The way Bettas breed is quite facinating. If you're lucky enough to have a
compatable pair that will breed for you, and if you have a chance to sneak up
on them at the right moment, it is truely a neat experience.
When a female is ready to breed, she will show her ovipositor tube. It is a
small white spot about the size of a pencil tip, located between her anal and
ventral fins. This is the tube in which her egss will pass during the spawn.

A female showing her ovipositor.
When the male is ready to spawn he will flare his fins at the female and
display his beautiful body for her. You may also notice a bunch of tiny shinny
bubbles collecting at the corner of your tank (and sometimes all over the water
surface!). This is not an indication that your fish is sick or the water is
bad. Your male betta is building a nest! This is called a "bubble nest", and
if your male betta is blowing one, it means he is very happy and ready to get
busy with the pretty girl betta in the jar nextdoor!

Male blowing a bubble nest.
When bettas breed, it is sometimes very scarey and yet very beautiful. The male
will usually spend a day or so blowing his bubble nest and enticing the female
to come over and have a look. He will swim vertically making cute little 'S'
shapes in the water. When she finally comes over to have a look, they will
probably flare and bite and chase each other around the tank. This is the
scarey part because one (usually the female) will get it's little fanny kicked.
But not to worry, this is natural and eventually, they will figure out that
they like each other and the process begins.
The two bettas will swim around each other, rubbing their bodies together and
eventually get in sync. The male will wrap his body around the female and
squeeze the eggs out of her. He will then fertilize the eggs and they will
gently fall to the bottom of the tank. The eggs look almost like snow from a
snow globe, and they fall much in the same way! The male will swim to the
bottom, collecting as many eggs as he can in his mouth, and he will spit them
up into his little bubble condo. The female will kinda float on her side or
upside down in a dazed and confused sort of way at the surface. Eventually,
the male will gather all the fallen eggs, place them into the nest and the
female snaps out of her comma, ready for another round of squeezing.
They may do this for several hours.
After the bettas spawn, the male tends to the nest, collecting any eggs that
fall, and adding them back to the nest, repairing, rearranging bubbles. In
a few days, the eggs will begin to hatch and you can see small hair like tails
hanging from the nest. The baby bettas (or fry) will rely on their yolk sac
for the next few days before they start to swim freely and hunt for food.

Newly hatched fry, hanging in the nest.
|