Sarah's Diary

It's good to leave the male in with them as it imprints the good fathering instincts into the fry. Some people leave the dad in for a week or two. After all the lost eggs and fry from being eaten last year I get paranoid and take the male out at the first sign of any missing or at the latest the day they are freeswimming. I only got 12 or so fry from over twenty spawnings last year so it's going to take a while for me to trust a male any longer than that. So far this year I have around 5 or 6 hundred fry from 18 or 20 spawnings. I owe it all to oak leaf tea and taking the males out early.

Hi Sarah. Glad your babies are doing well. My boy lost interest in the nest, he just swam still right under the nest in a daze, letting the fry fall and swim off, it was very odd. He also wandered off quite alot, so I decided to take him out. Have you got quite alot of fry? The pics are fab, I wish my camera was that good! Your fry look very cosy all huddled up together in the bubblewrap.

Not sure really, dont think its a huge spawn, cant believe how quick they have developed into good swimmers, i dont think hes lost interest he does keep leaving the nest for a few mins by which time his young keep escaping so he frantically puts then back

WOW great pics sarah

Hey all, i have removed the male this morning he has lost interest in them, none were in the nest all are now swimming around the tank, and there seems to be lots missing, i think he may have ate some of them either that or they are well hidden

They will hide hun, alot will be around the filter and or heater... You will still lose a fair few but, still have some left

There will be loads hidden around the filter and heater hun

I have just fed them they dont seem interested worms gone to the bottom fry swimming around the top, dont want them to starve

could try the egg spray.. it stays suspended for ages or go straight to the bbs, even if they can't eat a whole one they will nibble at them

whats egg spray kel

Hi Sarah. Same thing is happening to me, my fry also don't seem interested in eating! I feed mine Atison's betta starter, although I have a banana worm culture that I will try tomorrow or Monday. I put some mature plants and frogbit into the tank and I think they're getting infusoria from those, and the sponge filter is mature too and apparently that has stuff they pick at too. They seem happy enough so they must be getting something from the food/plants!

Can anyone tell Sarah and I what 'full' newborn fry stomachs look like? So we can tell if they're not starving! At the mo mine have little white dots in their stomachs.

Really glad your spawn is doing well otherwise, I wonder how big they have to get before we can count them!!!

i tried counting them earlier but cant tell they move about too much, the plants i have in arnt mature i bought them last week from local fish store, sponge filter is mature hope they are getting enough, something else for me to worry about. lol

Lol, I bet even if we managed to count every one we saw, about twice that amount would be hiding!

Hopefully if someone can tell us what full betta fry bellies look like, then we can worry a bit less abot them starving. This is so exciting but stressful!! Do you also see little white dots whizzing about everytime you close your eyes? If you stare at them too long you see them everywhere you go, lol.

their bellies get huge... hard to see with worm diet but once their on bbs it's easy

bright orange tums and they look fit to burst! (bbs diet)


white tum in first days


@sarah
boiled egg
crumble a bit of yolk into half a cup of water, stir well and put in a plant spray bottle
2-3 sprays 4-6 times a day but make it up fresh for each feed.

The uncrumbled egg yolk will keep a few days in the fridge. The egg spray will be cloudy and when sprayed into the tank it stays suspended in the water for ages, you should be able to see the particles and the fry eating it. Because it's sprayed onto tank you are providing food all over the tank rather than concentrated in one or two spots so fry find it easily.

Don't go over 3 sprays per meal or it can foul up the water.

Ah those are cute, seen some of them around the bottom hopefully eating some of the banana worms i put in earlier, will get an egg tommorrow and do as you say kel thanks

Is everything going swimmingly lol.

i think so storm, seen a few eating some ocean nutrition newly hatched brine shrimp, and some worms i put in, i may set my hatchery up today see if i can hatch my own, failed last time but will try again,

Great sarah, glad there doing ok. Goodluck with the hatching

Hatchery? for BBS hun? If so there is a dead simple way to do it and it works 99% of the time.. Get a small heatmat, the ones that you would use for a reptile tank and put it on that..
Mandy and I have been using this idea for a while now and it really does make a difference. The BBS are hatching within 18/24 hours and good batches too

ive got my hatchery set up, so hopefully should have some more grub for my babies, my worm cultures are thriving now ive got four lots on the go.

Just a quick question, my friend has a natural pond no filter nothing, if i took my brine shrimp net and scooped it through the water would there be anything benefitial in there i could feed my fry, or could there be nasties in there

there wsould/should be beneficial bugs but at same time it is with caution aas you could spread nasties

once fry are a bit bigger you could split them and try a few with the pond skim

no harm in trying but its harsh if it results in you losing all of them.

ooh no not worth the risk, want all the little beauties to survive, just wondered if any one else had done it, they seem ok on the worms and will have some live baby brine shrimp by tommorow aft or tue,

Sarah

Glad those wrigglers are doing well, and behaving themselves by eating their food!

i do it myself on occasion and yes it can be good but you do run the risks too

hydra for example will kill fry

I managed to siphon all the crap off the fry tank floor today, ended up siphoning about 10 babies with it, some of them were coming to inspect the pipe what did the little wrigglers expect, took me ages to fish them out of my jug with my brine shrimp net, also noticed what looked like water fleas must be from the plants made me feel a bit better at least they got something else to eat,

All seems good anyway will try and get some updated pics of them soon