Baby Bettas hatch from their eggs about 24 - 48 hours after spawning. The first few days after hatching, these fry live off the food stored in their egg sacs and the infusoria in the tank. Infusoria are naturally occurring micro-organisms that occur in aged water with plants in it. Until this time Daddy Dear patiently bears the responsibility of looking after the baby fry. But ... the moment these fry are able to swim horizontally on their own, they are seen as fish-food to the now-hungry father. Your first task at hand is to remove the now predatory father from the tank and to offer him lodgings of his own. Once he is relocated, your work begins in earnest.
Feed the fry: Great first foods for free-swimming fry are live micro worms, vinegar eels and baby brine shrimp. Baby fry work on instinct and will only eat food that moves - so no powdered or flaked foods for them. Feed them small quantities at a time, about two to three times a day. You should guard against polluting their tank with too much food.
Clean the tank: Approximately two weeks after hatching, the fry start forming their own air-breathing organs. Before this happens, you will need to ensure that there is no scum on the surface of the tank ... scum that could drown your newly hatched fry. For the best results, a two-pronged approach can be followed. The first is to solicit the help of nature. Introduce large snails into the tank to devour any food that is left over by the fry. The second is to use a tube to siphon out leftover food and any crud that may start building up. A good idea is to siphon the water into a clear jar so that you can easily see if any fry were mistakenly sucked out in the process. If this is the case, use a dropper to gently release them back into their tank. The clean top-up water should be the same temperature or a few degrees warmer than the water in the tank. Drip, not pour, the clean water into the tank. It must be done very gently and very slowly so as not to hurt the delicate fry. Do this at least 2 -3 times a week to help the fry stay healthy.
Introduce new foods: When the fry are about a month old gradually introduce them to finely ground frozen or dry food. Frozen bloodworms, frozen brine shrimp and frozen beef heart all work well. Getting them to eat the new food is tough at first but they do succumb in the end, especially when they see the other fry eating the food. Competition certainly fuels their hunger. Uneaten dry food pollutes the tank in no time at all. Make sure you clear out any food that has not been eaten within a couple of hours.
Separate the sexes: By the time they reach 3 months in age, most of the males and some of the females get very aggressive and start attacking their siblings. It is now time to jar the young male Bettas, which means putting them in individual containers. These young Bettas get stressed and depressed when they are separated from their siblings. Reduce their stress by filling the new jars with the water that they have been living in all this time and by placing all these clear jars together so they can see each other. Use large-sized jars so as not to stunt their growth and remember to change the water in the jars every few days with new water of the same ph and temperature.
For more information on breeding betta fish [http://www.bettafishcenter.com/Breeding-Betta-Fish.shtml] and raising betta fry, try visiting http://www.bettafishcenter.com, a popular website that provides tips, advice and resources on caring for betta splendens.
No comments:
Post a Comment