Siamese Fighter breeding question????

Question

I have successfully bred betta splendens roughly about 15 - 20 times. At the start there were a few problems but nothing major , and I learned from that. I have successfully raised between 30 - 50 young fish to a good size before selling them to the pet shop for a very little profit, but its a hobby and I enjoy it. My question is this: The last time ( about 6 months ago) a newly purchased male and female bred or me successfully.I fed them the usual rich foods like earthworm, bloodworm, tubifex and SOME flake food. Everything was fine for a couple of weeks and then the fry began to dwindle. I was left with 4 fish out of roughly 40 and 3 of them have seemed to have developed swolen bellies and have a swimming defect, 1 is 100% perfect, all are females.I'm simply baffled. The parents were both nice sizes and bred perfectly. Would there be a genetic defect in one of them??

Sorry people, I should gave mentioned before, I did feed the fry hard boiled egg yolk and baby brine shrimp, and the tests that were mentioned were carried out.

And the water was at the high level mentioned in one of the answers.

High temperature level , I MEAN, not high water level.

Answer 1

I sorta agree with sabersquirrel except on the issue of freeze-dried foods. They will often cause constipation, thus leading to swim-bladder problems.

I believe, ideally, betta fry should be fed microworms, no? Try cultivating your own, as this is supposed to be the best thing for them.

Was the temperature kept at a constant ~80 degrees to promote the healthy environment they prefer? Did you test the water for ammonia/nitrite/nitrate/pH values? Was everything normal? If your water quality is fine, I'd suspect bacterial issues. Did you happen to quarantine the new mother and father bettas before you bred them?

EDIT: Found an interesting article on proper betta fry foods. Either infusoria or live foods like microworms, vinegar eel, or newly hatched brine shrimp are the ONLY appropriate betta fry foods. Apparently, someone had the same problem you had in which they started out with tons of fry (over 400) and only a few lived. These were the recommendations given.

http://www.bettatalk.com/what_fry_eat.htm

EDIT again: Baby brine shrimp should not be a staple food and should only be fed as a last resort, as it apparently causes constipation which leads to swim bladder issues. I believe that would be the cause of your current swimming defect and swollen bellies that you're seeing now. I'm not sure if you can feed the babies cooked, cooled, and shelled peas, but this is the normal treatment for adult bettas, as this will help the fish poop. I'm going to wait and see if any of the betta experts pop on here, because I'm really not sure how to treat possible swim bladder problems in fry.

Answer 2

Maybe, but I'd expect that a genetic defect would not effect all of the fry. Most likely rough 1/2 or 1/4.

It could also be a bacterial infection. Honestly you might be better off switching over to freeze dried foods once they get big enough. I'd euthanize the lot of them, and sterilize the tank and start over.

Answer 3

Try boiling an egg and put a little of the yolk into a cloth and squeeze it through into the water for the babies to eat. It has lots of protein.

Answer 4

Did they develop pin tail, lose weight and fade to nothing? you may need to change the water more often, fry are more susceptible to water problems from waste.
A

Answer 5

i was told, by a shop assistant that this is a birth defect, and that they mey not live as long as the ok female, oh and congrats i never had the patience to breed them