are fake plants alright or should i get live plants?

[jschristian44]

i dont wanna have to upkeep my live plants, so can i get some fake floating lettuce plants? i want to use them as a way for my male to create bubblenests under in addition to the bubblewrap. or isn't it worth it to get them? i hear the live plants give off inphusia or whatever to help feed them. but if i put a real lettuce leaf in a bottle and let it sit, til it gets cloudy, then clear again, cant i just dump some of this stuff into the tank and its the same thing? i know how to make it, i saw it on e-how. just dont want to have to upkeep the live plants yet. saw these on petco

http://www.petco.com/Shop/Product.aspx?sku=436577

[Oldfishlady]

Are you wanting the infusoria for Betta fry or adults....adults do feed off the microorganism that develop and feed in/on live plants as well as in the tank without live plants that are in any algae that is in the tank, however, its not enough to sustain adult fish and should only be viewed as a supplemental food source or snack of sorts.....even for fry-the amount of microorganism that develop with just a few live plants would not be enough to support growth, development, general health and nutritional needs in growing fry.

[jschristian44]

yeah i wanted it for the fry. i did get some almond leaves, could they feed off that? what do i feed them the first 2 weeks before the baby brine shrimp?

[Dragonlady]

I guess fake plants are alright if they are soft silk plants. Fake plants will produce fake infusoria. Low light plants are easy to keep. I guess I was lucky to get a very nice infusoria culture from a good friend a while back.

[Oldfishlady]

I use a natural method to spawn in soil based very heavy planted and so my tanks are able to provide lots of different micro-critters for fry during the first few weeks until I supplement their feeding with newly hatched brine shrimp that still have the yolk sac for higher nutrition that promotes fast growth & development in the Betta fry.

To create enough natural foods for fry to free range feed the tank needs to be alive, mature etc.....this can take 6mo to 1yr to get a tank to that point

New or first time breeders IMO-should start out in bare bottom half full tanks-feeding the fry from cultures you grow in increase success/survival rates

Almond leaf will provide some microorganism for the fry in the decaying process during the first couple of days of the free swimming stage, however, you will still need to supplement their feeding with some type of live food-culturing infusoria, microworms are good choices and usually by 7-10 days they are big enough to eat newly hatched BBS

Adding live floating plants and common snails to the tank a month or so before you spawn will help produce more microorganism for fry as well-but supplemental feeding is still needed by at least day 5-7-depending on the number of fry.

[jschristian44]

wow oldfishlady you know your stuff.

if i got a lettuce leaf and just threw that in there, will that provide them for the first 2 weeks? i think i heard someone did that but i wasnt sure. i thgouth the cloudy part kills them, so you put it in a seperate bottle and then after teh cloudy goes away and its clear, you feed it. am i right?

can you tell who's been doing their breeding research :)

[Oldfishlady]

I would use a separate container for the lettuce leaf infusoria culture and feed with an eyedropper-otherwise you could kill the Betta fry

I would google different ways to make/grow your cultures and try a couple of different methods to find what works best for you before you spawn

[jschristian44]

thats exactly what i was gonna do oldfishlady. btw nice red male.