Planted Betta Sorority (Pic Heavy)

[Demeter32]

It took a while, nearly 6 days, but they have finally starting spawning The bubble nest has gotten much bigger and it looks like most of the eggs are getting to the nest just fine. At first I thought the males was eating all the eggs because he wasn't spitting them back out into the nest but he's doing fine now. Looks like the female was roughed up a bit but I think she will heal in a couple weeks. Not too sure how the other two girls are going to take it when I re-introduce her to the sorority so I'm going to put her in a breeder basket/net for a while first. I started a new colony of micro worms since the other one was slowing down a lot, they should be doing well by the time the betta fry need feeding. Pictures will be coming soon

 

[Demeter32]

Well, things went south when the first-time father became a mass murderer and ate the eggs not long after I took the female out. The female looked pretty beat up but that's to be expected and she's pretty much completely recovered now. The other two females didn't bother her much when I put her back in the sorority. Here's a couple pics, one of the CT and one of the female after breeding.


I recently got into "black water" and did a bit of researching. I've read of several people adding oak leaves to betta tanks and it has a similar effect as Almond leaves so I put about 6 in the sorority tank. I also am working on setting up a ten gallon as a spawning tank for bettas (planning on getting a new male) I used half tap water (pH of 7.8ish) and half water from a dehumidifier (pH of 7) then soaked oak leaves in it to add tannis and tint/soften the water. The resulting pH is around 7.2. Its a work in progress so there will be more updates on that.

I don't really remember if I ever said anything about the new nerites snails but here's a picture of the too of them on the anubias leaves. Btw I stole the HOB that was on the CT's tank and put it on the sorority tank. The CT has a sponge filter for now. And that concludes today's update

 

[Demeter32]

I feel like I should start a new thread for the "blackwater" tank so that's what's going to happen. The updates here are probably going to slow down a bit while I focus on the black water tank.

I finally found a healthy bunch of jungle val at the new LPS and bought some without a second thought. I only bought one bunch for 4$, which seemed a bit expensive for 2 small 6 inch long plants. I haven't got around to planting them yet, but I will in a bit. For now the metal band is keeping them from floating around. Unfortunatley they didn't have any khuli loaches so I will go back in a few weeks to look around again.

 

[supperfish]

So you have tried it with males? I think it would be awesome to be able to do that!

I think the reason why people find it so terrible when putting more than 1 betta in a tank is because the bettas are already too mature and territorial to become a peaceful community. Starting out with really young bettas goes a long way towards a workable mix. Of course you want to have an appropriate tank size and all that good stuff.

I don't have the courage to try it with male bettas, and I don't know where I could buy really young males either. Perhaps in the future I wouldn't mind trying it, but I would definitely use a 20 gallon long, or something with a larger foot print.

Demeter32, you can breed your Betta and raise the fry to adult.

 

[Demeter32]

Yeah I'm working on trying to get fry to the free swimming stage. Every time I've had them spawn the male always ended up eating the fry/eggs. If I do ever get a batch of fry going, I plan on keeping several of them together in their own tank.

 

[Demeter32]

I went to Petsmart yesterday hoping to find a male plakat to my liking but ended up buying a dark female crowntail. I admit it was an impulse buy but I didn't find any good males and didn't want to go home empty handed. She's still pretty small so I don't really know what color she is. To me it looks like black with metallic coloration on her scales. I don't regret buying her, she's really healthy and active and staying in the 10 gallon intended for a male. In a week or two I plan on introducing her to the other females and seeing how it goes. Her rays are very straight and pronounced, no tears are flaws that I can see. She's learned how to beg like any other betta as well. Pictures will be uploaded in a couple days.

As for the other girls, they are doing pretty good. I never see any aggression from them, but the pink and red HM had a small chunk missing from her anal fin, which has since started healing. The blue veiltail is still the queen, and her tail has recently grown a little more to form a faintly pointed tip. The metallic blue HM is still my favorite ans looks lovely as usual. She has completely recovered from spawning. The new jungle val has grown a few new leaves, but it looks like it's going to be a while before I see some good growth. I believe the crypts' roots are poking out of the sand, seeing as how there's very root-like things sticking straight out of the sand all over the place.

 

[Demeter32]

After a week of no symptoms of illness from the new female, I'm starting to introduce her to the others. I made a crude DIY breeder basket out of old window screening, hot glue and straws. I put that in the planted 10gal and then added the crowntail. The 3 older girls don't seem to care about it at all. They took a look and went about their business. Hopefully I can let her out in a week or so and they will get along.

 

[Demeter32]

I lied. I didn't bother waiting a week to let the new girl out. I let her out yesterday and it amazes me how much the others don't care. I've see zero flaring and zero chasing/nipping. They go up to her to just have a look but that's about it. They beg and eat together, and do their own thing. It's definitely not what I expected to happen. Of course things could go bad at any time but everything looks promising so far.

 

[Demeter32]

Things are apparently going bad. Looks like quarantining the new girl for one week wasn't enough. The red/pink HM has a clamped tail fin that looks a bit fuzzy and the blue HM's dorsal fin is looking fuzzy as well. I think I will be treating the entire tank with Tetra Fungus guard. I'm not 100% sure this was caused by adding the new girl but one of the nerites and a rams horn snail also died, perhaps their rotting bodies has something to do with it? I did a big water change yesterday but the girls don't seem any better. Hopefully I can cure whatever this is quickly

 

[Demeter32]

So the fungus guard is still doing its thing in the main tank, but I decided to hopefully speed things along by giving the two HM girls a 30ish minute bath in a higher concentration of Quick cure (it's usually used for ick but it should help with fungus/bacteria too). They both handled it just fine and are back in their tank. The blue HM seems to be getting better, her dorsal fin looks about normal now. The red/pink HM has gotten a little worse. Her entire tail is sort of clamped and her anal fin has a split and some of the fuzzy looking stuff on the end. I don't think this is normal fin rot, because the edges aren't effected, it's the entire fin. On the pink/red, the effected area is a little darker and there is an obvious film over it, not very thick but it's there. She won't spread her tail at all, but still eats a like a pig. I really hope it doesn't develop into a case of dropsy.

 

[NickAu]

Ouch

 

[Demeter32]

That quick cure bath must of done some thing magical, because the pink/red HM is looking better. Her tail isn't clamped as much and she's spreading it and moving it a lot more. I don't see the fuzzy film over it either

As a side note, I finally might be able to buy some khuli loaches, but they are the black ones. Haven't decided if I'm going to buy them, but if I do they'll go in a different tank for a while until the girls are cured.

 

[NickAu]

What ever tank you put them in thats where they stay, Your chances of catching all of them in a planted tank, without ripping the tank apart or hurting the loaches is about zero.

 

[Demeter32]

Lol yeah I understand that I've seen the pet store employees trying to net them and it looks like hassle. That's why they get to stay in a bare bottom tank until they can go in the planted one.

 

[NickAu]

Give the some cover or they will freak out, Even if its a few Indian almond leaves sitting on the bottom