A Sad Day, And A Lesson Learned

Well, I had to work out of town for two days. All the little babies were a week old and doing great - only lost one (during suctioning).

I asked my neighbour to just feed the babies twice a day while I was gone, I gave her my microworms and taught her how. Since it was just two days, I figured it would be fine, after all she only had to drop a few worms in.

Well, returned home today, to 35 dead babies. She apparently did not even know they were dead until I told her, she thought they were just sleepign on the bottom

Of course, I could not imagine how so many could die so quicky. I checkd the temp and all, temoved the babies and noticed some fuzzy stuff in there. I asked her how the feeding went, she apparently had a hard time seeing the microworms so she just SCOOPED some culture and DUMPED it into my tank

Okay, so obviously that did it, I didn't want her to feel terrible about it so I waited until she was gone and did a good clean and check of the tank. Its sooo heartbreaking, but really it is my fault, I should have spent more time explaining things but I figured it was TWO DAYS!

After cleaning....35 dead babies. The weird thing is I had 41, and I can only find TWO that are still alive. I put them in 100% clean water so I hope they make it, (I reaclimated them) but I hate to keep the fry tank running for just two fry - has anyone kept fry in a warm jar? I've never had a fry tank with less than 12, and that was due to a hungry poppa///////I have another conditioned pair I would like to spawn so I should prob just clean and sterilize the whole system and start with them.

I'm so sad, its a lesson learned but still I feel like such a mean nasty mommie for letting them die like that.

Aww so sorry to hear you lost most of your little ones

I'm going away for a week on saturday and have left notes all over my tanks so that nobody touches them as I don't trust anyone to feed them correctly. Its mainly for my father-in-law that thinks he knows everything My 9 week olds have automatic feeders giving them granules so they will be fine.

I guess as yours were so young you had no choice but to find someone to feed them. What can you say, I guess she thought she did her best to follow your instructions

I've raised 6 fry once in a 8us gallon tank and they were fine so not sure about the jar

Good luck with the ones you have left

So sorry to hear of your recent losses.

thats horrible! I dont trust anyone at all with my babies.. mostly because i asked a friend to take care of my adults for 2 days and she didnt go once (she forgot, and said if any died she'd pay for them, and apologized alot, but still...) im sorry!

and well, something like that happened to me where i only had 2 alive.. i left it going, though yeah, it was kinda wasted... but those 2 lived and look very nice!

That's sad. Poor little tykes. It's always a wrench when you lose them.

When I go on vacation I feed pellets only. Each fish has a series of cups set up in front of his enclosure with just the right amount of food. Four pellets for this one, six for this one, etc. If I am gone for 7 days then I set up six cups. All they need to do is come in, pick up a cup and dump the contents in the tank the cup is in front of. Works like a charm.

Trust me though... it's a lot of cups with a bunch of fish... my last trip I had 80 fish.

i'm so sorry to hear that i lost most of my spawn too...we had a power outage while i was at work one day and the temperature must have gotten too cold for the fry i came home and found most of them dead. i think there are only 6 or so left, but at least those that made it are growing well. poor babies

What a nightmare!! I'm so sorry Fawn, those would've been a lot of beautiful babies too. I can't believe she scooped out the culter... wow, remind me to never let anyone ever feed my fry. Ughh, it's not your fault at all, mistakes just happen and it's horrible that it had to happen to you and your babies. Could you condition the parents again, give the mom a couple more weeks to heal and re-try them?

Oh no, that's terrible! I'm so sorry to hear that!!
With my spawn I didn't plan things so well, so they were only a day old when I went away to a betta show for the weekend. I showed my mother how to feed them microworms, but luckily I instructed her to use a toothpick to scrape them off the sides with. She misunderstood and said she swirled the toothpick around in the media to collect worms, but obviously you can't pick up much media with a toothpick, so no harm was done.

So sorry about your losses.

Sorry to hear about your losses. The fry "on the board" seem to be having a very hard time of it lately. Hope the rest of them make it and thrive!!

Thanks guys, its nice to talk to people who don't think they are 'just' baby fish, sigh.

Anyhow, I have decided to clean out the fry tank and do another spawning. I would like to respawn this pair so I may just wait another couple weeks or, spawn another set I have.

But first, I have to figure out where to put the last two babies....If they were only a little bigger they could go in a breeding trap in one of my other tanks...well we will see how big they are in a week.

My hubby felt so bad for me, he even bought me a new magnifying glass, he was so hopeful that I had missed sone

That was sweet of your husband. I'm going away to a weekend retreat and asked Hubby to feed the fish. He told me I'd have to write out instructions on how to feed the bettas because he doesn't want to do anything to hurt them.

Well, things are looking up....my friend who owns a lps came over and we cleaned out the fry tank.

I figured out a little bettafry house contraption to keep the remaining babies in one of my other tanks, its worked great!

So I am happy, I am going to do another spawn soon. Today got the tank all sterilized and setup with nice water, I am considering breeding another pair I have, Moonlight and Luna...Here is the male, no pic on hand of the female. I have not bred Moonlight yet, so I'm going to let him have a long time alone in the spawn tank to see if he blows a nest (he normally only blows a few bubbles in his bowl).

If he seems to have it figured and makes a nest, I will intro Luna to him in a chimney in a week or so. If not, I will prob go back to my blue pair again, since I am dying for their babies. They are already conditioned, its so cure she and one of my other females 'blush' (when they flush with color and their faces turn stripey, like barring up) every time I feed those two bloodworms.

Anyhow, thanks for letting me vent, on top of it all my culture appears to have died too, so not sure is he put water in it or what went on there. The babies are loving bbs tho.

Oh wow, that male is PERFECT!

Thanks Synnir! BTW saw your wittle teeny guy on aquabid, so darling!