Help!

[halfmoonbetta]

My bettas spawn yesterday around 1pm. So 28 hrs ago. The eggs will not stay in the nest all of a sudden. My mal will blow 5 in a 6 will fall! there's like 20-25 eggs on the bottom of the tank. Is this normal? Will they hatch? Should I do anything? This is my first atempt at a spawn, so I was very excited now I'm very nervous!

 

[wuvmybetta]

My bettas spawn yesterday around 1pm. So 28 hrs ago. The eggs will not stay in the nest all of a sudden. My mal will blow 5 in a 6 will fall! there's like 20-25 eggs on the bottom of the tank. Is this normal? Will they hatch? Should I do anything? This is my first atempt at a spawn, so I was very excited now I'm very nervous!

He'll get them. Sometimes some eggs are duds, he may know better than you at this point. If he begins to completely ignore all of the eggs and just goes off to stare at his reflection for hours on end or whatever- you can either risk it and hope his nature to nurture kicks in as they hatch, or just remove him and lower the water then gently blow them with a turkey baster. This, however takes a very gentle and almost artistic touch so seriously just give the guy a chance.

 

[halfmoonbetta]

I'm not going to remove if I can help it. But the eggs are just not staying in the nest. He blows them and they just fall again.

 

[LauraFrog]

How many eggs are there? Maybe there are more than he can cope with. You could try removing the eggs on the bottom with a turkey baster and putting them in a shallow container floating in the tank to maintain the temperature. The reason he needs to keep the eggs high is so the fry can breathe air before they can swim freely. So if they are in a container with very low water level (only about an inch) they should be fine, but it's better to leave most of them with the father.

 

[Neon.Tetra]

How many eggs are in the nest? Give him some time to do his job and see if he focuses on ones that are already in the nest. That way more of his attention will be on those and you'll have less bettas if they do hatch but with they will have recieved more attention. Plus it won't be such a strain on you when they grow.

Good luck with it.

 

[halfmoonbetta]

There's probably between 75-100. Almost all the eggs have fallen out of the nest. They're just not sticking. I don't no what I should do!

 

[wuvmybetta]

The reason he needs to keep the eggs high is so the fry can breathe air before they can swim freely.

No. Betta are not born with their labyrinth organ fully developed. They do not even start 'air breathing' until they're about a month old. Until then their main source of air is from the oxygen in the water, which is why you need an air source such as a sponge filter etc.

 

[halfmoonbetta]

The bubblenests is coming apart!!! now what??

 

[wuvmybetta]

I think you're looking too much! They still have a long way to go until they've made it. And even after that there's a long road ahead of them so I hope you're prepared.

What's the male doing?

 

[halfmoonbetta]

they are hatching! I'm not watching too much. I'm just worried about the fry, this is my first spawn but I do no the nest isn't supposed to dissinagrate. The nest is too thin and is coming apart. I believe thats why the fry and eggs keep falling. The male is being a good dad and running like crazy to keep the fry and eggs up in whats left of the nest.

 

[wuvmybetta]

Sounds like he's doing just fine then. I've had males with no nest at all towards the end. His spit is still good and sticky. (and by "looking too much" I meant you're freaking yourself out more than anything,lol)

 

[Tolak]

I'm wondering if you couldn't add an air stone with just a very light air flow as opposed to using the baster, which does take practice to control. I'm no betta guy, but angel wigglers will often fall off of the slate when they become wigglers, falling to the bottom of the bare hatching tanks I use. The somehow do tend to congregate around the air stone, and become swimmers without any issue.

You do want just a light stream of bubbles with angels, don't want to knock them around much at all.

Didn't know about the labyrinth development, interesting. Learn something new every day.

 

[halfmoonbetta]

I've took a little advice from everyone. Since the dad is doing such a good job, but it seems to be futile, he just couldn't keep up. I took half of the fry out with a turkey baster very gently, and put them in a container with an inch of water and floated it in the tank. Those fry are doing fine, most hang at the top, at the sides of the container. In the tank still the same, dad is running like crazy, the fry are swimming up and falling back down. The male built up the bubblenest a little last night.
I can't believe how small the fry are. I could hardly see the tails, until I saw them swimming.

 

[wuvmybetta]

Tolak, the turkey baster creates waves to give them the "oomph" to get back up, rather than just lay there at the bottom for days. There's not really any bubbles involved if ya do it right. I would be weary of using an airstone as a tool because it gives such little control. Seems it would be clunky and smashy. Betta fry are practically invisible so they're pretty easy to destroy.

halfmoonbetta,your fry in a cup reminded me of an accidental wild spawn I had once, I think it was smaragdina. Found the bubblenest and literally had a "not again, yeesh!" moment and scooped it out with just a smackeral of water. Forgot and picked the cup up to move it like two days later and found over 100 fry

What do you have ready to feed them in a couple days?

 

[Tolak]

Ahh, so it's an assistance thing rather than a O2 or water movement thing, cool. Does surface tension, or a lack of come into play in situations such as these? If so the air stone would be a bad idea.