Breeding Bettas, Siamese Fighting Fish,  Part 10 – Caring for the Male Betta

When I first envisaged writing this article I thought it was going to be pretty straight forward but as things panned out this didn’t turn out to be the case. You see, when I removed the male (from my first spawn) from the breeding tank there were no major dramas and so I thought it would be safe to expect the same the second time as well. Well, how wrong I was as things didn’t go well for my second male at all.

Therefore, once the Betta fry start leaving the Bubble Nest it’s then time to remove the male Betta. I have heard that some breeders will actually leave the male in the breeding tank but I found that my second male got to the stage where he was just doing his job too well and was capturing and returning fry to the nest well after they were ready to leave. The other reason for removing him is that after he’s tended to the fry and gotten them to the stage where they’re ready to leave the nest, he was well and truly ready for some rest and recovery himself. Therefore because the male Betta probably hasn’t had any sleep or food for up to 5 days or so it is important to remove and pamper him so he can make a full recovery.

Now once again the story of how both my males reacted and recovered after they were removed from the Betta breeding tank was very different. My first male recovered quite quickly and was returned to his display tank a day or so after being removed from the breeding tank. The only noticeable difference in him, was his appetite was a bit lacking for about 2 weeks afterwards but the biggest change I noticed about him was he did appear to have a slight case of depression as he did look a little despondent from time to time. Nevertheless he was mostly back to his old self, sparring with the other males either side of his tank.

The way my other male Betta reacted after his removal from the breeding tank though was much more severe. To start off with, after he was removed from the breeding tank I placed him in a small container to recover. He thrashed around like you wouldn’t believe for a few minutes as if he was trying to get back to look after his fry. He’d done a fantastic job in the breeding tank and in his mind he just wasn’t ready to leave.

I then left him in his recovery container for a few days and despite also suffering from a slight loss of appetite he seemed to be doing ok so I then returned him to the display tank with the other male Bettas. The first couple of days he seemed ok but then I stopped paying close attention to him and this is when things really started going wrong. I did notice that every now and then he seemed to be resting on the bottom of the tank and then one morning after I turned the light on he was lying on the bottom of the tank motionless as if he was dead. After a couple of minutes though he soon recovered and then started to swim.

It was then that I got the shock of my life as when he left the bottom of the tank and started to swim I could see that his anal fin was completely missing. He had developed a case of Fin Rot and it had developed very fast. I was shocked and despite having read about fin rot I didn’t realize just how fast it could totally destroy a fin.

So where did I go wrong and why did this happen? Well if you’re experienced in keeping Bettas you’ll probably have a fair idea already but looking back now it all started to go wrong even before I placed him in the breeding tank.

You see when I purchased my Betta he had the most beautiful Halfmoon Butterfly finnage and after I got him home I placed him in a display tank with plastic plants. Now I’m not going to suggest not using plastic plants but if you do, it is important to use plastic plants without sharp edges as after a week or so in the display tank my Betta had frayed the ends of his fins on the plants. As a consequence his finnage was looking a bit tattered and you may have already have noticed this if you’ve watched the videos in the previous articles.

Therefore use plastic plants that are soft or use live plants or java moss. The plastic plants I had in the tank were not very sharp at all and there was no way you could scratch your finger with them so you can imagine it doesn’t take much in some cases to damage the fins of a Halfmoon Betta. So be warned.

Now the other point worth mentioning here is that some of my other males also had damaged fins as well from the plants but they didn’t contract fin rot so the obvious question might be why did it happen to this male? Well like most things, the fin rot in this case, wasn’t caused by just one thing. This male was in recovery from performing a task that had taken up quite a bit of his physical resources and as such he was under nourished, tired, stressed and as a consequence his immune system probably wasn’t working as well as when he was in peak condition.

Therefore he wasn’t in a position to fight off infection and the end result was fin rot.

So the first point I would like to make is the importance of conditioning both your Bettas before breeding. Make sure they are both in the best condition possible before you place them in the breeding tank. Next up after you remove the male from the breeding tank keep him isolated for as long as it takes until he recovers (this also applies to the female as well). Pamper him, feed him well, make sure he regains weight and observe his behavior. Both my males had depression, the first one mild, while the second was severe. My first male didn’t really regain his appetite until 2 weeks later and my second male never regained his appetite at all and in the end just stopped eating altogether. Also make sure the water is clean and changed regularly. You can also add treatments to the water to fight of infections and treat wounds that may have been a consequence of the courship.

What you use though, to treat the water, I will leave up to you as it will depend on what you can source from your local aquarium or pet store, so seek advice. As far as treating fin rot goes, it would also be best to seek advice from the same sources. If fins are damaged though, keep an eye out for fin rot and take action immeadiately as it can take hold very quickly.

In the end the outcome for my prized male Betta was not a happy one. I treated him for fin rot for about 1 month but he seemed to just give up in the end and his eating got less and less until he didn’t eat at all for the last two weeks. The final straw came while changing the water in his container and the last part of his tail just came away and he was left swimming with no tail at all. Therefore I was left with no alternative than to put him to sleep. It was very sad.

So hopefully if you are still reading you can now appreciate just how quickly things can go downhill if you are inexperienced. I did consider skipping this article as it’s not a particularly happy one but I felt that there is much to be learnt from this story. Therefore if you are at all curious as to how bad fin rot can get then I’ve included a photo.

Therefore condition your Bettas well before breeding and then pamper and watch over them closely after you remove them from the breeding tank and you shouldn’t have a problem.

Breeding Bettas, Siamese Fighting Fish,  Part 11 – Raising the Betta Fry

Possibly Related Posts:

• Cleaning the Betta Fry Tank
• Breeding Crowntail Bettas
• Do Bettas Take Breaks While Spawning
• Breeding Bettas During the Cold Weather
• Microworms