# Female Betta is Afraid of Male?



## Mike16576 (Apr 12, 2015)

I just put a female in a bottle which is placed in a tank with a male. Both fish are mature, female full of eggs, male with coloured and full fins. When I put them together, the male is excited and flares a lot. The female get afraid when he flares, and she swims to the other side of the container she's in, and she won't look at him. Since she is full of eggs, is this normal? 

I have a few other egg full females, so I could switch her out. Also, my male has trouble building bubble nests. Could I take one from another tank and put it into the breeding tank? Will he expand onto it?

Finally, if the male doesn't build the nest, I will try releasing the female into the tank anyways and see if he build one then. When do I know I can release the female if there is no nest? Will the male stop flaring?

Thanks in advance!


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

It is normal, I had a very aggressive female, and after a few nips, she did the exact same thing. Eventually, when he was ignoring her and making his nest, she came up and rubbed up against him. Give her time to prepare herself.

Bubblenests are not necessary to breeding.


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## indjo (Jun 6, 2010)

If the female is afraid, specially when she shows stress lines, don't release. They will not spawn. The female will get beaten and go into more stress.

Isolate both. If the jar you use for introducing is big enough (at least 1g), keep her in there during the conditioning period. DOn't let her see any other betta, specially the male. After a few days, flare her to another female . . . if you have more than one female, prepare 2, just in case. . . . Let these females flare against each other and become aggressive (daily flare about 5-15 minutes). After a week or so, try flaring one to the flirting male and see her reaction. If she responds with breeding signs (bars, flirt swimming), proceed to the following step for breeding. Otherwise, repeat everything until she responds.

Sometimes, once stressed against a certain color, it can be hard to get the female to respond to that color. This can only be overcome by longer isolation and flaring against a smaller/less aggressive female of the same color. Or isolate for a whole month or so before reintroducing - but daily flare against another female.


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