Breeding Bettas

[cutecotton]

hi everyone

guess what! I was browsing through this schoalrship called the Young Naturalsists Awards for 2005, where students have to take an "expedition" to study some part of nature..w.hether it's mushrooms, or birds or space.

Well, an idea sparked me and i wondered if i could study the breeding habits of bettas and the factors that effect the rate of growth. Thinking that it would never work because bettas arent' exactly "natural" anymore, i started to wonder if i can study birds or wahtever

but before i therw the idea away i decided to e-mail the committee and ask. To my shock, they said yes what i proposed does fall under their guidelines!

which meakes me really happy but now i have to focus my idea a bit more and figure out just what aspect i wnat to study. i thought about stimulating a natural environemtn for the bettas...but haven't quite figured out how to yet

does anyone here have some interesting thoughts/ideas for me? i'm oepn to anything!

 

[cation]

Ooo, oo, how exciting! Congrats for having the kahones to go out and get what you want. What do you want the variables to be? Space? Food quality? pH? You could always try to maximize your males...

 

[Sorrell]

I agree, work with what you talked about last night male to female ratio depending on pH

 

[rain-]

pH and temperature affecting the male to female ratio would be a good area to experiment. But also maybe leaving the daddy with fry would make an interesting experiment?

 

[cation]

But also maybe leaving the daddy with fry would make an interesting experiment?

Let me know if you want any advice on that, cc....

 

[bettacrazy]

wow.. that's so cool. it would really interesting to see how pH and temperature affects the female to male ratios. kind of like reptiles where sex of babies are dependent on temperature!!

looking forward to your results!!

congrats!!

 

[cutecotton]

thanks guys but there are just SO MANY varaibles that i can study when it comes to the bettas! examples are like..water quality affecting the rate of grwoth in fry...or what food is fed and which is more nutriious...genetic disorders that occur...and of course the male and female ratio.

I also wanted to try leaving the male in, but to amke the expeirmetn more "natura" sincet hat is the poitn of the scholarship, i wanted to mimic the natural envrionemtn...whihc would be extermely difficult does anyone have ideas on how i can mimic that envrionment?

To tell you the truth im' not sure im' up to raise antoher batch of fry so much time and effort dedicated to those little guys!

so i still need a more detailed planning of what i want to wrok with...but since i need to have an esasy written on this and submitted by janurary 7th, that doesmt' leave me with a lot of time to raise the bettas, i have just only 2 months or so

 

[wuvmybetta]

To tell you the truth im' not sure im' up to raise antoher batch of fry so much time and effort dedicated to those little guys!

Sure ya are.
Especially if you have 2,500 dollars to do it with

The rice paddie could be fun. But since winters on the way,it's not practical to do one outside. That would definitely be a summer experiment I suppose. Here's a link to make your own rice paddy. You may be able to down size it and keep it inside somehow. Think about it a bit more (and so will I) before you wash your hands of the subject.

 

[cutecotton]

hi guys

the thing with this is that the deadline is on jan 7th which deostn' leave me with enough time for the fry to reach complete adulthood (ermember that i gotta write an essay whci means the exepiremtn has to "end" sometime in december)

eveni f i spawn rigth NOW, the fry will only be around 2 months old by december, i may or may not be able to sex them at that age, which is a problem becuase if i study the affect of ph on a male and female ratio...i may not be ablet o even "gather" my results

wish i knew this earlier, ten i coul dhave studied my current spawn!!!

anyhow...becuase of the time issue, i wanted to study the grwoth rate of fry...which means that i'd be able to gather my resutls as they grow up (ie. their size after a week when the water ist his, and being fed that). Though i wish i could raise teh etnire spawn to adulthood, then submit my results, it'll simply be tioo late

i've lokoed up the rice paddies thing, but the thing about that is i think it'll be too hard to mimic it in a small aqarium...

 

[Sorrell]

Where's the link? I'm curious

 

[cutecotton]

http/www.amnh.org/nationalcenter/youngnaturalistawards/

here is the link to the website

 

[turbotiber]

Is this scholarship/award offered every year?? Cause if it is maybe you could delay a bit and do it for 2006, that way you have time to plan out your stuff, maybe even try out the rice patty outsdie during summer and have enough time for your fry to grow up!

 

[cutecotton]

i wish i could, but i'm in grade 12 and tha'st the last garde for contests...after you graduate from grade 12 you wouldnt' be eligible, so 2005 is my last chance

 

[turbotiber]

i wish i could, but i'm in grade 12 and tha'st the last garde for contests...after you graduate from grade 12 you wouldnt' be eligible, so 2005 is my last chance

Aaawww, that's too bad Well you could fail and repeat the year! J/K Good luck on it, I'm sure you'll figure something out and there are great people here who will help you Hmm... if you're short for time and if you just bred a pair, how about doing something on the existing fry?? But I guess that would take away from the whole experiment of a natural habitat.... Good Luck!

 

[cutecotton]

thansk i'll certainly be needing the luck!

i've thought about doing the resaerch on mye xisting fry..but tehy are almost full grown now will be ready to go to new homes in a few weeks, so there really isn't much for met o study since i didn't take down information about thier grwoth how i wish i kept a detailed log now!!