amazing and often stare at them until they're done. . . .


----------



## LittleBettaFish

Virgin pairs can take ages when they are spawning. I've watched some pairs fruitlessly trying for hours until they get their first successful wrap. Often my virgin males will end up stunning themselves. I do think it's best to wait until the pair decides when they are finished. I'm not a fan of removing the female earlier, particularly if little to no damage is being done. 

I think it's best to start off with as many eggs as possible from your pair, as survival rates on some spawns can be absolutely dismal (particularly when you are a new breeder) so you may not end up with any fish at all. 

Have you had practice hatching BBS yet? If not, I'd recommend doing so, as you don't want to find out your eggs are no good or your hatching method needs tweaking when you have a tank of hungry fry. I wish someone had told me similar, as I struggled early on with bad eggs wondering what I was doing wrong.


----------



## Granberry

LittleBettaFish said:


> ...
> 
> Have you had practice hatching BBS yet? If not, I'd recommend doing so, as you don't want to find out your eggs are no good or your hatching method needs tweaking when you have a tank of hungry fry. I wish someone had told me similar, as I struggled early on with bad eggs wondering what I was doing wrong.


This was very good advice, and I wanted to thank you for it! I ended up using this first venture as a learning experience. I didn't have the BBS hatchery set up adequately, and even though I had the Hikari First Bites ready, I was afraid they wouldn't eat them and would starve. I went ahead and destroyed the eggs before they could hatch and get hungry. Thank you everyone for your help!


----------



## Kokoszka

Wowwww ... betta babies!


----------



## LittleBettaFish

Unfortunately, most betta fry will only take live food in the initial few weeks/months. Unlike fry from other species of fish (such as livebearers and rainbowfish), they just don't seem to recognize the powdered foods as food and survival rates are usually pretty ordinary when breeders are relying solely on powdered foods early on.

Have you been culturing vinegar eels or microworms? Sometimes BBS can be too big for newly hatched betta fry to eat, so breeders will tend to use smaller foods such as vinegar eels and microworms until the fry are at a size where they can take BBS. Microworms have long been associated with missing ventral fins, so it's best not to feed these long-term, and ensure that the bottom of your aquarium is kept clean. Plus growth rates are often extremely slow on fish that have been kept too long on microworms. 

I think you made the right decision. Good luck with your next spawning attempt.


----------

