All you breeders

[redbetta]

Hi all,
the last few days I've been looking at all kinds ideas and ways on how to breed bettas and how they spawn etc. It's neat whether you do it or not. I'm just curious that some of us who don't have like 40-50 gal growout tanks, how else can you do it? Can you split the spawn up into 10 gals? Another thing, do you all feed microworms to your fry? or do you use baby brine shrimp? just some questions, I'm nosy, this is interesting.

 

[Lady]

well...I have a 10 gal spawn tank....then I have two 10 gals....(like you said split them into that) I figured by the time I need to start netting them out into the grow out...ill have some that are bigger then others anyways...and to give the little ones a chance to go big and strong ill tryyy (note...I havent had to do this yet for I have only one baby right now!) to sort the babies by size and split them up thats just my idea...dunno...but ive heard people on here talk about big stoarge boxes...but I dont know much about that...sounds like an idea though!

 

[redbetta]

So how do you put them in the grow out tanks? And at which age?

 

[Lady]

well I am not exactly sure...but I personally probably wouldnt try to really move them about until a month or so old...maybe a tad longer?! Dunno though....I probably would use a net to transfer them either...I dont even really like to net my grown bettas?! Thats just me...Id probably use a cup or something....

 

[Andie]

A lot of people recommend not netting them using regular fish nets, especially when they're that young; nets can damage developing fins, and they can be very stressful on the babies. When I have to transfer them, I'm planning on using a scoop or jar that will hold water as well as the fish, and just transferring fish, water and all to the new tank. Some places also sell special betta nets that hold the water in; sort of a cloth bag attached to a regular wire handle. You can find them on Aquabid, and possibly on ebay.

As to at what age you do it, it probably depends more on how large your fry are. If they grow slowly, obviously space won't be as much of an issue at a young age as it would if they were fast growers. As to at what size, exactly, you should switch them, I really don't know I'm going to go by how crowded they look; when they start to get a little thick and when they get pretty active, I'll just lift out the divider and let them spread out.

 

[SandyMushCowgirl]

First, I usually fill the spawn tank to the top as a growout and have a couple other growouts. They are all 10gals. I generally feed BBS. I'll move the babies at 4-5wks and scoop them out with a cup.

 

[nashnut]

About week number 3 I top off the tank they are currently in. About a week after that I start separating the larger ones into a grow out tank. I use several tanks for that purpose.

Feeding... I did use liquid fry but found that the fry preferred baby brine shrimp from the start. I then fed bbs in the morning and at night. In between they were given two feedings of micro worms.

 

[wuvmybetta]

It all depends on the size of your spawn as well. If you have like 12 fry in the end- just fill up the grow out and jar them as need be. If you have 200, you'll need to grow them out for sure. I know of several folks who use seperate tens and divide a spawn, that seems space consuming to me but it works.

With huge spawns I like to take a pit stop in a twenty and grow them out for a few weeks before they move to a huge tank. More space is great but 80% daily water changes on a 55 or so get tiring So I like to wait until they're bigger and they don't need such large changes each day. I just put them with a cycled filter and they're good for every couple/few days changes.

Notice how everything revolves around ease of water changes with me ?

At around four weeks they start gathering at the front and this makes them very easy to cup. You can fool them all the way down to the last one or two...by then they wise up and you have to wait a bit before they forget and come back up to the glass to check you out

 

[redbetta]

thx for the info wuv. so if i split them up into like 5 gallon containers, how many could i put in there? I am speculating but don't know if i'm gunna do it yet as i am in a dorm after all. I'd like to have about 100 that would be nice
i'm in canada and I don't know where to get the microworms, i know i can get a culture off the net but i'd like to go simple.

 

[Synirr]

I used both microworms and brine shrimp, but you can just use brine shrimp alone if that's easier for you. If you want a microworm starter though, I can pop one in the mail for you... my cultures are still going strong on baby cereal and yeast; I haven't had to change them in months, just top them off with more of the cereal-yeast mixture when I see production slowing . At about week 4 my fry started eating decapsulted brine eggs without my having to hatch them, so I'd highly recommend that. I'm too lazy to decapsulate eggs myself, but luckily the seller I bought my regular eggs from sent me a small jar of pre-decapsulated eggs for free. I didn't notice any ill side-effects of switching from live BBS to eggs, and the fry continued to grow just as fast

You can split the spawn up into smaller growout tanks, which is what I had to do for space reasons... some breeders actually prefer that, apparently, so that if disease breaks out in one tank the entire spawn isn't lost. I bought two large tupperware tubs for about $10 each that were probably over 20 gallons once they were full and the sides were bowing out, and they made fantastic growouts. One big tank would undoubtedly be easier to maintain, though.

 

[OohFeeshy]

well I am not exactly sure...but I personally probably wouldnt try to really move them about until a month or so old...maybe a tad longer?! Dunno though....I probably would use a net to transfer them either...I dont even really like to net my grown bettas?! Thats just me...Id probably use a cup or something....

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Or a ladle. The cheapskates version of the profesional betta scoop

 

[redbetta]

Well unless I can get our rez life manager persuaded to let me have more water then I wont do anything.
But just in case if I had a spawn of like 100, would like 20 gallons all together be enough? I could put like 25 in each 5 gal to start with and then start to jar them at like 6-8 weeks? Is that a good idea?

 

[redbetta]

Anyone, will that work? And how many fry can you put in a 5 gal while they are growing out?