How do I know if my bettas are mating?

Question
I decided to get a female betta when I saw my male betta had a bubble nest. I put them together in a tank but the male kept dashing at the female and he was flaring at her. So I got a special betta tank that had a blue separating glass and a clear glass. I put the male on one side and the female on the other side of the glass. Now they can't mate. How do I get them to mate? How do I know if the bettas are hurting each other or are they trying to mate?  

Answer
Dear Samantha,
It's best to wait until your male builds a very good bubblenest.

And watch and wait until your female becomes ripe and full with eggs and once she does this. She may display vertical bars on her body at the male which indicates she is ready to spawn. Then you may try letting her loose with the male. There will be some chasing and nipping which can look pretty severe. But this is all part of bettas natural courtship and you should only intervene when the female shows signs of stress like breathing heavily and staying up in the corner and showing no interest. Let her rest and try again another day. There will be lots of trail and error when attempting to spawn bettas.

Make sure your water is always warm (80-82F) is preferred by bettas when spawning. Also it may help to do small 20% water changes everyday on the tank being sure the replacement water is equal in temperature to that of your aquarium and that it is dechlorinated everytime.
Feeding your bettas well on a good variety of freeze dried and frozen food as well as betta food helps condition them nicely for spawning.

You will certainly know when your bettas spawn. If the male has a well-built bubblenest. He will tempt the female up under it. If she complies, she will stay under his nest with a slightly head down position, the male betta will then swim up and wrap his whole body around hers and that is when she lays eggs and he fertilizes them. This is also known as the "Embrace" after the embrace, eggs will start to fall and the male lets go of the female and dives down to collect the eggs in his mouth and then goes and blows them into his bubblenest. The female usually doesn't help and may remain in a slight "trance" after the embrace. After the first egg gathering, he will swim up and repeat the embrace again and again until the female is empty of her eggs. Then he may react aggressively towards her and you should remove her and let her rest for many weeks. Now Mr. Betta will tend to his eggs and nest and if all goes well, the eggs will hatch!

I really hope this helps! If you are still having trouble, feel free to write!

Best wishes and Happy betta spawning!
Karen~