My Little Ones Are Finally Growing Up!

[spilz]

quality, fair play mate, they look really healthy, i really hope mine breed now, the bubble nest is built, but the female doesnt seem too interested so im not letting her out yet.

any chance you could give me a quick overview of your techniques??

once again, nice one for the youngsters

I breed mine in a 10 gallon tank with 3-4 inches of water in it, heated to around 80 degrees F (submersible heater) and I put in a seasoned sponge filter (I don't turn it on until the fry hatch and are free-swimming- the water movement will disturb the nest too much). I also put in plants for the female to hide in, and half a styrofoam cup for the male to build his nest under. I condition the fish for at least a week by doing frequent water changes, feeding lots of live foods, and letting them see each other for an hour or so each day. I am a little concerned that since you've kept your fish together, they may be too used to each other to be interested in breeding, but I've never tried it so who knows.

I put the male in the tank and put the female in a hurricane lamp (a jar is fine too) and let them flirt for a while. If the female doesn't seem interested, I will let her out into the tank for a little while then put her back. I might repeat that a few times. It lets her interact with the male and I think they may release hormones into the water that induce spawning as well. When the female seems interested and I have a day off to stay home and keep an eye on them, I let the female out for good and wait for the magic to happen. I've also heard that a low barometric pressure induces spawning, so wait for a rainy day if you can.

I really do recommend getting cultures of vinegar eels and/or microworms established before breeding. It just sucks trying to scrounge up food for the fry from a culture that isn't producing much yet, and can result in lots of dead fry or at least slowing down their growth (ask me how I know!)

Let me know if you get them to spawn, and I can help you through the rest of the process.

i really appreciate this, luckily i am friends with a man who used to breed 30'000 fish a month lol, so i can easily get food for my fry (if i get any),i know you may be wondering why i dont ask him how to breed them. but i dont have time to go and see him, as i am really busy at uni, so i rely on wise words from people like yourself. i think i am going to give them a week to breed, and if they dont i am thinking of splitting them up into community tanks and getting a new breeding pair,as i have more than enough room, (and another student loan coming through haha)

once again, thanks for all your help

 

[jourdy288]

Thank you! My movie trailer will be up in a matter of minutes.

 

[spazzinout53]

thats really cool to see the process of them getting bigger
i have the same question as 12azor, what are you going to to with them?

 

[Bubblenester]

What do you do with them all?

Sell them to the lfs or sell them to popele on here?

I actually work at the LFS, so it's no problem to sell to them. I'll offer some of the nicer ones here, though... I don't know if they'll be really good breeding quality, but from reading posts here, it sounds like a lot of people are looking for bettas that are more interesting or healthy than pet store fish even to just keep as pets.

i really appreciate this, luckily i am friends with a man who used to breed 30'000 fish a month lol, so i can easily get food for my fry (if i get any),i know you may be wondering why i dont ask him how to breed them. but i dont have time to go and see him, as i am really busy at uni, so i rely on wise words from people like yourself. i think i am going to give them a week to breed, and if they dont i am thinking of splitting them up into community tanks and getting a new breeding pair,as i have more than enough room, (and another student loan coming through haha)

once again, thanks for all your help

Sounds like you're set, then! A week sounds like a good deadline. I think my first pair took a week, and since then it's been usually just a day or so once they're in the spawning tank. I thought I was the only one who spent my student loans on Aquabid

 

[lisie]

Oh my goodness, how precious are they!

Do you have pics of the parents?

And what camera do you use? Those are the best fry pics I've ever seen!

 

[wendyngd]

Just beautiful! Makes me want to try breeding bettas--though I don't have the room. We have had a few "litters" of mollies, though.

Re incredible photos? Did you use a flash on the whole tank picture? I'm asking since you froze their movement...

Thanks for sharing-Wendy

 

[lljdma06]

What are your plans for the little ones?

 

[*Bethie*]

Cute babies! You've done well! I'm on my second batch and I have 5 that have made it to a month, so I must be doing something right.

*Bethie*

 

[Bubblenester]

Oh my goodness, how precious are they!

Do you have pics of the parents?

And what camera do you use? Those are the best fry pics I've ever seen!

I posted a pic of the father (the mother is shy). I use a Nikon Coolpix 4100, nothing fancy. For every good photo that I get, there are at least 20 that I delete... lol. It only has automatic focus so it's really hard to get it to focus on small fry... that's why there are no photos between the time they were in the nest (it's easy to focus on the nest) and the time that they were getting fairly large.

Just beautiful! Makes me want to try breeding bettas--though I don't have the room. We have had a few "litters" of mollies, though.

Re incredible photos? Did you use a flash on the whole tank picture? I'm asking since you froze their movement...

Thanks for sharing-Wendy

Little mollies are so cute! I used a flash for every photo. They're too fast otherwise!

Cute babies! You've done well! I'm on my second batch and I have 5 that have made it to a month, so I must be doing something right.

*Bethie*

Congratulations! My first two spawns had 3-4 survivors, and the third one had 212. So just hang in there.

 

[imwithstephen]

That's wicked, it's cool to see the process. Did you find it difficult to get them to breed, or wasn't this your first time?

S

This is maybe our... 7th spawn? It went more smoothly than most. Maybe we're just starting to get the hang of it or something. I'm still annoyed that I didn't get any photos of the fish actually spawning, but I definitely will next time!

Ah right, lol! Don't take this as an insult to your betta-breeding-intelligence, but can you briefly share with me of how their breeding habbits work? I was of understand these are difficult fish, and should be kept a lone. (still learning).

I'm 99.9% sure one of my dalmatian Mollies is going to have babies pretty soon... How long does the cycle usually last, from conceiving to birth?

S

 

[Bubblenester]

Ah right, lol! Don't take this as an insult to your betta-breeding-intelligence, but can you briefly share with me of how their breeding habbits work? I was of understand these are difficult fish, and should be kept a lone. (still learning).

I'm 99.9% sure one of my dalmatian Mollies is going to have babies pretty soon... How long does the cycle usually last, from conceiving to birth?

S

In a nutshell... you put the male and female in a tank together, and the male blows bubbles to build a nest. They beat each other up for a little while, until they decide they're ready, and then the male wraps around the female and squeezes the eggs out of her, fertilizing them as they come out. Then he scoops them up in his mouth and blows them into the nest. You have to take the female out, and the male cares for the eggs until they hatch and can swim on their own.

Males have to be kept alone, and males and females generally can't be kept together, but females can be kept in groups in larger tanks. They're still a little aggressive toward each other but usually not too bad. Young bettas can be raised together for at least a couple months, but eventually the males have to be jarred.

For mollies, I'm not sure, but guppies drop fry about once a month... I'd imagine mollies would be about the same. If your molly looks like she's about to explode, she probably is having the babies soon.

 

[tropicalgirl2007]

love daddy, I have just had my first born, They are now a week old.

 

[merry78]

heyyy, that's amazing! it almost inspires me to start looking for breeding quality bettas......NO! Bad merry! NO more fish *slap* stop it!! stop it right now!!!

 

[jourdy288]

Bad Merry! No liver treats!

 

[devon_charm]

heyyy, that's amazing! it almost inspires me to start looking for breeding quality bettas......NO! Bad merry! NO more fish *slap* stop it!! stop it right now!!!

Bad Merry! No liver treats!

lmao thats too funny

You lil babies are beautifal by the way, mine are getting there and i can't wait to be able to sex them.