CT x HM X HM BETTA

Good day everyone

So some of you might know that I started to breed some betta's, well this is final now as I have my first batch of fry.

This is dad:


And this is mom ( not the greatest of pics as she is in the chimney):


Pics to follow of the nest etc..

 

The nest:

So this was the first nest he built for the female, this was on a Thursday. I wanted to be home to monitor the situation (was afraid of him killing her and was my only female at that stage):



So as you can see a full cup of nice bubble nest. I decided that the nest would have to wait for Saturday when I am home to monitor the situation, woke up Saturday, and the nest was gone.

So then attempt two had a less impressive nest, he barely had one this time around, I took the risk and released the female with him. He nipped her a bit but she was ready for him. He upgraded the less impressive nest and come Sunday the spawned happened when I was driving around to family etc. When I got home Monday afternoon after work, I noticed that he tried to intimidate her away from the nest, he didn't nip her however, this was fascinating to see that he tried to warn her to stay away from the nest, she got the hint. At this time I assumed there are eggs in the nest. I netted the female out. I couldn't view the cup as nicely as I wanted to as I moved the cup to another location in the tank (this was stupid of me)


So coming to the exciting part, the fry. So I am extremely proud of this male he has been picking up fry left, right, bottom, top and centre:



This is daddy under the nest:



And finally a close up of a few of the 320 fry I counted this morning:

 

Sorry for the multiple posts. I would just like to say thanks to @HennieRoux for guiding me through this process and @Talha for selling me some females. I realize that the hard work starts now.

 

Very nice @hein24 .... Congrats and good luck with the babies.

 

Congratulations!

 

Well done @hein24 thats a big batch, lots of bbs and mw to feed, take male out as soon as fry is free swimming, if you have not done so allready. When can I pop around? I am open Sat and Sunday?

 

Thanks @HennieRoux , you got whatsapp my friend:amuse:
As for the male he is still with them, they struggling to swim still so he picks them up from the bottom where ever they lay down and spits them out at the top. I want to see what the situation is when I get home this afternoon. If I see they swimming fine he is out of there. I feel sorry for this male he is working his fins off to take care of the fry.

 

Nice well done Hein good luck with raising them

 

Thanks for all the positive replies guys...
I am really looking forward to raising them, know its demanding but looking forward to seeing these grow.

 

Well done @hein24 !!

 

Congrats.Nice big batch of fry.Now for the hard work but is realy worth the time and effort.I had my first betta fry two and a halve months ago and only lost one.it was only a small batch but I enjoyed raising them.If it was not for Hennies advice and help I would not have been succesful.Goodluck.

 

Thanks Guys...

Fry had some Micro Worm last night and bought some liquifry step 1. (Dad is still in the tank and nursing them to the top of the tank) let's just put it this way he likes the Liquifry. From my judgement most (80%) of the fry should be free swimming this afternoon. I will remove the male then. There is still a lot of them at the bottom of the tank when I looked this morning. I just added an airstone barely bubbling and developed a slow drip system with aged water. This drip system adds water into the fry tank but reeeeeeaaaalllly slowly. In 15 hours it only releases 400ml water into the system, thus not alternating the temp that much.

The water level is really low so I needed to do something to get it up but gradually as I don't want to shock the newly hatched fry. I want the level higher as I would like to start the small sponge filter but again really barely bubbling to have some filtration going. Also would like to do some siphoning and to keep the tank crystal clean and clear. Want them fry to be happy and healthy hehe.

 

Great stuff Hein. Good idea with the drip system, I do it for my Killis as well. Most Killis cannot tolerate being introduced to deep water soon after hatching - they become belly sliders - is it the same for Betta? I would think so as they share the same conditions in nature?? Where did you buy the liquifry. I've been looking all over for it - have some really small Notho's that cant take BBS yet...

 

I went to 3 petshops in the West Rand and then finally I found some. I will PM you the store name (don't want to cause trouble braking rules, you know)

As for the water depth the water level is currently on 7 cm, I needed to be at least 10 cm.That gives me some water to siphon and drip new water in at a regular intervals. Total volume if I needed to fill the tank/tub would be around 30 liters.

@HennieRoux maybe you could inform us here would be interesting to know?

I would like to move the Fry to a bigger tank once a month old. Tank is about 130L but it has a Stainless Steel base and I need to replace it. I am concerned with the stainless steel base and I don't trust it. I have been informed that any metal that gets in contact with water releases ions and this could cause a huge imbalance in the system. This system has really good internal filtration, running a UV in it as well as this is just a safety precaution to make sure that all nasty's are taken care of.

For now everything is going to plan with these guys, I will post updates frequently going forward with regard to the fry.

 

No in my many years of breeding Bettas I have never heard of this, I bred my bettas in a 2 foot, this was normaly just under half full, after a week of feeding a started filling up the 2 foot, and about 2 weeks later its filled to the top. 2 months later I would move them to a 3 foot, and another 2 foot, depended on batch size and male dominance. Fighting starts from about 2.5 months, some even earlier.

 

Interesting!! @hein24 sorry for the hijack :- @HennieRoux would water from my Daphnia cultures have sufficient infusoria to feed my little Notho's you think?

 

I would think so @francoisve but difficult to say, think a micro scope should answer your question, but if the Daphnia survives in that water, there should be sufficient infusoria

 

Thanks @HennieRoux I thought so too... Battling to find a good microscope at a reasonable price.

 

No Prob,if we can benefit from it, post it:smile:

 

Update of Fry

Okay so I siphoned the bottom with a 6ml injection and airline tubing. Took for ever but got the bottom sparkling clean. I don't want to do massive WC at one time, don't think its worth the risk.
Noticed some dead fry here and there, not too worried about it believe bad gene's or weaklings being the issue there.

As for the remainder of the fry... They are doing well some are swimming exceptionally well. Here and there is one that looks like a Learner swimmer.

I am concerned though I feed MW and Liqiufry no 1 twice a day. I scrape the side of the MW tub and then add it into some aged water. I am doing this to dissolve all the yeast off the MW and thus minimal additives to the fry tank.

The reason I am so concerned is, I don't see these guys eating, maybe I am just blind and they are so small that I can't notice it?:shock4:
I have seen some of them swim up to the liquifry (1 or 2 per feeding session) and hover underneath it... Still not seeing any eating. Maybe I am too used to livebearer fry where the babies rush to the food and munch as much as they can with disregard to other sibling fry.


Anyway I still see some dead fry on the bottom here and there but nothing to be concerned about yet, just don't know if they eating.... Its really frustrating..