How Much Food For Fry?

[leighann]

i was going to pick up some liquifry but i need to know how much to feed them and is it too late to culture food for the fry? they should hatch in a day or 2

 

[scorphonic]

I've just been reading up on this. Look on the internet or in your local pet store to see if you can pick up some brine shrimp napuli (artemia cysts) which you can grow using a salt water mix (this is easy to do if you use a hatchery container...as you dont have to worry about salt water mixing with your freshwater!)

Here is one example of a hatchery: http/www.shopsolution.nl/shop/home.asp?s...;deptid=artemia

you can make your own so just search google for "brine shrimp hatchery" and enjoy reading!!

Also you can pick up some microworm cultures. You feed the worms on oatmeal, mashed potato etc...and you can leave these at room temperature and they will grow and move up the sides of the plastic container. The lid must have airation holes!! These cultures, once started can be kept alive indefinately if you look after them. Every 3-4 weeks or so you can take some worm from one older culture and add to a new food source in another container....

You can get a tooth pick and scrape off the worms that move up the sides of the plastic container and shake these into your fry tank...the fry will love you for them!!

I'm going to start culturing the microworm and I'll probably also get some napulli cysts too.

There is another way to get food but it takes a while to culture. To make Infusoria you take some tank water in a bottle and pour blended lettuce leaves into the bottle containing the tank water (there are other things you can put in there instead of lettuce but I just cant remember what!!) You can then leave this in the kitchen where it is warm but out of direct sunlight (some sources say to give it direct sunlight but I have yet to find out which way is correct!!) and after a few days you will smell ammonia coming from the glass bottle (I believe that these are the infusoria growing!)

I'm really unsure about the infusoria at the moment but at least your armed with three food sources: Infusoria, Microworm and Napulli.

I hope I dont get in trouble with posting this link but its pretty good at describing the food available: http/www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/fry_food.php

You said that you have liquifry food? This stuff is good I'm sure, I have it too and have yet to use it so I really dont know how successful it is. Follow the instructions on the bottle and after a few days discontinue use of it and feed the young fry on the food I mentioned above.

Hope that helps.

 

[faithless1294]

it is a bit late but you should get some microworm as the fry will be ok for 2-3 days after hatched and by then microworm should be active.

 

[leighann]

thank you both very much for the help, it is greatly appreciated and i picked up some liquifry for the time being until i can get them up some microworms

 

[lisie]

If you're expecting babies in a couple days, then yes, it is too late to start cultures. Microworm cultures usually take about 3 weeks to get up and running to the point where you can actually start harvesting them.

Scorphonic's suggestion of a brine shrimp hatchery is indeed a good one, though. If you can get ahold of some eggs (some pet stores carry small quantities of them; for bigger quantities you'll probably want to order online... I recommend Brine Shrimp Direct) you can set up a hatchery. It's REALLY easy once you get the hang of it, and the eggs only take about 24 hours to hatch. It's a great way to get live food in a pinch, and is probably the most nutritious live food you can feed baby bettas. They'll be able to eat BBS right away too.

As for how much to feed... each newly hatched fry only eats about 3 BBS per feeding, to give you an idea. But, you'll get the hang of how much to put in the tank eventually.

Also, if you have live plants, they are a great source for infusoria. Just put the plants in the tank and the kids will find them... even if you can't!

Good luck!

 

[leighann]

well i started with the microwarms culture today for the next fry, and i will definitely buy some live plants tomorrow. thanks for all the help! i really needed it.

 

[dmarie04]

Also, in a pinch, you can feed boiled egg yolk. I've never done this myself but I read that you mash it up, put it in a spray bottle with some water and gently mist the surface of the water. It's kind of easy to over feed with the egg yolk, though, so be careful. I just used microworms for the first week, started Atison's betta starter after the second week and by week three I was adding in some bbs.