When I checked on the happy couple this morning I could tell that Neptune had gotten serious. His bubble nest was twice the size of the last two and he was working tirelessly on it. Every few minutes he would take a break from blowing bubbles to swim to fetch Rain and escort her under the nest. She would admire it for a moment, then quickly swim away. This went on for a few hours, and I was beginning to despair that Rain just wasn't ready to mate. But then she swam under the nest uninvited and started brushing against Neptune; he was almost able to wrap her, but she darted away. That was when I knew they would eventually spawn. It was the first time for both of them, so they had a lot to figure out; they couldn't just hop on youtube and watch a few videos on spawning. It had to be a long process of trial and error, and boy was it awkward.
There finally came a time (around lunch time) when they were ready to attempt to spawn. They flared their fins and brushed against each other, and then Neptune did the 'embrace'. For those of you who aren't familiar with the betta spawning process (and don't feel like looking it up on youtube), I will have to paint a picture with words because I didn't get any decent video footage of my bettas spawning. Basically, when it's time to spawn they start circling and rubbing against each other - all the typical sexy fish stuff you'd expect. Then the male wraps himself around the female so that he's literally bent in half and squeezes for several seconds. When he slowly releases her, she floats lifelessly to the surface and the eggs fall to the ground. (I think this is when the eggs get fertilized, but I honestly can't remember and it's not something you can actually see, so I'm not sure). The female is in an unconscious state for several seconds, and during this time the male retrieves the eggs and starts putting them in the nest. When the female comes to, she either helps put the eggs in the nest, or eats them (like my fatty did). They do this until the female is either no longer producing eggs, or just tired of the process.
Now that you know what's supposed to happen...here's what went down between my pair the first several dozen attempts. Neptune attempted the embrace, but completely failed. She just slipped out of his grip and he ended up squeezing the air - err, water - with Rain watching him like: "WTF is your problem, dude?"
He did this probably five more times.
It was awkward.
I laughed.
When he finally figured out how to properly embrace Rain, it took them several more attempts before any eggs were released. At some point between feeding the famished child and putting dishes away I noticed a few eggs on the ground. It was a while before the fish noticed them; Rain was the first to see them and she quickly gobbled them up. Then she had new motivation for spawning: eggs! (Like I said, she's a fatty.)
In the last hour of their three hour spawning escapade I was seeing a lot more successful embraces and a lot more eggs being dropped. Neptune would pick up as many as he could before Rain started eating them, and he managed to fill up part of the bubble nest. When Rain was done she swam to the other side of the tank and that was that. I removed her and put her back in her own tank to recover (and eat). Neptune is staying with the eggs until the fry are free swimming.
In about 24 hours, if the eggs were actually fertilized, they should start to hatch and I should be able to see minuscule tails hanging down from the bubble nest.
Spawning has been a little stressful and a lot of work, but this was the easy part. If and when those eggs hatch, it will be a whole new level of stress and hard work. I'm excited about the next stage, but at the same time feeling a little daunted by it! If nothing else, this has been a great learning process, and I will definitely feel more confident setting up the next pair for breeding.
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