# what am i doing wrong?



## angmat (Apr 15, 2010)

hey all, my fist post here. i've had betta for as long as i can remember but i've never attempted breeding them. after doing a bit of research i've finally decided to try breeding them.

my current set up. 15 - 20g tank, heater set at 26deg, heaps of floating plants.

i first added the male to the tank. i'v had this guy for nearly 1year now, after a couple of days i added the female in a funnel container in the corner of the tank. i waited for a day to observe them. 

the male built a massive bubble nest in between the floating plants & female got her vertical stripes so i introduced her to the tank. after a lot of chasing the female seemed to have settled to the bottom of the tank & then hide between the plants.

after about 3 - 4 hours, i moved the female back into the funnel. now i've tried this for nearly a week now with no results.

the female gets stripes like a tiger barb & the male is building almost a new nest every day...so what am i doing wrong? some tips & advice would be appreciated.


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## DragonFish (Mar 31, 2009)

....I'm confused, why are you removing the female so soon? You'd only need to remove her if there is some serious aggression going on. They could take days to spawn, just be patient  So long as neither of the pair appears seriously stressed and there isn't any serious fighting, go ahead and leave her in for a while.

I'd say if they don't spawn by day 6 or 7 though, remove them, recondition, and try again in a couple of weeks 

Everything else sounds great, best of luck to you!


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## angmat (Apr 15, 2010)

well i thought leaving the female unsupervised was not a good idea so i was removing her. anyway for now she is back in the funnel, will release her tomorrow for the whole day & see what happens.


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## DragonFish (Mar 31, 2009)

So long as there are plenty of places to hide(which it sounds like their is with all the plants you mentioned), its perfectly fine to leave her there for several days. Just check up on them as often as you can and watch their behavior carefully


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## angmat (Apr 15, 2010)

ok i have finally had success, i decided to condition the tank & change the female. the male instantly started building the nest, this morning i let the female out & to my amazement after lunch i caught them in the act. I wish i had my camera!

the female was the one gathering up all the eggs & placing them in the nest and then finally the male also decided to do the same. anyway i did not wait for the female to be chased away from the nest, i am not sure if she was still going to release more eggs but i decided to remove her as she was starting to look a little worn out, i hope this was not a bad decision.

my male however is not doing a great job, i can see some eggs at the bottom of the tank which he is not picking up, but there are heaps in the nest. anyway will keep an eye on things & post updates. thanks for all the info.


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## angmat (Apr 15, 2010)

just a update, the male seems to have gathered all the eggs & placed them all together rather than scattered all over the bubble nest. what should I be looking for next?


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## DragonFish (Mar 31, 2009)

Sounds just like my first spawn, the female starting picking up eggs and eventually the male caught on. xD Silly boys. Seems like everything is going well for ya  What kinds of foods do you have set up to feed the fry?

Next, watch for little itty bitty tiny tails hanging from the bubbles where the eggs are


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## angmat (Apr 15, 2010)

well i see the tails today & some of them are attempting to swim about but dad is quickly grabing them & placing them back in the nest. 

when should i start feeding?? also i was hoping to get microworms but all i got is blodworms, would that do?


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## DragonFish (Mar 31, 2009)

When they start swimming vertically and not just spiraling around the tank at random, remove daddy and give them their first meal. 

Just regular bloodworms? No, those are far, far too big for the fry to eat and there is no way they could be chopped up small enough. Check your local fish store for brine shrimp eggs, and if not then look online and see if you can get some to you ASAP. As far as I know, BBS is the quickest to culture and you WILL need some sort of live food like BBS or Microworms.
In the meantime, you said you had a bunch of live plants, correct? What kinds? If you don't have Java-moss, go grab some from your LFS and toss that in there. It'll provide some food for your fry for a bit until you can get your hands on BBS.


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

Live plants produce micro organisms that the fry can eat off of for awhile but other food will be needed.


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## angmat (Apr 15, 2010)

sad as it may sound, I wasn't able to source microworms in all the lfs here. most of them had standard fry food which is basically a fine mixture/powdered flake or pellet. so I have no other option but to give them this for now. they are doing well but not sure if they are actually feeding on this. I guess I should have done more research :-(

I've ordered for some brine shirmp eggs online. waiting for them to arrive...


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## bettacolors (Apr 12, 2010)

for your next mating attempt dont forget to feed the male and female nutritious foods a couple of days before you decide to spawn them.


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## angmat (Apr 15, 2010)

I did feed the parents well, its the fry that are not getting the right food. anyway all is good now. what is the growth rate of the fry? its been more than a week & I haven't noticed a great difference in the growth


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## shibadibadoo (May 2, 2010)

i've heard you can feed them hard-boiled egg yolk too


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