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Betta fry not up to size.


SamH

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13 days ago on the 3rd of January 2011 the fry of these fish hatched:

IMG_8183b.jpg

IMG_8052b.jpg

Ever since I've been doing 50% daily water changes and feeding solely microworms 2-4 times a day.

But according to this chart my fry are only at week one size.

What am I doing wrong? What's your method of raising Betta fry?

Thanks

-Sam

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fry grow at different rates i.e. spawn two lots at the same time but there may be a considerable difference between the two growth rates. Also depends on how many in the spawn and imo to a certain extent genetics. I do know however that the smaller the spawn the way faster they grow. :D

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It has been a long time since I had fighters and I wasnt that good at it, but

The more water you have the more room the fish have so the bigger they can get BUT you also have to be carefull because the food can get _lost_ in the extra room

Also the more you change the water the harder it is to keep stable so the more work you have to put in to it to maintain parameters

BUT the more water that is changed and the more food that goes in the fast fish grow

having more volume early in the piece may not be the answer but having aged water good to go a few times a day might be

Maybe seeing its hols and hot a water change 3x a day and feeding straight after might be a good comprimise

only needs to be a small change each time

say 20% or so...trial and earror untill you sort what work for you

My discus fry used to get 200% water changes every day...but it was warm aged water and they were feed 6 times a day

Maybe?

LOL

HTH

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Trial and error...

I find that what works for one doesn't necessarily work for the other. At this age for you, its a balance of keeping the bottom of the tank clean enough and the water good enough yet not removing all the fine organisms that hatch and live in the detritis of the tank (does that make sense?)

I have one out of five spawns atm that will not grow! Why - no idea. They get the same water changes, the same food BUT there are hundreds and hundreds of them.

A lot of people say feed as you walk past, water change as you walk back. A variety of fine live food is the best as they really need the movement to attract them to eat but decap brine shrimp works okay as long as you soak it first for a few minutes to stop it swelling in their bellies. I find the movement when I pour it in encourages the young fry to it. They all graze the bottom in one way or another.

I looked at the growth chart. 50% of my current spawns are up with that, 40% below it and 10% above. The above are mostly the 15 fighters I got from one spawn who have a tank to themselves.

Even within a spawn there is a vast difference in the growth rates. However the biggest and fastest developing are not always the best. Culling is a good idea once they reach a size that you can select the best looking and colours from. It cuts down on the cost of feeding them and stops tank overcrowding plus it means that you are not trying to get rid of inferior quality fish.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks Trilo, he's a really great father and nest builder.

Starting to see some blues coming through but the larger ones are mainly without colour at this stage. When they get to about 2cm I will move them into a 90x40x40 tank but at this stage it's just large daily water changes and heaps of feeds.

Thanks for the interest :D

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Yeah with HMPK and PK I should hope there's at least a couple of PKs in there :wink:

I'll definitely get pics when they're bigger :D Here's one from a few days back, excuse the mucky tank :oops:

IMG_0228.jpg

No surprises the bigger ones won't pose for me :nilly:

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Yeah with HMPK and PK

The females PK too? Then you can expect 100% of 'em thumbup.gif

No surprises the bigger ones won't pose for me

Haha they're like gingerbread men "catch me if you can, fool"

You manged to get a good picture of the fry though, thats a magic skill that doesnt apply to me.

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The female's father was PK (brother to my pink PK) and her mother was halfmoon. Not sure about the lineage of my blue PK male but he's likely got HMPK in his blood. So maybe some HM throws but hoping for mostly PK 8)

I just have a really good camera, cropping skills and a LOT of patience!

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Yeah there's little tricks to taking good photos, I good camera is the best start though.

I've counted 40 a night or two ago and only seen one dead since then. I'd be stoked with 40 but I've been told there's always twice as many as you can count! :o

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