Breeding- Few More Detailed Questions

[OohFeeshy]

*giggles nervously* Only about two weeks until I start conditioning So only 3 weeks until crunch time. Oo-er. But being the control freak I am in these instances, I have some questions not answered (that I've found) anywhere. OK.... I'll do them in numbers, that way you can answer each individually.
1. First foods. When do they use up their yolk sacs, which should be first foods? I assume MW, but my main Q is how much? Obviosly theres no set number of babies per spawn, but how much do these guys eat? Also, how many times a day? If I remember its twice, so if I feed in the morning will they eat any leftover MW during the day?
2. How often should water changes be? Ie, when to start water chamging, how much, how often, I'm probably using a slightly over 5g plastic container to spawn in.
3. When should they be moved into grow outs? I was thinking of using the aforementioned 5g containers, a few in each (they're stackable, if I don't get anymore tanks ( ) I can easily fit 7 or so on my desk, more elsewhere). And as above, how often water changes, how much.
4. Jarring fry, I'm using mainly 2l coke bottles, although I've seen some snazzy tupperware containers, approx. 1.5g each o) and stackable. Heaven! So, assuming I'm using all 2l coke bottles, how often water changes? Oh, and what should they be eating?

Ummm, thats all I can think of, any more I'll update.

 

[wuvmybetta]

1 ) They use up their eggs sacs by day two, day three at the latest. It will be easy for you to tell when it's happened because they literally go from this position l to this _ and then they'll begin snooping around for food. MW's are good but I've found that only the fry who hang out on the bottom find them, and most of the fry hang out at top so I highly recommend starting a brine culture the day after they hatch so you have food ready. You will have a lot of wasted brine the first week or so BUT after that they'll usually eat you out of house and home. You just have to eyeball the appropriate amounts, it really depends on spawn size. I get a small amount of worms on my finger and just barely dip in front of a small group of fry and then swirl, then find another group and repeat so that everybody literally has food in their face. I do the same with brine.
If you feed too much food- remove it. The "whatever they can eat in three minutes" rule does not apply to betta fry so give them some time.
I feed around 8-10 small meals a day. I really think twice a day is too little until they're a month old- or on frozen/dry foods.

2 ) Water changes should be done as often as possible, every day,imo. That's just part of having betta fry. If you can't commit to daily changes- find a different fish to breed to be quite frank. Every day, 50% at first and work your way up to 75-80%. The earlier (about a week of age) you start with large water changes- the better they will do. Syphon out almost all of the water and then elevate a bucket or cup and let clean water drain into the tank using an airline tubing. By week two you should be able to gently pour it in by the cupful.

3 ) When they start looking crowded, and after they've developed their labyrinths, between weeks 3 and four. If you have a small spawn (20 or less) you can get away with keeping them in a five until you jar them.

4 ) Every other day in a jar that size, every third day at the most.

 

[redbetta]

Just to let you know, when I started my research I had the same questions. I still wonder about some of those question you mentioned. Good post. I know that you should feed them up to 4 times a day the first few weeks, and I think it's like 2 or 3 days after they become free swimming that they run out of their yolk sac or whatever you wanna call it haha. And you should do daily changes in all of your growout tanks as they will probably be overcrowded. I have an 11 gal where I can put about 100 babies for the first little while and I'll be doing daily changes for sure. At the beginning I'll be feeding microworms and then they go to baby brine shrimp and springtails. There is a variety of different foods you can use. Good luck and hope this helps a little.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Ty everyone So, feeding the babies. I can only feed once in the morning (@ 7:15 ish), then don't get home until 4:30ish. So if I feed at 7:15 AM, 4:30PM, 6:00PM, 7:30PM and 9:00pm, is that enough? I'll probably have a MW culture going as well, as back up and to make starter cultures to hopefully get a bit of cash.

 

[wuvmybetta]

You might be able to do away with the 6:00 feeding and make it a 6:30 or 7:00 and then do the 9:00. They'll be really hungry when you get home at 4:30. This might sound over the top but I've heard that feedings in the middle of the night are beneficial. Personally I keep insane hours anyway so mine usually get the last meal of the day at around 3:00 AM. Maybe you can drop some mw's in on your way to the potty mid-sleep or something lol since you should try to compensate for that large window of time that you're not home.