Ok, so maybe you guys have heard of weirder scenarios, but this is definitely the weirdest thing to ever happen with my fish. On Sept. 7th eggs hateched from my DT boy, Saturn, and a DT geno girl, Terra. I decided to try leaving Daddy with the babies and he did really well. Well, I'm down to only 3 fry now, but I don't really think that's Saturn's fault. Most of them died off after my first big water change. I am left with 2 doubletails and a singletail. I'm not really good at sexing them at this age, so I'm not sure which one(s) are/is male and which one(s) is/are female, yet. Tonight I did a big waterchange and had to smile at the little bubblenest underneath the bubblewrap. I have been wanting to pull these babies and breed Saturn again with one of my other DT geno females, and I figured this was a good sign that he was feeling frisky enough to try it. Later, I got down and got a good look at the nest and just about passed out! Guess what was in there? Yep, eggs!! So...either Saturn spawned with one of his daughters, or 2 of the babies spawned (I guess they aren't "babies" anymore, they are 7 weeks old). So, how weird is that? An adult and 3 7 week olds living together and a spawn happens. There isn't one fish in particular that is guarding the nest too much (not even Saturn), so I'm just going to assume that Saturn is the Daddy...he is the alpha in the tank, afterall, and I doubt he'd LET anyone else spawn in his tank. There is no aggression in the tank either....I think that's the weirdest thing of all. There is a nest of eggs and 4 bettas and no aggression! Nobody is nipped at all, either, so the spawning went well, I'd have to guess. I am going to get my 5 gallon tank ready in the morning and pull out the 3 little ones and plop them in there and leave Saturn with this nest. I'd be interested to see what I get (if anything). Since 2 of the fry are DTs then I'd probably get a bunch of spine deformities (if Saturn is indeed the dad). Anyone ever heard of anything weirder happening?!

I decided not to wait until morning and went ahead and got the 5 gallon ready and removed the 3 little ones. So it's just Saturn and the nest of eggs in the spawning tank now.

That is funny! Although it is sad that you will probably never know for sure who the parents were. But it sure makes a great story!

Yeah, well when I can tell better which is female and male, I'm hoping there's only one female...that way I'll KNOW who the mother is!!

I can pretty much PROMISE you that Saturn is the daddy.
If you lucked up, momma is the singletail, lol.
It ain't about the age, it's about the size. Nate had some juvies in a tank, no bigger than an inch, the largest one.. and he found that a pair of them had spawned.

Out of the 3 I have 1 singletail, that is pretty active and seems to be the boss. Then there is the large DT and s/he is also pretty active. The 3rd one is a DT and is smaller than the other 2 and hides a lot.
I got pics of the ST and the large DT, but the smaller DT kept hiding from me! The pics aren't the greatest, I just snapped them real quick while they were eating. Maybe someone else would be able to sex them?

The single tail looks like it MIGHT be female.
Look in the third picture you posted.. see right above where the anal fin starts? There looks to be a whitish area that MIGHT be an egg case.
Try backlighting them, and see if you can see the egg case.
I am not seeing the same lighter area in the DT...

I think I do see what you're talking about. I'll definitely try backlighting them and looking and see if I can see better. Thanks.

These are my fav pics for showing the egg case. Just to give you a better idea of what to look for.

I'm so glad I read this post, we have a spawn of HM in a grow out tank and I noticed that amongst the 2 month old fry were fry that appeared to just 7 to 10 days old :blink: I thought that possibly I could have brought them in from the pond outside but there were none in any of the other tanks that I brought plants into. Makes me wonder if they didn't spawn in the plants and the younger fry lived because they could hide. Sorry didn't mean to highjack your thread but it is exciting to think that we might have f1 and f2 in the same tank !!! :WOU :Y :WOW:

That is possible, or you could have some serious runts.. I guess there is no way to really know. But I have had spawn mates where if you didn't know they were spawn mates there is no way you would believe they were from the same exact breeding, the size difference was so great.

They were all bigger than that and already had their top and bottom fins :blink: Then came the new ones that had no top and bottom fins they were just starting to grow their back fin ;) so their is no way they are from the original spawn. It is very puzzling, and there is absolutly no way to know who the parents are too many bettas in that tank :(

LMAO, sneaky breeders, lolol.

Don't ya wish it was always that easy to breed 'em? Just toss a bunch of bettas together and BAM you get some new babies!! LOL
Well, no new update here. The temp was bumped down to 78 so it may take longer for the eggs to hatch. Saturn has completely surrounded that area in a massive bubblenest and the eggs are still there. I snuck in the tank this morning and bumped the heater up a bit and siphoned out some water to bring the water level down. I think if they don't hatch by today, or tomorrow morning by the latest, then they probably aren't going to. But that's ok, cause I can toss in the female I was wanting to breed Saturn to next, and I know he'll probably be ready to go at it :lolo:

I have to admit, when MrsSmitty first shared this suspicion with me, I thought "no way!" ... but, now, looking in a couple of our larger tanks, I'm convinced! I mean there are tiny little fry in with 3 month olds!!! Of course, my first thought was that we merely had some serious runts, but I'm not really sure that's the case at all. Sure, some of the same "generation" are much smaller than the largest ones, but some of them actually look really young!
We think that with enough plant cover, this may in fact be very possible and plausible!

You lucky dawgs!!
If only breeding were that easy!!

I'm telling ya!! I think our adults need to takelessons from our babies on the proper way to breed, no fighting, no argueing, no tearing fins or biting :LOL: Just get in the spawn tank and get the job done!!! :blink: :Y If only it was that easy!!!