Photos of Betta courtship!

[ralpf]

Well, I captured a couple of pics of the Betta mating ritual, sorry about the quality, it was fascinating to say the least!!!
On a few photos you can see the female laying motionless by the water surface, he would wrap himself around her to coax the eggs out which he would catch floating down, clean them an gently place them amongst the bubbles!!! The order is according to the number of photo!

 

[chaibill]

cool kind of hard to see though
what kind of betta
and is there more than one female
what size tank

 

[ralpf]

18.5 litre tank, Crowntail Betta, I have two females which never got along, but the submissive one is the one in the pictures! The other is in a seperate tank.

 

[Kyohti]

Your method is a littler different from the one I used, but good luck with the babies. Once they hatch, I strongly advise you turn off any filtration/aeration so the water's surface is still. The betta fry will have very delicate labrynth organs that will rupture with surface rippling or if a cold draft passes over the water's surface. But you probably know what you're doing, so I'll butt out. ^.^;;

Also, are you sure that's a crown tail? The tail looks more like a hlaf-moon... but maybe it's the photos. I don't see any splitting at the fin tips that would make your betta a 'crown tail'.

By splitting, I mean this: http://www.****************/images_01/betta_crown_tail_turq.jpg

This, in comparison, is a 'moon-tail' or 'half-moon' betta: http://www.globalpez.com/images/Betta h1.JPG

See the difference in the finnage?

 

[Rbishop]

Nice of you to share!

 

[ralpf]

Thanks Kyohti, I stand corrected, it is a half-moon I should have done a little better research in the different types, he was the first fish I bought along with two females, LFS said "these three will go great together, She should have said "these three will go great together murdering each other"! I went to a lot of trouble trying to find a home for one of the girls, and she went to my sister in laws tank with Platies and Neons. Well there were no platy fry left a week later and one of the neons had a chunk bitten out of his tail (quite the predator). So she put the Betta in her study along with a couple of snails until I could pick her up. Well, somehow she was conditioned and pregnant when I got her. Bettas have a tendancy of driving one nuts every once in a while. I was cleaning the tank for the other female and had her in a clean bucket, in the bathroom I heard a clatter and the bucket was empty. My wife said oh great I do not want a dead fish around, so we went through the shoe rack and all the shoes, under the cupboards... Wel the little ding dong had jumped out of the bucket and into my biotope experiment, and now my two Amano shrimp are missing' (censored) they cost me 6 bucks!

 

[Kyohti]

Bettas should never be kept together. Period. I'm surprised they haven't ripped each other to shreds yet!! Unless you have a few females in a very large and well-planted tank, bettas should be housed separately for their own safety.

If you want any advice or anything on the babies or when to take the adults out (so they won't eat them), what to feed them, or anything like that just toss a PM my way. I used to do this sorta thing all through highschool and it's a VERY challenging... but also very rewarding accomplishment to raise betta fry to adulthood.