# Egg laden females and Odd male behaviors



## Sorafish (Sep 15, 2011)

Maybe its just that I have a odd male, but my betta seems to be very gentle.
After keeping him in a tank with multiple guppies and fry, and having him only chase them occasionally, never really attacking them, I got kind of curious.
Well, I recently came into the possession of two of my little sisters Betta, seeing as she attempted to abuse them in her 6 year old wisdom, by throwing a nickle in their tank.

The history behind the pair:
Six months ago,
I was in my sisters room, looking at the bettas I had given her about a month ago, thinking that both were male.

My problem came about when I noticed that this 5 gallon tank, split, had a male and a female on their respective sides. The female was rubbing against the divider like crazy, and seemingly 'flirting' with the male. She was fat, and striped. Seemed like she was ready to breed. I was worried that her holding the eggs too long would hurt her, so I convinced my mom to put a cup in the tank, and the male built his bubble nest.
Oh boy, that was a disaster. As soon as the divider came out, the male ATTACKED the female viciously. He never flirted. Never danced around her or attempted to court her. Just attacked and ripped her tail and fins.

Now:
So, after that failure mom put the divider in, and forbid me from attempting to do so again. Safe to say, I was pretty traumatized for the female, so I agreed.
The issue now, is that she is so 'full' that she has difficulty swimming. A large lump has appeared on her back, which I have assumed was due to the eggs being produced and never released. Has anyone had a female be conditioned for six months with no breeding?

So, tonight, about three days after taking the bettas back, I moved MY passive male to my 20 long, where he was happily swimming and hanging out. I put the female in a 'breeder trap' to see what his reaction would be. He swam up all curious, realized what she was, and immediately started 'dancing' like she had previously done for the male in the other tank. He started displaying his tail and dorsal wide, glancing along the trap in what can only be described as 'flirting' that I so commonly see male guppies do. Didn't even bother flaring at her.
So, watching carefully with net poised at the ready, I released her into the tank with him.
And do you know what happened?
He started swimming in circles around her, displaying and flaring, but never TOUCHED her! After about an hour of watching this beautiful display, I put her in the trap again so that I can monitor their interactions.
So, my questions are:
Is this normal for a male? Or is he just a romantic?
Have you had a female that was conditioned continuously, became obviously egg laden, and not bred her? What happened to her?


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## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

Lol!!! Male bettas pretty much always attack the females. That's normal. You really shouldn't be trying to breed bettas unless you have plenty of room. If she really is egg laden, then you will get at least 200 eggs. (at least probably more). That means 100 males give or take a few which means 100 jars which means plenty of work. Egg laden females are able to dump there eggs and will every so often as the eggs get old. If you really want to breed bettas, here's a link to my website. http://bettacare.webs.com/ It has the info you'll need. My female betta got egg laden and she swam a little different and she's been okay for a while.


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## Sorafish (Sep 15, 2011)

I really don't think she will get rid of them on her own. I've tried epsom salt to help, but she's been pretty stubborn. I'm not really too intent on breeding them, I just want her to get healthy again. I'm hoping since they are both virgins, that either the eggs will go unfertilized, or I'll have a smaller clutch. But I'm sure I can come up with a few containers if I have to. (in an emergency case, I can always go to walmart and buy some red solo cups until I can get actual containers for them)
Also, I've never heard of them dumping eggs before. I've heard of them reabsorbing them. I was under the impression that they had to be 'embraced' to have the eggs released.


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## iheartfish:) (Jan 19, 2011)

I suppose you could try to spawn them and hope for the fish to be clueless as to what to do past releasing the eggs...


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## Sorafish (Sep 15, 2011)

iheartfish:) said:


> I suppose you could try to spawn them and hope for the fish to be clueless as to what to do past releasing the eggs...


...put it that way, it sounds kinda stupid, but I've read a lot of 'they embraced, got eggs, but didn't fertilize them!' stories on forums...


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## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

You really don't want betta fry on your hands. Some of the fry are too small for baby brine shrimp.


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## Sorafish (Sep 15, 2011)

Betta man said:


> You really don't want betta fry on your hands. Some of the fry are too small for baby brine shrimp.


>> Its called Infusoria.

Green water, hardwood leaves...I think I'll be fine.


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## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

Yeah, you might me fine. It's very expensive in terms of time and money. I had infusoria, but the water just looked filthy and I really didn't want to put it in my fry tank. That's the problem with infusoria. It's hard to know if your dumping filthy water in your tank. Just make sure you have proper housing and you should be okay! Good luck! (btw, it took me 14 times and several pairs of bettas to get fry) If your betta is a petstore betta, then you may have trouble breeding them. In my experience, it is WAY easier to breed bettas from a breeder. Thirteen of my 14 tries were with petstore bettas and when I got a pair from a breeder, they spawned first try and the female wasn't very ripe.


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## Sorafish (Sep 15, 2011)

Again though, I'm mainly doing this to help the female. I really don't care if they end up fertilizing. I know that she's ripe, and full of eggs. My issue right now, is getting her to develop the vertical stripes that indicate that she's ready to mate. She's also been refusing to eat for about four days now. May not have an issue with breeding them at all if she keeps this up. But I would LIKE her to at least reproduce before dying, that way I can have some females for my display tank. ><


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## Obsidian (May 20, 2007)

If you were worried about any fry overloads you can easily breed them, pull both betta's immediately and then introduce a couple of other fish- they would love some roe or fry if they get that far


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## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

That would work. If the female is egg laden, she can get rid of the eggs.


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