Sexing And Eggs

[g930751]

Hi people just wondering if you could help could you tell me which is male and female

Also they have had eggs which I am excited about and they seem to be moving like shaking also how long till they hatch ? I have read up some stuff but can't find anything I have seen that either male or female look after the eggs but they both seem to be guarding them and chasing off other fish

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[Essjay]

The first one, the fish with the long fin extensions, is the male; the second fish with no fin extensions is the female.
 
I have not bred these particular fish but I have bred apistogrammas. With apistos, both parents guard the eggs, though I did have one male that ate them instead. The eggs hatch into what are called wrigglers, which sounds like what you have now. It won't take long for them to become free swimming, and the parents will still look after them. Since they don't have hands, the only way the parents can retrieve fry that wander off is by sucking them into their mouths and spitting them back out where the parents want them, so don't worry if the parents appear to be eating the fry.
 
The problem will be that you obviously have other fish in the tank (there's a cardinal tetra in the second photo) and they will eat the fry. Eggs and wrigglers stay in one place and are easily protected, fry swim away where they are easily picked off. The parents will try to keep all the fry together, but you know what children can be like.

 

[betta fish]

Hi, the male is in the first pic with the more pointed dorsal fin and the longer black fin extension with the female in the second pic, good luck with the eggs they are beautiful 

 depending on tank temperature they could take a couple of days to hatch or there abouts not long! they should care for them if there are no other fish in the tank otherwise they may be eaten.

 

[g930751]

Thanks whqt should I feed them?

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[Essjay]

You will need to deliver the food close to the fry once they become free swimming. A turkey baster is useful for this.
 
You could feed infusoria (google will tell you how to culture this) or microworms at first. I got my starter culture of microworms from ebay, but you'd need to get one asap so the culture is ready by the time they become free swimming. Or frozen baby brine shrimps. As the fry grow you can move on to frozen cyclops, and crushed fish food, the same as you feed the adults but crushed almost to dust.

 

[g930751]

Thank you

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[Akasha72]

yes, agreeing with what the others have said. The male is the one in the first photo. 
 
Essjay has given some very good advice reguarding the fry I just want to add that if you can get a moss ball or a clump of java moss from the lfs in the next day or so this can be another good source of infusoria. Getting a culture of microworms going can take a few days but moss will be teeming with microscopic stuff when you buy it.
 
When my bolivian rams and laetacara curvicep cichlids had fry the parents would take the fry around the plants in the tank to seek out the infusoria there.
 
As Essjay has also pointed out the parents will go and grab any fry swimming too far from the group in their mouths and literally 'spit' them back into the group so they will take them to a food source that way if they have to.
 
If you want to save some of the fry you could go in with a turkey baster and suck a few up and move them into a seperate tank if you have one. It'll mean raising them yourself away from the parents but with other fish in your tank the fry will be naturally picked off over the next few days. The parents will do their best to protect them but I found all the fry got eaten over about 4 or 5 days no matter how hard the parents worked.
 
Good luck with them though and keep us up to date with how it works out

 

[g930751]

Yes I will do unfortunately I don't have another tank I only set this one up a few months ago and have plants which are doing well I have some java moss on my drift wood and I have already have had mollies that have a 10 baby's but I have to take 6 of them to my mother's because I didn't want to over stock also noticed my danio is pregnant aswell and I have a 6 week old baby girl very fertile house at the moment haah

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[Akasha72]

okay, no second tank. Here's a second option... you could take a plastic tray - the kind you buy meat in or salad. Give it a good wash and add some water to it from the tank. Add an air stone bubbling on low and some moss and add some babies to that. If you suspend it in the tank (maybe clip it to the side with some bulldog clips or similar) it'll stay warm enough from the tank temperature. The babies should be able to find enough from the moss to feed for a week or two which gives you time to get a microworm culture growing. You'll need to change some water on the tray daily but that's easy enough - just use a pipette to suck some out, squirt it into the tank and suck up some tank water and return it (slowly though cos the babies will be weak swimmers for a while) 
 
This is, of course, me presuming you'd like to raise some fry. You may not of course but keep in mind an lfs would more than likely be jumping over themselves to buy young, home bred, EBR's. I know mine would. I raise young cories for mine in return for store credit. Many of us on the forum do the same. Some types of fish are desirable and I would suspect that EBR's fall into that catagory