General Questions.

[K.J.]

Alright, the tank's done, I figured out the heater (all I needed to do was turn it sideways, thanks starrynight) and the bubblers on, boy got his bubblenest killed but hopefully he'll rebuild it, lmao. Anyway, by crackers suggestion I'll use the sponge filter after the male is out and the fry are free swimming & eating. I just have a few questions that have been bothering me so I don't make any mistakes.

1. Mmkay.. so... you float the female in a cup when she has eggs, good signs after a while you let her out... if the male is sparring extensively you take her out of the spawning tank. If they do get along and embrace you wait and hope he picks up the eggs, after all the embraces are done the male will start chasing the female which is when you remove her into her own tank with salt & maybe a disease-defending medication? I don't know if this is neccassary. I use salt and dechlorinater in all of the tanks as well as stress zyme, but will I need a disease-fighting medication in the spawning tank or is this unnecccasary?
2. So, the eggs hatch after a day or two and stick close to the nest, they live off the egg sack for three days and then after they start swimming horizontally you take the male out and start feeding with microworms. You carry on for this how long until you can feed stuff like pellets or frozen bloodworms? After two weeks gradually increase the water level (by how much each day?) until it's full. When do you put the fry into the growout tank? (30 gallons?)
3. My growout tank will be 30 (or rather 29, it seems a more common size than 30. ) USgallons. Should I densly plant it right when I move the fry into there or rather when they grow older? It will have a bubbler and a heather of course, probably co2 injections as well, but should I use a sponge filter or a regular one like a power filter or something, or will the fry still be too small? Will gravel still pose a problem when they're in the growout tank?
4. So you jar the males when they start fighting? What's the exact age? I have the perfect tank for three fish, it's a 2.5 and divides into about 3 sections, each a little over half a gallon. That's for at least three I'm going to get, bound to keep more. like between 5 and 10, the rest I will just have in smallish containers wherever they can hold them (I've spotted out at least two places, not counting in the bathroom where plenty will fit. just recounted, four places.) If I get more low-quality ones the pet shop will probably buy a few, seeing as how their usual supplier is in the hospital.
5. If anyone would like to add something, go ahead. Also, I would like a list of stuff I should get from the pet shop or off of aquabid.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi K.J.

I'm going to guess that you are talking about bettas here and move your thread to that section. If I'm wrong, just send me a PM and I'll move it to the right place for you.

 

[K.J.]

I thought this was in the betta section. Dang, I must be off today.

 

[lisie]

1. Mmkay.. so... you float the female in a cup when she has eggs, good signs after a while you let her out... if the male is sparring extensively you take her out of the spawning tank. If they do get along and embrace you wait and hope he picks up the eggs, after all the embraces are done the male will start chasing the female which is when you remove her into her own tank with salt & maybe a disease-defending medication? I don't know if this is neccassary. I use salt and dechlorinater in all of the tanks as well as stress zyme, but will I need a disease-fighting medication in the spawning tank or is this unnecccasary?

Uneccesary. Unless she's really really shredded, you might want to put something in there to prevent infection and fungus, but you probably won't let it get that far out of hand anyway. Just keep the water clean and pamper the little lady.

2. So, the eggs hatch after a day or two and stick close to the nest, they live off the egg sack for three days and then after they start swimming horizontally you take the male out and start feeding with microworms. You carry on for this how long until you can feed stuff like pellets or frozen bloodworms?

You'll want to feed something else more substantial than microworms after the fry are about a week old, like baby brine shrimp. BBS hatcheries are really easy, trust me... if I can do it anyone can. At about week 4-6 you can start weaning them off live food and onto frozen food, like frozen BBS, and very finely chopped/grated bloodworms and stuff. Pellets not until later, when they can fit them in their mouths.

After two weeks gradually increase the water level (by how much each day?) until it's full. When do you put the fry into the growout tank? (30 gallons?)

I added about half a gallon per day, but you could probably add more (like about an inch) if you wanted, as long as you do it slowly, like using the drip system. The fry should be moved to the growout tank at about week 4.

3. My growout tank will be 30 (or rather 29, it seems a more common size than 30. ) USgallons. Should I densly plant it right when I move the fry into there or rather when they grow older?

You might as well do it right away. My fry started getting nasty to each other at about 4 weeks.

It will have a bubbler and a heather of course, probably co2 injections as well, but should I use a sponge filter or a regular one like a power filter or something, or will the fry still be too small? Will gravel still pose a problem when they're in the growout tank?

You're muuuch better off just having a bare-bottomed tank for your growout. Baby bettas poop a LOT!! And you'll want to keep the water SUPER clean, and it's hard to do that with any type of substrate. Use plants that are floating or don't need substrate. I'd definitely keep the sponge filter too, just turn it up on high.

4. So you jar the males when they start fighting? What's the exact age?

There's not really an exact age. Mine started getting kinda mean at about 4 weeks but it wasn't that serious. I jarred mine earlier, but I think a good age to jar is about 6 weeks because it's young enough that your fry won't have nips and stuff already. Some (and probably most) people don't jar until later than that though.

 

[K.J.]

1. Good.

2. Hmm, okay, got enough money to spend on that... should have just started BBS at first anyway. Is there another food like daphnia that will work as well? Eh, is this really neccassary - I know, I sound cheesy but all my other sources said nothing about switching food.

3.

4. Okay. How about I keep it bare bottom until they're hardy enough (3 monthes or so) and then densly plant it?

 

[lisie]

2. Hmm, okay, got enough money to spend on that... should have just started BBS at first anyway. Is there another food like daphnia that will work as well?

Uhmm, not sure. I don't know anything about daphnia, or how to hatch them or anything. BBS are probably easier though, seeing as how they're pretty much the universal betta fry live food.

4. Okay. How about I keep it bare bottom until they're hardy enough (3 monthes or so) and then densly plant it?

Well, you'll want it pretty densely plants in the first place (you can use silk plants, just as long as there are some hiding places)... but if you're talking about plants with substrate, then that would be fine, since at 3 months you should have all your males and aggressive females jarred anyway, and you'll really just be left with a sorority tank.

 

[K.J.]

Well, I'll ask around as see what's up.

Hmm, I could have java fern and java moss.. not a big one for fake plants, but I was thinking a cleanup crew like some bronze cories might do it good for a while. Do you think potted plants are a good idea? I mean, a pot with some gravel - I've heard suggestions of it.

 

[lisie]

Potted plants should be just fine.

 

[K.J.]

Great then, I'll just pot them (I've got a potted plant in the ten gallon and it is doing great) until about three months at which point I'll do a big turnaround, catch them all (hassle I know) and redo the aquarium. Of course I'll have to have pretreated water.