# Male Betta Chasing Female Away?



## ch0wls (Jun 4, 2013)

I bred my bettas before and I have 70 healthy fry right now. I'm breeding again and everything was good. The male (my icon photo) made a bubblenest, and the female is full of eggs! all the male is doing now is chasing the female around and around and she looks horribly stressed. he has a tear in her anal fins that's it. This has been happening for two or three hours now. I know it's normal but he seems like he's done with his nest. Sometimes the female is swimming so frantically, eggs pop out!!!!! The female occasionally goes to the nest since he chases her there, but then once she gets close, he flares and attacks her! Does the male even know how to breed?! :evil::blueshake::blueshake::sob::-(


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## indjo (Jun 6, 2010)

Some males are soooo vicious that he will beat the female to death. Your male sounds normal - one torn fin on the female is nothing compared to some breeding aftermaths. But the female shouldn't show horizontal stress lines, she should remain colored and show her breeding bars. If the female has lost her color and is showing stress lines, take her out and re-do everything. But if she is still in full color, let them be - first time females need longer courtship period.


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## ch0wls (Jun 4, 2013)

thanks! they spawned! :-D but the male ate ALL the eggs and was bloated  I'm very disappointed in him.


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

I'm sorry about your eggs getting eaten. It could have been that they were infertile. Was this a virgin pair?


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## indjo (Jun 6, 2010)

Sorry to hear that. 
Don't breed him anytime soon. Give him a 3-4 week interval. Some egg eaters may change. But if he still eats his eggs, retire him and find a new male. OR 
if you really like his form/color, you can always try artificially hatching his eggs. Move the eggs to a clean bowl and water (about 1") and let it hatch (usually in day 2 or 3). The key is "clean" because it's a race between hatching and mold build up. You can add a small common snail once they've hatched - to eat bad eggs. Then acclimate and move to grow out when they are free swimming.


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## ch0wls (Jun 4, 2013)

Thanks everyone. Yes he never bred before. I'll try that maybe with a different pair!


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## KSbetta (Jan 8, 2014)

*Artificial Hatching*



indjo said:


> Sorry to hear that.
> Don't breed him anytime soon. Give him a 3-4 week interval. Some egg eaters may change. But if he still eats his eggs, retire him and find a new male. OR
> if you really like his form/color, you can always try artificially hatching his eggs. Move the eggs to a clean bowl and water (about 1") and let it hatch (usually in day 2 or 3). The key is "clean" because it's a race between hatching and mold build up. You can add a small common snail once they've hatched - to eat bad eggs. Then acclimate and move to grow out when they are free swimming.


Hi Indojoe,

Great to learn that ...would you care to explain that 1" water? The reason I ask is that normally the Male works very hard to pick up the hatched fries one by one and swim back to the top to spit them back to the nest. So I figured that the water level for the spawning tank should be kept to the minimum, so as to lighten the load for the male (my earlier male worked non-stop thr out the night as a diligent father to the point that his color turned pale after that! )
Some have encouraged big tank for betta, wonder if are we really doing the right thing by giving them Big tank and high depth of water instead of what the Thai breeders are doing - small bowl for breeding. Comments?


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## indjo (Jun 6, 2010)

They can and will literally breed in a bowl. The problem is not killing the female in the process. They will also breed in a pond, but may need longer time because they easily lose each other. So it doesn't really matter how deep or how big the breeding tank is. Use what you are comfortable with, tweak other people's methods to suit your own resources. 

Remember, the smaller the tank, the sooner they need to be moved and the more you need to water change.
The bigger the tank, less work for you but fry often can't find food.

Artificial hatching and or foster parent method is usually done when
1. mass producing certain lines
2. bad parents - hatching the eggs without the parents care

First let them spawn naturally (eggs can't be artificially fertilized). Then scoop the eggs into a clean bowl filled with about 1" water. Keep them in a warm area (you can't use heaters for such small and shallow containers). Let them hatch on their own - it's a race between fry and mold thus bowl must be clean. 

Good eggs will hatch within about 36 - 60 hours. Some simply use snails to take care of bad eggs. I use common snail AND remove bad eggs. I then add (drip system) 100% (or more) water to reduce ammonia level. Once free swimming, I feed with egg yolk and after 2-3 days acclimate to bigger tanks.

IME, fry can take ammonia. I mean without removing bad eggs, they will survive. But I prefer safe than sorry. MOST IMPORTANT is water pram fluctuation. If not careful moving to big tank, many may die. I usually float the bowl in the new tank. After an hour or so, drip water from the new tank into the bowl. Then release.


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## KSbetta (Jan 8, 2014)

indjo said:


> They can and will literally breed in a bowl. The problem is not killing the female in the process. They will also breed in a pond, but may need longer time because they easily lose each other. So it doesn't really matter how deep or how big the breeding tank is. Use what you are comfortable with, tweak other people's methods to suit your own resources.
> 
> Remember, the smaller the tank, the sooner they need to be moved and the more you need to water change.
> The bigger the tank, less work for you but fry often can't find food.
> ...



That is very informative and thanks for yr kind sharing. 
Cheers


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## ch0wls (Jun 4, 2013)

Thank you for sharing!  I didn't get to get the eggs out, since he ate them all but I will keep this in mind!


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