i know i will have an angry crowd 4 this...

[D'elle27]

Hi! first of all i'd like to say that this was my first attempt in breeding my betta's. And people reading my story perhaps might find it horrifying to know how my experienced has gone!! but i am still learning, and apolgise for all the dumb stuff i did along the way.!!!!!

my babies are 2 months old. However i am down to a steady 10 babies. Is this normal to be left with so little after it seemed as though i had sooo many eggs?
i got my information as much as i could from my local fish shops (we only have 2 in my small town... in Aust). i further researched betta's as i went along the process (bad idea). i guess i have learnt along the way, but now im more educated on just how much care they really need.
Anyways, i have a few questions, to continue caring for my babies.. my fish shops told me NOT to have filters or stuff like that, so i didnt, but ive read that you ARE sposed to
can someone give me more info on the type i SHOULD of been using. i do have a little filter that sticks on the inside. I was more afraid that it would suck up my babies!
Also, after a month and a half, i also find out the pet store gave me wrong info on what to feed them! i had been sold a floating pellet type food that i got instructed to crush into powder sort. and also a tip.. of lettuce leaf being left in the bottom to feed of while they are just young..any1 heard this and how wrong is it?
Anyways. i now find out that i can get Live Brine Shrimp, which i finally got but they just dont seem to know what to do. plus some of these shrimp seem bigger than my babies!!!
Thats also my concern, they are 2 months old and are still really tiny!! how big SHOULD they be at this age? Mine dont have any colour, almost appear see-through! should they have colour and when should i seperate them and know theyre sex? mine seem far to tiny to tell any of that yet
Are they so tiny due to wrong diet for some time.??

I know im getting frowned upon from all Betta lovers out there. Im sorry for sounding so horrible. but any info would be fantastic. i bow down to the experienced haha !
thank you for any replies..

 

[cutecotton]

heya there, well i don't see anything wrong iwht your sotry, it seem slike you tried to find out as much as you can!

i'm still on my first spawn (babies are 5 days) but there are some expert betta breeders out here so mnay they can try to answer someq uestions.

But here is a betta growth cahrt that'll tell you generally how big they should be at the age of 2 months (8 weeks):

http/bettatalk.com/fry_growth.htm

if they're still that tiny at the age of 2 months you may have problems, their growth may have been stunted becuase when they were young, they need live food. (right now my fry are 5 days old and i feed htem live bbs), microworms also work good. I use crushed pellets as a backup only if my bbs fails (like today), but never on a long term diet.

I dont' think they'll eat hte lettuce much honestly, betta fry likes to eat things that are live and moving while they're young. (which is why i have problems getting minet o eat crushed flakes/pellets).

also, did you have a growout tank setup for them? generally they'll need a 40G or so as a growout tank, rather than a 10G or wahtever that they were breed in, usually they are moved to that at around 1.5 months? (correct me if i'm wrong).

i still htink they are tiny becuase thier growth has been stunted since they were on the wrong diet while they were babies

well good luck wiht yoru fry, this is as much help as i can give you

 

[D'elle27]

Hi, thanks soo much for your reply!!
i went and had a look at the growth chart (i just posted new post about it b4 i received your reply) so anyways the growth chart indicates that i am certainly way behind!!!
the picture that matches my babies are at 2 - 3 weeks old yet my babies are 2 months old!!

i think i do have serious problems with them. is there any way of fixing it???

thanks again!

 

[cutecotton]

actually i jst replied to your other post about that, lets try to keep all the replies here or else i'm gonna get confused

 

[D'elle27]

haha im sorry, im sending us all over the place.
thanks again.
i have gotten hold of some live brine shrimp (they appear to be bigger than my own babies) but its the only thing i can get a hold of in my town. do u know of somewhere i can order online? im on Australia

 

[cutecotton]

heya,

live brine shrimp is much too big for your fry at hte moment. you need the brine shrimp EGGS and then hatch them yourself (that's what i'm feeding my fry right now) i dont' order online but usually petstores carry them (you could try and get the eggs and then hatch it).

Frozen bloodworms, daphnia, anythign else that you can think of besides flake food will help too. Otherwise..

also, like i asked before, what size tank do you have them in right now? some may hae died off if your tank was too small, and the size of the tank may have stunted their grwoth.

 

[D'elle27]

oh! ummm i guess ive stuffed up there too!!!! i only have them in about a 10g tank our tank mesurements go by litres. but i think it works out to be about 10g. how many litre tank should my babies be in??
oh im bad at this!!
thanks so much!

 

[jacblades]

i hope everyone else can learn from this and not jump into breeding before researching-FOR THE GOOD OF YOUR FISH!
yes you neeed a sponge or corner filter for the fry tank.
never ever ever listen to what the people at the lfs tell you.
there is actually powdered food you can buy for fry but crushing adult food is not the best option. rihgt now i am using hikari first bites and azoo artificial rotifera. microworms are probably the best bet for day old fry (but i killed my culture so i am using the powdered food now)
i would second the bbs. eggs arent that hard to find. here is a setup that i have copied and like very well (thanks treefrog ) http/fish.orbust.net/forums/index.php?sh...=0&#entry306536
if you only have ten babies, a 10gal is fine.

have you been to bettatalk.com? there is lots of great breeding info there.

 

[cutecotton]

i agree that 10G is alright for 10 babies, but if you started off a big spawn and didn't move them to a growout tank after a while, some may have died off due to overcrowdedness.

anyways, jacblades, i got a question for you, how long will the first bites last before fry "outgrows" them? i'm looking for altneratives to mw for my 6 day old fry.

 

[jacblades]

well this is the first time i am using first bites and artificial rotifera and my fry are only 5 days old. i have been giving it to my goldfish fry and they are exactly one month old and about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch long (so really theyre too big for it but they can eat it anyways. i also give them crushed bloodworms)
i could give it to them till theyre 6 weeks probably but will start to feed crushed bloodworms at maybe 4 weeks. anyways with the bloodworms, there are bigger and smaller pieces for the bigger and smaller fry. since some get amazingly larger than others
first bites is basically just powder. any size fish can eat powder.

i still think brine shrimp is the way t go though. first bites is maybe for when you dont have the time every so often but probably not a good idea s the only food.

 

[endparenthesis]

Whether they exist is still under debate ... but you might need more water changes to get rid of the growth inhibitors that may or may not be getting excreted into the water by them.

 

[cutecotton]

thanks for hte reply jac i just got some first bites hikari from my lfs todya, we'll see how that goes. I spoke to the manager, he was the FIRST person in a store that acutlaly knows about fish!! in fact, he sounded like he was an expert it was like one of you guys from TFF!!

anyways, sorry for hijacking the thread jac do you midn if i pm you if i got some questions?

 

[shrks1fan]

Hello, sorry to hear about your first breeding attempt not going to well, but now you'll know better for next time Live food, water changes, live food and water changes, that's what your fry need Try and track down the baby brine shrimp eggs and get a hatchery going (can find many models by doing a google search on it). The 10 gallon will be fine to growout the 10 that are left. It's not completely unusual for a spawn to dwindle down that low, especially with the circumstances they were under (no live food, no filter). I don't know if their size will be stunted permanently or if they will eventually start growing again after getting on the BBS, only time will tell. The type of filter I use in my spawn/fry tanks are Lustar Sponge filters, they are very inexpensive and easy to use.

Read up alot on breeding Bettas, there are many slightly different ways that successful breeders go about the spawning and fry raising and reading several different view will help you decide what will work best for you and also if something doesn't work will give you other ideas. Here is the link to my Betta page with links to Betta spawning, fry raising etc.

http/www.pet-emporium.com/files/index.php?id=58

Good luck and keep us updated and of course keep asking questions

Linda
http/www.pet-emporium.com/files
http/www.cooking-fanatics.com/files

 

[D'elle27]

just want to say a big thanks to all your advice and ideas, much appreciated. ive got lots new things to go and try now. i feel terrible bout my babies but im getting them back on the right track (thanks to every1 here) and hopefull *fingers crossed* they will be fighting fit soon. I'll let you know how i go.
Thanks again!!