# My bettas spawned but now the male is letting the nest disappear



## gabrielle09 (Jan 23, 2012)

So my bettas spawned last night but I don't know what happened to the eggs. I'd been checking on them periodically all day and the female was full of eggs and then last night i checked on them and she looked a lot thinner and the male had pushed her into a corner. I took her out and checked the nest for eggs but there doesn't seem to be any and now the male is letting his nest disappear. This is the first time I have bred this pair did they eat the eggs or was it just a bad batch of eggs? What went wrong?


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Most likely he ate the eggs, it's common for this to happen but unfortunate.


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## MattsBettas (Dec 18, 2012)

He most likely ate the eggs... You can breed the pair again and hope it works after reconditioning them for two weeks.


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## gabrielle09 (Jan 23, 2012)

Do you think he will do this again if I breed him a second time? Or will his paternal instinct kick in?


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## gabrielle09 (Jan 23, 2012)

Oh thanks for the quick answer you read my mind lol


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## MattsBettas (Dec 18, 2012)

It might work, might not. If it doesn't you can artificially hatch them.


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## gabrielle09 (Jan 23, 2012)

How do I do that? Will they just hatch by themselves?


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## gabrielle09 (Jan 23, 2012)

I thought the male needed to be in there with them to help them from falling out of the nest?


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## MattsBettas (Dec 18, 2012)

I just had a fairly large spawn where the male ended up eating the majority of the eggs on the first night, so I yanked him out and just left the eggs in there. About half fungused, but the other half hatched and are now healthy little babies. Most of them stayed at the surface.


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## snowflake311 (Jun 19, 2013)

IF you are going to remove the dad and hatch eggs with no parents you need a small container and bubbles. 

Most cory cat breeders hatch fry like this. When I hatched my cory cat fry I collected the eggs put them in a small container inside the aquarium they were found in. I added a air pump and but a control on it so the bubbles were not too strong. I would do remove eggs that got fungus quick with an eye dropper. I did daily water changes using the tank water in the spawn tank. Most all my eggs hatched when I did this. I then let the fry out into the grow out tank.


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## MattsBettas (Dec 18, 2012)

I just left the eggs in the tank and it worked out fine:dunno:.


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## bambijarvis (Jul 15, 2012)

Well, 'fine' and 'half fungused' might not be the same for everyone. xD

But yeah, you can just leave them in there or do what Snow flake did.
It's less about keeping them in the nest and more about keeping fungus off the eggs I think.


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## snowflake311 (Jun 19, 2013)

bambijarvis said:


> Well, 'fine' and 'half fungused' might not be the same for everyone. xD
> 
> But yeah, you can just leave them in there or do what Snow flake did.
> It's less about keeping them in the nest and more about keeping fungus off the eggs I think.


Agree it's not about the nest at all. The nest is just a way the betta evolved to keep the fry safe. With out the father there to clean the eggs,fan them,keep water moving, and rovmove the bad ones the eggs will go bad fast. If one eggs gets fungus the others near it will soon get it. So removing bad eggs quick is key. Some people add Anti fungus meds to eggs. I found clean water and good movement worked well with out meds.


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## MattsBettas (Dec 18, 2012)

There is absolutely no way to tell if the eggs that fungused were ever even fertile...


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## jadaBlu (Feb 14, 2013)

Just curious I don't breed (I check this section to educate myself). I've read that fish breeders use methylene blue to prevent fungus on eggs. Does this not apply to bettas?


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## MattsBettas (Dec 18, 2012)

Yes, it does.


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## Myates (Aug 2, 2011)

IAL also has an anti-fungal agent, which is what I have my males use as a nest anchor and haven't had any fungus yet, even with the male that ignores the eggs (and I end up having to move the eggs from one nest to the nest of another male who is caring for his own eggs.. sigh.. silly fish).


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## gabrielle09 (Jan 23, 2012)

Thanks for all the great tips... I'm going to try my pair again in a few weeks hopefully it works out better this time.


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