MALE BETTAS,BETTA SPLENDENS

Once the male has driven off the female it is his job to care for the eggs and newly hatched fry. He will constantly tend to his eggs and may sometimes move them around in the nest.The nest will probably grow in size as he tensd sto the eggs. It is a good idea to keep a top on the tsank so that the nest is unnafected by any changes in the room temperature. Providing the temp stays at between 78-82 the nest will be fien but lower and higher temperatures can cause the nest to break up. After 24-36 hours the eggs will begin to hatch. Looking closely at the nest you will see lots of little tails hanging form the bubbles. Ocasionally , at first, the fry will fall from the nest and the male will pick them up and spit them back inot the nest but as the fry get older they will fall more often and the male will be kept busy chasing them around catching them in his mouth and putting them up again. The fry will not become free swimming for another few days. Some fry will fall from the nest and will swim straight back up again.There is a debate as to whether you should or shouldnt feed the male whilst he is caring for the eggs and fry there are arguments for and against, I like to feed mine. If you have a large spawning it is helpfull to lower the water in the tank by a few inches. This means that even the weaker fry will be able to swim back to the surface saving the male from chasing them all the time. |As soon as the fry become free swimming then you can remove the male from the breeding tank, it is now time for you to take over looking after the fry. The male can be moved back to where he came from in clean aged water again with an indian almond leaf. Feed him well and let him make a full recovery before spawning him again. As soon as the fry are free swimming they can be fed microworms. My microworms are cultured in small ice cream tubs or takeway plastic containers. I simply take the lid off and use a cotton bud to scrape them off the side and then put the cotton bud intothe tasnk and swish it around. It is also now time to put back the sponge filter that you transferred into another tank. You must set a very slow stream of bubbles so that there is not too much movement in the tank. There are several reasons for putting the sponge filter back now. One is to keep a flow of water around the tank. In betta fry tanks because of the amount of uneaten food at the bottom , harmfull bacteria can gather and if this is not adressed can lead to fry losing their vental fins as the bacteria attacks the fins. Betta fry tend to saty at the bottom of the tank once they are free swimming. the flow of air will move the water around. Secondly the fry will graze on bacteria found in the sponge and thridly and most obviously the filter will clean the water in the tank. before each feeding of microworms use a magnifying glass to make sure that all of the worms from the previous feed have been eaten, if there are still worms in the tank there is no need to feed anymore. The fry are tiny once they are free swimming and are difficult to see so again the magnifying glass comes in handy. After two weeks I switch mine to Brine shrimp. Once the fry are around 1 cm i feed them on the smaller white worms form the culture that i started at the beginning of the spawning. Water changes should be left for the first couple of weeks unless things get really dirty in the tank.