# Female stopped breeding



## iGoatfish (Dec 17, 2012)

Aloha from Hawaii
I am new to Betta breeding and have been doing a lot of research on the net. There is so much conflicting info out there. So lets just say I have been learning a lot from other people's bad info. Any way I am currently breeding my two (older) bettas. The male is a CT and the female is a Double tale. My male has built a giant nest and the female is looking good to go as we'll. So yesterday they started to dance and began to Embrace for about 15 min not dropping any eggs. Then the female would go to her hiding spot. The male would coax her back to the nest then embrace again. Then she would go hide till they just stopped. So I pulled the female over night and released her in the morning. Now they are showing no interest in each other at all. Not sure if she is not interested in my male or if I need to condition her longer? They are together right now so hopefully I can update this post with good news. 
Aloha and mahalo!


----------



## Oldfishlady (Mar 1, 2010)

Welcome to the forum and yes, lots of conflicting info, however a lot is due to being so many different ways to reach the same goal-especially with live creature....lol.....anyway....

Its not uncommon for the embrace to result in no eggs being dropped or for them to start and start several times during the process. Often the best thing to do in my experience...Is just to leave them together-feed and turn out the light as you normally do-Provided that the spawning tank has plenty of places for the female to hide so she can rest. As long as neither look to be too stressed-IMO/E it is better to leave them together-especially if they have never been spawned.

Can you tell us more about your spawning tank and post a pic-also what spawning method are you using


----------



## iGoatfish (Dec 17, 2012)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/8281426915/in/photostream
My setup is an experiment aquaponics setup that so far has had great results for water quality. I have no heater since I live in Hawaii. Getting live food is kinda of problem with the laws regarding shipping to hawaii so I feed my fish frozen brine and pellets. I also collect my own misqesto larva but that is not always available. On this breed I left the female in a glass vase inside the tank for about 2 days before releasing her. Currently the male has started showing interest in the female again but she is just hiding in the far corner as seen in the image. 
Thanks for the quick response.


----------



## Oldfishlady (Mar 1, 2010)

What an interesting setup.....I don't see why it wouldn't work-plus I bet it will help with lots of great microorganism for free range fry food to boot....anyway...If you have some live aquatic plants to float and add to the spawning tank-this can help function as a natural divider to help keep the female safe and to prevent premature egg drops. Especially if you need to leave them together for several days to weeks before you get them to spawn.

IME-I can get my breeders ready fairly fast by mass feeding live mosquito larva. I like to use a brine shrimp net to collect them so that I can get a lot of the tiny larva for the fry. I also collect the mosquito rafts and allow them to hatch for the tiny larva for the fry. I collect larva and rafts year around-although in the winter I don't get as many-but I still do-even after I remove the ice blocks off the buckets....lol....plus lots of daphnia and other small aquatic critters that the fry attack with gusto.

Have you tried hatching brine shrimp to use for fry food or can you get the eggs in your location. I supplement with newly hatched BBS for my fry with good success. I had more fry failures when I fed microworms-but I think it was more my harvesting method than the MW.


----------



## iGoatfish (Dec 17, 2012)

I just got some brine eggs and have been feeding my fry from a previous spawn the bbs witch they love but between hatchings I am feeding them first bites and egg yoke. Next time I can get over to petco (a two hour drive) I will pick up some live pants or I can try to harvest some from a local stream. Well thanks for the advise and I will keep you updated with any progression with my spawn.
Many Mahalos!


----------



## Fabian (Dec 16, 2011)

When my female doesn't release any eggs,i jar her,place the jar in the tank and feed her lots of bloodworms.Then after an hour,i release her.When they embrace,eggs come out.
Maybe a bigger stomach will help the male push the eggs out.


----------



## iGoatfish (Dec 17, 2012)

Thats a good tip! In my very limited experience my females were very well fed before I put them in with the male but this time she was not that full. 
Now I heard some where that the male dose not actually squeeze the eggs out of the female she releases the eggs on her own. The embrace is just for proper positioning of the sex organs. Any one here know if they squeeze or release?


----------



## Oldfishlady (Mar 1, 2010)

That is correct....he doesn't squeeze the eggs out per se...The embrace is for the approximation of the vents for fertilization/stimulation to release eggs/milt.


----------



## indjo (Jun 6, 2010)

IME, pairs that have lost interest best be reconditioned. Specially the females, since they may become stressed by the male. If you leave the female in the tank, they may breed but if the female remains uninterested, she might get hurt.

I agree that mass feeding helps get them in breeding mode. I also agree that males don't squeeze eggs out.


----------



## Myates (Aug 2, 2011)

One of my females lost interest in a male once he didn't get her hint of being under the nest head down ( >.< ), and she turned quite aggressive towards him afterwards.


----------



## iGoatfish (Dec 17, 2012)

Well it was time to throw in the towel  My male who is normally a gentle lover beat her pretty good. I think he was under the impression that there are eggs in the nest from the earlier failed embrace. So my next question is should I start prepping a new femail to rebreed ASAP? Or Should i wait till he has rested for while then retry a new femail?


----------



## Oldfishlady (Mar 1, 2010)

What I would do, I would remove the male to a small container and isolate him...do the same for the female you plan to use. Allow them to see each other for about 5min a day more or less. Mass feed them live foods if you have any over the next 2-3 days. Don't change the water and let it cool down a bit to the 75-76F range.

Make a 50% water change on the spawning tank and add some live plants and tannins-water temp 80F. On day 3-4 add both the male and female to the spawning tank to give them a little shock. When I do this method with my hard to spawn Bettas-I usually will have spawning within an hour to no later than first light the next day.

If you don't want to try the shock method.....Do everything except-then properly acclimate the male to the spawning tank first-then add the female cupped for a day or so or until she show signs of readiness to spawn-then release her.

Some males just won't spawn or are picky about the female and you have to try different methods and females and sometimes...a different male all together....

Good luck...


----------



## iGoatfish (Dec 17, 2012)

I am defiantly going to try that right now.
Thanks again! It's hard to find good inside tips for breeding. Is there a thread for "hard to breed bettas"?


----------

