betta mating

Question
My male betta fish seemed to be very listless and seemed sick or something, so I was told to get him a couple female betta's.  This has perked him up considerably, but now, from all I've read, I think one of them is "pregnant."  Should I be taking the other females out of the tank now or should I wait so he doesn't chase the pregnant one constantly and exhaust her?  How soon after starting to make eggs do they mate?  I'm afraid it'll be when I'm not around, and the eggs will all get eaten or something.  After the eggs are squeezed out of her, should she be removed from the tank?  How long after fhe fry hatch can the females be reintroduced?  If you could answer any of these questions, and give me any other info you can think of, I'd really appreciate it.  Thanks!


Answer
Hi Sarah,
Bettas have a special breeding ritual they go through which involves the  male betta building a bubble-nest at the surface of the water and waiting for a pregnant or 'gravid' female to visit. There is always some chasing and fighting and displaying as part of their courtship ritual, its very important to have plenty of hiding places in the spawning tank. After some chasing and even fin-nipping, the female eventually goes under the male's bubblenest where he displays and eventually she will adopt a slight 'head-down' position. That's when the male betta starts the 'embrace' (wraps his body around her) as its called and that's when the eggs are laid and the male fertilizes them. The male lets go of the female after a few seconds and dives down to catch the little falling eggs in his mouth, he takes them up to the nest and places them amongst the bubbles. This spawning ritual is repeated many times until the female is exhausted of her eggs and the male eventually chases her off. That's when she should be removed pronto and given a rest and some good clean, warm water and quality food to recover.

The key to spawning bettas is to be prepared of course. But even then, expect failures. Some bettas don't spawn perfectly at first and need some practice.

I would isolate the female in a hurricane lantern (like this-)
*See the little female to the left safe from the male in the lantern*

http://www.bettatalk.com/images/how_be1.gif


Sometimes you have to try many times putting the pair together and watching them for about an hour to see if they would rather chase each-other the whole time or are actually thinking about spawning. Make sure the male has a well-built bubblenest and another thing to look for is watch for the female display vertical, not horizontal, stripes. On light colored females this will be more difficult to see. The bars mean she is interested in spawning. If she doesn't these markings right away, don't worry.

Another really important thing to have on-hand even before your bettas spawn, is a microworm culture. This has been named the best food for betta fry. You will have to order this online though. Unless you could ask your petstore to special order some for you.

You should definitely visit Bettatalk's website at-
www.bettatalk.com

This is one of the best sites around for betta care and the lady responsible for the website is a big-time breeder as well with a special section devoted to breeding and raising bettas.

Best wishes and I hope this helps!
Karen~