Hi,
I recently got the same alien blue bettas as coralbandit. I purchased a male and a female from Frank's Bettas mentioned earlier in this threat, and an additional female from a different ThaI breeder. I thought it might be interesting to compare notes.
I can confirm the observations you have made about breeding and general behaviour.
Frank's male and the unrelated female were very eager to breed, basically as soon as they passed my
quarantine, I let them together. I never bred bettas before so I don't have a direct comparison to betta splendens behaviour. These guys were very civilized with each other. Lots of flaring and interacting and a bit of chasing, but no biting. The male did not make a nest until they actually started breeding the next day. They did not hurt each other during or after. He was building the nest at the same time as he was putting batches of eggs into the nest. I removed the female when they were done, since the
betta breeding guide recommended it. I removed the male when the fry were free-swimming for the same reason. I currently have 20 fry, six weeks old now, from that pairing. The first ones are starting to show a bit of blue color. I'm not sure what color they will be, as I don't know to what extend the 'blue alien' breeds true, and I don't know how closely related the male and this female might be.
My male will not make 'free floating' nests. He will only make his nest underneath the floating leaf of a water lily, so he wants the nest to be covered at the top.
The two females live together in a 10 gallon. They flared and chased each other for the first few days, but Frank's female is quite a bit smaller than the other one, so it was clear who would be the boss of the tank. They never hurt each other; I watched very closely since I was worried for the smaller female. They don't have stress stripes and they beg for food whenever I come near the tank, so they seem to be doing well.
The male went into a tank with a school of boraras merah. My previous regular betta splendens male lived with them and made sure they knew who was boss. The blue alien male was very nice to them and they started nipping his fins, and he let them. So I moved him to the tank with the females while preparing amother tank for him to be in by himself (I did not expect the 2f+1m betta in 10 gallons to work out). The females were happy to have him and the older female immediately started breeding with him again - there was no nest. And then 5 days later the pair bred again - I stopped counting at 200 eggs. Frank's female now has eggs as well (can tell from her belly) and would like to breed but the male is too exhausted, plus the older female won't let her at him. They've been in the tank together for 2 weeks now. I still have a tank ready for the male, but they are so peaceful with each other, it has not been necessary to move him.
They have been completely uninterested in their tank mates: various snails, shrimp (
neocaridina), and some
dwarf cory catfish with their (mostly grown now) offspring [yes, they are getting a bigger tank].
I have no fry from these latest breedings because the male did not tend the nest. I believe this is because I haven't been able to get live foods over the christmas and new year break. The male will eat pellets or frozen food only when he really must, so I think he just doesn't have the energy right now. I'd been feeding them mainly live food before Christmas. The females will eat anything I drop in the tank, so they are well fed still.
Otherwise, he may not like having the two females with him and the nest; I'm considering the possibility but don't think it likely.
The third possibility is not enough
tannins. In the breeding tank, I had the water dark tea coloured with tannins. Their current tank water is only slightly tan.
When the male abandoned the nest, the female took over. She actually helped collect the eggs right after breeding and brought them up to put them in the nest. Then she stayed beneath the nest guarding it, waiting for the male to come back. She also went to pick up any eggs that fell down and put them back. She wasn't able to make bubbles though so more and more eggs fell down and the
corys ate them.
When I get the male fattened up on live foods and they breed again, I will leave both parents with the nest/fry. With the female so ready to help out, it seems natural.
Finally, my
water parameters are
550 uS/cm
7-10 deg
GH (115-200
ppm)
pH 7
NO2/
NO3 not detectable
So this definitely is not soft water. They came in very soft water and I drop-acclimated them to my water over several hours. So far they are doing well. Their colors are beautiful, especially while they are displaying for the opposite sex.
On that note, they change their colors rapidly depending on mood and social signaling. For example: The smaller female will swim up to the male and be shining blue with tan vertical breeding stripes. Then the other female notices and swims up to them as well. The smaller female immediately loses most of the blue color and turns tan. This is apparently a display of submission; I see the same behaviour in my boraras. Did not know that bettas were able to change their color this rapidly though. The blue color comes back just as rapidly as it vanished as soon as the bigger female swims away.
I have oak leaves and elder cones in the tanks. The tanks are heavily planted with
live plants, both submerged and floating. The pH usually goes a bit below 7 once the water sits in the tank for a bit, but I'm doing a lot of
water changes at the moment since the tank is so full, so it keeps resetting to my out-of-the-tap pH.
