Yay one of my males actually did manage to hatch fry.
First you start the bettas in small containers separated by cardboard or notecards so they can't see each other. For a short time every day (varies by person but I do about an hour) you remove the card between the male and female. They should start flaring at each other as a display. When the female starts to swim frantically with her head down when in view of the male they are ready to attempt breeding.
This attempt I left the male loose in the tank and introduced the female by adding her to the container but it didn't work very well. It does show the female's behavior toward the male.
http://vid1321.photobucket.com/albums/u ... aclxji.mp4
They need a shallow container of water with a floating object. It helps the male build a nest and keep the eggs and newly hatched fry picked up off the floor and put in the nest. A small sponge filter is usually run and the tank is heated to about 80-82F. Plants around the end with the sponge filter can help conceal the female if the male is getting aggressive. Sadly they tend to tear each others' fins to pieces in the process of courting. Catappa or indian almond leaf is added for it's properties in preventing infection and helping the nest stick together better.
When the male is satisfied with his nesting spot he lures the female in and if she approves they will start swimming in a circle finding the right position to spawn. This pair did fail to find the right position though and after shredding the males dorsal fin the female gave up.
This guy has a few hundred eggs under there and they hatched into little black dots today. He will tend them until they can swim horizontally on their own.
Betta fry will only accept live food and it has to be tiny. Vinegar eels are the easiest and most foolproof. They live in applecider vinegar. My camera is not good enough to get an eel pic because they are barely visible wiggling in a dropper of water when you hold it directly under the light. The white areas are collections of eels. For some reason my eels won't clump along the edges like they are supposed to for easy harvesting. I've been running them through a coffee filter to feed the fry.
And that is how far I've gotten in spawning my bettas. I have a culture of brine shrimp growing that I need to redo and will get pics of. They can't eat that for a few days. Mostly it just becomes try to feed as many of them as possible without the tank water going to crap and killing them. Raise the water level slowly as their labyrinth organ (this allows labyrinth fish to breathe from the surface) develops.
First you start the bettas in small containers separated by cardboard or notecards so they can't see each other. For a short time every day (varies by person but I do about an hour) you remove the card between the male and female. They should start flaring at each other as a display. When the female starts to swim frantically with her head down when in view of the male they are ready to attempt breeding.
This attempt I left the male loose in the tank and introduced the female by adding her to the container but it didn't work very well. It does show the female's behavior toward the male.
http://vid1321.photobucket.com/albums/u ... aclxji.mp4
They need a shallow container of water with a floating object. It helps the male build a nest and keep the eggs and newly hatched fry picked up off the floor and put in the nest. A small sponge filter is usually run and the tank is heated to about 80-82F. Plants around the end with the sponge filter can help conceal the female if the male is getting aggressive. Sadly they tend to tear each others' fins to pieces in the process of courting. Catappa or indian almond leaf is added for it's properties in preventing infection and helping the nest stick together better.
When the male is satisfied with his nesting spot he lures the female in and if she approves they will start swimming in a circle finding the right position to spawn. This pair did fail to find the right position though and after shredding the males dorsal fin the female gave up.
This guy has a few hundred eggs under there and they hatched into little black dots today. He will tend them until they can swim horizontally on their own.
Betta fry will only accept live food and it has to be tiny. Vinegar eels are the easiest and most foolproof. They live in applecider vinegar. My camera is not good enough to get an eel pic because they are barely visible wiggling in a dropper of water when you hold it directly under the light. The white areas are collections of eels. For some reason my eels won't clump along the edges like they are supposed to for easy harvesting. I've been running them through a coffee filter to feed the fry.
And that is how far I've gotten in spawning my bettas. I have a culture of brine shrimp growing that I need to redo and will get pics of. They can't eat that for a few days. Mostly it just becomes try to feed as many of them as possible without the tank water going to crap and killing them. Raise the water level slowly as their labyrinth organ (this allows labyrinth fish to breathe from the surface) develops.