Betta Food

12azor

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Many people say Bettas prefer live food. So I was wondering how you would go about setting up you own. Could I invest in a small 1litre plastic tank, add a bag of brine shrimp from the lfs and leave them?

I take it they will breed. So could I then do this and feed them to my fish whenever?
 
Many people say Bettas prefer live food. So I was wondering how you would go about setting up you own. Could I invest in a small 1litre plastic tank, add a bag of brine shrimp from the lfs and leave them?

I take it they will breed. So could I then do this and feed them to my fish whenever?


brine shrimp are pretty hard to keep from my experience. http://www.petplace.com/fish/how-to-raise-...rimp/page1.aspx that's a decent guide
 
Woah, That all looks pretty damn hard to do!

Have any of you created your own food source of live food? That are perhapse easier to take care of?
 
Woah, That all looks pretty damn hard to do!

Have any of you created your own food source of live food? That are perhapse easier to take care of?

Grindal worms are good... adult bettas will eat them, and they're also small enough to feed to larger fry. You can find starter cultures on Aquabid. I keep mine in shallow plastic containers with holes punched in the lid, and about an inch of moist coconut fiber (sold in bricks as reptile bedding or for gardening). I collect them by sprinkling fish flakes on a piece of plastic, moistening them with a spray bottle so they stick, then laying it with the food side down. Once the worms gather on there, I scrape them off with a q-tip. All you do for maintenance is keep the fiber moist but not too soggy, and sprinkle food on every day. The only downside to these is they can get contaminated with mites and gnats after a while. :sick:
 
brineshrimp are super easy.
il give you the guide john (tolak)gave me he breeds angelfish by the hundreds and hatches every day.
first you have to buy eggs. this is what i buy. link

then you have to set up a hatchery. i use a 2 liter bottle and an air hose and stone attached to my central line. then use a desk lamp for lighting. you need to have light on it 100% of the time your hatching.

heres the guide i follow. 1tsp of eggs hatches enough for over 500 betta fry. so i would use 1/4 tsp.
I'm cheap, I use a 2 liter bottle for hatching in, and built a box with a dimmer to contain the light, and heat. The dimmer adjusts the temperature, you can see the setup here; http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=136880&hl=

You can just as easily use a desk lamp, or other lamp in an enclosed area to keep the temperature at 80F. I imagine a deep drawer from a discarded dressed would work good, a cardboard box would probably be a bad idea due to being more flammable. I've seen people run hatcheries with a 2-liter bottle, and a gooseneck desk lamp on the corner of a table. Anything that provides light 24/7, and a constant temperature of 80F will do.

I used to run my hatchery off of a small air pump; it's hooked into my centralized system now. You do want plenty of aeration; this keeps the artemia cysts suspended in the brine solution.

You can see from the pics in the link how much water I fill with, about 1 1/2 liters. I don't add any dechlorinator, just cold tap water. I add 2 tablespoons of non-iodized salt; I've been using livestock salt, $3 for a 50-pound bag. I told you I was cheap. I also add about 3/4 teaspoon of baking soda, and since doing a little experimenting, 3 drops of chlorine bleach. I've seen breeders add a drop or two of acriflavin instead of bleach; the idea behind either of these is to keep bacteria levels down. The baking soda increases hardness; some folks will use Epsom salt instead.

So, after adding salt, baking soda, bleach and eggs I give the hatchery a good stir, and ignore it until the next night. The next night I pull the hose out of the hatchery, put the hatchery on the table, and shine a bright light on the bottom, this makes the bbs settle to the bottom. I then get what is left from the previous evening hatch out of the fridge, and get my bbs cup, which is nothing more than a large deep plastic cup with a paper coffee filter rubber banded to the top. I take my turkey baster (every aquarist should have a turkey baster) and take the previous hatch out of the old sour cream container I use to store bbs. I have a 1" square hole cut in the top; this lets a little fresh air in during storage. The stored bbs goes into the filter/cup gizmo, and drains while the hatchery is settling. After about 3 minutes I pour a little fresh water into the filter to rinse. A few minutes later I take the baster, and add some of the fresh bbs from the hatchery to the now empty & rinsed out sour cream container. To get past the shells floating at the top, without mixing them in, rub your nose a couple of times with you finger. Touch the surface of the bbs hatchery. Oil from your skin reduces surface tension, and the shells all go to the edge.

Now I add a little more water to the filter, and walk around feeding the older bbs to older fry. Once this is done, I take some of the freshly hatched bbs, and add them to the filter. I go through the same rinsing procedure before feeding these to younger fry. The sour cream container goes in the fridge, the hatchery, hose, and top go to the utility sink for a good rinse and refill, and it starts over again.

This procedure takes about 10 minutes; I try to multitask through it. Many people will get two batches going, one in the morning, and one in the evening. I hate mornings, and don't need this extra 10 minutes of work when I could be sucking down coffee; one batch daily being refrigerated has worked fine for years.
 
Knat larve and water mites are good, just leave a tank of water out and tada you have them within a couple of days however the gnat larve are fair weather but water mites/fleas are all year rounders - thats in a 10gal black bin full of water
 

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