First time breeder with high quality stock

[Mao]

First time betta breeder with a few questions!!!!

I have been a betta keeper for years. In fact, I've saved a few betta lives by educating people that think they eat roots!

My girlfriend's sister is getting married this summer and wanted fish to be her centerpieces (I am going to be taking them back and finding them all good homes). She knows I'm the fish fanatic so she asked me what it would take to have goldfish... I talked her out of them (too messy, no filtration, etc, etc, etc), and told her bettas would be a better plan... she told me they looked sad, so I showed her pictures of Delta, half moon, and fantail bettas and she loved them. I have kept them before, but I have never bred them. I have ordered a pair of chocolate colored delta tail bettas and have been studying for weeks to learn all I can, but I still have a few questions about the details. If I am paying 60 bucks for two bettas, I want to do this right!

OK, so here's my first one: 1) What are the details of raising and keeping a culture of microworms??? Everyone that talks about them takes for granted you know something about them to begin with and I know nothing.

2) how big of a grow out tank do you need and when should you move the fry to the bigger tank?

3) When do the fry start eating normal adult food? When can you introduce other things besides microworms and how?

4) I forget my other questions, but I will be keeping an eye on this threed!!!

Thank you very much for reading this far and trying to help! This is my first venture into breeding bettas and I would LOVE to make it a great one!

Isaac

 

[Iggy]

Mao,

1) Microworms
You need a starter culture. Your best bet is to ask a private fish store owner in your area if they can give you a local breeders phone number. You can also search for local fish clubs.

Making microworms cultures are easy, once you get the starter culture. Use clean plastic (yogurt) containter, add about 1/2" of oatmeal at the bottom and add enough water to make it soggy, then add a couple teaspons of traditional yeast (not quick rise) and add the starter culture ontop. In 4-5 days you will see the worms crawling up the sites, you wipe them off and swish them into the fry tank. Microworms last a long time and you feed them this along with maybe Baby Brine Shrip (BBS) for the first 6 weeks.

2. Growout Tank
Bigger the better, move them around the 6 week mark. For 50 fry, you will need at least a 20 gallon, for more, you need 33 or 50 gallon tanks.

3. At 4 weeks, you can start feeding the fry non-live foods if you like, like Sera Mikropan (good) or other forms. No adult food till they reach adult size, in about 5 to 6 months.

General:
a) You might want to consider a back pair in case the first two don't mate the first try.

b) If they do spawn, and you have a lot of eggs, remove about 1/2 of them so they do NOT hatch. Why, because raising 200 bettas on the first spawn is way more work than necessary (trust me on this one)

c) Research, Research, Research. Find a local breeder, visit/talk with them and get as much information as they will give you and follow it.

Good Luck!

 

[Mao]

I would love to have a backup pair, but the LFS sells veil tails only and I'm allready paying 50 plus 22 shipping and handling for this pair. If I knew a place to buy some decent stock that I could go pick up then I would get another pair.

Interesting advice on the eggs. I never thought to try and reduce the number that hatch. That's really not a bad idea. I just have this fear that I would do that, and then 20 would hatch, and 19 would be females, and they'd last till about week 2. I guess that's a possibility with 4 or 400

I have been researching so much that I think I need new glasses. I really couldn't even watch the news last night because my eyes were blurry from reading text on all different web sites for probably 6 to 10 hours!!! Knowledge is power

OH I REMEMBERED MY QUESTION!!!!
I keep hearing people say to take the microworms out of the container and then put them in a glass of water, then rinse them, then add them to the fry tank. Now I've heard as long as you don't touch the culture medium that you can just put them right in, and it sounds like your experience is as such. what gives???

Isaac

 

[Iggy]

The rinsing concept is from BBS or Vinegar eels, so likely someone got mixed up and posted that you need to rinse microworms.

Don't worry about rinsing the microworms. Just wipe them off the sides.

I fed my fry MW and BBS the first 4 weeks. Definately get BBS as your backup food source because your fry may be 'top' or 'bottom' level to start off with, which means some will not go up, some will not go down to eat. BBS will end up in the middle/top area, while MW will sink to the bottom.

Even if you removed 1/2 there is no way your spawn will end up only 1/10 male or female, it will still end up about a 1/2 to 1/2 or 1/3 to 2/3 ratio.

I understand the worry about having too little fry, and that with more you have less chance of loosing them all, but its better than having them die because of lack of tank space (it happened to me) and nitrite poisoning.

As far as a backup pair, its only a suggestion. My first span (Rigel+Reena) did not work out after a full week of trying while my 2nd spawn (Finchy+Ruby) happened within a couple days.

Definately try to find another breeder in your area, just ask around the fish stores where they like to hang-out. It will be your best source to find a starter culture and a fast backup pair in case your first two don't like each other IYKWIM.

 

[Mao]

well, bad news. I didn't get the pair I selected. They were allready purchased or purchased by a VIP member of the site. I wish I knew more places to get high quality bettas! I am between two places right now. I have an apartment in PA and my parents live in NJ, but I kinda need to have a 4 month old spawn by may, so it's hard to network for fish now because of lack of time. Bettatalk.com will start shipping again on the 6th of january, but by then it might be too cold for them to make it here. I only know of one LFS that sells bettas that have anything but veil tails, and I have never seen one that tickled my fancy. If you know of any east coast breeders that might be interested in a sale ASAP than PLEASE let me know.

Isaac