My new Bettas

[OzShrimp]

Shame you got wroughted atleast you got the knowledge out of it

[ineke]

Plus ultimately I did something that I had wanted to do for many years. There were some beautiful Bettas in the batch. I'm most grateful I didn't have to cope with jarring several hundred males - that was a job and a half all by itself!

[lodo]

We only try to have Max 30 at 8 weeks of age. What people have done in the past is sell juvies in lots of 10 or so for dirt cheap to let others grow them out. Please don't let it put you off breeding bettas again. Also as with all hobbies there are people who don't stick to their word. Small spawns helps keep it enjoyable, and makes life easier. Or the other option is try a pair of wilds. Generally smaller spawns and no need to jar out males

[ineke]

Thanks for that- I did enjoy the experience and as I did so well I may try it again at a later date. I bred them at the wrong time of year for us too as we usually travel through winter and I don't have anyone to come and feed or do water changes so that made me realise I can't really keep fish at the moment too. I was taken by surprise with the large number of fry- when I first looked at the eggs I really thought there were only about 30 and would have been thrilled if even half of those had survived for a first try -I gave up counting after 150 in the end as they kept moving and I lost track. The person who took them did do a proper count and claims there were just over 300 -it wasn't in her best interest to lie about the high number so it must have been close to that amount. I have to learn to do things within my capabilities and although I am set up very well to cope with my shrimp -water changes for fish -especially that many - is a whole other thing especially with water temp being so critical. 

At least it was something to scratch off my bucket list -been there done that  -well almost anyway -I suppose it wasn't a complete success because I only reared them for 5 weeks.

[Disciple]

I would be very interested to see the ones you did keep @ineke

They must be pretty good

[ineke]

I didn't keep any at all unfortunately. There were some beautiful fish in the spawn. Jamie ( Newbreed) bought some from the seller  - he might have some pictures.  , there were also a few with a beautiful light and darl pink butterfly pattern. I will see if I can find some pictures the seller sent me. 

These are just a couple I liked

[newbreed]

Some of ‌@inekes beautiful bettas as they grow!!!

[ineke]

Beautiful if I do say so myself! Thanks Jamie it's lovely to see them!

[lodo]

Wish you kept some ineke, would of been great in a show for having been self bred. Nothing beats watching your little babies end up being a show winner, makes all the hard work feel worth it a bit more

[ineke]

In hind sight I probably should have kept a couple but at the time I was in so much pain I wasn't thinking straight. However I would still have had the problem of finding someone to come and feed them when we are away. Auto feeders are ok but still need filling and fish need water changes - I don't have anyone that could come in often enough. 

[exo-aquaristic]

On 3/17/2015 at 6:25 PM, Mamashack said:

I think what you refer to as diamond eye is when the "dragon-scales" grow they are quite thick and gradually move over the eyes eventually causing blindness. This isn't a problem if you don't move the tank decor and have a feeding routine where the betta knows where you'll be putting food in and when. 

I had a dragon-scale betta and didn't manage to establish this routine before he went completely blind and he eventually starved to death.   

My dragon scale plakat have the same fate with you although he did because He is already old I think He is already 2 years old, betta lifespan is just 2 years 

[Bettythebetta]

Nice!


Sent from my iPad using Shrimp Keepers Forum

[ineke]

Because I used photobucket as my source for pictures before they basically held the pictures hostage unless you paid subscription fees and therefore you can no longer see my pictures I have posted a picture of Dad and then pictures of some of the babies . 

[Crabby]

CUTE!!!!!!!! Those babies are adorable!

Just read through the whole thread, sounds like great fun (besides the pain that forced you to hand off the fry). I’ve heard you can keep males in with the females as long as you’ve never separated them since birth. I’m pretty sure they’re okay like that until 3 months, as long as the tank is large enough.

 

I’m actually planning on getting a pair of bettas today (well, I’m going to order them today I think, otherwise I’ll have to wait until the weekend to place the order so they ship on Monday). I’ve got two 5 gallon tanks ready for them (one is empty for the male, the other has an endler and an adult shrimp), and I have a feeling they should suit them well. I’m just unsure whether I should key the temperature of the female’s tank toward her or the shrimp. Probably just gonna go somewhere in the middle with 22-23° if I’m being honest. Do you have any big tips for keeping bettas? My first one died of dropsy after a month, which was extraordinarily off putting, especially considering the research and care I put toward him. I’m really worried that I could stuff it up again. I know people say bettas are super hardy and can deal with lots of abuse, yet somehow mine died when I gave him the best care I possibly could… 

Anyways, I’d really appreciate any help you could offer, as you clearly are quite skilled at keeping and breeding bettas (based on your incredible survival rate of the fry). 

[ineke]

Consistency is the key i feel. Pick the temperature you are happy with i think the extreme cold is what gets them in small tanks.

I have never kept any Bettas in anything smaller than a 30 litre tank but usually they have been in my 60 litre tanks and always with good heaters and good filtration with low flow water movement, plenty of live plants as they Bettas with long fins like to rest on the leaves. It’s quite funny to see them sleeping on a large leaf. . I fed good quality Betta specific dry foods, frozen beef heart and live worms at least once a week or freeze dried black worms will do. Be prepared when you breed them they need vinegar eels or white worms for their first food for about a week and then a daily supply of freshly hatched brine shrimp until they can take larger brine shrimp, chopped up live worms and freeze dried black worms after that. As you can imagine when i had so many fry to feed it was almost an all day process of water changes and hatching brine shrimp daily. If i were to breed them again and have such a large number of fry i think i would cull a lot of them and keep perhaps 30 as that would be much more manageable.

I have never lost one -apart from one of the fry - or from old age. 

Small tanks are harder  to maintain they need regular water changes and decent heaters.

one word of warning Bettas will play with the shrimp even if they don’t eat them although they can and some will eat them but its the playing that is an issue. They chaser and harass they shrimp and ive seen them take chunks out of them . I had a beautiful well planted tank with a sobriety of female Bettas and my first colony of shrimp until i saw the girls chasing the shrimp and some of the poor  shrimp lost legs . I was so devastated i gave the girls away and have never kept shrimp and shrimp together again. 

Good luck its an amazing experience watching the whole breeding and growing out process. My main word of advice would be be prepared , have brine shrimp hatcheries available - there are many good you tube videos on making hatcheries. I used the very simple hatchery of a takeaway container with black tape leaving a window on one side so the hatched eggs/brine shrimp gather by the light and are easy to siphon out. It is an easy way without air or lighting but slightly more wasteful as the hatch rate is much lower. I tried the way with airline and a coke bottle but i needed too many to get enough food so the takeaway container worked better for me as i could have several on the go each day. The fry did so well because i was home and could feed them every 3-4 hours.

[Crabby]

Thank you so much Ineke! That’s really valuable information. I’m gonna keep a close eye on the shrimp, if I notice anything I’ll put him into a spare tank. It’s easy when you only have one lol. 
I’ll be ordering a culture of microworms as a food to condition the adults when I order them. Microworms won’t be too small, will they? I’ve had trouble finding other types of cultures. Can’t source any live black worms unfortunately, or a vinegar eel culture, although I know I’ll have to find one before I try to breed. 

If Melbourne gets another lockdown, I’ll definitely try to breed during that, so I can be home to take care of the fry at the start of their lives. 

From your ideal tank description, I think mine match up, besides the size of course. I’m pretty good with keeping consistent parameters and temp in those tanks though. 

Thanks for your help Ineke ?

[ineke]

Try the black worm farm ( search black worms Australia )they sell freeze dried cubes which are great for conditioning , they also sell worm pellets that the shrimp like too and is a good source of protein. The farm does sell live worms but only in larger quantities about 200g i think from memory and that’s about $60. 

[sdlTBfanUK]

1 hour ago, ineke said:

one word of warning Bettas will play with the shrimp even if they don’t eat them although they can and some will eat them but its the playing that is an issue. They chaser and harass they shrimp and ive seen them take chunks out of them . I had a beautiful well planted tank with a sobriety of female Bettas and my first colony of shrimp until i saw the girls chasing the shrimp and some of the poor  shrimp lost legs . I was so devastated i gave the girls away and have never kept shrimp and shrimp together again. 

This was exactly what I experieced with my first betta and a couple of shrimps, red cherry, in a 8L tank! My current betta is fine with shrimp, but I put tat more down to the fact they are much harder to see being culls, they are brown or clear, and the tank is bigger 25L with a lot of plants etc!

5 hours ago, Crabby said:

 My first one died of dropsy after a month, which was extraordinarily off putting, especially considering the research and care I put toward him. I’m really worried that I could stuff it up again. I know people say bettas are super hardy and can deal with lots of abuse, yet somehow mine died when I gave him the best care I possibly could… 

Again this was my first experience. Second and third didn't do much better (no pun). The last and current have been plain saiing thanks to JayC assistance which is on here under Betta subject! Good luck with the breeding Crabby, I think I have said before, I bought 3 female (?) betta from a closing store but one must have been male as I ended up with about 50 babies (I did think the fish were quite aggressive but dismissed it, should have been a clue????) - it came to nothing as I am housebound so couldn't deal with it in time, the only good part about it was it made me adament I don't want to breed them ever again..................

I plan to go through this whole thread later, haven't yet, got to do some housewor first, d'oh! Still, something to look forward to later.

Simon

[Crabby]

15 hours ago, sdlTBfanUK said:

Good luck with the breeding Crabby, I think I have said before, I bought 3 female (?) betta from a closing store but one must have been male as I ended up with about 50 babies (I did think the fish were quite aggressive but dismissed it, should have been a clue????) - it came to nothing as I am housebound so couldn't deal with it in time, the only good part about it was it made me adament I don't want to breed them ever again..................

I remember you saying this Simon! In my research recently, I found that it’s possible for females to actually change their sex to become male! That may have been what you experienced. It’s really quite fascinating. 

15 hours ago, sdlTBfanUK said:

The last and current have been plain sailing thanks to JayC assistance which is on here under Betta subject!

I’ll make sure to read jayc’s betta advice again over the weekend in case I forgot anything. Glad to hear yours is still doing well!

With the shrimp I’m being a little optimistic, but the shrimp is a tough bugger, and the tank has many spaces where he can hide and the betta won’t be able to touch him (thank goodness for cholla wood ?). Hopefully it won’t come to that. 
 

17 hours ago, ineke said:

 

Try the black worm farm ( search black worms Australia) they sell freeze dried cubes which are great for conditioning , they also sell worm pellets that the shrimp like too and is a good source of protein.

 

Oh I thought you could only use live foods for conditioning. I’ve got a few stores nearby that stock freeze-dried black worms, I might give it a go. If the bettas don’t like it, I’m sure my other fish will. Might be a good prompt to get one of those feeder cups too, they seem pretty handy. 
 

20 hours ago, Crabby said:

I’m actually planning on getting a pair of bettas today

So… I took too long to order them and they both sold ?

Going to get a similar male from the same place, but I think I’ll get a female from a local breeder instead, as the online place doesn’t have any other females I really like. Hopefully I can get some extra tips from the breeder. 
 

Anyways, once I get them I’ll start my own topic. Thanks to both of you for your help. 

[ineke]

live foods are always better me thinks!!! BUT if you can't get any live worms then the freeze dried work well -I resorted to these to feed my fry after 3  weeks I think - I only recommended the black worm farm because it's australian and the freeze dried cubes definitely don't seem to have anything else in them. my fish ate them everytime offered but when I used the other types of dried worms like red worms or tubifex they weren't as interested. That's been my experience but I'm not an expert so read as much as you can and remember as with shrimp what works really well for 1 breeder might not work for another. I  was a complete beginner as far as breeding Bettas is concerned and had enormous success but I was flying blind so to speak and maybe it was just beginners luck. I didn't try again and the next time might have been completely different.

Just have fun and enjoy what you are doing. If what you are doing works then great if not try again -it's a hobby to enjoy and any success if great but it's all a big learning curve. I would absolutely love to do it again but I know my limitations . Even looking after 3 tanks takes a toll on me and water change day means carrying 8 buckets of water plus leaning over to clean the glass etc and the next day I'm like an old granny walking around- but wait I am an old granny LOL - I'm extremely sore and have to take it easy. Hubby has offered to do it for me but it's my hobby so I want to do it. Typical stubborn old woman me!!!!