Supplies - Recommendations

[babystarz]

Hey Everyone,
I am getting my supplies together in advance of my first attempt to breed :) I'm going down the list of recommended supplies and I'm hoping for suggestions for good brands of the following for a 10 gallon tank:
- Sponge filter & air pump (have seen several kinds, no idea what will work best)
- Glass Chimney (checked out Amazon but I don't know what size or shape to get)
- How many plants? And should I include floating plants?
- What kind of gravel/substrate? Or should I leave the bottom bare for easy cleaning?
- I have heard mixed things about BBS. Worth getting or should I skip and only get microworms and vinegar eels?

[tpocicat]

I use the Hydro sponge on my filter (attaches to the intake). The glass chimney only needs to be big enough for the female to be able to swim around in. I use frog bit for my floating plant, and java moss for insuferia (sp?) and for a place for the female to hide if she needs to. No gravel/substrate, the male needs to be able to find the eggs as they are released, a clean bottom makes this easier for him. I don't use BBS, but I know most do. I use MW, banana worms, dcaps, and as they get bigger, Rapashy grow.

[babystarz]

Thanks, I decided to go with a dual sponge filter from eBay and bought a power head with adjustable flow for it. I also have a 20 gallon tank that will be used as a grow-out tank. Do you think the fry will be able to handle a normal filter by that point? I can always move the sponge filter over I guess :)

I have ordered the following for foods:
- 2 micro worm cultures
- 1 pound BBS eggs with salt & a BBS hatchery/shell sorter
- 1 walter worm culture
- 1 banana worm culture
- 1 vinegar eel culture

And plants that will be in the grow-out tank:
- 10 frogbit
- 10 duckweed
- Amazon sword plants (3 stalks so far, will get more if they do well)
- Anubias (3)
- Sag. Chilensis (~2)
- Sag. Subulata (~2)
- Cryptocorynes (~2)
- Jungle Vals (~2)
- Java Fern (3)
- Dwarf Hair Grass

I will see how much of the tank that fills and then probably find a bushy cheap plant to fill in any bare spots. The tank has fluorite substrate covered with Caribsea sand. I didn't wash the substrate so the tank looks super dirty. I vacuumed the layer of dirt sediment from the sand and removed 6 gallons today and replaced with fresh water and added some Clarity so I'll see how much it clears up by tomorrow and then possibly do another vacuuming and water change. I am also testing the ammonia levels daily and watching for a spike from the substrate.

I am not sure what plants to put in the 10 gal breeding tank, I guess some floating ones and some anubias on rocks? Will it be ok to use fertilizer once the eggs/fry are in there?

[Basement Bettas]

You also need to think jarring the males. Soda bottles with the tops cut off work great to start. But you may need 100 containers.. depends on size of spawn. so start thinking what you can use and get them ready. 8 weeks goes by fast.. and sometimes they need pulled that early.

A bare bottom tank will make your life a lot easier as you need real regualr, every few days, water changes to keep them growing. Be suprised how much poop you can get in 24 hours from bettas you are feeding only 2x day. And that will funk up gravel quick.

Get a few mystery snails too. Don't put them in till the fry are free swimming as they WILL eat eggs. But they are great clean up and snail poo is easier to siphon then funky food.

If you use sponge filters get bigger ones than recommend for your grow out tank size. I use 30 gal for grow outs. A sponge for a normal 30 gal tank willn not handle 100 fish or more that I might have in there. Our stocking limits are way off .. I like to use sponge walls and have moved to using K1 in a fluidized bed. For me that is a 2 liter soda bottle. See youtube for K1 and filters that can be made. The stuff is expensive so not for everybody.. but it really handles the fish load once the bacteria gets established.

[babystarz]

Yep, I've been trying to brainstorm options for the males. I don't drink soda so I'm not sure I can collect that many empty soda bottles in the time needed. I do have lots of jars from drinking Starbucks frappes but they're only 9.5 ounces so I think I'll have to find something else. There are a lot of garage sales around here so maybe I can score a lot of mason jars.

I will go with the bare bottom in the 10gal breeding tank and focus on getting floating plants established in it :)

Will ramshorn snails work instead of mystery snails? I just received a bunch of them from Aokashi.

I will also look into this K1 stuff. I have a powerhead for a 20gal plus a dual sponge filter for the 10gal breeding tank. For the 20gal growout tank I might also go with something like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Air-Driven-B...item4abb4026d8 Do you think that would be sufficient?

[Basement Bettas]

Originally Posted by babystarz

Will ramshorn snails work instead of mystery snails? I just received a bunch of them from Aokashi.

Any snail should do a good clean up job.

[babystarz]

Ok great! And I ended up ordering 120 32 oz mason jars. I plan to keep them on shelves in a closet with a space heater set to keep the air at 79 degrees. I was able to arrange for a local pickup so I saved $60 on shipping :D

[babystarz]

Here's a link to the jars just in case anyone wants to go with glass mason jars in the future: http://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/...z-Canning-Jars
I paid $1.20 per jar, which was slightly more than other sites were offering them for but with the local pickup option I saved a lot of money. Also, while this is a higher initial investment than getting plastic jars, these are infinitely reusable for future spawns.