New to Bettas - Sydney

[Malloy]

Hi everyone!

I so excited about finding a site that seems to have so many people in Oz breeding Bettas! I am very new to all of this, most of the info I find on the 'net is from people based in the US etc. I'm sick of converting gallons and degrees F! I'd like to think I've garnerd a fair bit of info already, but I'm well aware that I still have much to learn! This all started for me when I suggested to my soon to be wife that we put 1 or 2 Bettas on every table at our wedding reception. She thought it would save money to breed them ourselves...I doubt it! However, I was happy to try it anyway, the wedding is in April 08 and I'm getting tight on time! There's no problem if I can't do it, my LFS has me covered.

So, I have a heavily planted 34L tank with shrimp etc in it. Next to that I have the betta breeding tank. They are on the same level, water is pumped from the planted tank into the betta tank, and a syphon takes the water back through a sponge filter to the planted tank. Both tanks are heated individually at 27 deg C. As for the fish, I have 3 veil tail cambodians, 1M and 2F. The breeding tank has a half cup for the nest, some driftwood and java moss, and a small pot to hide in.

When I first put the first female in her protective jar in the breeding tank, all the signs were good...male was flaring up, had a good size nest going, she was vertical barring. I let her into the tank and he basically chased and nipped her for 2 days without any results! So I'm trying the other female soon, but very new to this so I'm sure it will come to me in time.

A few pics:

Just to round out my introduction, I've got some Endlers in the planted tank that are breeding, and a 4' Lake Malawai cichlid tank with breeding bristle-nose catfish. The planted tank also has SAE, kooli loaches, BN catfish and fresh water shrimp. I feed the bettas with Hikari Gold, bloodworms and defrosted peas, same as the other fish only no bloodworms for the cichlids.

[Bettarazzi]

Hi Malloy! Welcome to AAQ! Congratulations on the impending nuptials!

You're right, AAQ is a great place. It may just be my skewed perception but I think there's more activity here than in some other international forums that I've looked at. Just don't get so addicted to it that it mars the wedding preparations. You don't want to turn your wife into a Fish Widow before you've got that ring on her finger.

We should start a new topic in Spawn Talk to discuss your spawns properly. But just a quick comment about how long to leave the female in there. Two days might just be a little soon to abort the attempt. If you haven't already removed her, I'd leave her in there for a few more days.

[y2jdaze]

Welcome! I agree with Bettarazzi I as long as the female is still barred up and not showing stress bars or hiding excessively then she should be left in there. I had a pair in the tank for a month before they spawned once, I never thought they were going to but indeed it did happen!