# Chocky’s Journal



## chocky (Mar 6, 2018)

Here I will be recording as much as I can with my first pair of bettas. 

I received my two bettas (Thai imports, siblings) from Fishchick Aquatics on Monday 5th March 2018. If anyone in Australia is looking for nice imports, I’d definitely recommend. (Apologies for double up in photos from my welcome thread)

My initial set up - low iron glass tanks I had spare. One is an all-in-one with the heater, filter media and pump hidden in the back and the other just has a small hang on back. I need to get another heater for that one before the weather starts to cool too much. Filter media taken from other established tanks  










My package -









A couple shots of them shortly after adding to the tank:

My HMPK female -









My HMPK male-









I plan on scaping their tanks with some low tech plants and getting a new light for each tank. Ideally I’d like them to be in identical tanks just so it looks a little nicer. Might get another of the smaller all-in-one tank and keep the larger one as a spawning & grow out tank  





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## chocky (Mar 6, 2018)

This morning my male betta had made a bubble nest  









The night before I did kinda notice the female looking quite rounded but wasn’t sure if she had just eaten too much. This morning her tummy had reduced a bit. 











Don’t think I’ll even try breeding them until next month. Need to get an extra tank for spawning/fry and also the extra heater. 


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## chocky (Mar 6, 2018)

Today I noticed one of my female betta’s eye has gone cloudy. 
Not sure if because we had a few days of really wArm humid days, today was a bit cooler, that she may have developed a bit of fungus. 
I have also noticed that imports are sometimes a bit hit and miss when it comes to acclimating to different water, food etc 

I ordered a heater but in the mean time have placed a spare one from my shrimp tank into her tank and did a large water change (80%). 

Also noticed a lot of foam at the surface of the tank near the filter output. I’m pretty sure it’s from the tannin tea I made for them  I’m going to omit the IAL tea for now and see how she goes. 










Their current diet consists of NLS pellets and frozen brine shrimp. Will pick up blood worms on the weekend for them. 


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## chocky (Mar 6, 2018)

Tried adding some RCS into each tank. 

Nope. 

Big mistake. Should have tested with one first, but ah nope. I added about 8 in each and the bettas went savage. 

Probably should have expected that more to happen since they have been fed live food their whole lives  managed to save most of the RCS but there were a few casualties.... 


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## chocky (Mar 6, 2018)

Current tank photos -










Plants- Vallisnera nana, ludwigia glandulosa, anubias nana and marimo moss ball 










Plants - anubias nana and marimo moss balls 


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## DucktorHannah (Oct 6, 2017)

They are absolutely gorgeous. Cute duo.


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## chocky (Mar 6, 2018)

Today I thought I’d let my pair meet in the same tank and possibly practise spawning. 

So I gave the female’s tank a good water change since it was the larger tank and I don’t have a spare one dedicated for spawning yet. 
Since I don’t really intend to raise any fry, I didn’t bother taking out the substrate or sand. I swapped out the small HOB filter with a corner air driven filter (kept the seeded filter media) and added some Indian almond leaves. Also used a small piece of bubble wrap with an IAL placed on top for bubble nest. 










Initial meeting was quite good I think. Female was chasing the male around initially and a bit of flaring from both. After that the male started his butt wiggle and showing off. I may take the driftwood out though if it becomes an injury hazard. 






I took the female out when I thought he was getting a bit rough. And placed her in his tank. Fed them both some bloodworms. 
Tonight, it’s been drizzling a little bit and I’ve noticed he has just started making his bubblenest  










We will try spawning again tomorrow 



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## chocky (Mar 6, 2018)

Today was an exciting day. Woke up to find the male built himself a nice big bubble nest. 









The female in the tank next door seemed very interested so I went out and bought a fry saver floating plastic tank to introduce the female again to the male. 
I removed the piece of driftwood beforehand as it was getting quite cluttered, to which looking back I’m super glad I did. 






I let her acclimate and released her in to the fry saver. Left her there for about 45mins. She seemed super keen so I eventually released her. 
Initial behaviour was the same as yday, female chased the male around first, but it quickly turned and the male started chasing her. 
A lot of back and forth. She got beat up pretty bad and lost a few scales and torn her tail fin  i almost took her out after 30mins, because she got injured. even though she would hide and retreat, the male wasn’t constantly looking to harass her, and was still tending and building the bubble nest. The female would intermittently come out and investigate, so to me she wasn’t too scared or shaken up. 

After about a good hour of chasing and nipping, they eventually started to wrap. Well... tried to. A few definite failed attempts at first hahaha it looked so awkward and the female kept swimming out hahaha 

After a few goes, they eventually successfully wrapped, eggs were released, the female went into that catatonic state and the male quickly went to pick up the eggs. When the female came to, she helped pick up and released eggs in the nest as well  I was so proud of both of them! 






They spawned for about 3hrs. I took the female out when I saw she had finished spawning and was hiding in the corner of the tank. There were some eggs on the substrate but when I checked back on the tank later in the night, the male had picked them all up. 










Female is now recovering in her own tank and male is tending to the eggs  







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## chocky (Mar 6, 2018)

Yay! We have fry  

This morning I noticed little sticks hanging from the bubble nest. 

Even though I said this will be a practise spawn and wasn’t intending on raising any fry, I thought I’d give it a go anyway since this seemed to be a relatively successful yield. 

Another mistake I made was using painters tape to stick the bubble wrap to the glass. Which came away very easily and the poor dads nest has been floating around the tank 

Tonight I plan on setting up another tank for him to eventually rest after the fry become free swimming. 










I also need to sort out my crappy photo taking skills 


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## irishnugget (Mar 27, 2018)

Congrats!! Those are beautiful 

I have read and watched on youtube about Catappa leaves, Almond leaves, as a great addition to your arsenal of fish care. Rachel O'Leary and others on YouTube are a great source of information. I have yet to try them out. I am going to purchase some this coming month.


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## irishnugget (Mar 27, 2018)

Have you tried surface floating live plants? I can't see any in your photos. Surface floating plants are advised by most betta aficionados and could possibly help contain your betta's bubble nest in the future. Just a thought.


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## irishnugget (Mar 27, 2018)

LOL somehow i missed the post you have specifically about Almond leaves! Sorry about that.

ok, now i can't find your post about the leaves... omg. So i was going to ask for more info on them. How does it effect the water and such? Do you use them occasionally or do you keep the leaf/leaves in your tank and resupply as they deteriorate? Some people just use them for medicinal purposes and others, especially those that raise shrimp, keep them in their tanks at all times.


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## chocky (Mar 6, 2018)

irishnugget said:


> LOL somehow i missed the post you have specifically about Almond leaves! Sorry about that.
> 
> ok, now i can't find your post about the leaves... omg. So i was going to ask for more info on them. How does it effect the water and such? Do you use them occasionally or do you keep the leaf/leaves in your tank and resupply as they deteriorate? Some people just use them for medicinal purposes and others, especially those that raise shrimp, keep them in their tanks at all times.




Heya 
Before keeping these bettas, I’ve never used them before because I never had to 
They are meant to be great against parasites and other nasties but there’s no harm in keeping them in the tank for them. 
They lower pH slightly and stain your water with tannins but if your doing regular water changes anyway shouldn’t be a problem. 

I follow creativepetkeeping on YouTube and she makes a strong “tea” by boiling the leaves and just adding a bit to the water every water change - rather than having the actual leaves in there. 

They aren’t totally essential but just a nice addition for their tank. 

I’ve left a whole bunch in the spawn tank as well as with my female to avoid infection on her wound (she got scraped up on one side of her body). 




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## irishnugget (Mar 27, 2018)

Awesome and thanks! I am definitely going to buy some asap.


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## chocky (Mar 6, 2018)

The fry are free swimming! 
I’m actually surprised how many there actually is lol 
What I’ve done is removed the Dad and placed him in a glass container for now sitting in the tank so his water is heated. 
I’ve turned the air pump off for now and added lots of plants from an established pond so they have something to nibble on and hide amongst. 







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## irishnugget (Mar 27, 2018)

so awesome!


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## chocky (Mar 6, 2018)

I’ve been bitten by the betta bug 

Today I received another pair of HMPK in the mail:

Female:









Male:









I was drawn to this pair as they had more white, which is what I like to try and breed towards - blue, red and white HMPK  

They are currently in a holding tank. I’ll be picking up a secondhand tank tomorrow. 


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## chocky (Mar 6, 2018)

First batch of fry was a fail  
Kind of expected since I was not fully prepared for feeding the babies. 
They eventually dropped in numbers (the dead ones eaten by the mystery snail and/or shrimp. 

I’ve ordered vinegar eel culture and I have my microworm culture going, so will be ready to try again in a month or so time. 


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## LittleBettaFish (Oct 2, 2010)

Don't forget to purchase brine shrimp eggs before your next spawning attempt (if you don't already have some on hand). I get mine from Jodi-Lea. Microworms have been associated with missing and deformed ventral fins in bettas, so ideally you want to wean your fry onto other food sources as soon as possible. 

If you don't already have some, grindal worms are also useful once the fry are big enough.


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## chocky (Mar 6, 2018)

LittleBettaFish said:


> Don't forget to purchase brine shrimp eggs before your next spawning attempt (if you don't already have some on hand). I get mine from Jodi-Lea. Microworms have been associated with missing and deformed ventral fins in bettas, so ideally you want to wean your fry onto other food sources as soon as possible.
> 
> 
> 
> If you don't already have some, grindal worms are also useful once the fry are big enough.




Thanks not sure if I can get grindle worms here 


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## chocky (Mar 6, 2018)

Just a small update -

Purchased a heavy duty rack/shelf system for my smaller tanks. Each shelf holds 400kgs which should be enough for a few 20-30L tanks. 

It’s also to store my 5ft bookshelf tank while it’s empty. Haven’t decided what I want to do with it yet, either try aquascaping again, or make it a divided male betta tank, or maybe a female sorority. 

The shelf came with mdf boards, so I had to waterproof it with polyurethane black paint. Waiting for it to fully dry and not be tacky to the touch. 

Also this guy is changing colour very quickly. Shame he’s losing the white but thats ok. Interested to see what colour he’ll end up. 










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## chocky (Mar 6, 2018)

I’ve put a couple tanks on my new rack to see how it looks;










Definitely work in progress  I think I might add one more shelf so I can have my light closer to the tanks. Looks weird so high up, illuminating too much of the wall behind. 

I coated the mdf shelves with crommelins waterproofing black seal 









Love using this stuff cos it’s non toxic, does not smell when applying and safe for fish once dried. (They pond sealer too which I have also used before). 


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