Betta Spawing

Question
QUESTION: I got a male and a female betta a couple of days ago. I wanted to try and spawn them and introduced them together, by using a special kind of tank, that splits in half, so they can only see eachother. I am not sure if the female is ready, but she has a white dot under her belly. The male is showing interest, and made a very, very small nest. How will i know if he is ready? Do the female always have to have vertical bars when they are ready, or is there some other way to tell? Thanks.

ANSWER: Hi Alejandra, it sounds like the male is really interested and that is a good tank to breed them with. The female will almost always have the vertical bars or turn a bright color when ready. And it sounds like your male is very ready. You sounds like you are doing very good so far let me know if you need anything else good luck.

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QUESTION: Hi again, just a quick question. Today I let my female and my male betta swim together, without the split in the middle. The male betta for some reason got scared and didnt want to go near the female, while the female, when she got close, sometimes she would flare, but other times she would just go near him. The male then didnt go near her, and this stayed out of the way for a while. So I put the spilt back on and they went back to the way they where. I dont understand what was going on. Thank you for you answer, it has been helpful.

Answer
Hi Alejandra, it sounds like they are just getting used to each other. The male usually will chase the female around and the female will chase him around just before mating. You will be able to tell when they are mating. Only keep them together for 1 or 2 hours at a time and change their water 20% daily to induce the male betta building a nest and mating with the female. She will lay the eggs in his nest and he will care for them until they become fry. It is quite amazing but really tough. Good luck on your breeding! Hope all goes well!