My new Bettas

[jayc]

I use that Freeze dried blackworms too ! 

From Tech Den?

 

My fish go nuts too.

Cut the cube in half with a sharp knife if it's too big for the fry.

 

They are colouring up already.

Well done Ineke ! 

Edited April 24, 2015 by jayc

[ineke]

Thanks JayC they are keeping me busy with hatching all the BBS. I have the ocean nutrition BBS as a back up but they only eat them if I mix them with the live ones.

Edited April 25, 2015 by ineke

[inverted]

So cute..... Some nice colour coming through! Although Only some seem to have dads colouring....

Rough guess how many you have atm?

Edited April 24, 2015 by inverted

[ineke]

I would say 200. I stopped counting at 150 the other day as they started mingling so I couldn't keep track after that. Still only 2 deaths on day 2 that I'm aware of. I siphon every day and haven't found any bodies.

[inverted]

Good job ineke....you're a good momma! :)

Edited April 24, 2015 by inverted

[newbreed]

They are stunning and growing so fast! Am intrigued to see how the yellow ones develop, they are all stunners but the yellows will be extra special!!

Congrats on your achievements with the betta so soon! You're a natural!!

[ineke]

Thanks Jamie. I'm a bit intrigued by the colours the camera has shown. They don't look like that without the flash but it must be there for the camera to catch it. I have been very lucky so far but so much can still go wrong . It's a bit harder than the shrimp! 

 

I forgot to mention that there are a number of fry that show the dumbo trait already- their pectoral fins are quite big for their body size- so far those that I can see are symetrical which is good because one of the downfalls of breeding dumbo to dumbo is asymetrical fin growth. As this pair are not related at all i might be lucky and not have to cope with a lot of lopsided fry!

Edited April 25, 2015 by ineke

[ineke]

Can't believe the fry are now 4 weeks old and growing well. The largest is 2cm and the smallest about 0.6cm.1 dead this morning -I think from getting siphoned out of the tank yesterday. Checked the water and apart from high nitrates -they had beefheart for lunch and the tank was due for water change - the water was fine 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites. the fry are shown here happily munching on chopped black worms yummy!

Edited May 2, 2015 by ineke

[inverted]

Looking.....Awesome

[ineke]

Thank you inverted -

I need to learn a lot more about raising fry and then I should learn what desirable traits to look for especially as there are still so many of them. Can't keep the same  numbers of fish as I can my shrimp and don't have the room to keep so many males separate- the next few weeks should prove interesting once they start bickering!!!! I'm also having trouble finding suitable jars for the boys- we don't drink enough soft drinks to get 2 litre bottles . So far the cheapest 3 litre jars I can find are $5 each. I will need to be inventive and make my own dividers I think and use any spare tanks and plastic tubs to put the boys in. The girls will be ok I have a 70 litre tank already up and running to put some in and a few other spares around the place but my head is spinning with the boys. The largest takkeaway food containers I can find are 950 ml which will do at a push -I will just have to do lots of water changes everyday- oh what fun!!!!! 

[kizshrimp]

Pasta sauce jars can be useful too

[ineke]

I'm fighting hubby to get to the glass jars - he needs them for his shed - but I noticed IGA has 2.5 litre soft drinks going out at $1.45 might be worth buying them even if I throw out the drink it makes for a cheap good size container.

[inverted]

Omg....what a logistical nightmare.....

If it was me I'd considered auctioning off a few groups as juvis to make room!

[ineke]

I don't know if anyone would be interested in buying them before they know what they are going to look like plus the cost of posting can end up costing more than what you pay for the fish. I think 3 months is the usual age to sell.

At least you can keep the girls together and not all the males fight so it might not be too bad. I already have a lot of interested people following my posts on Facebook and have a SA auction group willing to auction and help me with the shipping, a shop asked me to make sure I get in touch with them once they are ready too so I will have a bit of help. Have to get them to 3 months first though! I've been lucky so far but things can go bad very quickly so I might not have anything to worry about yet!!!!

Certainly makes shrimp keeping a much easier option!

[OzShrimp]

Nice looking guppies ineke! i mean bettas :P

[Garnelchen]

OMG! The fry are so adorable!

If only they stayed that cute.....

[newbreed]

Are you saying adult betta are ugly Garnie?!?!

[ineke]

I was going to say that ! Garnie like small and cute!

[2OFUS]

Why not Dixie party cups ?

Or the large Chinese containers ? Or possibly the clear plastic storage container with a sponge filter

[lodo]

In the past we have purchased juvies at a small size, low price, and unsexed as was a good way for seller to make the spawn manageable.

For jarring out we have used the suction cup betta barracks before, beanie boxes on heat cord/mats, small Chinese take home containers floating in tanks.

Pretty much anything you can heat, but would need daily water changes

[ineke]

Thanks guys -now that the time is closer and there are so many I am more inclined to use the take away containers. Initially I wanted to be the "good " person and give each male his 3-4 litres of water but that will be impossible and besides that hopefully I wont have them for that long The daily water changes aren't an issue as I'm home all the time with plenty of time on my hands . There has been a lot of interest shown basically I think because they are mostly EE or Dumbos. I didn't breed them with the thought of selling - I didn't breed them with much thought at all to be truthful -I didn't think I would have many survive and although it is still early days and they could easily crash overnight it looks like there will be an awful lot of fish left over. I will deal with it as I must and hopefully find homes for most of them. I have learnt a lot of lessons and now know what I would and wouldn't do again but so far I've quite enjoyed the experience. The hardest part I found initially was keeping the BBS up to them. Initially I had a great hatch rate but this last week it's been very poor. I stopped the hatching today as the fish are quite big and taking plenty of other foods. I also didn't realise that feeding beefheart is not a good thing and now have a good frozen fish dinner with  prawns, fish, mussels and krill included in the mix, the fry seem to like it when I grated it into the tank but their favourite is still the chopped live black worms. I now give them tiny pellets and dried black worms for breakfast , live worm for lunch plus some more dried worms and frozen mix, pellets and more dried worms in the late evening. They are still growing well and their tummies are full so it seems to be OK. They also have a heap of live plants in there to munch on- and the insofuria etc that lives in there.

[Morgan]

Try checking dollar stores for containers. Years ago I stumbled on some clear square containers for about $2 each in one of those shops, maybe 1.5-2 litres in size. They look like the kind of thing corner stores keep lollies in at the counter.

I asked one of the assistants, who didn't have great english, if they had any more. A comedy ensued as I tried to explain what I wanted and he finally pulled down a box from above full of them, trying to figure out what I wanted out of the box while I tried to explain I wanted all of them. I finally had to just pick the whole thing up and start walking, he looked at me like I was crazy.

[ineke]

Thanks Morgan I have been looking around but $5 is still the cheapest glass container and $3 for 2 litre plastic. Makes the 2.5 cola bottles at $1.45 with the cola in them a bargain!

[OzShrimp]

Any news @ineke how goes the progress ? 

[ineke]

Total number of fry exceeded 300 of which only 3 died while I had them for 5 weeks. As most of you know I have quite bad back and neck injuries from years of nursing and unfortunately I couldn't cope with the amount of work that looking after this number of fish entailed. I was spending up to 4 hours a day with hatching live food and doing water changes- that many fish require lots of food and copious water changes. In the end I arranged for someone else to take them on and she auctioned them as they became sexable. Unfortunately she lost a few  -probably due to not feeding as much live food and not doing water changes.

Lesson 1) learnt- if you have a large number of fry of this type- these ended a vast majority of males- culling at a young age is advisable.

Lesson 2 ) learnt- don't trust word of mouth arrangements with people you don't know. I didn't breed the fish to make money but was promised half of the proceeds. I will just say I didn't see much money.

I fully enjoyed the experience ,  it was something I had wanted to do for many years, I learnt a lot  but if I was ever to do it again -which I don't think I will -I would make sure I only kept 20-30 fry.