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Betta Imbellis


Fish Folk

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On 2/16/2022 at 7:26 PM, Fish Folk said:

Here’s the B. Imbellis girls. One is being NASTY to the other. Wild fish, I tell you! At least they’re eating a little bit. Frozen Daphnia + Frozen Spirulina Brine Shrimp.

 

According to Gianne, once they have been separated (ie: separated in bags) they can't be reintroduced to each other. 

Friend in Malaysia catches them in streams and puts them in a 16. 9 oz water bottle together to carry home, and as long as they are never separated, his males (caught in same place and same time, and never separated) don't even fight as long as they have enough room to not watch each other building their bubble nests.

The girls may need to be separated....

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Since it appears we’ve got B. Imbellis in the fishroom…

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I’m going to unpack some plans.

(1) How will I keep bettas separate once they spawn successfully?

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I use these plastic gallon jugs with handles. Chick-fil-a sells tea in them. I have a few friends who work there that can get me unused extras anytime. I cut the tops off, but preserve the handles. Fill with cycled tank water, tannins, and plants.

I now add a very small pre-cycled sponge filter to each one.

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I’ve even experimented with keeping Bettas inside the jug, inside a tank, with another Betta outside so they can see but are separate. It works fine.

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But breeding Bettas, I may have a bunch to separate. So here’s my first plan awhile back…

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I’ve begun studying what Gianne (Inglorious Bettas) does. She’s got these nice storage bins, and she rests them on a shelf-liner heater-roll / pad to warm water. 

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Of course, one always muses about the epic betta rack display system made by Aqua One (Australia?) at the CoOp…

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So here’s me musing this wee early morning on how to add a few jugs.

First, I plan to breed bettas here in these 5.5 gal tanks beneath my 33-gal. Long Killi colony.

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Now, looking at the space above (photo taken during lights-out) I start imagining…

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Add shelving strips…

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Affix shelf brackets and wooden shelves…

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(yes, the stuffed bass will have to move over)

Then add jugs…

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I’d like to make room for 10x jugs. Next, I  run airline up to CoOp valves to each jug / sponge filter.

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Then power up to LED strips on underside of the top shelf (I’d make a special lip so they’re not always visible), and power up to heater strips on the lower shelf under jugs like Gianne uses

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And just to hold onto other plans I have for a future Aquaponics set up here…

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I want to believe that I can do if all 😂

It would be a bit tight, but maybe doable… maybe…

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Edited by Fish Folk
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I'm wondering if there's a possibility that the fish got too warm being sealed in an insulated bag thing with the heat pack inside the bag with them, or another possibility is that there wasn't enough oxygen for the heat pack in there that it couldn't work since heat packs need oxygen to work. The important thing is that you saved them and they are all alive and hopefully spawn for you eventually.

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On 2/17/2022 at 4:21 AM, Fish Folk said:

It would be a bit tight, but maybe doable… maybe…

As someone who almost exclusively has their tanks in fairly tight spaces, I think the plan looks brilliant!  I like the two shelf plan better, because it affords more space in a pinch.  However, if you go that route, I would suggest thinking about the spacing of the brackets for the top shelf.  Depending on the number of actual (vs. cartoon) jugs you want on a shelf, you'll have the diagonal support strut coming down at an angle.  If you really are planning on packing the jugs in that tightly vertically then the shelf bracket struts can come down in places that might mess up your horizontal spacing.  I speak from experience on this.

On 2/17/2022 at 4:21 AM, Fish Folk said:

yes, the stuffed bass will have to move over

No wonder your fish breed so well for you.  They are afraid that if they don't, they'll end up on the wall!

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He is really gorgeous!!!

I think your shelves have great potential. 

I'll add:

You can run airline tube through the handle down to your (nano) sponge filter, so the handle is part of the lift tube. It reduces the flow a bit, so fry you are raising don't expend as much energy swimming against current. 

You can also run a second tube into the handle of each jug that is attached to a "master line" by a T, and have the line running to a trashcan or a bucket for semi automatic water changes. 

The tube in the bucket needs to have a way to plug it/turn it off.

Since the tubing goes into the handle, it:

1. Can't accidentally suck out fry

2. Can't accidentally over drain

3. Doesn't need to be taken out/stored/put back in

It's a gravity drain system that when used and monitored, keeps the tubing full of water at all times. 

If you accidentally drain the bottles below the tubing level, you lose suction. 

When you do the next water change, a mild amount of suction will restart the whole process. 

Then you just refill each gallon jug. Plant watering jugs make refills and topping off, easy.

Wishing you all the success!

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So … I broke down and did a _little_ spot of mirror play with CAREy, Betta Imbellis. I will say… this tank is _the worst_ lighting to photograph him.

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You can see here the fight with reflections. Through tannins, he appears more green. As whiter light reaches him, he turns out blue.

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Sorry these photos aren’t any “betta” than they are…

😜

Edited by Fish Folk
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On 2/18/2022 at 3:05 PM, Dancing Matt said:

I have an empty tank and was thinking pea puffer but after seeing this post... I did really like my bettas in the past...

They’re tough little swamp fish. I use Rooibos tea to add tannins. They love that.

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Your male imbellis is stunning, and really is demonstrating the benefits of tannin water and how darker waters influence genetic selection. I know that you probably already know this, but for anyone reading along, the tannins from roobios tea don't have the same antifungal, antimicrobial and antibacterial effects as Indian Almond leaf when they did the studies on tannins and betta health. 

So wonderful to see everyone eating so well, hard to believe that the male was brink of death just a few days ago!

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