From: Dmerrill@bnr.ca (Dana Merrill)
Subject: Re: Need info on Bettas
Followup-To: rec.aquaria
Organization: BNR
Date: Fri, 02 Oct 1992 13:09:31 GMT

Lance,

It's been a very long time but I sucessfully bred bettas a couple of times
and will offer a couple of comments:

In article <39128@fibercom.COM>, lab@fibercom.COM (Lance Beckner) wrote:
> 
> 
>     1.  The male and the female must be separated.  I have a piece of
>         glass that will partition off a 10 gal aquarium.  The fish
>         can see each other and the male will have good "motivation"
>         to build his bubble nest.

Like I said, it's been a real long time, but I think I conditioned the
female completely seperate from the male (out of sight) and put them in the
exact set-up that you describe when she was ready (he was always ready).  I
conditioned the female by feeding dried tubiflex and seems like I may have
fed her chopped earthworms; don't remember for sure, I fed them to
something.

> 
>     2.  The water must be STILL so as to not disrupt the bubble nest.
>         The material that I have read said to use clean water, but to
>         keep it still.  Two different guys (at the same pet store) said
>         the water should be dirty and stagnant.  I'm a little skeptical
>         about advice from this pet shop though because it's the same
>         place that sold my wife a female betta that was "full of eggs"
>         when actually she was an immature female full of parasites :-(
> 	(we don't deal with them a whole lot now)
> 
>     3.  There should only be 4-5 inches of water in the aquarium so the
>         male doesn't have to travel too far to catch the falling eggs.
>         I am also assuming that the aquarium bottom should be bare glass
>         so the male can easily gather the eggs.
> 
>     4.  There should be floating plants to serve as an anchor for the
>         bubble nest.
> 
>     5.  When the female is "ready" her colors will appear more vibrant,
>         her belly will be more rounded, and she will be trying to get to
>         the male.  (she should be close to the same size as the male)

Sounds more or less right (except for the part about trying to get to the
male, don't remember that).  I definitely remember that when she was ready
there was a white spot which actually looked something like an egg about to
come out?  May have just been my particular fish, don't know.

> 
>     6.  The separation should then be removed and they will begin their
>         courtship routine until she follows him under the bubble nest.
>         (she should have some place to hide if he gets a little too
>         aggressive too early on)
> 
>     7.  She should be watched closely during the egg gathering/spitting
>         phase to make sure she doesn't eat the eggs (some females do that).

Nah! She is in a daze and just recovers in time to do it again! Besides
what are you going to do about it if she does eat some?

> 
>     8.  She needs to be removed to safety immediately after they're through
>         or the male may kill her.

Right!  Make sure that she has some good hiding places on the opposite end
of the tank from the nest.  The male will not see her and will be generally
occupied with catching fallilng eggs and putting them back up.  This allows
her to hide until you get her out (hopefully you will be there watching the
whole thing anyway!)  

> 
> That's what I do know.  Unfortunately I have not had much luck in my
> efforts so far.  (It turns out that the female that I was using was too
> immature) But the trouble that I ran into was when I removed the glass
> that divided the tank in two, the nice looking buble nest began to spread
> out.  Is there a way to separate the male and female and then get them
> together without disturbing the nest?

Float a piece of wax paper with the male (actually fold it up on one edge
and tape it to the tank to anchor it where you want it).  He will build the
nest under it and it will remain intact when you raise the partition.  May
want no floating plants in his end to ensure that he uses the paper.

> Should the water used for breeding be clean or dirty?

Never tried dirty water, certainly not required.

> Any help would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> Lance 

Hope some of these comments are useful.  Seen any of my old ITT buddies
running around up there at FiberCom?


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Dana Merrill                                Bell Northern Research
DMerrill@BNR.CA                         Research Triangle Park, NC
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Newsgroups: rec.aquaria