AboutChris Robbins Expertise I have 25+ years of personal experience as a pet
store employee and manager in the family pet store
business. The main part of our business was
Freshwater Fish. I can answer questions on; Fish care, diseases,
parasites and fish identification, feeding your
fish, breeding and sexing your fish, setting up
your aquarium, cleaning your aquarium, and
"what`s this weird stuff in my tank/on my
fish" questions. I am not an African Cichlid expert, Plant expert or Brackish Expert. No Pond or Saltwater Questions Please.
Experience I worked in and managed my family's fish and pet and fish store for 26 years and maintained the 35 aquariums. My experience also has included occasional in-home consultation and aquarium maintenance for my clients.
Expert: Chris Robbins Date: 4/30/2008 Subject: Beta Fish
Question Hi Chris,
This question comes from a coworker of mine. She just recently got a pet beta fish. We are assuming it is a male, based on it's longer, more elaborate fins. I told her you can't house males together because they will fight. She would love to have more than one for some reason. So I was wondering if it would be pretty easy for a female fish to have babies, if she were to put a female beta in with the male? Will he be aggressive towards the female? And if they do produce babies, how many would there be, on average?
Answer Hi Kristin;
Male and female Bettas can't be together all the time. They can only be in the same tank when actually spawning. Some hobbyists have success in keeping male and female together but they are in very large tanks with lots of plants and hiding places, and it still doesn't guarantee they won't fight. They are very aggressive breeders and sometimes will nip each other's fins before they finally get down to 'romance'. Once they spawn, the female has to get outta there! The male takes care of the eggs and the babies and he will kill her to get her away from them because he sees her or any other fish as a threat to his nest. The female can lay up to 400 eggs in a single spawning so some serious preparations have to be made before you get started. The newborn "fry" needs live food that you have to hatch out for them so it has to be planned and started before the parents even get together. Here is a good web site information about care and breeding with photos about how they spawn too;
