milking the female

[nailartjess]

Simply can i milk the eggs from the female? she is more than ready as shr has the vertical stripes, has done for over a week, is looking like she id gonna pop and has the eggs tube. Yet she avoids the male like the plague. I read somewhere a couple of days ago about sometimes having to help the female release her eggs by milking her, I have done this before with my guppies. Is this possible. I have been a fishkeeper for 15years so i know how to treat fish etc.

[mdellasalla]

how do you milk a fish? squeeze?

I don't know that that will work with bettas since the male needs to do the squeezing :P

[hvincent]

Yeah, I'm interested to hear how you milk your guppies. Does that stress them out a lot? I feel like that would be pretty traumatic to a betta; they're sensitive fish

[bettalvr]

Milking the guppies is quite different b/c you are dealing with a livebearer. You're actually expressing live fry. As for the betta, you would be releasing unfertilized eggs. Even if your female is not bred chances are likely that she will release the eggs on her own.

Are you trying to breed this pair? If so, it's a good idea to provide more info as to how you conditioned them, how long they they were divided, how long she has been free swimming with the male, your water parameters, approx. age of the fish, is this their first time. . . need quite a bit of history to bring us up to date before suggestions are warranted.

[BettaLu&Meg]

Yea way different than guppies, i wouldn't "milk" your betta, doing so are just a waste to your eggs and wont be able to use them. Your female is avoiding your male for a couple of reasons. Its possible you haven't conditioned them correctly giving them all sorts of food for getting them ready, ALSO whats important is the enviroment. If the tank isn't the way its supposed to be for breeding, then don't expect any miracles. Check out my thread on [Registered users only can see links. ] to help you out.


Now with "milking" your betta, your putting extreme stress on her and if so, making more eggs can be a complicated thing for her from doing this. What you can do, since in my breeding experience and what i learned from breeders over seas, is that female bettas are like female human.


They have preferences as we do. If your female doesn't like the size, color or the dedication of nesting in the male, she wont go on with spawning, This i learned in the early month of breeding. And is y i have over 11 bettas for breeding. The best thing to do if you want to breed is don't expect your 2 bettas to be it, YOU NEED MORE THAN THAT!

Breeding can be tricky and you need the time to do it. If then and you have other males try doing the instructions on that thread and use a DIFFERENT MALE and i will almost guarantee she will act differently!

I'm the breeder here and can help with tips, why's, and how-to's to help you get her eggs out the RIGHT WAY!

[nailartjess]

Ok thanx for the advice. In way of tank setup to save ranting I can pretty much say it is exactly setup as advised in the hints and tips. Temp, size etc cept I have used tea instead of the other leaves. She and the males have been conditioned on bloodworms, pellets, home bred mollies and shrimp for the past 3 weeks.
I have got 5 males for her to choose from. The first male in which I had she chased him everywhere but he wasn't interested eventho he made a nest. This one has made a nest and chases her everywhere so maybe it is that she doesn't like him. So maybe I will try another. Do I need to remove the nest from this male before I place a new male in there? I also do a water change while change the male too, just wondered about the bubbles.

[bettalvr]

How long are you leaving the pair together before switching males? Spawning doesn't always happen in a matter of hours, it could be several days.

[BettaLu&Meg]

yes thats true, my crosbred pair took about 2 weeks for them to settle down and spawned with each other, so i wouldn't consider "milking" like i stated, definitly wait and try those other alternatives i mentioned and def take a look at the thread posted above

[nailartjess]

I left the first 2 in 2 days and after that removed the male coz she had virtually removed his tail and bottom fins. These 2 I put in together yesterday but separated again last night as i was worried he was going to be too aggressive overnight and I separated them again this morning, he hasn't been aggressive today she just keeps hiding from him, but i have just been watching and she doesnt seem to be running off as much now, so whether she is just tired or deciding it is time
I will leave them together now.

[BettaLu&Meg]

also make sure your male is Bigger, you want the female to be the most 10% smaller than the male, any bigger will give your male a harder time to dominat in the tank and her. This outcome could of been fatal so i wouldn't try him if he's really bad. Definitly heal him up and consider another male, if you like that female particularly. Leaving them together unsupervised can be a fatal mistake that i hope your not willing to take.

I just read that you set up the tank as directed? if so, the then give a couple days, the tea bag works well to, and as a prof. breeder i've done it multiple times. so if this "pair" isn't working definitly consider another male/female for breeding.

If you need any help, tips, advise or anything for that matter please feel free to ask, PM or anything and i'll be happy to assist you!