Betta Splendens?

Question

i need some help please. i have bread bettas and i have had fry about 3 times.

the thing is as soon as they have babies i will remove the male after 2 days because he does not eat the fry at least i dont think he does. however say about a week they ill all be swimming but they will not eat. i feed them liquifry but they all die after about 9 days.

the water level is about 6-7 inches but i also sometimes find it hard to get the female to breed because she just runs away she has the verticle stripe an all but she just runs and in the rpocess breaks the nest help?

Answer 1

To help with the female running, be sure she is very well conditioned before putting her in the tank and allow her to see the male a few hours before you put her in the tank.

I would also suggest you keep the water level to about 5 inches, but you don't seem to be having a problem at 6-7 so that's not a huge deal.

For the feeding problem there are a few solutions I can offer. One, allow the breeding tank to grow a bit of aglae before you breed them. Green water is in fact a firly good food source for the first few days to a week. Also, you should start an infusoria colony. Just use some tank water in a large jar, add a little crushed lettuce or other greens and place it where it will get some sun. It sill get green and then get milky cloudy. That's infusoria. Keep a few cultures running and start new one's as the old one's thin out. Just pour some into the tank to feed it tot he fish.

Also get a microworm starter culture. You can order them quite cheap all over the internet. That is also a good food for 3-4 days after they are free swimming and until they are large enough to eat baby brine shrimp at about 2 weeks.

It sounds like you are missing the middle step of foods, the micro worms and then baby brine. Add these starting at day 3-4 and feed the microworms for about 2 weeks then start baby brine. You will want to over lap and feed both foods each time you change foods. This allows the smaller babies to still get wheat they need and the larger to adjust to the new food source. Once they can all each baby brine shrimp you are in the clear.

MM

Answer 2

I would try infusoria along with the liquifry. I would also leave the male in with the fry for at least 3 days. Most males can be kept with the fry for 5 days with no problems.
As for the female, you have to make sure her egg spot is showing. How do you introduce the pair? You could try to place her in a new oil lamp globe in side the tank so neither will get hurt. Leave her inside the globe until the bubble nest is large enough. Then you slowly release her from the globe. You should see a white spot "egg spot" under her front fins. If you see this then she is ready. I have a female that I believe is infertile. I have tried to breed her many times with different males and she never shows any signs of breeding. Females also get vertical stripes when they are scared.
Also you can lower the water level down a few inches and that will help the fry. I keep mine around 5 inches when breeding. If you need any help just email me.

Answer 3

This is how i would do it:

Tank setup - I use a bare 5 gallon tank (with half a styro cup or some suitable nest anchor in 1 corner and a 2 liter soda bottle with the top & bottom bottom cut off in the opposite corner), filled half way. Then I would place the female first inside the soda bottle. A couple of hours later I will put the male inside the tank, with the female still inside the clear soda bottle. The male should start building his nest, while making frequent trips to the female.

Just about sunset, I would release the female (by lifting gently the soda bottle) and let them be with little light in the room (the darkness seems to help calm them down). If things go right should start spawning by the next morning.

As for feeding the young, i would start their first week with infusoria, on day 7 i would start a batch of BBS daily, and feed this, together with some infusoria for another 7-10 days. Then I would start weaning them regular fish food (pellets), with occasional treat of BBS.

Hope this helps. Good Luck.

Answer 4

Here is all about breeding and feeding the bettas
http://www.aquariumhobbyist.com/articles/BreedingBettas.html
http://justbettas.home.insightbb.com/feed.html
http://www.flippersandfins.net/faq.htm#malefemale
Hope that helps you out
Good luck