Ezrock's Spawn Diary - Born 16/01/06

Hi all.

Well, I have some baby bettas finally after about a dozen attempts over the last year or so. Here's some spawning details....

-Conditioned with lots of betta pellets (Hikari Gold) over a week or so...they also both got a few whiteworms once in awhile as the culture was just received recently and still in the expansion stage
-Had tried early last week with no success so I re-chimneyed the female for a few days
-Thursday at midnight I was leaving for the whole weekend, so I put a heater in some fresh water (dechlorinated) and put varied live plants (floating) and a styrofoam cup on the opposite side of the 5 gallon tank.
-Left tank light off but room light on all weekend.
-Came home monday morning at 1 a.m. and female was rather ragged, so I quickly removed her (she's healing up already). Looked at the large bubble nest and noticed one baby betta falling. I went to bed then class and came back a few hours ago and there's definitely more babies there but still not too many.
-Male is diligently watching over the nest with only random scouts away from it.

I have a question now! Just wondering how the male usually blows babies back up to the bubble nest. Mine seems to be only blowing them near the top and they usually just fall back down quickly. I only see a few at a time falling, and I don't know how normal that is. There's definitely not as many as I see in some pics where there's dozens of tails hanging down at the same time! How long does it usually take from first hatching until all the eggs have hatched???

Also, I notice some very WHITE bubbles near the top of the nest. Are these eggs, or are they the unfertilzed ones that have started to fungusize (like that word )?

Tank Setup


Bubble Nest


Dad


-Ian

Congrats
Hatching time really depends on how long they spawned. Say they went at it for 5-10 hours, those last eggs will be a bit behind. Usually the father will eat the unfertilized eggs. They may not be sticking because he's new at it. I've had fathers who scatter them as you've described. Other males will have fluffy nests and they'll literally shove their faces way up in it when they spit fry to the point where the babies are out of the water sometimes. Just keep a far away, non-threatening eye on him, maybe he'll get better over night!

Hi. Okay thanks for letting me know that his behaviour is relatively normal. I still have no idea how many are there as I rarely see more than one at a time. But, I noticed that they fry are now swimming right up into the nest somehow to the point where I can't see them anymore. I guess that's a good sign since he's not spitting them up high enough on his own. I think it's been almost 48 hours since they started hatching, so I'll be taking the father out in a few hours once I'm back from classes for the day. Time will tell how many I have!

-Ian

thats great but i think u mean 16/06

haha yes yes that's what i meant!

I've been doing that all year still haha.

-Ian

PS pics will be coming soon of the pair/nest/setup/etc.

can't wait to see the pictures
oh and CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Bret

Okay, I now see a bunch of babies hanging from the nest. Maybe a dozen and presumably there are more up within the bubbles. The male's expanding the nest quite a bit though I can't fathom why. I tried taking a picture of the babies, but my camera is way to old (only 1.3MP) to get any pic that shows the babies hanging tail down.

I should be able to post pics tonight after I take the dad out.

-Ian

Added pics. Nothing fancy though. Still can't find a good pic of the mom.

-Ian

Wow, he's quite a bubble nester

Yeah he really is. As far as I know, it was all during/post spawning too! There was no nest in there when I released the female since I transfered them both to the fresh tank at the same time!

-Ian

I don't think my fry are eating. I feed them several times per day with either microworms or hard boiled egg yolk (mixed with water), or some guppy fry food I tried to see if they would eat. I have not seen the fry eat at all. However, they're now 4 days old and still alive so they must be eating something. I suspect they could be eating infusoria that might be in there from the plants. Should I try any other food? I think I have some Wardley's liquid fry food somewhere.

The fry just don't seem to swim at the food whenever I feed them, though I'll admit I don't spend much time watching them in general.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Cheers,

-Ian

At this age, it is hard to see them eat. In a few more days if you have good vision of a magnifying glass you can actually see them peck at microworms. They aren't fast or swift at this time, they will slowly move around the tank and gradually eat which is why they need feeding several times a day over different areas of the tank.

I would caution against the egg yolk, as it will putfiry in your tank long before it is time to start doing water changing to any degree and could complicate the fry because of bacteria or fungus as a result. I would stick with the microworms, and begin adding bbs in a few days, I usually feed the bbs one feeding a day or so. And, the benefit of those foods is you can actually see and syphon the waste off the bottom as it does not saturate the water.

If they make it past the week, they are feeding and you will see big full tummies)

Hi. thanks for the help! I've been feeding the smallest amount of the yolk. Just get a tiny bit on the end of a pen-cap and dip it quickly in the water in about 3 or 4 places scattered around the tank. It sinks pretty quickly and largely in the place I dip the pen cap. I usually look for where bunches of them are (I think I have 12 or so) and feed as close as I can to the ones I see.

To ensure the water doesnt putrify, I have been taking about 1L of water out every other day so far and replacing with fresh, aged water. I use airline tubing and siphon out as much waste as I can, concentrating on any uneaten food (especially the yolk as it's easy to spot).

I'm going away for two days tonight. Think I'm safe leaving them alone for that time, or should I somehow try to bring the babies to my parents' house with me Alternatively, I could probably get a roommate to feed them once per day here.

-Ian

You absolutely will need someone to feed them once, if not twice a day or they will die at this age. Sounds like you are being careful with the water changes just remember too big a change will also cause fry losses. Many people do not add any water for 2 weeks to a month. It is said you lose more fry to waterchanges than due to dirty water, so just try to keep the water really clean it will cut down on need to replace alot of water early in their development.

Hi. Okay I will keep that in mind. I ended up asking my housemate to feed them and showed her how to do it. She said she'll do it at least once per day. That'll mean probably just once tomorrow while I'm gone. Then on Sunday she'll feed them once, and I'll get to them for a few feedings, so they should be fine!

I use only aged water sho it should have no bad chemicals (chlorine etc) left. The amount I change is probably only 10% at the most every other day...really just enough to siphon off some of the dirt. I'll do some more reading online on this issue and see what I can find...I wonder if anyone has done any experiments on the matter... It doesn't seem to be affecting them adversely so far. I have noticed ZERO fry losses so far. Every time I look, they are more active and I see more than I thought I had originally

-Ian