[WellBetta]

Hi all!

I'm new here, but I've been lurking for years. I finally reached the point where I was ready to have a spawn!

I bought the pair on eBay. After conditioning with bloodworms I left them in the spawn tank with the female in a breeder net. Both fish were showing immediate interest, and the male went to work on a bubble nest under the IAL. I went to work and she must have jumped because I came home to find her chilling behind the breeder net with the male guarding a batch of eggs!

The fry became free swimming on Tuesday. I moved the male to the breeder net that was already in the tank; he can still see his babies. Normally I would move him back to his tank, but I had a heater malfunction (thank goodness he wasn't in there!) and I'm waiting for a new one to ship before I put him back in. There are a couple of them in the net with him. I'm not sure how that happened, but he basically ignores them except occasionally moving them over to the plant leaves if he thinks they're being too active lol.

A couple of weird things have happened that I haven't seen in other spawn logs:

First, when I was looking at the eggs, I noticed a bunch of long, clear worms on the bottom and walls of the tank; a google search told me they were detritus worms. The tank hadn't been established for very long, although I am using a sponge filter from an established, clean tank. I did just buy a bunch of foxtail and a few other plants that I rinsed and threw in the spawn tank a couple of days ago. I think the worms must have come from there. The good news is that there seem to be a number of other micorscopic organisms that the fry have been eating, and the worms don't bother the fry. Hoping the fry will eat them when they get bigger.

This leads me to the next weird thing: the fry don't seem interested in the banana worms I've been adding to the tank once a day since they became free swimming. The fry stay up towards the top of the tank, darting between the plants. I assume they're eating other organisms, and I'm making sure the dead worms aren't left on the bottom of the tank. How did you teach your fry to eat banana/microworms?

Some pictures: One of dad, and one blurry fry pic from Tuesday (I see 4 or 5 in this picture, and I think there are about 100 overall)

I'll try to update every couple of days if people are interested. I'll also add a pic of mom at some point.

 

[fishowner550]

Im not a betta breeder so i cant give advice but im looking forward to watching the grown up!

 

[fishowner550]

Im not a betta breeder so i cant give advice but im looking forward to watching the grown up!

Them* sorry for the typo

 

[WellBetta]

Thanks! Fingers crossed they stay healthy and happy! 😬

 

[CosmicSyringe]

Welcome to the forum and congrats on your first spawn!! I, too, am raising my first spawn. 😊 its sooooo exciting in the first couple weeks!
Those tiny white worm looking things are nothing to worry about - I freaked out the first time I saw them in my tank haha. They're good food if the fish can catch them!
Not sure about banana/micro worms though, my fry started with baby brine shrimp. I'd search YouTube and maybe Google for advice with that.
Can't wait to see the mama when you post her picture, the father is gorgeous! What are their names? I'd love to read updates whenever you post. ✌ take care!

 

[WellBetta]

Welcome to the forum and congrats on your first spawn!! I, too, am raising my first spawn. 😊 its sooooo exciting in the first couple weeks!
Those tiny white worm looking things are nothing to worry about - I freaked out the first time I saw them in my tank haha. They're good food if the fish can catch them!
Not sure about banana/micro worms though, my fry started with baby brine shrimp. I'd search YouTube and maybe Google for advice with that.
Can't wait to see the mama when you post her picture, the father is gorgeous! What are their names? I'd love to read updates whenever you post. ✌ take care!

Thank you! I read your spawn log- your babies are so cute! No worries about the banana worms. I keep putting the worms in just in case the fry eat, and siphoning them out with a pipette. They're still swimming around happy and healthy though, so I'm not too worried. I did order some brine shrimp- I'll see if they like that any better than whatever they're eating in the tank!

Dad is Phlox and mom is Poppy. Here's another blurry picture featuring Poppy (disregard the nerite eggs on the lily bulbs)

I have so much respect for people who take fish pictures now!! This pic took probably 10 minutes. I'll try to get some better ones of the fry over the weekend.

 

[CosmicSyringe]

I love the parents names! When my fry were freshly hatched, I worried about them eating cuz I didn't always see it. But they grew so they had to have been eating. 🙂

 

[WellBetta]

Okayyy time for a quick update! No new pictures, unfortunately- maybe tomorrow.

The fry started actively eating the microworms, and I bought some baby brine shrimp; they love both foods. It makes me so happy to see tiny bulging bellies! I'm already starting to see some fry that are a bit bigger than the others. I'm surprised it happened so early. Most of them are about the size of a newborn guppy.

I also did the first water change- I've been sucking up bits of poo and dead worms with a pipette and adding about an inch of water every other day, but yesterday I used air hose as a siphon. I tried to be as careful as possible, but I still ended up with 27 fry in the bucket!! It makes me think there are more than 100 fry because there's no way I accidentally siphoned a quarter of the fry while actively trying to avoid them. Anyway, everyone seems to be healthy and active still. Well... almost everyone. I did find my first dead fry this morning, but one dead fry isn't surprising based on the other spawn logs I've read, particularly after a number of them were siphoned...

How do y'all siphon the dirt without picking up fry?

 

[CosmicSyringe]

You may want to wait for water changes till they're bigger, and just pick out dead worms and dead fry and maybe poop while adding a small bit of water each day. In my first spawn I ended up sucking up a ton of the fry with a turkey baster and only 3 survived to be a month I think. They're over 2 months now, the others slowly died off a handful at a time and it was devastating. For my next spawn, I did suck up a few but I've been way more careful. 😓
You may already know this but just in case: be wary that overfeeding or feeding too many bbs can lead to possible swim bladder issues later on (I'm dealing with this right now, 2 months in).
Good luck with your fin babies!

 

[WellBetta]

You may want to wait for water changes till they're bigger, and just pick out dead worms and dead fry and maybe poop while adding a small bit of water each day. In my first spawn I ended up sucking up a ton of the fry with a turkey baster and only 3 survived to be a month I think. They're over 2 months now, the others slowly died off a handful at a time and it was devastating. For my next spawn, I did suck up a few but I've been way more careful. 😓
You may already know this but just in case: be wary that overfeeding or feeding too many bbs can lead to possible swim bladder issues later on (I'm dealing with this right now, 2 months in).
Good luck with your fin babies!

Sorry for the late reply, I didn't see this... Thank you for the advice!

How long would you advise waiting before siphoning? As to the brine shrimp, I think I did overfeed a bit for the first couple days, but I saw the update on your log and cut back just in case!

 

[WellBetta]

Update time!

It's been two weeks since the spawn. More than half of the fry are starting to look like actual fish now, instead of eyes with a tail! I found a couple of dead fry since my last post, but they look like the smallest, weakest fry so I'm still not too worried. A bit sad, but it might be for the best.

Here are some (still very blurry) pictures:

The little guy resting on the filter arm! Plus a few others in the background

Blurry swimming

One of the smaller ones

 

[CosmicSyringe]

About siphoning, my fry are past 2 months and I still haven't used the siphon to clean. I use a turkey baster to get all the dirt/food/poop from the bottom of the tank and then I take cupfuls of water from the surface so I can make sure I don't get any fry. I might try siphoning today though.

 

[WellBetta]

About siphoning, my fry are past 2 months and I still haven't used the siphon to clean. I use a turkey baster to get all the dirt/food/poop from the bottom of the tank and then I take cupfuls of water from the surface so I can make sure I don't get any fry. I might try siphoning today though.

Thanks for being so helpful! How'd the water change go?

 

[CosmicSyringe]

Thanks for being so helpful! How'd the water change go?

Youre welcome, anytime! ❤
I tried siphoning and I still sucked up at least 4 fry! So the only way I'll siphon is if its siphoning through the sponge filter so there's no risk 😫
But everyone is doing fine so I think we are all okay.

 

[WellBetta]

Youre welcome, anytime! ❤
I tried siphoning and I still sucked up at least 4 fry! So the only way I'll siphon is if its siphoning through the sponge filter so there's no risk 😫
But everyone is doing fine so I think we are all okay.

Wow that's surprising! Most of your fry look so big! If your fry can get sucked up it seems that it'll be a long while before I should try straight siphoning. 😕 Siphoning through the sponge filter sounds like a good idea though.

I'm glad everything is ok!

 

[WellBetta]

I'm starting to see a translucent layer of blue iridescence on some of the bigger fry when the light is right. They're a little over 2 weeks old now, and I haven't read about anyone else seeing hints of "color" this early. Am I imagining things?

 

[CosmicSyringe]

Mine were like that, iridescence colors came in pretty fast.

 

[WellBetta]

Mine were like that, iridescence colors came in pretty fast.

That's good to know! Do you think there was a correlation between the iridescence and the colors you're seeing now? Or do you think all betta fry develop it at a certain point?

 

[CosmicSyringe]

That's good to know! Do you think there was a correlation between the iridescence and the colors you're seeing now? Or do you think all betta fry develop it at a certain point?

I can't say for sure because I've only spawned this once.

 

[WellBetta]

Hmm... maybe I'll make a more general post to ask about it. Mostly because curiosity, but also to help other new breeders. I thought maybe there was something wrong with them (velvet or something) when I noticed it at first.