Why wont my male betta mate with any of my females?

Question

i have conditioned 2 females along with 1 male. i put the one female with the male in the breeding tank with a separator of course. he notices her but after about 2 weeks he still hasn't blown a bubble nest. so then i decided to take out that female and introduce him to the other female. but the same thing happened. whats wrong? and is there anything that i can do to induce him to mating?

Answer 1

With bettas, temperature has a lot to do with their moods.  If the temperature is too low, a betta will be lethargic and not in the mood to breed.  If the temperature is gradually raised to 82 degrees, the betta will feel much more energetic and be more likely to breed.  Try buying a heater for your tank and slowly raising the temperature to 82 degrees Fahrenheit.  You'll see a real difference in your betta's behavior.  

Responding to what the other answerer said, the male betta is definitely old enough to breed.  In fact, the problem with male bettas is that they can be too old.  Faith from bettatalk.com breeds her bettas as soon as they have developed finnage, at only a few months.  She says that once a male gets a year or two old, they lose their verility and are less likely to mate.  Petstore bettas are often sold at this old age, so if you're trying to breed a betta you bought at a petstore, it might be that the betta is already too old.  

Try glancing at the procedure on bettatalk.com and see if you've done anything differently:  http://www.bettatalk.com/how_bettas_spaw... and http://www.bettatalk.com/spawning_setup....

Answer 2

The male might not be old enough. The female might not be old enough. The male might be impotent.