# When to remove Male betta 'After' babies hatched



## Underthesea

My male betta mated with my female betta on Monday.. I removed the female and left the male to care for the eggs in the bubble nest.

Now it's Saturday and the eggs have hatched and the babies are free swimming.. 

My question is.. When do I remove the male? He seems to 'NOT' be eating any of the babies and he's caring for them.. I've seen him pick up a bunch of them and spit them back into the bubble nest. Also, he's not eating.. Im assuming he's fasting.. but Im afraid he might get hungry and start to eat the babies.

Now the babies are either in the bubble nest and or swimming around/hanging on the side of the tank..


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## Oldfishlady

You can remove the male since the fry are free swimming or you can leave him with the fry, some male will be fine and other are not and if he will not eat then he may start to eat the fry sooner or later-it all depends on what your goal is with the fry and how many you want etc.....

What are your plans for feeding the fry?

And congrats on your successful spawn...love to see pics and hear more about your spawning method, goals, Bettas..etc.....


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## 1fish2fish

I agree. Its your choice, you can either leave him or you can remove him. If he's not eating I would remove him because you don't want his health to become compromised by unnecessary fasting. If he were eating I would leave him with the fry since he seems like a good father.


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## FloridaBettas239

It's up to you, But if your going to leave him in you can try to feed him. Hold the food above the water away from the fry and when he comes over drop it. But even thou he is eating does not mean he ain't snacking out on the fry every now and then so if it was me. I would take him out but again that's just me. It's really up to you..


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## Underthesea

Thanks everyone for your input.. 

I have removed the male/father and put him in his own space.

Right now, Im feeding the babies 'Hikari' First Bites, and 'Ocean Nutrients' Baby brine shrimp (in a jar)..


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## Smareers

Friends, I am back to Betta breeding after a lapse of 15yrs. But my experience is it's safer to leave the male be with the fry as long as possible. You keep him fed and he keeps the fry safe from hunters like mosquito larvae etc... I have a fresh batch of fry with me which are almost 4 weeks old and are eating the mosquito larvae themselves and only now I am planning to remove the male.


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## Underthesea

Smareers said:


> Friends, I am back to Betta breeding after a lapse of 15yrs. But my experience is it's safer to leave the male be with the fry as long as possible. You keep him fed and he keeps the fry safe from hunters like mosquito larvae etc... I have a fresh batch of fry with me which are almost 4 weeks old and are eating the mosquito larvae themselves and only now I am planning to remove the male.


Ok, but what if the male doesn't want to eat? Im afraid if he doesn't eat, he'll get hungry, so eventually he'll eat the babies.


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## Smareers

Well it usually happens that the male Bettas do not start eating till the fry can swim about on their own, this will be like almost 7 days from the day the fry hatch. Just watch out for the day when u see the fry at the farthest end of the tank from the nest and are swimming free. Then start feeding the male with live feed. I have observed at the current batch that I bred, the male can very well distinguish between fry and feed, I even saw it jump and catch a few mosquitoes which were above the waterline in the tank. Well I did not breed it in a tank actually but used an old full sized bathtub kept under a tree. This ensured that there was leaf litter and direct sunshine reaching the fish. I have also seen that Bettas prefer a water level of less that 10" for breeding. I tried tilting the tub so as to make the other end shallower than where the bubble nest was and presto the male abandoned the old one and went about building a new one at the shallow end, this happened before I introduced the female though. More fry can be harvested alive at this height of water and the male is also very healthy without having to dive to large depths to pick up fry for the first 3 days.


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