Now that your tank is setup and the pair is conditioned you are ready to breed bettas! There is many ways to go about this task. I can not tell you them all. But, I will tell you how I do it. Bettas aren't always guarenteed to breed right away. Sometimes they won't breed at all. It can be just a matter of luck. In order to breed you will need your female to be well laden with eggs, a vigerous male, and the right tank setup. If you haven't read about all these things go to the tank setup page.

THE NEST:

You will need to put your pair in the tank. Put the female in the glass chimney. Put the male in the tank outside of the glass chimney. Your male should work on a bubblenest. He will go over and swim around the glass chimney your female is in and begin to flare his gills and fins. Then he should swim away and begin blowing bubbles by the plant on top of the water. It could take a night to build the nest; it could take a month. It depends on your betta.

PUTTING THE PAIR TOGETHER:

Once the male has a suffincient bubblenest and he spends more time flaring at the female than working on his nest it is time to put the pair together.Let the female out of the chimney into the tank with the male. WATCH THEM CLOSELY! The male will begin the courtship of the female. This can be done in many ways. Sometimes the female will be willing and submissive and the courtship will be gentle and smooth. Othertimes the female will be stubborn and scared and the courtship will be rough. It all just depends on your bettas. The courtship is usually rougher on the female than on the male. The male usually chases the female around the tank snapping at her. This is why you have the thick plants in the tank. This will batter up you female and her fins will become torn. Sometimes she will even lose scales. But don't worry with a little medication she will heal. When the male finally entices the female under the nest the breeding begins!

THE BREEDING

Once the male entices the female under the nest they will begin to breed. They will wrap themselves around each other until their vents meet(See picture below).

Sometimes it may take hours for them to get their vents to meet. Like I always say "It just depends on your bettas." When they do hook up the male will squeeze the female and up to 50 eggs will be released and the male will fertilize them. Then the male releases the female and swims down after the eggs and gathers them in his mouth. DON'T WORRY, HE ISN'T EATING THEM! He will then coat the eggs with his saliva and blow them into the nest. During this time the female is floating lifelessly in an "S" shape at the surface. Sometimes she will "come to" and go down with the male and start gathering eggs too. She may blow these eggs she has gathered into the nest or, she may eat them. They will go through this process many times. It could take hours for them to be done. You will know when they are done breeding because the male won't be interested anymore and will chase the female away from the nest. It is at this time that you should remove the female from the tank and put her in her own seperate jar. You might want to put some antibiotics in with her to help heal her wounds. Now the male will gaurd the nest and put any eggs that fall out back into the nest for the next 36-48 hours. After they have hatched, they will absorb their yolk sacs in the nest for the next 3 days. Many times they will fall out of the nest. But, big daddy is there to give them a lift back up into the nest in his mouth. So, once again DON'T WORRY, HE ISN'T EATING THEM! After 3 days the fry will have absorbed their yolk sac and will be ready to go out and find their own food. They will begin "free swimming," or swimming horizontally away from the nest. The male will try to keep the fry in the nest and will gather them in his mouth. He will become frustrated and won't be able to keep them all in the nest. He will then start gathering them in his mouth. NOW YOU CAN START TO WORRY, HE IS PROBABLY EATING THEM! This is the time you need to remove the male from the tank. Put him in his own jar out of sight of the female.You may want to include some medications for him also. You will now have to face the challenge of raising your fry, so proceed onto raising the fry