spawning

      Don't get worried if this takes a while. It may take days for your bettas to spawn. At first they will probably chase eachother like crazy.   Don't worry if your bettas fins get torn, as they most often will, it's perfectly normal. ( If, however, they are getting shreaded to ribbons remove them at once. ) The female will frantically search for a hiding place and hang out there while the male adds to the nest and swims around looking for her. This may go on for a couple of days. Don't take your eye off of them for long because things can get really ugly at any time for no apparent reason.


Hopfully the female will eventually get up the
courage the go check out the nest. If the male doesn't
seem to be building a nest or is only half-heartedly blowing
a bubble or maybe two, don't worry yet. Many of my males
wait until they actually begin spawning, or didn't build one at all. They
can somehow keep the eggs afloat anyway.

The female will let the male swim up to her without running away. She may swim with her head down, and/or fins clamped, showing submission and he should start rubbing up against her. He may just chace her away at first but the female will keep comming back and eventually he will stop.

         After a bit of that he will swim around her trying to figure out the how to embrace her. This embrace is what the male does to squeese out the eggs. This may also take quite a while but eventually they'll get it right. This could take hours to accomplish. (Pics of embrace below. Second one shows some eggs falling.)





   When he succesfully squeeses out some eggs he will pick several up in his mouth and spit them into the nest. The female will float paralized for a moment. Don't worry she's alright. The temporary paralysis may be to ensure the female doesn't get much of a chance to eat the eggs. When she comes to she may help him spit the eggs into the nest, as most females will do, or.....she'll eat them. But don't panic. He'll squeese out about five hundred or so,of them, depending on their age and how well they were conditioned before spawning. Anywhere from a couple to fifty eggs ar produced by each embrace. They male will pick up all the eggs after each and every embrace and place them in the nest. The eggs will appear yellowish whiteish among the bubbles inside the nest. They will keep doing this until, after less and less eggs are produced, no more eggs are released.

   When she releases no more eggs it's time to get her out of there or he may kill her. He's not mean he's just trying to protect the eggs. Put her in her bowl with a few drops of medicine for her ravaged fins. Feed her lots of treats and don't spawn her for several weeks. ( I have had one pair actually care for the nest and fry together until the fry were free swimming. This, I'm sure is a very rare occurance, so don't take the chance and leave her in there unless they seriously seem to be getting along perfectly.)

        From now until the eggs hatch he will stand gaurd under the nest. He will continuously add more bubbles, clean the eggs, and fan the nest with his fins.

Pictures courtesy of Kevin Pelletier.

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