Betta Foods

[Marty]

Hi all,

OK, I'm about as new as people get to fish keeping, and I have some questions about the foods I've heard of for bettas.

Things like microworms, baby brine shrimp, vinager eels etc. What exactly are these? What's a 'microworm culture' for instance, and how do I go about keeping and harvesting one if I'm to feed fry??

Thanks
Marty.

 

[juliethegr8t]

All of the foods you mentioned are for raising betta fry. They are too small for adults to eat.

Microworms are tiny white worms. If you can obtain a starter culture, all you have to do is set up a container with yeast and oatmeal (for example), and they have a population explosion. Obviously there is more to it than that, but that's your basics.

Vinegar eels also need a starter culture, and then they are grown in apple cider/vinegar.

Baby brine shrimp are grown from eggs you can purchase at most pet stores. You can set up your own hatchery, or buy one. Basically, you create a very salty environment, and they hatch. Then you collect them and feed them to your fry.

Hope this helps.

 

[Marty]

Thanks

Are they hard to keep? Or require anything special??

I've been looking into breeding bettas, and was mainly interested in the microworms.

Marty.

 

[juliethegr8t]

In my opinion, microworms are pretty darned easy. Once you get them set up, all you have to do is add a little more yeast or food every once in awhile. Eventually your culture will go bad and you'll have to start a new one, but that's no biggie either.

 

[Marty]

Thanks for your help

I also found this excelent site:
http/www.bcbetta.com/cultures.html

Has heaps of info on raising the various cultures.

Marty.

 

[faewyn]

hi Marty,

Try and get get hands on live black worms, brine shrimp and blood worms.
if not go for the frozen varieties, black worms gross me out so after a day or 2 i empty all the water out and freeze the little suckers
if you keep em live, be careful they as will try and escape in your fridge
a tight lid will do, i have been told.

all these foods are cheap, i pay no more then $3 for a scoop of live BS and $3 for live black worms which lasts a month etc. frozen bloodworms last forever, all LFS have them

 

[bkk_group]

Thanks for your help

I also found this excelent site:
http/www.bcbetta.com/cultures.html

Has heaps of info on raising the various cultures.

Marty.

the owner of that site is the "local betta breeding god" in these parts. i picked up a grindel worm culture from her months ago and it's still going strong. i recommend grindel worms by the way, easy to keep, easy to feed and both juvenile and adults enjoy them

 

[Marty]

Thanks again

I think I might just get a variety of cultures, and work off the reccomendations I have recieved.

I've heard bad reports about baby brine shrimp... Might avoid them just in case.

Cheers,
Marty.

 

[Marty]

Another thing...

This isn't exactly the ideal place to ask, but I thought some people who read this might know.

Are these exotic breeds of bettas just as hardy as your everyday $8 pet shop ones?? Or will they be a little more fragile?

I'm assuming it depends on the strain...

 

[bkk_group]

Another thing...

This isn't exactly the ideal place to ask, but I thought some people who read this might know.

Are these exotic breeds of bettas just as hardy as your everyday $8 pet shop ones?? Or will they be a little more fragile?

I'm assuming it depends on the strain...

if the betta has been inbred too much it can become fragile, yes. it all depends though.

 

[wuvmybetta]

I've heard bad reports about baby brine shrimp... Might avoid them just in case.

There's an easy way to make your brine safe. The worst thing about bbs is that they can possibly cause swim bladder, this is usually from not decapsulating the eggs. The brine shrimp hatch and remainders of the egg stay attached to them and that's harmful for the fry. They also carry a lot of bacteria.

To decapsulate you'll need to let your brine eggs rejuvanate in some cold water (3 oz), gently aerating for about an hour. Then you add two ounces of bleach and let them aerate a little harder. The eggs will turn gray, then white and finally orange, once they're orange you should rinse them and then dip them in a mix of 1 cup cold water and a tablespoon of vinegar, this nuetralizes the bleach, rinse again and they're ready to aerate for 24 hours and they're perfectly safe. The bleach kills bacteria and makes the egg shells completely edible. It sounds like a lot of work but it's not that bad. You can decapsulate a bunch of eggs at once and store them in your fridge in some salty water, they'll remain in suspended animation until you hatch them.

Microworms are smelly but easy, really easy compared to brine