A know many breeders advise putting the M and F into the breeding tank at the same time - releasing the M directly into the tank, and putting the female into a hurricane lamp glass top (glass tube open on top and bottom). That way they can mentally screw with one another, and get all psyched up, with no bloodshed.

How long do you guys keep your females in the glass before releasing them? Maybe just enough time to let the M make a new bubblenest? Or can you let him do that while the F is swimming around?

Wrong thread butttttt... Perhaps it's not unexpected, being that Convicts are apparently rabbits of the cichlid world, but mine laid eggs 2 days ago! Watching their pre-parenting behavior is sucking up all of my free time haha; it's just really interesting. There are probably 150-200 eggs, and every single one is fertilized. Whether they'll all develop to completion or not, I don't know. But I've got 1000s of gallons of RubberMaids standing by. Bring em onnnnn!

Congrats on your convict cichlid eggs!

Betta breeders have many many different different methods of spawning, so it's up to you what the technique u'll use, but it's important to condition the pair for a week or two before spawning. Feed them lots of high-protein food cos the spawning is often a rough affair and after spawning the male is likely won't be eating for a week. Make sure the pair are ready before releasing the female in with the male, meaning the male is building bubblenest, showing interest and flaring at the female; the female is showing vertical barring and egg spot, and showing interest in the male.

My method, is to place the male & female in separate jars next to each other with a piece of paper in between. I keep them there for a week or so while feeding with high-protein food, remove the paper divider for about half an hour each day. Then after that I put the male in the spawning tank for a day or two, then put the female in the glass chimney (or a round take away container pierced on the sides to let hormones interchange) for a day or two, then after the male has built a substantial bubblenest, release the female.

Sorry to butt in, but I am interested in breeding also. What do you mean by waiting for the female to show vertical barring and egg spot? I can pretty much guess the "vertical barring" thing, but what does egg spot mean? Do the male and female ned to "pair up" like convicts cichlids do or can you pretty much put any female with any male? I was told by the pet store that you need to take the female out of the tank once eggs have been laid and the male takes care of the young, is that true? Since mine are in 2 gallon tanks with no filter system, how do you change the water after the nests have been built? Sorry for so many questions, but I want to do this right.

The "egg spot" is a small (1/16"-1/8"ishh) white spherical spot between the anal fins. I guess it's more prominent in females ready to mate. I don't suppose they could exactly "pair up," since you've got to keep them separate until breeding (unless you're totally not interested in breeding, as I have some friends who keep a single male in a tank with a few females and they just kind of get accustomed to one another, but never show mating tendencies). Vertically barring is pretty self explanatory, the scales deepen in vertical formations. But that's only with darker colored fish. My white female obviously can't show bars, but her gills seem to get veryyyy pink.

Although I'm clearly no betta expert - haha I STARTED this thread with a question - I have done some research, and have since succeeded in mating my bettas. So, please, more experienced members can feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but most of this is reasoning:

As far as your 2gal tank goes, you'll prob want to pick up a shallow RubberMaid. Breeding tank depth is supposed to be around 6" max, I assume to aid the male in egg catching. Also, dispersing the water over a more horizontal area is prob going to give the female more hiding places. The makeshift tank would also answer your question regarding water changes. You do changes what, once a week? If you introduce the M and F to the tank with the hurricane lamp top method, let them get aquainted for a day or so, let the male build a nest, release the female, let them mate, and then remove the female... the whole process up until that point is probably like (at least in my experience) 3 or 4 days. Let's say it takes another 3 days for the littlins to hatch, the whole shabang barely totaling a week. By the next day or so, the fry won't need the nest, and it'd be safe to do a water change.

And I know the topic was kind of old, but I was bored and perusing the pages.

Thank you very much for the info. All three of my females have the white spot but no barring. I did at one time put my blue male with my blue female and she was not interested at all. He tore off most of her fins, however that was before I knew to let them "see" each other for a few days before putting them together. I took her out and put her in the tank with my Red female and they both seem to get along fine. My other female is light blue and alot larger than the other two. I heard that you can put all the females together in one tank, but when I add the larger female she picks fights with the smaller two and tears up their fins. Is this normal?? Will they eventually get along?? By the way... congrats on the baby convicts!

Haha thanks for the congrats. You want one? I don't even think the pet store I usually sell to will buy ALL of them, on account of tank space... Butttt I just bought another tank and have it cycling now, because the thought of a big tank with just stripey fish is really striking and artistic (<3 Tiger Barbs in a planted tank... <3 Convicts with lots of lavarock or sweet pots...) Plus they're my beebies and I don't want to send them all off haha.

But no, that barring I've found to only occur when they're in visual contact. Usually accompanied by flaring haha. A lot. Of flaring. And I REALLY don't think color plays any role in attraction, so I woudln't worry about pairing them up by those terms. Maybe just the two individual Ms and Fs that prove to be the most "sexually ready"? lol At least that's what I went by for my first spawn. I wanted this to be quick and fun lol. And THEN we'll start caring about breeding pure and whatnot.

There's bound to be some kind of pecking order with a fish so aggressive as a betta. I wouldn't worry as long as they're not killing each other. Personally though, I don't like to keep my bettas all together. I keep a couple of them in 2ish gal bowls, and then the rest... I... Suspend from my ceiling! haha it's the funkiest thing ever, but I'm REALLLLY into interior decorating (esp since I moved out of the dorms and got my own place lol), and it's just a really cool huge sculptural thing. All these hanging bowls at different heights, almost like a mobile or something, but big haha. And they can still see each other and stuff. And no worries, I had my dad help me with installation, so everything's secure into the beams, and all of the suspension cables are rated for like 35983450834508 pounds. I should take pics and show you guys what I'm talking about, it prob sounds weird but I swear to god it's cool and I'm proud haha.

That really does sound cool. I love odd ideas that no one else thinks of. Please.. take pictures. I would love to see! About the convict thing... I already have tons of babies myself. I bought a used 125 gallon set up for $150 but the catch was I had to take the ten convicts that she had also. I got six pink and four striped. They were not very big (about two inches) but two striped ones paired up and one stripe and one pink paired up so I kept those four. One of the pet stores around me took the others. So I ended up with two sets of babies and three adult striped left. I got rid of the pink adult because he was so mean to the female after the babies were hatched. sorry...enough about them..this is a betta forum and I apologize for my rambling. Back to your hanging tanks.. I really would love to see them. My friends thought I was wierd when I took interesting patterned material (like for clothing) and put that on the backs of my tanks instead of the usual plastic tank backing. I also spray painted cardboard in interesting designs and used that for backing. So anything different and weird is worthy conversation for me.

Convicts are awesome, but yeah, quite testy. I had to take the male out as soon as the babies hatched, cuz he was all "Omgz wifey let me help out!" And she's all "Heckzz no..." And she had CHEWED UP his face. But yeah, shipping to NC would be a pain anyway.

My decorating style for my livingroom (fishroom) is all like, verrry deep earthtones, Moroccan and Asian things, and lots of architectural antiques from salvage yards. I put stuff where it doesn't belong, (hanging from the ceiling, for example haha), but everything's all in the same color family, so the room makes sense. That said, I have noooo funky colors anywhere in my living room. And I like my tanks to look 100% natural. Sooooo... long rambly case in point, just plain matte black backgrounds for me Always. But that is a cool idea with the fabric. Especially if it's like a barebottom tank or something with fish in a contrasting color from the cloth. It'd look more like a bright cube of art. Really bold. Hmmm...

I wouldn't disturb the bubblenest once the eggs hatch. The young fry will want to feel safe and the bubblenest is a good place for them to hang around.

Some breeders immediately take the male out from the spawning tank once the fry are free swimming, but some let the male in there until the fry become juveniles and then take him out.

The thread below might help. It's my spawn-log (the fry are now about 7 weeks old) of my blue grizzle CT male & multi plakat female. There are lots of pics and a video of them mating also. I'm gonna update it quite soon as the fry now are not such a pain in the bum to take picture of anymore
http://www.kokosgoldfish.invisionzone.com/...showtopic=45180