First spawn turning out beautiful (PICS)

[bhali333]

Hey Guy's,

Here are some pics of the fry at 31 days old, the second pic down you can see the fry has a crown tail forming, I don't think there will be any full CT since the father was an OHM. I think the colors are going to be great too!

There are so many nice fry, these are the only good pics I could get for now.

Let me know what you think !!

[MollyJean]

What where the parents? They're very cute!

[Perseusmom]

Very pretty and adorable love them all !

[BettaJen]

Looking great! :D

[marktrc]

Nice and huge. How did you grow them like that? How big is your spawn? When did you move them into what size tank? What did you feed them and when? When and how much water changes?

[bhali333]

Mark.

OK in order.

1. The spawn is about 50 as far as I can count they move pretty quick :)

2. I started them on freshly hatched BBS 2 days after they were free swimming, they where fed 3x a day for the first three weeks, every 6 hours
8 am, 2 pm and then 8 pm. At 3 weeks I introduced dry food for the middle meal, I used powdered flake, crushed pellets and golden pearls. They are now in the Grow out tank and are on the same feeding schedule, BBS morning and night and dry food mid day. lights out from 9pm to 7 am.

3. I started water changes 5 days after beginning the feeding of BBS. I used an airline tube and siphoned the bottom into a clear plastic container so I could see if I had sucked up any fry and return them to the tank. I siphoned until it was as clean as I could get it, about a quart of water I would say. I made a drip bottle from a 64oz soda bottle, airline tube and an airline valve. The drip bottle is made the same way you would make a BBS hatchery only you need to put a plug in the neck that will hold the airline tube so that it can run down through the line and you regulate the speed of the dripping with the air valve. I allowed the drip to go at a drop per second until the bottle emptied and then I would refill it half way and let that drip in.

Here is a pic of the drip bottle





I did water changes every 2 days and each time I added 10% more water back than I removed so that the tank would start to fill.

4. I moved them from the 10 gal. breeding tank into a 20 gal. grow out tank at 4 weeks old.

This is my first spawn so I hope I have given you good advice it seems to have worked well for me.

[Pearl2011]

How hard is it to spawn them and what size tank? Where would you put all the males?
Would love to try breeding my bettas! (although I need a male :p)

OMG!! I just realized they are perfect mini version of Bubbles! So cute!

[bhali333]

Hi Pearl,

This is my first spawn, I have been into Betta's for only 4 months now.

I was a breeder of Angelfish for ten years but Betta's offer so much more variety and possibility of breeding a new type of fin or color.

It's not hard to breed Betta's but it's tedious. You must be able to raise the fry correctly ie, feeding, water conditions, lighting and heating regulation etc.

It really is not hard, once you get into a routine your fine. You do however have to hatch and feed BBS (baby brine shrimp) it is very easy and almost no cost at all but it needs to be done on a schedule so that there is always a supply of food for the fry.

I have a fish room so space is not an issue for me and I purchased cases of Betta containers so when it comes time to isolate the males it won't be a problem for me. Also you need to "Cull" your spawn at some point, you need to get rid of the inferior fish that have defects or stunted growth essentially the unwanted fish that you will not breed or can not sell and give away.

The best that I can tell you is to do a lot of research and make a list of supplies you will need and a step by step plan of what you need to do from the day you decide on a male and female to breed up until you jar your fry.

All in all it was a bit of work but soooooo rewarding and soooo much fun!!

If you want really good fish you can go over to Aquabid.com it's an auction site for fish and supplies and there are always great Bettas to be found on there. I have purchased some beautiful, healthy fish from a woman named Jennifer who goes under the name "Hopdiggity" on aquabid.com she has great fish and they always arrive healthy.

I hope some of this helps and that I didn't scare you away from breeding, it really is worth it 100%

[homegrown terror]

you'll probably have at least a few half-suns (comb tails) in there....they're so adorable!

[bhali333]

I hope so!! I was actually trying for "Comb Tails"