My first spawn: Spike & Clover

Hi the banana worms can live for 24 hours in water so even if you havnt seen them eat they may do at some point when your not there, i have some micro worm cultures on the go as well but they dont seem to be reproducing as good as the banana worms,

I shall be siphoning the mess off the bottom today, trying to avoid sucking them up, tested their water yesterday and all is good.

I will certainly swap a few if we manage to raise them into adulthood.
Glad our babies doing well, they are fasinating i watch them for hours

Glad all the babies are doing fine, sounds like hard work but very satisfying. Keep us posted when you can Jess i love reading how they are getting on

Glad the babies are doing well, keep us updated

Hi hows it going with your babies

Yesterday was a horrible day :-( I tested the fry tank water again and instead of perfect like I'd steadily been getting, I had a slight nitrite spike, explaining the 10 dead fry :-( Ammonia and Nitrates were fine though, thank goodness.
So I tested the water from my sorority tank to be 100% sure (I was getting paranoid even though my big tanks are always tip top, *touch wood*) and it was fine, so I added about 4 litres to the fry tank, very slowly, to dilute the nitrites, and then I added some SafeStart. Of course I wasn't sure if anything I was doing would be 100% safe but I had to do something! The fry were all eating fine (obsessively hunting with banana worms) and I actually didn't see anymore dead ones the whole day.
This morning I tested the water and everything is fine again, and no dead fry. The babies actually look brilliant this morning, they seem to be getting bigger, swimming faster and they're getting alot more reactive - many of them crowd at the front of the tank when they sense someone is close by, which is nice to see. It's their 1 week birthday tonight ^^

Well done for getting the parametres back on track. That can be the most difficult task at times.

Oh its a shame you lost some, when i tested my water on monday nitrites were 0 but nitrates were around the 20 mark, havnt found any dead yet, mine all croud around the filter,

Going to check the water again today

You will lose a percentage of the babies normally hun, I cant remember what it is but I am sure Kel will tell us..

most of the poorer ones will die off in the first fortnight, once you get to a month you can relax a little lol

30 to adult is a respectable spawn although you do get huge 100+ spawns to adult on occasion

A week old already wow thats passed quickly, good to see you got everything sorted out and hopefully things will start smoothly.

Cant wait to see them when they've grown a little more

Great to see everything is working out for you

Hows the little un's Jess?

Hi jess how are your babies doing

Sorry not updating, been really busy! The remaining fry all seem to be fine, but I have lost around 20 since they hatched 10 days ago. The water is fine and I don't under/over feed (hopefully) so wondering if it's me doing something wrong or wether it's just nature. I can count around 15 - 20 left that I can see, maybe there are more hiding (hope so!) somewhere in the nooks and crannies of the tank. The ones that are left are big ones, some of them are huge, twice the size of the few littler ones that I have left. I hope they all make it! I'm hoping to do another spawn next week and if all goes well, put all the fry in one big growout tank when they're a bit bigger. *pants*

I'll post some new pics up this weekend! ^^

perfectly understandable losing most in those first weeks

every spawn is different too.. might only get 2 to adult in one spawn then have 80 in the next.

Thanks Kel. I just have to remember it's my first go at this so I'm doing my best and that's all I can do and just remember all this stuff for future tries! :-) I just bought a 128L tank which I'm setting up tomorrow, should be a nice grow-out tank when they're a little bigger.

Shame you have lost a few hun, but even if you get 2 its still great

That's what I keep saying to myself! Plus now I'm so protective over my remaining fry. I swear if they made a tank big enough I'd probably put a wetsuit on and clumb in there and mother them all for the next few months, LOL!!! My biggest fry is gigantic, he's twice or more the size of some of the others, and he has a tiny little caudal fin already, I'm so in love!

AWWWWWW get a swimming pool fitted and climb in, but you have to eat what they eat mind. Glad its working out for you hun

Awww gotta love the last few fry, they will always be special to you. The dad is gorgeous, love his colours!

How are we doing this week jess?

Babies are doing well thanks! They seem to be around 30 as I counted them right before I moved them into a bigger 54L tank. They're growing up with some little guppy fry to encourage them to grow, and it's working a treat, I have one betta fry that's tripled in size and he's as big as a guppy, it's amazing. They all get on fine, no bulling or chasing, although I will take the guppies out when they start colouring up, as they grow faster than bettas.

Unfortunately Spike, the father of my fry, died from depression yesterday. He'd been suffering from it since I took him away from the babies, and he just wasted away no matter what I tried to cheer him up :-( He was my favourite fish and I'm gutted. I feel so guilty for taking him away from the fry and making him ill and then not being able to help him :-( Out of the adult fry we get we're going to keep the male that looks the most like Spike, and call him Spike Jr in his memory. RIP Spike :-(

My camera is rubbish but I did try to take a few more pics of the fry which I'll put up today hopefully. Some are still titchy but most are getting bigger, with some being 2, 3 even 4 times bigger than the tiny ones.

Awww so sorry to hear that jess, i hope you get alteast one fry that looks like him

Good to hear the babies are ok, but im so sorry about Spike...RIP little guy

Thanks Nat. I'm even more protective of the babies now as they're all I've got left of Spike.

Here's some pics of the biggest of the fry, Spike Jr. His caudal, dorsel and anal fins are all showing now. He's about four times bigger than the smallest fry, twice as big as all the average sized fry, and there are about 6 other fry who are almost of big as him. There's between 25 - 30 fry altogether I think ^^

The biggest of all the fry, Spike Jr:



Spike Jr yawning!!!!!:







One of the average sized fry:



Close-up of an average sized fry as he came close to the front of the tank:



The fry's new home: