My 5 New Betas

[emsteve]

and what surprises me is... I managed to find all 5 at Wal-Mart! Chaos is my favorite I've had my eye on him for a few days. When I saw him the first time, he had about 4 inches of water and I made mom help me get someone to get him more water!

I've had Calamity, Blase, and Chaos for about.... 10 hours. Chaos has already built himself a bubblenest. Fighter did that within 24 hours of us having him as well. I feed them bloodworms for the most part, but they also get the beta pellets and Bettamin tropical meledy with freeze dried brine shrimp. But, Fighter has barely any hope in spawning. All he has done for the 3 hours my female(Azure) was in there (almost certain she was full of eggs, too) all he did was flare at her, and chase her around the tank. After a while, she started flaring right back and he slightly laid off. I took her out and put her back into her tank. Hopefully, my females will be ready to spawn. I wonder what their fry will look like with Chaos and Azure, or Chaos and Calamity?

 

[liz2]

They are some beautiful fish you have there. IMO I would wait to breed them, they need conditioning first or you will run into trouble!
Chaos is my fave..I am a sucker for pale colours but I just cant keep them

 

[emsteve]

I'm conditioning to spawn them atm. I've been conditioning Azure for a while, and everything was going good, he built his bubble nest, etc. But then when I put them in together he chased her around for 3 hours flaring and wanting to fight. I have a feeling he will most def. not be laid back enough to breed, no matter the circumstances! Then again, I had left for almost 3 hours... So they could've done what they needed to do while I was gone....
What really got him to built a bubble nest was.. I put a smaller glass bowl in, filled it a little over halfway with water, which caused it to float ontop of the water, put my female in, and my male could see her. He swam around it and she chased after him, but they didn't realize they were apart. Silly bettas.

Can you believe I got all 5 from WAL-MART?!


How would you recommend conditioning them, and for how long?

Chaos is my favorite too, I had my eye on him for about 4 days until I finally got him and I just love him. Blaze is my second favorite, then comes Azure, Fighter, Calamity (her colors aren't very bright or anything, but she's very laid back, and acts timid.)

 

[constantine03]

I like Chaos the best too!

Here's how I've been conditioning my fish.

I put them in their own 1 gal containers, and put these inside a large rubbermaid container surrounded by water with a heater in it. That's a cheap way to keep them all warm while conditioning, which is a must. Just make sure you can put something between them (plastic, or something) to obstruct their views of each other. This will prevent stress. The smaller individual containers are needed as well as water changes every day or two are needed as well when feeding high protein foods. Then feed high protein foods such as frozen, thawed brine shrimp or blood worms, or live foods like white worms, grindal worms, blood worms, daphnia, mosquito larvae, etc. 3-4 times a day. Feed them until they don't want anymore, then wait about 3 minutes and give them a bit more. You should do this for at least two weeks, but the longer you do it, the more eggs the female will produce. It's also necessary for the males so they can build their strength as spawning is a strenuous process for them.

I just had my first successful spawn. I put my male in the tank first (bare bottom, conditioned water with IAL (about 5" high), live plants, and a piece or halved styrofoam cup. I give him a couple days to get a nice bubble nest going without the distraction of the female. Then I introduced the female in the chimney. I left her in there for 3-4 hours, then released her. My first female chased the male and destroyed his nest. She either wasn't ready, or isn't a good breeder. The second female got right to it with him after he'd rebuilt his nest.

Good luck!

 

[emsteve]

You don't live too far from MO, constantine. :

I put the male in a 1 gal. container, put a smaller bowl in where he cant get to her, but can still see her, and that encouraged Fighter to built a big bubblenest. I put the female in for about 3 hours today, and left them in their together while I went to Pizza hut with a couple of friends. When I came back, I didn't think anything happened between them, and I still don't. I noticed that the bubbles did start popping though. Now it's a smaller bubble nest, so I'm wondering if they did spawn and the bubbles that haven't popped yet are fertilized but I'm not sure. He does seem to guard them. The female is in the bowl next to him and he flares at her everytime she's on the side of her bowl that's right next to his bubble nest. People told me to look with flashlights and if I see a tiny white speck then it's fertilized. But gosh, I tried and I don't know wether I'm seeing a reflection, or if i'm seeing a white speck I'm a mess. haha

 

[constantine03]

a 1 gal container is VERY small for a breeding tank. I'd suggest using a 5 gal as a minumum. 10 gals work well. Remember that the babies have to grow in there as well. You also need to be sure to only have about 5 inches of water. If you have that water level in a 1 gal container, you probably don't even have 1/2 gallon of water. You need to read the sticky about breeding bettas before you try again next time. It's very helpful, and you'll probably see many things in there that you need to be doing that you aren't.

 

[emsteve]

everywhere I go.. I see tiny tiny tiny containers with bettas that have probably been in there for a while, too. It makes me so sad to see it. I just bought 5 within this past week, but today, i bought 8 more. I know I can't save them all, but still. If i can help a few, then I'm atleast helping.