Caring and feeding your new babies
The first thing to remember is to always have food set aside ahead of time before you even place the two in to spawn. I learned this the hard way twice.
The ritual is over and I have taken out the female but have left the male in the tank. I then introduce one drop of Liquifry 1 into the tank after the fry hatch and for the next three days after. The Liquifry 1 will introduce food into the tank for the fry to eat when they become free swimming and will also introduce infursia into the tank for the fry to eat. When I see the babies swimming horizontally I then take the male out and take a q-tip to gather some Microworms onto and place into the tank for the fry to eat. I continue with Microworms, Baby Brine Shrimp, No BBS powder from Mike Reed & Vinegar Eels until the fry are 4-6 weeks old. I feed the babies once in the morning and once at night and only place in there what they will eat in a matter of minutes. If I see some food still alive on the bottom of the tank I will not place anymore in there until I notice it gone or until it is dead and I have to siphon it out before it starts to rot in the water. At 2 weeks of age I start doing water changes. I take a homemade siphon to do my water changes with. I take a piece of rigid 1/8 inch think tubing and cut it to about the depth of the tank. I then connect some flexible tubing to the rigid at the length of the top of the aquarium to the bottom of the floor, this way I won’t have to worry about water getting everywhere. I then use this to siphon debris off the bottom. I try to just siphon out the water and the dirt, but occasionally fry get curious and get sucked up also. This is why when I siphon out water I try to siphon the water into a clear container like a plastic shoebox this way if I see any fry I can take an eyedropper, suck them out and place them back into the tank. After that is done I rinse out the siphon under some tap water and use it to siphon in a gallon of clean treated, same temperature water into the tank. I will continue doing this weekly until the tank is completely full and then I will take a gallon away at a time adding a gallon of fresh weekly. As the fry grow you will have to keep an eye on them. The males will start to show themselves at around 6-8 weeks of age, but sometimes later. Their fins will start to elongate, they will show more aggressiveness then others, and may even start flaring (females can do this also). When you think you have spotted a male or someone is just plain being a bully remove him/her and place them in their own jar. I jar both males and females if they are being too bossy. If the spawn is large enough I may have to move them to bigger quarters or I may move them to make room for another potential spawn. I usually move them to a 20 gallon or 55 gallon tank and try to add a lot of hiding places by using fake plants, live plants, and decorations. I try to make sure these tanks have an established filter, a bare bottom (for easy cleaning), and a heater set at the same temp as the other tank then slowly set down to 74-76 degrees F. I do bi-weekly (20) or even monthly (55) water changes on these but continue feeding once in the morning and once at night. I start feeding them bigger food at 6 weeks of age. Grindal worms, White worms, Fruit flies, Springtails, Betta bites, frozen Adult Brine Shrimp, frozen bloodworms, premi yum color up flakes from Mike Reed, and brine shrimp flakes are some of the foods I feed to my juveniles and adults.
Now comes the question, what in the heck do I do with all these fish. First thing I do is get rid of the deformed ones. I usually freeze them in a zip lock bag full of their water, but others feed them to their Oscars or other carnivorous fish. Second thing I do is look for ones that have the characteristics I am looking for, great finnage, great coloring, great body symmetry, and a great attitude. These all have been greatly defined in the IBC handbook for showing bettas. Try to be as picky as you can, you don’t want to waste the money raising them if they don’t have what you want. After I have done this I bag a dozen or so that I do not want and take them to the LFS to see if I can sell them to them and get some store credit so this way I can get something I may need. If they like them I may bring more back later or take some more to another LFS around town. I have been able to get a lot of the items I need by doing this. The third thing you can do is give them away to family and friends. I have done this also. This way I can keep tabs on them and teach others the right way to take care of bettas. If you have some really nice fish you can always sell them on Aquabid or on a site of your own. Then out of the ones you keep you can continue the cycle. I hope you understood everything I have printed here. This is just my way of doing things, but there are a lot of other ways out there. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to e-mail me @ [email protected]