Happy Day!!!

[wuvmybetta]

Finally!!! My 5 week old fry finally ate some frozen bloodworms!!!

I've been trying to wean them off of the live food and they've wanted no part of that! I dropped in a few frozen bloodworms this morning and refused to feed them bbs and they ate it!! It's much better for them anyway, I'm so glad that they at least tried it. Apparently they had no objections because every little worm is gone.


*does happy dance*

 

[shrks1fan]

Congrats! Wow 5 weeks and eating frozen bloodworms? My fry are just a bit over 3 weeks and they're not even close to being able to eat BW's...do they grow a whole lot from week 3 to 5? I've looked at the Bettatalk fry growth page and I'm just about in line with what it says, and it does show quite a growth spurt from this point on, just wondering what you've experienced personally. I can't wait until mine actually look like Juvi's rather than fry, hehe.

Linda

 

[wuvmybetta]

Well...they DO have a rather huge growth spurt within the next two weeks. I feed mine like 8 times a day though ) they're always hungry. The two 5 week olds that I have are massive though, waaay bigger than the growth chart on Bettatalk shows, the largest is already an inch!

I think it's because of four things. One...I add vitamins and minerals to the water, two...I keep the lights on for around 13 hours a day, supposedly that makes them grow more from what I've read. Three....I feed the bbs as soon as they hatch. But the biggest reason IMO that they're so large is....there's only two of them so they have all the room and all the food they could want compared to the 70+ that is in the other tank.

 

[shrks1fan]

Wow an inch already! That's great! Can you tell if they are male and/or female? And is their color showing? And if so, what color are they so far? Sorry for all the questions, I just get very excited about people having successful spawns I have considered putting a couple of my smallest fry in their own little tank to see if it makes a difference, kind of a test...but then they wouldn't be in the heated tank and would be a bit cooler than I keep the fry tank (the room stays at between 78 & 80, the fry tank is at 81 now), so I'd be worried that the lower temp would hurt them. I may still do it though with 1 or 2.

Linda

 

[wuvmybetta]

Fun,isn't it?!

Yes, their color is showing, they're orange just like their parents (orange plakats from BettaTalk) ....I'm having a hard time sexing them though. Two days ago I would have bet money that they were both females...today I can't tell

Here's a size comparison pic

Ooops, ignore my slight algae problem in the right tank ) that's from leaving the lights on. 3 week olds on the left, 5 weeks on the right

Personally I wouldn't worry about the temp change, they'll probably be fine. To be honest...the two that I have from the first spawn were actually two that I took OUT of the breeder tank right after they hatched and put in about an inch of water in a Kritter Keeper, they were my only survivors. And to be even MORE honest...one of them was overlooked and chunked in the sink in about a drop of water for hours (when it was a day old)...I thought it was dead but I left it alone because I couldn't be certain, low and behold it was alive! They're hardier than we think,lol
The second spawn are daddy's babies, he took care of those That's why they're so bratty compared to the hard knock spawn

 

[shrks1fan]

Dang, that's quite a size difference...it will be interesting to see what size the 3 week olds are at 5 weeks and compare to this picture. What size are your 3 week olds on average? Mine range from 5-7/8 mm's (with maybe a couple 4 mm's in there, the little runts, hehe). I've been doing small daily water changes (while vacuuming out the snail poop) and feeding 4 times a day with BBS 3 times and MW's once.

Linda

 

[wuvmybetta]

What size are your 3 week olds on average?

This is the first time I've had survivors from the orange pair. I bred veiltails twice awhile back and they never even made it to three weeks so I have no comparison. Looking back on them I realize now that their problems came from me not decapsulating the brine eggs .

I then gave up on veils and bought the oranges...I've only bred them since then.And time and time again something would go wrong. Either the parents couldn't get it together or the eggs never hatched, then a fungus another time, then dad ate the fry as they hatched, then another time he would just eat the eggs. Finally I had fry and they would never develop their swim bladders, that happened three times. They would spiral up and down for over a week until they all eventually died off. It was heart breaking and I started to think I just had overbred stock . I gave up on them for a few months and then tried again...more week long spiralers so I tried again less than two weeks later and that's when I got the first two. Then two weeks later...the newest batch. I guess working the parents to death is the key here

I figure they're about average Either way they're great to me! I really,really thought I'd never get fry from these two

 

[shrks1fan]

How do you decapsulate your BBS eggs? I've never done it, but read a couple of ways, just wondering how you do yours.

Linda

 

[wuvmybetta]

I just take a small pickle jar and fill it about halfway with cold water, turn the eggs with an aerator for about an hour. Then I pour in bleach....I can't say how much, I just eyeball it (the old bartender comes out in me). The basic formula of it would be 3 parts water to 2 parts bleach. Let them bubble for a minute or two until they turn from gray to white then to orange. Rinse them (this SUCKS! ,you lose lots of eggs, still working on a technique) then dip them in a cup of cold water mixed with a tablespoon of vinegar, rinse again.

Then...here's a HANDY tip that I figured out, you can store them in the fridge in a heavy brine solution. This way when it's time to start a new batch you can just suck some out of the jar with a turkey baster and throw them in the hatchery So I decapsulate an entire vial of brine eggs at once, it's just a one time step. At first I was decapsulating each and every batch....what a bother. So I experimented with the refrigeration method and it worked I've noticed that I actually waste a lot less eggs that way, they all hatch rather than having bunches of 'dead' eggs sinking to the bottom or sticking to the sides of the hatchery.

 

[shrks1fan]

I'll have to start doing that, my current method of getting the BBS into the tank does alleviate getting many eggs in the fry tank, but this would make me feel better. I'll have to add bleach & vinegar to my shopping list for tomorrow. And yes, doing a bunch of eggs at once is definetly smart. I did read about storing them in the fridge in a brine solution, very smart. Doing it every time you start a new batch would just be too much of a pain in the butt! Lol.