New here and I have a question about my first time spawn

[ashleynicole]

Hi, I am new here and have a few questions. I got my bettas to spawn for the first time last night, it was amazing to watch them embrace again and again and when the eggs started falling with the embraces I was even more astounded at how the male caught every single egg before it hit the ground and took it up to the nest. I removed the female when she started to run from him and now I am anxiously awaiting fry... also here is a link to a video of one of the embraces with eggs...

youtu.be/HWNXnGKUtk8

So now it has been 24 hours and from what I have read, I should see some wiggling hair like things in the eggs as the embryo's develop.. but I don't see anything. My betta is still hanging out under the nest but he also swims around the tank occasionally although he always returns to the nest. I am afraid he may have eaten the eggs since this is the first time they spawned.
So when should I start seeing something before I assume that either the eggs were a bad batch or that they have been eaten? I have left the light on 24/7 so that he can always see and care for the eggs.

I bought both of these bettas from a fish store, the male from one fish store and the female from petco or petsmart (cant remember which store). I know sometimes pet store bettas can be retired breeders or young ones. I have had them for 4 months and fed them a varied diet of frozen bloodworms, frozen brine shrimp, and omega one betta pellets. They live in heavily planted 5 gallon aquariums.



Also, here is a thread on another forum where I logged this spawn.
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums...as-183715.html
It was really an accident. Years ago I had bought several bettas and had several 10 gallon tanks and tried without any success to get any two of them to spawn. This time around I just happened to have one male and one female because thats what my kids picked for their tanks. I thought "hmmm, let me put them together and see what happens"... so yeah it was pretty amazing. And my local fish store will buy bettas for 1/3 of the price they can sell them for, but he said they have to be 'pretty big'. And I think the male I have, from what I have researched, is pretty good breeding quality.


Thanks for any info anyone can provide!

[Bambi]

They may not be very noticeable.
If the tank is on the colder side it will takelonger to hatch, if they hatch. What temp do you have the tanks set to?
if he is still guarding/tending the nest there are probably eggs there. If you have a flashlight you can shine it up at the nest and look for eggs or tails.

Also,I love the video. <3 Looks like a CT female and a VT male? You should get plenty of red comb-vailtails from this spawn. Not something normally bred for but your fish are lovely and as long as you have the petshop willing to take any fry to can't rehome everything looks good.

[ashleynicole]

Originally Posted by Bambi

They may not be very noticeable.
If the tank is on the colder side it will takelonger to hatch, if they hatch. What temp do you have the tanks set to?
if he is still guarding/tending the nest there are probably eggs there. If you have a flashlight you can shine it up at the nest and look for eggs or tails.

Also,I love the video. <3 Looks like a CT female and a VT male? You should get plenty of red comb-vailtails from this spawn. Not something normally bred for but your fish are lovely and as long as you have the petshop willing to take any fry to can't rehome everything looks good.

The tank is heated and set to 82 degrees and I live in florida and my house is usually around 76
I assume the female is crowntail and yes it is a Vailtale male... I actually find them to be the most beautiful. I know it is not recommended for breeding, but honestly I expected nothing to happen, and it is not something I plan on doing on a regular basis. I know it sounds irresponsible, but I do have the means to take care of the fry and set up appropriate housing for them and I have done my research.

and thank you for your response, I really hope to see fry soon... I imagine betta tanks all over the house... he he he...

[ashleynicole]

Her is a quick little video I just took. He attends the nest for a while, sometimes just staring at it, then he swims around the tank for a bit, and then goes back to the nest... I am an anxious momma!

The breeding completed at 2245 last night, it is now 2325 so it has been over 24 hours. I am anxious to see fry!

http://youtu.be/bQ3Kq9gWDgM

[Bambi]

Haha it really does end up that way if you don't have shelves or something set up for them.
In the new vid it looks like he caught something and spit it back into the nest.

hehe and it's not /bad/ to breed VT's especially when out crossing to something els.People just tend to avoid making combtails because the first generation can tend to look messy. I look up to the people who want to breed better vailtails. you're boy looks lovely and if I found a VT with his body/fins in another color(like platinum white or black orchid) I'd buy him for sure. I passed up a black orchid VT at walmart once because he was to sickly to have any hope to get better. if I had the money to get, say, 4 bettas of my choosing I'd get a VT boy like yours(any color) a OHM and a HM female and a HM male(in the color i was breeding for,probably plat.white) and then work on breeding for a VT line of platinums. xD


....and now I'm rambling. Sorry. xD Anyway, he's still by the nest which is a good sign.

[ashleynicole]

Thank you so much for your response, I am probably watching the nest too often.. I need to relax, go to sleep and take a look in the morning, it's just so exciting to see life develop.
oooh and red is also my favorite color :)

[Myates]

Do you have the BBS and fry food prepared and ready? A grow out tank larger then the 5 gallons they are in (talking about a large tank since you can easily have hundreds of babies)? Enough jars and a way to heat each one appropriately when they need to be separated yet too young to sell? IAL? Powdered fry food? Infusoria and live foods? Where are you going to sell them all when they are older? Do you know how to ship properly? It's winter time so shipping over the next few months may not be idea..

Only reason I am mentioning this is because you didn't properly condition them- which to me shows it was a spur of the moment thing and you didn't think of the hundreds of dollars it's going to cost to raise those fry, and what to do with them at certain ages, and where you are going to keep hundreds of babies and young adults... and you didn't condition.. especially mass produced pet store bettas. You will most likely have to cull (kill off) a lot of those babies.. will you be able to do that?

There is a ton more you need to do.. since it seems all you did was throw 2 in together (which you are very lucky neither had gotten hurt as that normally happens when not properly conditioned and introduced).

I'm sorry if I come off rude but you just created hundreds of little lives and unless you have some larger tanks free of other fish, the proper fry food, jars, all the money needed and everything else.. such as what sort of filter are you using, etc.. it just to me makes me sad to see :(

And VT will be dominant trait there with those. And nothing wrong with VTs, as I like the "classic" betta look..

[Oldfishlady]

Welcome to the forum and Congrats......

Any progress to report...........It can be so much fun and rewarding rearing your own Bettas from egg-to-adult....

Look forward to following your spawn log....lovely Bettas by the way.....

[ashleynicole]

Wow, ok, first of all I said I have the means to raise the fry. I have an empty 55 gallon aquarium in the garage I could use for growout but was leaning more towards large rubbermaid tubs. I was thinking of building some sort of floating individual housing for the males.. that is even if I get any fry... As for a progress report, the male is still guarding the nest and I do not see any fry.

Did you not read that my local fish store will buy adults at 1/3 the price they sell them for?

Also I have had these two for four months feeding frozen bloodworms, brine shrimp, and omega one pellets. I've heard you only have to condition for 2 weeks, 4 months is not enough?

I have infusoria cultures growing, not to mention the tank is very densly planted so it should be colonized with infusoria as well. I also have a microworm culture and powdered food, although I've read that betta fry usually won't take powdered food. I've also looked onto feeding egg yolk, which worked well when i raised guppies, but I've read conflicting evidence on egg yolk for betta fry... Some articles say its the best, some say microworms.

If you had read my post I think I addresses most of those concerns already...

[ashleynicole]

And I did not just throw the two together. I put her in a plastic breeding box for about 24 hours and when I released her they began spawning within about 10 minutes.

Yes I have money needed to buy supplies, jars if I decide to jar the males. Not to mention I keep my garage at 80 degrees since it is my herp room (we have 6 snakes in there) so I could easily put jarred males in there. I hate that you assume I am uneducated, at least ask questions and wait for answers before you pass judgement. I have read every article I can find on breeding bettas. I am able to do the right thing. Right now I'm not even sure if I will get fry or not.