Betta breeding difficulties

[pianoaqueux]

Hello, 

So here's what happened.

It was the third breeding attempt for a pair of bettas. A few weeks separating every attempt. Male was making bubble nests and she obviously had a LOT of eggs ready in a large belly. Setup is a plastic tub with a top and heater, catapa leaves and moss. Acclimation with a pierced bottle for the female.

First attempt was a failure, without agression, but no real breeding.
Second attempt had breeding behavior, embraces and all for hours and hours, but no eggs.
Third attempt had breeding behavior, embraces, and a very few eggs before the male chased her away.

After I removed her and put her back to her tank, he lost interest for the few eggs scattered in bubbles, and ended up eating them.

The day after, she actually dropped a huge quantity of eggs in her tank, by herself.

So the female is older than the male, she probably was sort of eggbound and I started to be worried that she would be stuck in some ways.
I saw the eggdrop as a good thing, she still has the white thing pointing out a lot, still looks like she's full of eggs, but at least she is not enormous and almost deformed like before.

What do you think? Have you ever seen this eggdropping from a female betta after a failed breeding attempt?

I never let them together for more than 3 days, as I feel like with frustration and small volume of water, they could fight, even though they really seem to not resort to violence.

These bettas seem to really get along and to want to breed. I am planning on trying again in two to three weeks.

Let me know if you have any advice or explanation.

Thanks.

[MAC]

I don't know much about breeding bettas but have had successful spawns on both my two attempts. The female would randomly drop a few eggs while swimming in her tank periodically which is what made me decide to try and breed her because I had been worrying about getting eggbound. 

The first attempt with her and the male there was alot of embrace and displaying but no eggs so I ended up keeping her in the breeding tank in a clear plastic cup for a day or two before releasing her again for a few days. I think I did this twice--out of the cup, back into the cup--until one day there were eggs seemingly overnight at which point I took her out. 

The second attempt was with the same pair after the female was again dropping eggs on her own. I had eggs within hours of reintroducing the make and female in a breeding tank. On both occasions there was much less aggression than what I had expected.

This probably doesn't help much but I would just keep trying. Maybe the male doesn't know quite what he's doing and you could try a different one. Either way, good luck! I really enjoyed raising the baby bettas, you might end up getting alot of em!