When do I release the female?(Betta Breeding)

Question

I have heard 3 different answers to this question, 1 person says release the female b4 the male makes the bubble nest and give her lots of hiding spots. Another says wait until after he has started the bubble nest to release the female and ANOTHER person says to wait until he's finished with the bubble nest to release the female! Who's right? My male is flaring and showing off to the female in the spawning chimney, and has a pretty good start on a bubble nest! He has covered half of the plastic thing I gave him to use as a ting to build a bubble nest under, but it is not very think and he still has a while to go! When do I release the female??

Answer 1

Here's the correct answer. Put the female in with the male when she shows her spawning tube. When a female is ready to spawn she will be plump with eggs and a tiny (1 to 1.5 mm) white tube will be seen in her vent. If you put a female that is not in breeding condition in the males environment ,he will try to drive her away (to allow ripe females into his territory) and in an enclosed space this usually means he kills her.

If you want to attempt to breed Bettas,first get a good book or two. Oddly the first thing you need to learn is how to feed the fry.

Answer 2

There is no exact science in breeding bettas, either one of the methods above can work, given the right conditions. What you need to look out for is when the female is giving the 'right' response, which includes vertical bars on her side will be more pronounced, she will attempt to swim towards (follow) the male with her head pointed downwards as a sign of submission, once you see these then it is a good time to release the female.

Personally, when i breed bettas i would place the female in the spawning chimney in the morning and release her a couple of hours before it gets dark, they would then spawn the next morning just after sunrise.