siamese fighter (betta) breeding?

[spudo]

iv had a male siamese fighter for about 6 months now and i would like to have some babys.
i will be buying a female soon and i would like to know what materials the male requires in order to build a bubble nest.

alos should i keep them seperate till the female is ready to spawn and should i keep them in a seperate tank when spawning.
and which one should i let protect the eggs i the tank?

[B00]

Well the guy to speak to is Hammerman, he's successfully breeded his betas at least 3 times now.

The male doesn't need any materials in order to build a bubble nest.

Yes, keep them seperate, but allow them to see each other, as this will encourage mating when they're introduced. When they are ready, the female will show 'bands' along her side and he'll begin to build the bubbles.

At the risk of sounding blunt though, the very fact you've asked which of the two you leave with the eggs tells me you haven't researched this enough. Please read as much as you can before you embark on this project.

But incidently, its the male you leave with the eggs- until they're spawned, then you remove him too.

Hopefully HMan will be along, he's far more knowledgeable than me about Betas.

in the meantime....read all you can about it ;-)

[spudo]

thanks BOO
iv gathered that hammerman is the man and he has awnsered 2 of my other questions already
thanks

[hammerman]

Have a look at this spudo...this is my spawn log. http://www.uk-aquarist.com/viewtopic.php?f=104 &p=1674#p1674

You must know what you're doing otherwise one or the other of the adults will be killed if they're not ready for spawning.

You must condition both parents for a good week or two by keeping them seperate and feeding them on high protein frozen and live foods.

A few floating plants or a small square of bubble wrap or half a polystyrene cup on its side will give the male something to build his nest under.

Once spawned, you must have live food ready for the babies too...microworms and then newly hatched brineshrimp after they're a week old. You must also have space to rear the babies and then to seperate the males once they start fighting each other after 2-3 months. My first spawning resulted in 180 fry...potentially, they could've all beeb boys and that's a lot of 2 litre coke bottles (plus heaters, filters etc)

If you can't provide the necessary conditions, please don't try to breed them until you can.....i'm fortunate that i have about 12 tanks of varying sizes so i can seperate the babies and grow them on.

Let us know what you decide to do but please be prepared for it.

Good luck