5 days old today. :)

[tracyalexa]

My itty bitty's are 5 days old today. I am still shocked that there are tiny fry in my tank. I used gravel, so its hard to say if I have lost any. But there seem to be as many as there were in the beginning. They are swimming all over. :)

I have done 1 gal water changes on day 3 and today. I have fed BBS as often as I can (but sometimes they don't come out in hatching.) On those days I am feeding egg yolk.

Dad has been moved to his own tank. Seems to be doing fine.

Off to watch and get some pics. Will upload soon.

[Oldfishlady]

Awesome and congrats......so much fun watching Betta fry grow and develop.....if you have live plants and/or some common snails in the spawning tank-these will supply some microorganism for them to eat too...I can tell when mine are feeding on it by the way their tummy will look....nice and round with dark dots....even a this stage they can have neat little personalities and strong hunting instinct...if they are 5 days old-they probably have only been feeding for a day or so-since they will feed off their yolk sac for several days once hatched...be careful and don't overfeed-especially with the egg yolk since it can really foul the water fast-snails and live plants can help you here too-be sure and make daily water changes with the egg yolk feedings-watch the fry (I am sure you do) to ensure they are eating it...

How are you hatching the BBS-if you are on city water supply be sure and use dechlorinator that also covers heavy metals-sometimes poor hatch can be due to Zinc in the source water-beside the age of the eggs themselves being a cause of poor hatch rate......during the first 2 weeks its really important that you feed newly hatched BBS with their yolk sac intact-otherwise you can have nutrition problems that can cause sudden deaths and too many shells from the first molt can cause deformed swim bladders-so try to really limit adding and BBS shells the best you can as well as any BBS hatch water-rinse them really good before feeding-it is even a good idea to let the BBs sit in fresh water for 20-30min before you feed them too-but more later down the road when feeding older BBS since the hatch water can be really nasty and full of bacteria...often the cause of velvet in the fry tank...

Also, if you haven't already-cover the fry tank with something to retain the heat and humidity by the 2 week area for the labyrinth....

Look forward to pic...

[GreenTea]

Nice job! Can't wait for photos! :)

[tracyalexa]

the egg yolk is making the tank cloudy, can't stand it!

I went to our lfs and bought salt water to hatch the eggs. do you think this is ok? it's what they are using to hatch theirs for baby seahorses. :)

And I had no idea about rinsing them!! Uggh. This is tough work. A lot more than I ever anticipated. But I love them, they are the cutest things ever.

[tracyalexa]

* and I have it covered w/ saran wrap. Nice and humid in there. How much of the water should I change? I am only doing about a gallon a day right now...

[Oldfishlady]

I use kosher salt or pickling salt to hatch my BBS and get about 80% hatch within 24h-starting at 85F-I don't use any added light-just an air pump and airstone in my homemade hatchery I made out of plastic peanut jar half gallon in size-I drilled a hole in the lid for the airline hose-add 3tlb of salt 85F water-eggs-airstone-and place in my china cabinet

To harvest-I remove the airstone and lid-then place the hatchery on top of one of my tanks to settle-about 10-15min-then I use a piece of airline hose I have attached to chopsticks and siphon the orange newly hatched BBS through a brine shrimp net I have place it over a empty container to catch the water=once I get what I need-I pour the salt water back into the hatchery and rinse the BBS in the brine shrimp net under running water-then fill the now rinsed container with dechlroinated water and place the BBS while in the brine shrimp net to suspend in this water and use an eye dropper to feed

I condition the fry to a feeding tap....I give the rim -not the glass- of the tank a few taps then add the BBS from the eye dropper...within a few days the fry are conditioned to the feeding tap and anytime they hear/feel it they come running-this help ensure most are eating, ease for observation, counting, health check...etc.....

If you started with half full tank-once you start adding food-daily remove half gallon and add 1 gallon replacement water-until full-once full-start making 50% daily-if cloudy of foul water-make an extra 50%...be sure the replacement water is like temp and dechlorinated for the full volume of the tank-not just the replacement water...

[tracyalexa]

Thanks! BBS are a lot more work than ever imagined. I am currently, using 2 purchased hatcheries and one homemade one. 2 with salt water from store and one that make myself. Just seeing which gets better results (mine for far! go figure!!).

I have been taking out a gal, replacing a gal. I will try what you said and see. I have also been using a turkey baster to clean the bottom daily and using an airhose w/ a thin strong piece of line to suck up the crap that seems to float to the bottom/top. So far, haven't sucked up any babies! It takes absolutely forever! But it's better than sucking them up! I accidentally swallowed a bunch of brine shrimp. Cough. lol

[dramaqueen]

Yeah, egg yold will foul your water pretty quickly.