# White/Red HM Male x Red Cambodian Female



## Aryia (Oct 10, 2013)

Hi everyone~ this is my very first try at breeding Betta. All suggestions and comments are appreciated!

My tank set up is in another thread:
http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=291425

Here is a video of the male tending to his bubble nest and trying to invite the female (through the net).





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7gVYromqvw


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## Aryia (Oct 10, 2013)

*can't delete


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## Aryia (Oct 10, 2013)

Also (I know I'm jumping ahead), but when the fry hatch, can they eat BBS straight off or do they need to be fed something smaller for the first 3 days?
I have been starting infusoria cultures everyday, but I'm not sure how to harvest them since I can't tell if there actually is infusoria in there or not. 

I start mine with 3 algae wafers each in 32oz cups filled with conditioned water + 5 ml out of my sump and a couple pieces of lettuce.


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## snowflake311 (Jun 19, 2013)

The pair look good the males fins are so big. I breed plakats and I am use to seeing them swim supper fast around the tank when spawning. Your guy with his pretty long tail is so slow in comparison to my crazy plakats. 

Anyways they looks like it is going really well. Good luck.

For the first 3 days the fry don't need food they still have an egg sack . It's after the first 3 days you need to feed. I fed vinaged eels to mine at first.


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## Aryia (Oct 10, 2013)

I feel so bad for this guy. He tries his hardest to impress the female, builds his bubble nest larger and larger, and the only time the leaves it is to try and get her to take a look at it. But she just runs away and even darts out of the water to get away from him, while he's trying to keep up with his awfully long fins. 

Do you think all this hard work will be too much stress for the male? The female is almost exploding with eggs but I guess her mindset isn't on spawning quite yet.


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## Aryia (Oct 10, 2013)

So I've separated the pair this morning. They were both sleeping half out of the water, on top of leaves. I almost freaked out this morning thinking they were afloat and dead. The female seemed a lot more interested in the male but he seemed to have completely lost interest in breeding. Im trying out the jar method instead of using the divider this time. Is it normal that the female is much more agile than the male?

The water seemed unusually warm after I placed plastic wrap on top to keep humidity in. Is that normal? Also will the air become too "thick" and be hard for the Betta to breathe? I've left a couple more openings to fresh air to get in for now. 

How long do they have to be reconditioned for? and do you feed live food daily to them during this period? I always exchanged between flakes and live food to give them a more balanced diet, but I'm not sure if that's necessary. 

*Probably going to get my other two pairs introduced later today. Otherwise I'll probably mess with this pair too much and release them too soon.


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## snowflake311 (Jun 19, 2013)

Yes in the long finned Bettas the females will almost always be faster and more agile. With plakats the males are just as fast as the females. 

It takes up to 3 days for them to spawn I pull the pair on the 4th day if they are not getting it. You did not give them enough time. My female did the same thing was sleeping on a leaf right before she finally gave in but my male never did that. 

If you felt the spawning went wrong you did the right thing and pulled them but for first time Bettas that never spawned they need 3 days to figure it out. 

You can try again next time give them a few weeks 2-3 before you try again.


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## Aryia (Oct 10, 2013)

What concerned me was how the male was acting. He seemed tired and wasn't even tending to his bubble nest anymore. The female clamped on to his fin in the morning and wouldn't let go, he also stayed at the top for most of the time and was inactive with limp fins and breathing pretty heavy. Whenever the female goes close to him he immediately hides. I had to go to class to I decided to separate them because I didn't want to risk this guy, he's my fav! They are still in the breeding tank though, just with a barrier, can I reintroduce them today or tomorrow or do I have to restart the conditioning all over?


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## snowflake311 (Jun 19, 2013)

Aryia said:


> What concerned me was how the male was acting. He seemed tired and wasn't even tending to his bubble nest anymore. The female clamped on to his fin in the morning and wouldn't let go, he also stayed at the top for most of the time and was inactive with limp fins and breathing pretty heavy. Whenever the female goes close to him he immediately hides. I had to go to class to I decided to separate them because I didn't want to risk this guy, he's my fav! They are still in the breeding tank though, just with a barrier, can I reintroduce them today or tomorrow or do I have to restart the conditioning all over?


No separate them fully . Don't let them see each other . I would condition them seperatly feed 3 times a day good food frozen blood worms and high quality pellets . Do a water change almost everyday if you can. For your male i would also exsercies him use a mirror and get him to move and stretch his fins. Do this for 2 weeks. Your male needs to be in tip top shape. If he is weak and tiered from one day with the female I would give him more time to get nice and strong. 

Work on getting your male in good shape?

If you put a weak male with long fins in with a pissed off hormonal female he could get killed by her.


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## Aryia (Oct 10, 2013)

Ok I will follow your advice. Is it ok to leave the male in the breeder tank or will he be too territorial once the female is added?

Also, (just wondering) is there any reason why they cannot see each other? And there are a couple torn fins, is there anything I can treat them with so the wound doesn't get infected?

I have been conditioning them with live black worms, live fruit flies and will be adding daphnia or brine shrimp to the lot. Though I heard a full protein diet might not suit well for Betta and some type of plant-based food should be added?


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## snowflake311 (Jun 19, 2013)

Aryia said:


> Ok I will follow your advice. Is it ok to leave the male in the breeder tank or will he be too territorial once the female is added?
> 
> Also, (just wondering) is there any reason why they cannot see each other? And there are a couple torn fins, is there anything I can treat them with so the wound doesn't get infected?
> 
> I have been conditioning them with live black worms, live fruit flies and will be adding daphnia or brine shrimp to the lot. Though I heard a full protein diet might not suit well for Betta and some type of plant-based food should be added?


You could leave the male in the tank. The fins will heal fin no infection as long as the water is clean. 

The reason for not letting them see each other is... When they see each other too much they can become use to each other and the spark is not there when you want it. Some say the stress of seeing each other is not good. So people might leave the females with in site of male it depends. Maybe others can add some info about this.


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## Aryia (Oct 10, 2013)

I've also read that you can add another male in a cup/jar to create competition which will spark the other male's interest in the female. Has anyone tried this before?


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