[Sunil.Mansoor]

The fry hatched on 11th Dec so they are 3+ weeks today. I’ll bring you all up to date real quick.
Mom and Dad

Spawn -Dec 9

Hatched - Dec 11

Free swimming / removed dad - Dec 14
When I removed dad I had accidentally moved 3 fry with him. Not to agitate dad more, I thought I’ll leave the 3 fry.

Started feeding infusoria. And then micro worms soon after. Many fry died in the first week. Sucked the dead/dying ones out and kept slowly filling up water. I’m guessing about 50 or more died.

1st major water change - Dec 21

10 days old

2 weeks old

Remember the 3 fry accidentally moved with dad? I thought dad would have eaten them. 2 weeks later they were still with dad and seemed like he was caring for them. Curious to see how long he will care for them, I left them with him. By third week Dad was ready to mate again and built a large bubble nest. This was when he started chasing the 3 fry. I was able to save one. So ya, Dad is a good father and if I breed him again, I’ll leave him with the fry longer.

2+ weeks (17 days - Dec 28th)
They have been fed only micro worms so far.
50 to 80% water changes daily depending on how much access food, etc

Dec 31st - finally I get everything needed for the bbs hatchery and first bbs batch is bubbling

First bbs feeding - 3 weeks old - Jan 1, 2021

Jan 3 - fry growing faster since started on bbs

Over fed couple times and quickly siphoned out uneaten bbs / mw.

Jan 5

They are on a mixed diet of bbs and mw but mostly bbs.

Finally did a count today and .... any guesses?
Seventy five!

 

[Sunil.Mansoor]

Jan 7 - 27 days old (1 day to 4 weeks mark)

Noticed few ‘belly sliders’. So I have reduced feeding quantity and increased frequency. But I am worried that the smaller ones (there is one that is 1/4 the size of the average size now) would not get enough food, as it’s the smaller ones who are usually last to join the feast and not as aggressive.

The fry in the middle is the biggest in size and struggling more than the others to swim up and stay buoyant. I’ll try the floating cup to keep him isolated and limit access to food.
Other than that, everything good, and normal routine.

 

[Sunil.Mansoor]

Jan 8; 4 weeks

Two fry that were having trouble swimming up were separated from the rest in a floating cup and I didn’t feed them for the rest of yesterday. Today morning both of them were swimming normal

I am still keeping them separate and giving limited feeding.

For the rest, new feeding routine is 4 or 5 times in smaller quantities. I think the mistake I did was to keep only a small torch light on during feeding, so the bbs is gathered in a single area. It was great to take videos and photos of the fry feeding on bbs in that light, but by doing so, all of the fry didn’t have equal access to bbs in that tight space of the single light beam. Lesson learnt; distribute food into the whole tank.

At 4 weeks today they are between 0.6 to 0.75 cm (~1/4 to 1/3 inch), healthy and active. Internet says they should be about 1cm (0.45”).

 

[Sunil.Mansoor]

Jan 11; one month old

BBS mistakes/minor panic:
Day before yesterday evening, accidentally killed hatched bbs before harvesting. Switched off air pump and set light as usual and got occupied with other stuff forgetting about bbs. Few hours later most were dead, I assume due to suffocation as they were all balled up at the funneled bottom of the hatchery. Was able to harvest few live ones. So glad I have micro worms too: fry were fed mostly micro worms yesterday and today morning.
New batch of bbs hatched and ready for next feeding. Now I understand why it’s important to have two hatcheries goin simultaneously, especially if no other substitute live food.

Fry started breathing at the surface 😃

I thought their labyrinth develops at a later stage. There is continuous movement now that they dash to the surface and back. Noticed that this also gives all the fry equal opportunity to feed as fry has to take a break from feeding and dash to the surface.

Fry pictures 🤗

 

[Sunil.Mansoor]

March 5th 2021 - 12 weeks update

First of all, everyone survived except for one who died within 30 mins of moving them to new tank. All others were active and healthy so I assume this fellow was probably injured while catching and moving.
Since my last update two months back, I have given away fry to others who wanted to raise them. Mainly because I had more than I expected from this spawn and I didn’t want to get more tanks to raise them.

By 5 weeks, some had started showing hints of color on their fins

Jan 17th - Gave away 20 fry to a fish hobbyist who had raised betta fry before. His 20 are doing great in a spacious grow tank and it’s great to have someone to discus the experience, share notes and learn from each other.
Feb 6th - Gave away 22 fry to the breeder I got the parent pair from. M sure they are doing great with him.

I noticed that almost all of the fry are missing their ventral fins. My biggest worry/fear came true. 😔
Since microworms were the only food I gave for the first 3 weeks, I made sure the bottom was siphoned everyday. 50-80% water change everyday after first 10 days. Once I started feeding mostly bbs, water changes were stretched between 1.5 days to max every other day, again depending on the feed.
Even after giving a lot of attention to keeping the bottom of the breeding container clean, I was not able to avoid the dreaded case of missing ventrals. There are only two with ventral fins.

Feb 15th. Moved the remaining fry to a 15 gallon tank. Counted while moving them, and surprise! My last count (at 3 weeks) before giving away any fry was 75.
I still had 43 after giving away 42 of them 😃

Feb 27th - culled 2 fry that did not fully develop swim bladder and 3 that had backbone deformity. They were fed to a friend’s pet Oscar.

5th March - gave away 7 to a fish hobbyist. Another coming today to take 6. That will leave me with 25.

At 12 weeks, they are between 2 to 2.5 cm average, biggest at 3cm.
Few have started showing aggression so I’ll be giving those ones away first so I can keep rest in the same tank for longer until I can give away all.

 

[Aries&Gucci]

The fry hatched on 11th Dec so they are 3+ weeks today. I’ll bring you all up to date real quick.
Mom and Dad
View attachment 1025182

View attachment 1025183

Spawn -Dec 9
View attachment 1025184

Hatched - Dec 11

Free swimming / removed dad - Dec 14
When I removed dad I had accidentally moved 3 fry with him. Not to agitate dad more, I thought I’ll leave the 3 fry.

Started feeding infusoria. And then micro worms soon after. Many fry died in the first week. Sucked the dead/dying ones out and kept slowly filling up water. I’m guessing about 50 or more died.

1st major water change - Dec 21
View attachment 1025186
10 days old

View attachment 1025187
2 weeks old

Remember the 3 fry accidentally moved with dad? I thought dad would have eaten them. 2 weeks later they were still with dad and seemed like he was caring for them. Curious to see how long he will care for them, I left them with him. By third week Dad was ready to mate again and built a large bubble nest. This was when he started chasing the 3 fry. I was able to save one. So ya, Dad is a good father and if I breed him again, I’ll leave him with the fry longer.

View attachment 1025188
2+ weeks (17 days - Dec 28th)
They have been fed only micro worms so far.
50 to 80% water changes daily depending on how much access food, etc

Dec 31st - finally I get everything needed for the bbs hatchery and first bbs batch is bubbling

First bbs feeding - 3 weeks old - Jan 1, 2021
View attachment 1025191

Jan 3 - fry growing faster since started on bbs
View attachment 1025192
Over fed couple times and quickly siphoned out uneaten bbs / mw.

Jan 5
View attachment 1025193
They are on a mixed diet of bbs and mw but mostly bbs.

View attachment 1025194
Finally did a count today and .... any guesses?
Seventy five!

83 fry??

 

[Sunil.Mansoor]

83 fry??

85 🤪

 

[Aries&Gucci]

85 🤪

😤 sooooo close