Male and Female Community cont...

[xanthianacid]

Emerald (aka She-Devil) and Mr Personality spent time together spawning. This is a good thing because she was very laden with eggs, but now she's tired and laying in the plants up top. The Snakeskin who is even more laden with eggs (she looks like she's got a huge tumor - much bigger than Livebearers get possibly). I had to take her out and put her into another cup because she was having a go at Emerald who is in no condition to defend herself. The other girlies are hassling Mr Personality but completely ignoring Emerald, so she's in recovery.

Mr Personality is defending his nest vigilantly, but won't leave it longer than to chase off other fish to a certain degree. I am at odds as to what to do now. I am torn about taking him away from the nest, not am now not sure if I want to try and save the fry. How important is his role with the eggs anyway? Emerald has done quite a bit of defending the nest too, I might add. Its the only attempt I've had at breeding Bettas that has been sucessful, strangely enough.

I don't think anyone's in danger of Mr Personality. I think more likely he is going to be too tired to do his job for three days, thats a long time against so many fish. I've never heard of this situation before, I could put him into a new tank with the fry but that might be worse for him than doing nada.

I've got a tank going with the fry that my hubby saved from my guppy girl. I could put them in there but I am not sure if new born guppys are capable of eating the betta babies. I didn't think it would matter much to me if it became fish food or not, but it makes me want to breed properly next time, like wuvmybettas pinned topic. It's inspired me.

There is still the issue of the snakeskin half moon. I don't want to lose her, but she hasn't dropped her eggs. What should I do with her? Currently in a cup, thinking of getting a male for her, unsure, confused Well, Mr Personality did two things besides potentially become a daddy today. He's saved some of the female aggression plus he's saved Emerald from having problems from not being able to get rid of her eggs, so he deserves a reward!

Thanks for listening I know it was a long post.

 

[Kiarra]

Without the male there guarding the eggs, the females WILL eat the eggs. Even with him there, they're trying to sneak in and get them. Because females love caviar even more than males do.

The newborn Guppy fry can eat newborn Bettas. You'll see when the eggs hatch...the fry are virtually microscopic. And they'll probably all get eaten by females when they leave the nest. Or, at least, most of them will.

Betta fry are also extremely delicate, much moreso than Guppy fry are. A transfer at this critical age would kill them. The slightest chill would kill them. I doubt any of them will live in this setup, considering everybody but their father will consider them food, and they can't swim for about 2-3 days after hatching, and, after that, are fairly weak and retiring and can't get around incredibly well.

If you want them to live, you'll have to start feeding them when (if!) the first one becomes free-swimming. Get a microworm culture if you can, get some BBS (preferably live, but frozen CAN work). You can also feed them some commercial diets if they'll take it, like Liquifry #1. I raised a batch through a little more than their first week with Liquifry #1 before I started giving them frozen baby brine shrimp.

Don't be surprised if they all get eaten and/or die. Betta fry are particularly weak, defenseless, and fragile at hatching than livebearer fry, and smaller than most fry period.

Also, your male will defend his nest to the death of either female or himself...or he'll crack under the pressure and eat all his eggs and fry. Even in ideal conditions, they can crack under the pressure and eat all of their eggs and fry.

 

[xanthianacid]

So far so good with everybody in the main tank.

The snake hm is still in trouble. She was constipated, being alone has given her the stress relief to be able relax enough to get rid of it. Thank goodness, but she still is laden with eggs. I don't have any other male in prime condition for breeding. It wouldn't actually take alot for me to set up the right breeding environment, but with no male what is the point?

The Purple Maruader is in recovery after being nipped alot, even though hes healthy and swimming about I'm not about to put him in their with her!

I guess I will just wait for a little longer. Humph. Its difficult

 

[Kiarra]

She could still drop the eggs on her own. Separate her from the sight of all other fish. That should at least slow down her production of eggs, if not stop it.

 

[xanthianacid]

That's been done already. Unfortunately only in a cup for now, but it is only suppose to be very temporary. The cup is of the large clear kind though, she has room to swim around. Its a hospital I guess. Its definately not permanent, and it is the kind of cup one would put into a breeding situation for a girl anyway, so i dont think any harm will be done.