Fry not swimming...

[ttmnky]

I've recently spawned my betta and after noticing that the betta did not really do anything after three days and the fry were swimming a bit, I removed the male, accidentaly disturbing the bubble nest in the process. Now, there are a few fry which swim around actively whereas the rest ly on the bottom of the tank. Is this normal?

I've lowered the water level in response to this from 6 inches to 4 inches and yet, the fry are still just lying on the bottom of the tank. I'm pretty sure most of them are alive though... Did I do something wrong, and will the fry swim ever again? What more can I do?

 

[Lotus]

It might be that they're not fully free-swimming yet, in which case, they may start to swim in a few days. I'm not sure how removing the father may have affected this.

You might want to read through some of the info here: http://www.bettatalk.com/rearing_the_fry.htm

 

[ttmnky]

I was thinking that maybe having removed the father, the fry would no longer have a means of getting back to their now broken apart bubblenest. In the meantime, I'll hope for the best, as a few fry who are freeswimming all seem to be trying to jump out of the water in a desperate attempt to breathe the air (?). If even a quarter of this spawn (my first) makes it through, I'll be pretty happy.

 

[pillowchii]

do you have a light on the breeding tank? The fry shouldn't be trying to breathe air for at least a few more weeks, but even so, the air needs to be warm or else their labyrinth organ will be damaged.

 

[ttmnky]

Yes, I do have a light on the tank and I do have regular intervals of when I turn the light on and off. Thanks for the bit of knowledge about fry not breathing air yet...I'm not as worried now, as many of the fry which were on jthe base of the tank have dissapeared and a lot more fry have begun to swim around the fake floating plant in the tank.