# Can someone tell me why I have regular size babies, and hundreds of tiny swimmers?



## gogarygo (Jan 22, 2013)

Hey- I have a new batch of babies, about 20 regular size- then I have hundreds of tiny "nat" like creatures/babies swarming/swimming about, that are a fraction of the size of the 20 regular babies, that are hanging from the nest like normal. The hundreds of tiny swimmers, just swarm about like nats, and daddy ignores them, while being hyper vigilant about keeping the 20 regulars in the nest. Here is a youtube link- you can see the tiny swimmers on the surface especially, and you can see the normal babies hanging in the nest. Thanks. http://youtu.be/pnAtkHDicKw


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## VictorP (Jun 5, 2012)

When bettas spawn they usually spawn more then once. This can be done within a matter of minutes or a matter of hours. This make a huge difference in development so thiz is why you are observing so with your spawn.


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

Right. So they won't hatch all at the same time.


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## Myates (Aug 2, 2011)

Yeah, those aren't baby bettas swimming.. you can see the fry at the nest, tails and all.. and tiny tiny swimming things darting around faster than the betta fry can swim at this point. Not to mention 10x smaller than the fry.

Have live plants in there? How long has the water been sitting? Where is the tank at, or where was the water previously (if you had it sitting out).
How are the parent's tanks? Are they cleaned regularly, live plants, etc? (if you let some of the water in from the parent's tanks they could of hitchhiked).. or something just laid eggs in the breeding tank - recommend getting a glass canopy or even using seran wrap to cover the breeding tank. Great for heat/humidity and keeping pesky critters out.

Unsure what you can do at this point other than try to get them out with a turkey baster without disturbing the nest. Hope they aren't dragonfly or mayfly nymphs.. as they will eat betta fry as they grow. 

There a way you can get one and take an up close picture of it with a good camera?


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## gogarygo (Jan 22, 2013)

*Thanks guys for the responses-*

Umm, yeah- that's what I thought. There is far too many of them, and they are far too small. As for the contributing factors, I can't think of any- it's strange cuz they appeared in small numbers right at the time I was expecting the hatch- so at first I thought they were the babies, just alot smaller than I remembered, as it's been a couple years since I've had babies. The only thing that comes to my mind- is I bought some duckweed on e-bay, and I introduced it to all 3 of my tanks, but the breeding tank water is the only water I've looked at through the HD webcam that I shot the clip with. I'm going to check the other tanks for the little buggers- I think I'll start to get rid of most of the water, now while they real babies hanging from the nest are still inactive. It's past my bedtime, so I get into more trouble shooting in the am...and try to see how close of a look i can get with the cam, and magnifying glass, and follow up. Thanks for the confirmation, i'll follow up tomorrow.


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## Myates (Aug 2, 2011)

Good luck.. lots of little critters catch rides on the plants.. I got some mayfly nymphs on one of my orders a couple months back, luckily only saw a few of them.. those things love to munch on fry.

Yeah, what caught my attention was they were so much smaller than the other fry on the nest.. and yet they were swimming/darting about while the bigger fry were hanging around as they were. Definitely could see they weren't fry.

Unsure what you can do other than try to get what you can sucked up using airline tubing or turkey baster.. don't want them harming your little ones 

But.. could be something simple as daphnia.. in which case, free food for your fry!


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## MrVampire181 (May 12, 2009)

Some sort of microorganism. Harmless since I've gotten them myself. The fry will eat them when they get big enough.


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## Myates (Aug 2, 2011)

Ok good! lol.. my eyesight is so bad, all I could see were squigles lol. First thing I that pops in my head when I see swarming things is a big red warning light. So! I act then ask questions after hehe.. 

But Meeko is very knowledgeable, so I would go with what he says


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## Bettabill (Jan 24, 2013)

Im new at this ( on my third spawn) 1st spawn I had no fry food ready so I grab some hair algae off a water fall and put it in my tank and saw those critters in my tank too. That was three weeks ago and I have about fifty fry now. The fry did eat most of it and I also picked out of the tank what think was leach. Lots of luck to you.


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## efg321 (Jan 11, 2013)

Are your fry free swimming yet?


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## Sagat (Dec 13, 2012)

They look like cyclops copepods to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVwC-SDja8s


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