help me!! betta fry problem!

Chasing isn't a big deal. That's how they interact.
Wow. 117 huh? You might want to think about culling. When they develop their fins and color, you might want to pick the prettiest.

I'm sorry, not to be rude, but isn't this something you should have thought of before breeding? Betta are capable of having spawns of 400+!

Anyway, too late for that now, I guess. If you are seeing nipping and chasing, it's time to start jarring out the bullies. If it's just a bit of chasing, you don't have to worry about it quite yet. You can float jars in your main tank if need be to keep the jars warm, but obviously that will only be a temporary solution because you'll run out of room fast that way. I used a small room in my house for my fish room and had it heated to 85 degrees to keep jarred fry warm. Perhaps something like that would work for you.

I did the same thing in college, got a little ahead of my self with the betta breeding. I bought a 100 count packs of styrofoam soup bowls, put 1 baby in each one and set them on every flat surface in my dorm room. I didn't heat them or anything since room temp with the heat completely off was still 76*. I ended up selling crap loads of them for really cheap because I just wanted to get rid of them and kept the 75 prettiest until I made a killing on them at a fish swap meet.

franco, wow that must have been nice, being able to sell them at the swap meet.
But, there still pretty small and young. Would i really have to start jaring them? Mistergreen I am going to save only 20-30 and.. find a new place.. for the others. I guess i will wait to see fin taring, than i will jar them. ( i have plenty of jars, i found a stash )
It's going to be hard picking the prettiest, i cant tell exacly what their colors will be. I guess i was a little ahead of myself, but its my first time. I didnt know what to expect.

oh my god.. i feel like..like crap now I only saved about 30..and this was the hardest thing i ever had to do in my fish hobby.. I probly wont breed again.

How did you cull the others? Also did you keep 15 of both sexes or just 30 random? Becuase depending on what you did it could affect how many tanks you will need for them. 117 isnt to bad, ive had a 302 before, luckily i prepared.

Swan

well i guess i wasnt thinking to well... becuase they are still to young to tell their genders yet, and i did just pick 30-40 randome. Well i hope i have a lot more females. Ehh i didnt want to..but what else could i do.. I gave the deformed/weaker ones to my angels I felt so bad after that..i eventually went in and saved some of them from the angels.
That is amazing, 302. Wow, now that must be ALOT of work. Well im more satisfied with the way things are for my fry now. (they are now in the 15gallon tank and are always fat and happy)

The females can be kept successfully in a community tank. I wouldnt worry about the chasing at this point its just natural.

I always jarred them at about an inch. I was always terrible at keeping a steady feeding schedule so mine always grew at different rates so I was able to jar a couple dozen at a time. I found I could keep a lot more of them in one tank if I over filtered with a large HOB with a sponge on the end, a piece of plastic soda bottle reducing current from the outflow, and the tank surface 3/4ths covered with duckweed. The excessive filtration and floating nitrogen sponges really cut down on water changes.
I always culled by selling them for cheap rather than kill them myself. I would sell all of my rejects to one of the LFSs which do a lot of bettas and have a lot of betta customers for like 10 cents a piece. I gave away a bucket of 200 once to an alternative high school that had an aquaculture class. I push a few hundred apple snails off on them as well. Lets just say betta breeding was fun while it was fun and then it can become a pain in the caudal fin.

When I raised mine, I let the father raise them until they're 1 inch. He would cull out the weak ones for me. I ended up with 20 or so.

mistergreen said:

When I raised mine, I let the father raise them until they're 1 inch. He would cull out the weak ones for me. I ended up with 20 or so.

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Maybe that would have been a better idea, My male is very very very aggresive, I don't know if he would have been a good father.
Well... I wanted to give this a try to, and I guess this was stupid too, but when I got rid of the defects, I put one in with the father and, well that didnt turn out so well. The father liked to torture him. I guess he couldnt tell that that was one of his spawn. I would assume he would end up eating them all. :/
I will probably end up jarring them at one inch. they are now about half an inch.

I would have possibly gotten rid of the deformed/weaker ones, but I was told the pet stores wouldnt want the small fry, they had to be an inch already.

They will take them if the price is right. lol
A lot of asian betta enthusiasts shop at the LFS i sold them to and they bought the little guys for like 50 cents a piece like crazy just because they were cheap and might get a few good fish out of a couple dozen. I've heard that people will also use their subpar fish to train their fighters. : (

kchan said:

Maybe that would have been a better idea, My male is very very very aggresive, I don't know if he would have been a good father.
Well... I wanted to give this a try to, and I guess this was stupid too, but when I got rid of the defects, I put one in with the father and, well that didnt turn out so well. The father liked to torture him. I guess he couldnt tell that that was one of his spawn. I would assume he would end up eating them all. :/
I will probably end up jarring them at one inch. they are now about half an inch.

I would have possibly gotten rid of the deformed/weaker ones, but I was told the pet stores wouldnt want the small fry, they had to be an inch already.

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When you took the male away from his fry in the first place, the natural instinct for him was that he lost the spawn. Adding back a baby a month later would make him assume it was just a baby that happened across his territory. No way he could recognize it as his own; if he wasn't around to raise it, who would? He doesn't know you did that work for him roud:

If you try to breed them again, you might want to give him a shot. Just because he's aggressive doesn't mean he'll be a bad daddy. Make sure get gets fed very well with a lot of tasty foods and he'll be less interested in consuming the fry.

Captivate05 said:

When you took the male away from his fry in the first place, the natural instinct for him was that he lost the spawn. Adding back a baby a month later would make him assume it was just a baby that happened across his territory. No way he could recognize it as his own; if he wasn't around to raise it, who would? He doesn't know you did that work for him roud:

If you try to breed them again, you might want to give him a shot. Just because he's aggressive doesn't mean he'll be a bad daddy. Make sure get gets fed very well with a lot of tasty foods and he'll be less interested in consuming the fry.

Click to expand...

Thanks, i will definetly do that, if i ever breed bettas again. I am very happy that i raised them though !

Haha i just found my angels start finding pairs, and looks like one of them is going to start spawning soon. I see the ovipositors, and they are cleaning the leaves on the amazon sword plant. ! I cant wait to see what happens.