First Fry...

[wuvmybetta]

Yeah,sounds normal to me too. I've seen stare downs like that as young as 2 weeks.


baby betta flares I saw the first of my plakats flaring yesterday

Now, in a big spawn, leaving him in might reduce aggression and allow you to wait longer before having to jar them, or allow you to only jar the largest, selectively jarring every few days. This would be helpful - the less jars to clean for the shorter amount of time the better.

In a small spawn, massive jarring ceases to be an issue, so who cares if aggression is limited? You can just jar the males out, and it's not like 150 of them.

Not sure what you're looking for here...
Jarring isn't really done in mass unless you so choose. No matter what size the spawn is. You'll usually wind up pulling a male or two on one day and maybe none for the next few days. Ya just pluck the trouble makers as they turn up. The main reason for doing this is to prevent damage to the fins of the other fry.

 

[cation]

Ahah, makes sense. Okay then. Dad's coming out this week. And I think next time Dad will be pulled at two weeks. Knowing what I know now, it seems my theorized benifits will only occur in that time - ie culling by dad and cleaning by Dad. He stopped "washing" them at around two weeks, and I think both of the benifits occur when he is still doing this.

 

[wuvmybetta]

I see what you're saying. And I think it's awesome that he has done so well this far

I was just watching my plakat fry a second ago....
In such a mass its much different than random nipping,it seems. I have one in particular who is a bit bigger than the rest and has lots of red coming in. He's clearly the first to be jarred,it's just a matter of when I feel comfortable doing so because as soon as I take him out...someone else will step up,possibly even 2 more who think they should be the newly self appointed team leader. That's where your fights break out.
But...my point ) The one I've been watching is nippy as hell but,it seems,that he picks on those his own size. Anybody who is slightly large enough gets a nip,but when a smaller one swims nearby,he'll get in strike position and size them up,then just look away.

 

[cation]

Interesting...The one in my tank doing the nipping is about 2/3 the size of the one he nipped. He may be brave, but not very smart.

Aww, the plakats are growing up...It's exciting to hear how yours are doing and imagine where mine'll be in a few weeks!

 

[wuvmybetta]

Yeah,I wasn't trying to hijack your thread ) I was just commenting on the jarring order because you made me think about it,it's just around the corner for me....again.

 

[cation]

Like I care if you hijack. Talking is allowed on my threads.

I like to hear about it, it makes methink about what's coming up for me and the fry...

 

[cation]

The fry are 4 weeks old today. Yesterday, the biggest went up to the water surface and gulped a few gulps of air. Looks like labrynth organs are developing. Lots of "Pecking order" aggression going on.

My babies are growing up...

 

[Sorrell]

All mothers have to let you at some point

 

[JoKeR]

All mothers have to let you at some point

So at 4 weeks they start getting there Labrynth Oragan huh...

Thats Sounds good Ur Babies are turning into Nippy Juvi.....

Is the male still there?

 

[cation]

I've heard they develop it around 3-4 weeks, but I'm sure some of the more experienced breeders here could tell you better then me.

Yup, dad's still in. He's coming out as soon as I figure out where I'm putting him, though - probably today or tomorrow.

 

[cation]

Dad's out.

He did it, didn't eat all the babies, and although there are not that many fry left, we will see how they do now.

 

[JoKeR]

How many are left?

 

[cation]

As far as I can tell, about the same amout I've had for the last few weeks - more than 5, less than 15. If I had to guess just one number, I'd say 9, but I'm not sure.


I'm concerned about the labrinyth organ in the tinier ones, too - I was doing some reading and came across something I hadn't thought about before. If they aren't big enough when the lab. develops, they can't break the surface tension of the water and can suffocate after enough time. So I've seen two gulping air, and they got through okay, but they are two of the bigger fry. I guess you do what you can and keep your fingers crossed!

 

[wuvmybetta]

You can fix the surface tension problem by adding extra aeration. But by 1 month old they should certainly be able to do so. Also,just so you know...no matter what the size they usually all develop their labyrinths within a day or two of eachother,tiny or not

 

[cation]

You can fix the surface tension problem by adding extra aeration. But by 1 month old they should certainly be able to do so. Also,just so you know...no matter what the size they usually all develop their labyrinths within a day or two of eachother,tiny or not

Good, I've got plenty of airation. I'll turn it up just a touch.

Yeah, I figured they'd all develop it at once - (Wuv, you probably already know the following, but I'm adding it for the benefit of our members who perhaps have not have genetics in school...) a lot of developmental stuff like organs are mediated by gene expression. It has a "trigger" that turns on the development of the organ, and then a "suicider" that permanantly turns off expression of the gene. Otherwise the labyrinth organ would just keep growing. So those "starts" and "stops" are timed in the body, and happen independantly of what is happening with general growth.