# spawning problems :( please help ASAP



## Kiersten2000 (Jan 27, 2014)

To start with I had one male betta fish. I wanted to start breeding bettas because I found it very interesting. I went to a nearby pet store and bought a good healthy looking female. I did a lot of research on bettas before i tried breeding them. I found out that most bettas in pet stores are about three to four months old. I also read that most bettas are breed at four months old, but some of them are bred at three months old. I waited a week while i fed Cupid the female, so that she could get used to her cage. Also to get her healthier by feeding her and keeping her cage clean. At the end of the week I sett up a breeding tank. It is round and about a foot wide and a foot tall. There is gravel at the bottom that was still there from another tank set up I had (I did clean the gravel.) The next day around noon I put the male in= Comet and let him get acclimated to the tank. Then I put Cupid in and let her get acclimated. I had them in together, but they didn't do anything so I did some more research. I did put in a cup at the top for Comet to make the bubble nest in. I also put Cupid in a tall clear cylinder so Comet could still see her. The next day Sunday when I came back from church there was a bubble nest in the plastic cup. :-D I was pretty surprised. 

But here is the problem. I took the tube out of the breeding tank and let Cupid swim free in the tank with Comet. He flares at her a lot and she doesn't doe much, but normally slowly swims away. She does go over to investigate the bubble nest, but he nips at her and chases her away. They have been doing this for about two days now. :-( I don't think Cupid knows what to do when Comet chases her. And I don't think Comet has thought about trying to breed with Cupid, and he only chases her and flares up. Cupid doesn't hide very much at all anymore, but just swims around and she is very curious about everything. 

Please help me as soon as you can I don't know what to do further except for just wait. Please tell me what I am doing wrong if I am doing anything wrong.


----------



## Bettafishadopter (Jan 20, 2014)

Okay to start off you need to have a 10 gallon for breeding. Second, you need to do more research, most petstore bettas carry genetic deformities and they should not be bought to breed. Third, the bettas can have over 500 fry which means over 50% of them will be male and need separate tanks. You will need a 40 gallon grow out tank for the fry too. Some pairs don't work out either so seperate them! Next time make sure you've done ALL of your research and have carefully chosen show bettas and have enough money an time too put into breeding.


----------



## Kiersten2000 (Jan 27, 2014)

I am pretty sure that it is ten gallons or near ten gallons. I do know that they can have 400-1000 fry/eggs. i have collected some containers for when I jar the fry(separate them) and I plan to collect more. I do have extra tanks for the fry to grow in and I did research on a lot of things. I also have enough money to put time into breeding them.

Also should I take Cupid the female out of the tank and try again in a few weeks, and if that doesn't work should I get a different female?


----------



## Aryia (Oct 10, 2013)

I'm going to tell you from personal experience, that using simple jars is not a good idea to keep bettas at all. 

I housed 50 bettas in cups/jars. These cups and jars will need daily water changes, doing manual daily water changes for 50 cups/jars took me about an hour each day. I was quick with doing them, my boyfriend would take 3 hours instead. Then you need count in time it takes to feed them as well.

It's not only a huge amount of time with jars, but even though you invest all this time, the water quality in jars is simply bad. The bettas were stressed and looking sick all the time. After I switched them to the barracks, there were huge changes in their behavior/appearance/health. Also, fry will take forever to grow up if you don't have the best water quality. Depending on where you live, you may need heating for all these jars as well. I placed 8 cups into 1 ten gallon aquarium, so I needed 1 heater per 8 fish... imagine how many heaters that would be for 100 fish?

If you do want to go with this idea, at least I would recommend cups. At the very least you can modify cups to build an adequate water changing system with them. With jars, you'll have tough luck trying to drill through them without shattering a couple at least. 

Also want to point that you will need to find homes for all these babies, unless you are going to keep them yourself. Most petstore bettas are not the quality that will produce quality babies which people will buy online. 

I've recently got my first spawn, and I've already invested over $1000 in equipment already, there are certainly a lot more costs to come. 

Lastly to your question, you will need to condition both bettas adequately. The female will display vertical bars (not horizontal, horizontal are stress bars which is bad) if she is a dark color when she is ready to breed. They will both need to have been conditioned with good, LIVE, and nutritious food for at least a week if not longer. The male will fast for the duration that he's taking care of the eggs and needs to have the energy for it. Without good condition, the male will have no energy to chase her and won't show interest. If the female isn't ready, she will just run away. If one of the two is aggressive, they may try to kill the other.

If both were conditioned adequately, it can take a while for virgin pairs. One of mine took 3 days, I've read that some take up to a week. You need to keep an eye out for aggression, bettas can stress themselves to death, it doesn't necessarily need to be through an actual wound.


----------



## Kiersten2000 (Jan 27, 2014)

*Thanks for the tips *

Thanks. I do have mostly cups for when I jar the fry. I have used a water conditioner on my breeding pair and I have fed them both nutrient blood worms. Thanks for the other tips though!


----------



## Bettafishadopter (Jan 20, 2014)

Yes take her out and get a new female


----------



## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

I recommend reading all of the stickies at the top of the betta breeding section. I also recommend removing the gravel from the spawn tank. Falling eggs will get stuck in gravel and the male can't get to them to put them back into the nest.


----------



## KSbetta (Jan 8, 2014)

Do not get discouraged, the first few spawns would be most memorable experience. We may learn with ordinary betta with setup we can put together, may not need to spent a fortune for the fun process. 
Mistakes are part of the learning, forum like this has many kind helpers and resources. Betta are hardy fish, they can spawn in various setup/environment. When you progress with proficiency and confidence, esp raising the fries then you may go spawn and breed your desired line of betta.


----------



## BettaGeek (Feb 5, 2014)

Just thought id share a couple things that dramatically increased the survival rate of my lil ones:

1.FishRoom..just for your bettas. Obvious benefits.

2. Space heater 
just 1 per Room, granted its a good one. Fyi...sunbeams last awhile but wont heat but about 50% of fishroom evenly. To put that in "betta" words, if u have multiple breeding tanks, be sure to keep them evenly set within 45° front of heater. hope that made sense. Spending a lil extra on heater does help if u breed in glass tanks. plastic buckets hold heat and distribute more evenly, so sunbeam heaters arent bad for that (but u cant see alot until its time to transfer the fry to a growout tank).Oh and Cover vents,check seals near windows,fix it if ya gotta. And take out those water heaters if necessary.

I could go way into detail but just incase. ALWAYS Monitor the Temp! Dont just leave on high. Too hot kills too. 

3. Be resourceful.
if you want a successful spawn , be ready to take care of ALL of them. save any kind of jars or bottles (not small ones plz) old fish tanks, anything that can hold your bettas and separate them when they're old enough waiting for their new homes. Buy dividers or make them . this is awesome for shorter long tanks. after youve thin'd out your bettas, you can divide your growout tank for males.

4. Live Mosquito larvae.
if you hated mosquitos b4. you'll grow to love them. This needs a whole thread to itself, this really is for more exp. breeders. alot of it is common sense but if u wanna learn how to keep/breed happy healthy mosquito larvae , message me or wait for my thread on this. Live food is the best, especially when it's their natural diet! Brineshrimp are ok, so are microworms, but can be costly,messy, and like me you run out. Which is not the case with Mosquitos. I just use 4 buckets outside, shaded area, half full of treated aged water, with couple leaves and a half of an algae pellet (this has other benefits ill dont have time to tell you about, keyword...Infusia) with these 4 items I have enough larvae all season to feed 150+ fry and their parents...grandparents too  In VA this last from about.... june till early october. But Mother nature always changes. Your fry will love you more! granted you dont overfeed bcuz its so fun to watch, your fry will be more active , dont waste food, and dance every time they see a fish net (this helps not too change water temp for yonger fry, just pour larvae from container slowly, into net, then reverse net inside out, dip in tank...ta dah!) 

5. Water quality. 
if its dirty and you know it, get to it. Pronto. inflamed gills can/will affect you betta through adulthood. Even after it's cured, they can stay raised ): for fry: use turkey basters, airline hoses w/ a straw inserted one end , for stability. Also, white buckets help to spot any fry that happen to get sucked up. Doing this the correct way will help your fish grow faster. A little bit everyday goes a long ways!

Of course theres a thousand other things you need for a successful stock but just remeber these 5 things and I'm sure your next spawn will cost you less and will be better for your betta babies  

More to come soon. hope this helps somebody 

Peace


----------



## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

Great advice!!


----------

