nina_k

Ok so I got two plakats (male and female) about 2 weeks ago and decided to breed them. so i conditioned them on brine shrimp and worms for a week and a half and set up a spawning tank. my first attempt wasnt too good. the male didn't want anything to do with the female and kept attacking her so i took her out and waited a few days. today he was still in the tank with his bubblenest all big and strong so i put her in her coke bottle for a few hours then i came home and she was full of stripes and so i let her out and the male didn't attack and they went over to the nest and did some weird çonvulsions for lack of a better word. then the female got chased away so i took her out. the male started going to the surface of the water then to the nest and back again for a while. where they are is really dark so i can't really see what is going on. all i can see is that he is hanging around his nest a lot and there are some white specks on the water surface that aren't in the nest. are these eggs? did they do it? or am i just thinking wishfully?

Allie

It's possible...is the male constantly taking care of the white specks? If so you have eggs. You better be ready for a lot of time consuming work if you end up with fry.
When conditioning betta for breeding most people recommend 2 weeks of live or frozen foods.
Here's places to learn about betta breeding.
http://bettysplendens.com/articles/c....imp?catid=856
http://www.bettatalk.com/rearing_the_fry.htm
Hope you have lots of supplies and money to raise the babies. MM's spent $1500 so far on 3 batches, her babies 1st batch are a month old and 2 more months until you can sell them or give away. Beta is not something the average fish keeper should be breeding.

nina_k

i can't really tell too much because he is dark and the room is dark. should really have thought about replacing those lightglobes. and yeah i have plenty of space and supplies and the inability not to buy more. i hope it happened. any clues on the white spots? is it possible he just isn't very attentive?

Martinismommy

As Allie said, it is possible they spawned....Can you describe the convulsions? Have you done any reading about spawning and raising Betta fry? I hope you have a live culture of microworms ready because that is the only thing you'll be able to get them to eat....

The white spots are most likely eggs...If indeed they are eggs they should hatch within 24 - 48 hours after the embrace.....Do you have photos of the parents? Also, you may want to get a flashlight and take a peek....After they hatch a well lit room is a must because you will be syphoning out worms daily.....What is the temp in the spawn tank and how many gallons is it? It needs to be covered with plastic wrap to keep the temp steady at 80 degrees..

I hope this helps and good luck! You are in for a whole lot of work lol

Allie

Most males are usually attentive. It is their jobs to take care of the babies until they can swimming vertical on their own.
Good luck. As soon as my pairs arrive, I'll be having attempt number 3. My red dragon pair didn't quite work out...my female died a week ago in the breeder tank.

nina_k

grr i don't have anything to see with. if i want to use a lamp i have to unplug the heater which i am not considering doing. my phone backlight doesn't work either. the convulsions looked like exaggerated tail swishing. the male did it then the female did. the tank is 46cm long standard size 2/3 full with java moss and elodea. the temp is a steady 80 and the spawning was about 4 hours ago so i will be checking as soon as i get up. NOW he seems to just be staying close and just before i saw him vertical like he was catching something but he stopped that. maybe he was trying to teach the eggs what to do when they hatch oh well i am not going to get my hopes up. i will get a double adapter tomorrow and bring my 2.5ft light in. i don't have microworms. how long to they take to hatch and how do i do it? how micro is micro? do i need a microscope to help? thanks for the quick replies everyone by the way

Martinismommy

As small as you can imagine X's that by 10000 and that's how small microworms are! You can overnight a culture off of aquabid.com....They will come with directions on how to split the culture and keep them going.....The plants will be OK for a couple of days but if you don't get live foods your fry will die....

nina_k

well i know i can get microworm culture in the morning so i will do that. im not really sure what microworm culture is but im sure i can figure it out

Allie

Here's an article on micro worms
http://aqualandpetsplus.com/Live%20F...Microworms.htm

nina_k

that clears things up! thanks for the link

Allie

No problem.

Fishies-for-me

To me the " convulsions" don't sound like spawning.... during spawning the male wraps his body around the female and she releases her eggs. She drifts down in a trance like state as he collects the eggs that have dropped to the bottom and spits them up into the nest. This happens over and over for a few hrs till all the eggs are dropped. Then he chases the female away and tends to the eggs himself. I hope this has cleared things up a little for you...good luck.

Martinismommy

Maybe this will help....The clips are of the spawning process...The only problem is if you have no lighting on the tank it would have been impossible to see and also hard for the male to see the eggs dropping.....

nina_k

thanks no i don't think they did spawn. the male seems to have given up on the nest and is busy making a new one. the white dots on the surface are still there. i don't know what they are. the nest is just disolving. i guess i will try again in a week or so. thanks for all your help. i will be ready next time