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My new Bettas


ineke

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Woot woot ...Congratulations...... Time to be Mum..... Lots of sleepless nights and 3 hr shifts ahead for you :D

Edited by inverted
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The fry are free swimming today so dad has come out and first feed of vinegar eels given. I counted thirty but there are more swimming around the more I look the more I see. Very exciting

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good news make sure you keeps us updated. I would like to see photos of the growth cycle if you get a chance :P 

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I will try Shaun but they don't show up on my camera it doesn't focus on them. I will give it another go tomorrow. Seeing those little tails hanging was awesome. There are an awful lot of fry swimming around now. I thought there were only 30 but there are many many more. Early days though I'm not expecting them all to survive otherwise they will be a free gift when buying my shrimp! No just kidding! There are a lot though that's for sure.

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fry are growing quickly and every time i look in the tank there seems to be more! i tried taking pictures but without a macrolens its hard to get the camera to focus on them, they are 6 days old today.. i took a few and cropped and zoomed but the quality is pretty poor. its my skills not the camera! i put a couple of pictures of dad in, his fins are getting longer- he is quite a striking looking fish, he certainly doesnt like his picture taken he kept hiding under an IAL everytime the camera came too close. it was quite funny with him peering out at me and the minute i took the camera away out he would come quite pleased with himself!.

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Edited by ineke
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I'm hatching fresh Baby Brine Shrimp each day plus I started them off on vinegar eels which are really tiny. The fry are bigger than the size charts I have been looking at so I think the fact I'm home and feeding 4 times a day may be why. The mule you see on the bottom of the tank is the IAL breaking down - if I spawn again I won't put them in the tank I will just make a tea from them and use that.

I'm not sure when they get colour I have read about 6 weeks but I guess it depends on their colour. Mine are a pink / Crimson so may take longer. I will put up a picture each week - hopefully the quality will improve as they get bigger.

There are so many of them it frightens me a bit - what do you do with so many fish especially when you have to separate the boys. Still it's early days yet and I might lose some - I've only found 2 dead so far and that was day 2. I wasn't expecting so many for a first time but I will also need to cull any deformities in a few weeks so that may cut the numbers. I can't see any yet but they are small so bent backs etc may not show up. I have some oil of cloves for the deed if necessary but I've never euthanised fish before so not looking forward to that side of it.

Edited by ineke
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From what I've seen lots won't make it..... I will take one when they grow up!

There's a video on YouTube of a farm in Thailand and they keep them in bottles (tens of thousands) and just change the water regularly.

Looking forward to your updates..... Save me a good one ;)

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I'm not expecting them all to survive but I was expecting to start with 20-30 but still we will worry about it when I run out of room!

I've seen that bottle video- clean water is the go I'm sure.

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These images are great Ineke! Congrats on the amount of fry, looks like your planning and preparation are paying off!!

Don't worry too much about having too many juveniles, just setup another few tanks in another room! Lol

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He is a beautiful looking boy!! Hope his traits carry across to most of the fry!! [emoji2]

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Both the parents are quite stunning - it's just a pity the girl has diamond eye on one side. The Dumbo gene is usually recessive but as I've bred dumbo to dumbo I might be lucky and get some F1 Dumbos. The parents aren't related andI don't know their breeding other than they come from well known breeders according to the seller.

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Really don't like the term diamond eye :s seems to have popped up recently as a way to make a fault sound desirable :s

Similar to samarai being a Dragon without full coverage.

Saying that, I don't think it's too much of a worry with breeding as I doubt it would pass on to many fry.

On a happier tune fry at looking good :)

Keep up water changes and feeding and they will grow like crazy.

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Thanks Iodo -I only use that term because that is what I was told it was  and don't really know what else to call it. I probably won't use her for breeding again nor will i use any fry that have it. I'm not sure if I will cull the babies with it -depends on how many survive and how many have the scale- certainly if they have it on both eyes they will be culled.

 

The fry are growing very quickly and I'm continuing to feed 4 feeds a day. I am using a pipette to take out any mulm /debris as I keep catching fry when I siphon from the bottom. I did an ammonia test today as I was worried about over feeding but the ammonia is 0. I am adding 1500 mls of water daily and taking out about 500ml. I have a double sponge filter with a slow bubble rate running. Temp is around 28/30. Still haven't found anymore dead fry- they were easy to see when I found the only 2 that I found.

I have some live plants in the tank but plan to add more over the weekend as the fry like being in amongst the leaves. I will read up about adding grated worms and beefheart - I forget how old they need to be I thought it was 2 weeks but will double check before I start. I have stopped the vinegar eels and just feed the BBS at the moment. So far it is going well and week 1 is done and dusted. I know things can change suddenly and I could very easily lose the lot but at the moment all is well and I'm enjoying the new experience -apart from that little niggle of what happens if they all survive!!!!!! :bth_aquariumsmile1-vi:

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I've noticed a few of the fry have larger pectoral fins than the others so hopefully that means a few will show the Dumbo fins . I can only see them when looking down through the water not side on through the glass but the others you can't see the pectorals at all yet.

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Fantastic stuff Ineke, doing very well & I cant wait to see more pics as they progress. :thumbsu:

Edited by Squiggle
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I'm very happy with their progress so far but it's early days yet and lots can go wrong especially as I'm learning as I go. I added more stem plants today which they very quickly went and explored. There are so many of them ! I love watching them chase down the brine shrimp too cute!

I have them in a 20" tank which from memory holds about 30 litres, I have stopped counting at 100 fry so I'm guessing I will have to put them into a bigger tank fairly soon even with regular water changes . I have an oversize 30 " it's made to the dimensions of a 3 footer but only 30" instead of 36" otherwise just as tall and deep. That will be my grow out tank but I wasn't going to move them until they were about 6 weeks think I might have to set it up soon and get it to the same parameters as what they are in now.

Will just sponge filters be enough for them ? I have a spare canister but thought that might be too powerful for them. I also have a good Eheim internal filter that I could use but again the flow rate is quite high. I haven't used sponge filters for fish before.

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i have seen ssetups with just sponges but its just a matter of getting the bacteria colony established

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The bacteria isn't a problem i have at least 2 sponge filters in every tank so  can swap a sponge from each twin filter for a new one .That way it won't affect the shrimp and the filters will already be seeded- maybe at a lower rate than fish need but it will build up quickly plus I will need to do lots of water changes anyway with the number of fish I have - if they all survive ofcourse.

 

Measured them today and they are an average of  5-8 mm. 

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Well we have reached week 2 and the fry are huge -I will try to find the time to get the camera out - there are a few small ones at 0.4cm and some huge ones at almost 1cm -I have a ruler along the bottom of the tank at the front and when someone comes to see what I'm doing  i take a measurement so fairly accurate. They seem bigger than the growth charts but given that I feed 4 times a day with freshly hatched BBS I guess they are getting a good start. I haven't had anymore losses besides 2 on day 3. I siphon water out each day and I'm pretty sure there are no little bodies lying hidden anywhere. This leaves me with a dilemma because there are soooo many of them!!!!! I will have to move them to  a bigger tank next week as they will out grow the 20" pretty soon.

When can I start to feed them grated frozen worms and beefheart? I have live black worms but the babies couldn't manage them even if I could manage to cut them up.  I might see if I can get some grindal worms?

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We are 21 today 21 today- days that is! The spawn is growing so quickly the big ones are 1cm already. Here are just a few pictures!

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fry6_zpsd05bch0d.jpg

Dad_zpsyaq0fwjz.jpg

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Before you ask that is freeze dried black worms they are munching on. Yes I know they are a bit young but some are big boys and although they get heaps of VE and BBS I thought they needed something extra so yesterday I put a cube up for them and they went nuts so now I will put s fresh one in each day. It certainly keeps them occupied. I will also start some grated frozen beefheart just before water change each day plus a good quality fry pellet which is very tiny. 

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