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Betta Imbellis


Fish Folk

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Well … *sigh* … this morning, upon inspection, _all baby bettas were dead_. Last night fine… this morning, dead.

I think that the decomposition of protein from uneaten food just overcame the capacity of the bacterial colony to convert. It’s early for labyrinth development failure. None are alive.

So! Back to the drawing board. My next attempt will probably be in a large floating flow-through container.

Here’s a fishroom ramble about it all…

 

Edited by Fish Folk
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On 9/1/2022 at 10:06 PM, Fish Folk said:

Well … *sigh* … this morning, upon inspection, _all baby bettas were dead_. Last night fine… this morning, dead.

I think that the decomposition of protein from uneaten food just overcame the capacity of the bacterial colony to convert. It’s early for labyrinth development failure. None are alive.

So! Back to the drawing board. My next attempt will probably be in a large floating flow-through container.

Here’s a fishroom ramble about it all…

 

Yea; it was likely ammonia poisoning. I've had this problem with frys as they are super sensitive to impurity. I use the ziss breeders (though given some of your other stuff you've probably made something nicer for a fraction of the price). The ziss breeder has mesh bottom/side and air bubbler to force fresh water into the container - it can either hang or use suction cups on the inside of the tank - it is well designed but excessive expensive for a piece of plastic. Of course these days a lot of things are kind of expensive for pieces of plastics.

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Dean made some cool fry containers that keep water circulating through also.

@Fish Folk that really sucks. I’m sorry that happened. I can’t even imagine the emotional roller coaster.

I will add that it is SUPER easy to overfeed fry and this could have happened to anyone. I had problems with parameters raising baby snails also, due to overfeeding. 

Edited by Chick-In-Of-TheSea
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Even with an intank fry container that filters into the main tank - i would always use an eye dropper and pick up any uneaten bbs at the bottom after 20 minutes or so - at least for the first 2-3 weeks; after that the species i bred were a lot more stable. But those first few weeks super fragile.

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  • 2 months later...

Alright. Wish my fish good luck! 

I’m taking one more swing at this Betta breeding business. Several sorry strikes already. I guess I’m willing to risk failing yet again.

I moved some discus out of a 40 gal. breeder because they were not spawning at all.

Drained 1/2 the water… mulling over what I could do… the thought struck me that I could try Bettas one more time.

(1) Kept odd blue matten divider in tank

(2) Water changed a bit, but kept volume 1/2

(3) Added tannins (bottle)

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(4) Floated dried oak leaves

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(5) Grabbed and added several fistfuls of Java moss

(6) Brought in Water hyacinth and Water lettuce from cold outdoor water garden on back porch.

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(7) Set jug with female into tank so male cannot attack her, but clearly sees her

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(8) Left light on for them to get acquainted, for him to build his nest, etc.

Stay tuned…

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  • 3 months later...
On 2/5/2023 at 4:42 PM, SandBkeeper said:

Any updates?

Well… long story. With my B. imbellis, one female jumped out of her tank and died. The other succumbed to injuries after spawning. I did have a few fry, but nothing lasted terribly long. The male did not last long.

With the B. splendens, after that haul of fry crashed, I tried allowing them one more go at spawning. Interestingly, the _female_ beat up the male. I dubbed her a “blue widow” and gifted her to one of my LFS employees…

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Right now, I’m playing with these Bubble-nest builders. They’re miniature African Anabantids. Not Bettas, but distantly related: Microctenopoma ansorgii…

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 2/18/2023 at 8:15 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

Any thoughts about breeding them? They look seriously fun! Maybe in a black water themed tank or something.

I’m definitely going to try them this summer! They need conditions suitable for building a nice bubble nest. The dry winter air is not optimal. Definitely _some_ tannins, but not blackwater.

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  • 7 months later...
On 10/16/2023 at 9:13 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

How are the Microctenopoma doing? I saw that Practical Fishkeeping magazine ran a feature on them last month. 

I gifted them all to a friend. They never spawned for me. That’s the quickest way out of my fishroom. He tells me they’re doing great! 

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