fleshgear Posted February 18, 2009 Report Share Posted February 18, 2009 i had a pair of betta's in a 5 gallon tank for about 2 weeks and after trying twice to release the female they finally spawned and then the male proceeded to eat all of the eggs. he did put them in the nest or at least some of them, but he eventually ate them as well. :cuss: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackMumba Posted February 18, 2009 Report Share Posted February 18, 2009 Usually if the father eats the eggs, its a good thing.. they were probably not fertilized or they were fungal... either way as fustrating as it can be.. he will spawn again... thats a good thing!! Maybe the next time they will be healthy eggs... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thedarkstar Posted February 18, 2009 Report Share Posted February 18, 2009 I've been meaning to try this since learning about it in a psych class, they did it with Gouramis, where they took a light shined it on the Gourami then presented a female. Took her out and kinda repeated it, eventually giving him the light increased sperm + fertility then gave him the girl lol. Something along those lines would be neat to try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnaw Posted February 18, 2009 Report Share Posted February 18, 2009 I've been meaning to try this since learning about it in a psych class, they did it with Gouramis, where they took a light shined it on the Gourami then presented a female. Took her out and kinda repeated it, eventually giving him the light increased sperm + fertility then gave him the girl lol.Something along those lines would be neat to try. Interesting... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fleshgear Posted February 19, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 Usually if the father eats the eggs, its a good thing.. they were probably not fertilized or they were fungal... either way as fustrating as it can be.. he will spawn again... thats a good thing!! Maybe the next time they will be healthy eggs... he ate the eggs within two hours of them spawning, but the next day the nest was completely gone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackMumba Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 Usually if the father eats the eggs, its a good thing.. they were probably not fertilized or they were fungal... either way as fustrating as it can be.. he will spawn again... thats a good thing!! Maybe the next time they will be healthy eggs... he ate the eggs within two hours of them spawning, but the next day the nest was completely gone Yes this has happened to me before... I want you to try this on your next spawn... Add a sack of Peat moss... before you introduce the female to him... leave the sac of peat in the water.. even after you have free swimming fry... just leave in.. no worries it will help... the fry... And Yes good ole fashioned Gardening peat moss will do ... get a sack from the dollar store where they have the wedding supplies... you know those little mint bags for the guests.. they are perfect.. the moss will float don't worry it will eventually sink.. Let me know if this method worked for you !! Good Luck on the next spawn!! :thumbs: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fleshgear Posted March 3, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 3, 2009 i got this male to breed again with a different female a crowntail this time. and so far so good. i think he ate some eggs. there is still some in the nest so i will see what happens this time. i put some peat in this time as well as an almond leaf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackMumba Posted March 3, 2009 Report Share Posted March 3, 2009 :thumbs: Great stuff.. !!!! Cross's my fingers !! Hope they are a bouncy bunch of tails soon!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishclubgirl Posted March 3, 2009 Report Share Posted March 3, 2009 :thumbs: Great stuff.. !!!! Cross's my fingers !! Hope they are a bouncy bunch of tails soon!! Congratulations!!! When do we get the cigars? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackMumba Posted March 3, 2009 Report Share Posted March 3, 2009 Aren't you bringing them to the auction... we need approx 200 to 300 in both blue and pink :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fleshgear Posted March 4, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 The father ate all of the eggs again. At least the eggs lasted about 24 hours this time. So it is getting better. Do you think he will stop eatting the eggs? Or next time they breed I will just take him out right away and put some methylene blue in and hope for the best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishclubgirl Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 I feed mine the whole time when they spawn and have been lucky so far. Breeders are of different opinion on this but it seems to work for me. I also try to keep them quiet and disturb them as little as possible. Don't know if that helps as my first spawn happened after the fireworks by my house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackMumba Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 Hum... I would stop trying with this male for a bit... there are two things that could be happening.. 1. he is so eager to spawn, but is not fertilizing the eggs 2. your water chemistry is incorrect and the eggs die, this is why he must eat them before they rot and contaminate the water... Betta's will spawn in heavy traffic, low traffic, bright lights low lights.. they just do it.. If your water is incorrect the spawn will not happen... or they spawn and thus the male will consume the eggs.. I have experimented enough to know when my water is not correct, by the amount of spawns I have going at any given time.. If no bubble nest, illness or under the weather... change water.. or I have changed my water... IF egg eater more then once, the water is incorrect, and or there is not enough food for the fry to survive.. its complicated hard for me to explain it all ... Almond leave should be in the tank at min 5 days before the spawn, add peat I kid you not peat moss also helps provide protein rich foods for the young fry this needs to set in the water for a min 5 days before spawn.. it produces a micro organism named insuforia... it's possible that you don't have enough of this floating around that he may decide to eat them, instead... What is your temp at what is your PH at btw Peat will lower your PH a bit, which is a good thing I don't worry about GH KH its prob okay, I find PH is a huge factor, Peat also helps soften the water... but this is not as important. Also, Salt add it.. !! Pickling Salt I heard works great but I haven't tried this myself, but I have some will be adding it soon.. Marine Salt works like a charm and Epson salt yeah baby works nicely... I use R/O water, with Kent Multi Vitamin with Plant fertilizer.. adding Epson Salt to add back minerals.. When I tryed to spawn with my water which had a PH value of 8.8 I had egg eaters.. I lowered it.. they spawned no survivers.. when to R/O and tried this or that to add back minerals.. still nothing.. Then, I came up with my own water chemistry and presto.. worked too well.. I have betta's coming out my ears now... !! Play with it, until your sucessful.. then stick with it... it will happen !! :thumbs: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fleshgear Posted March 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2009 the water temp was 76 it is a non adjustable heater a little lower than i thought it was. the last spawn it was 78 (different tank) my tap water ph is 7.8 there is insuforia in the tank (i can see them moving around) the water is very hard the tank is in the back room so there is very little traffic i put moon lights on at night for this last spawn because i noticed last time that in the day he would build a nest but then by morning it would not be as god as the night before. this time with the moon light the nest was just as good as it was the day before. i did feed them up untill the spawn happened and then still a little bit after. i have did not add salt with his spawn attempts on previous attempts with other fish a did add salt. i ran out a while ago and have not bought any since. the next time with this male i could try R/O water i have lots of really nice females but only a couple males Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackMumba Posted March 5, 2009 Report Share Posted March 5, 2009 the water temp was 76 it is a non adjustable heater a little lower than i thought it was. the last spawn it was 78 (different tank)my tap water ph is 7.8 there is insuforia in the tank (i can see them moving around) the water is very hard the tank is in the back room so there is very little traffic i put moon lights on at night for this last spawn because i noticed last time that in the day he would build a nest but then by morning it would not be as god as the night before. this time with the moon light the nest was just as good as it was the day before. i did feed them up untill the spawn happened and then still a little bit after. i have did not add salt with his spawn attempts on previous attempts with other fish a did add salt. i ran out a while ago and have not bought any since. the next time with this male i could try R/O water i have lots of really nice females but only a couple males The water temp is fine.. I wouldn't worry about that I have had spawns in this temp.. for the next attempt add peat moss sacks this softens the water... I never use any night lights this isn't the problem.. the nest being blown could be due to the hardness of the water.. adding peat might be a good thing...adding salt as well, is a good thing... I would try that ..i've had spawns without a nest, they build the nest up during a spawn, i just finished a spawn which the male had no nest, but during the spawn build as he went on with it.. I have over 200 fry atm.. free swimming, this number will decrease over time to a respectable number of survivors hopefully.. I wouldn't go with R/O unless you have too, in my case I have too due to being on well water.. betta's will spawn in city water just fine.. your ph is fine its the hardness what is the issue here.. adding peat and salt will help.. try this first before moving on to R/O.. My well water is exetremely soft... and have a ton of sodium, so I have to remove the sodium, but have to add back alot of minerals.. trial and error took me awhile to come up with the right mix.. my water is still extremely soft, but my ph is lowered in the 7 range.. I add a bit of epson salt which does bring up the GH a bit but not by much ... the peat adds softness but at the same time adds minerals. Keynote here, Betta's live naturally in very dense Peat moss saturated water... hense why almond leaves are used, leaf littered water ways, and leaf litter turns to peat.. and a very wise and well respected man told me he always uses Salt in all his tanks no matter what... :thumbs: I've listened and learned and still ask him today questions.. he hasn't done me wrong to date !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.