# Betta spawn log, (1) halfmoon plakat galaxy koi F x halfmoon galaxy koi M



## Bunny1317 (11 mo ago)

Hi! I’m a little late on this as my babies are 6 weeks today but I figured I’d start a spawn log! I have notes and pictures documenting them up until now!
the pairing was a Male halfmoon galaxy koi and a female halfmoon galaxy koi plakat.








Breeding went smoothly, the male was a little confused on what to do, but the female seemed to have really strong instincts and walked him through it. No fin damage to the male, the female had some. they seemed really interested in each-other right off the bat, I had conditioned them for two weeks on brine shrimp and blood worms.

They were put in a 10 gal, with sand on the bottom, Java fern, floating plants, and water sprite to rest on, temp was set to 80 and ph was 6.6. Fully cycled tank.
I will not be repeating the sand, as the female had a hard time picking up eggs and looking for them.
The male wouldn’t pick up his own eggs. I’m lucky she did. She also placed them in the nest for him. And picked them up as they fell. Not sure if that if that is typical.
They finished later that night. It took them 4-6 hours to finish the process.
I removed the female and left the male checking in periodically. It’s hard to tell in the picture but here is the bubble nest with eggs.








we had eggs on January 19th of 2022
There was somewhere between 70-100 in the nest. I thought that when I had taken the female out the male would start tending to the nest. I was so mistaken.

Since the nest was to the back and she put them right against the back wall of the tank,

I didn’t want to lift the lid because I was trying to keep moisture in (will use plastic wrap and then the lid on top next time, so I can check on them without ruining the moisture/humidity in.)

I couldn’t tell he was eating them. It looked like he was tending to it, when actually he was chasing the eggs that fell out and eating them.
I only noticed on day two  If I try this pair again I might just leave the female as she was tending to the nest and my male wasn’t. Not sure if that’s typical behavior, advice would be appreciated.

I didn’t feed the male until two days into egg rearing. and didn’t feed them during the entire breeding process

I was left with about 12 eggs, and I removed the male right away. I stayed up all night picking up the eggs with a pipette manually putting the eggs back in the nest.


the eggs started hatching on the 21st in the morning, i only saw two hatch.

I had a hard time finding the eggs that fell in the sand and lost a few  so I said screw it and I moved them all bubble nest and the eggs I had left, in a very large Tupperware container) and moved them to my 5.5 gal, with a bare bottom. Using the water from that 10gal.

I filled the 5.5 gal about 1/3 up with my water, It was my hospital tank. I only had bigger tanks and needed a small one to be able to manage the eggs.

They all ended up hatching this day, and I was left with 7 baby bettas. Initially I thought I only had 4, Which was a very welcomed surprise.
they would hide in the plants and only come out for feedings.

Pics of baby bettas when they hatched and the 5.5 gal I moved them too.










I had a difficult time culturing infusoria, but I had a bunch of bbs. I didn’t feed them until the egg sacs had been absorbed which was on day 3. They ate the bbs just fine as a first food. I’m sure they also snacked on the microfauna in the tank due to the plants.

I did daily water changes with a turkey baster, 30% a day and 50% every two days and I added an extra inch of water every two days. The temp was kept at 86F getting to 90F later in the day.

I kept the temp higher based on research that bbs can cause swim bladder disorder. So I figured keeping it higher will speed up their metabolism and help them pass food a lot smoother, to reduce constipation and the chance of developing swim bladder disorder.
since I had no luck with the infusoria but the bbs worked fine. And I will probably do it again the same way.

I fed them every 2-3 hours (small meals) and I tried to make a point to take the waste out Atleast every morning and every night. i ended up usually doing it 4-5 times a day. (As much as I possibly could)

My goal was to keep the water parameters as close to zero as possible. I added Indian almond leaves to their tank to help promote microfauna and to lower the PH. (ended up staying at about 6.4) hich I was happy with as low ph means that some of that ammonia will take that extra hydrogen in the water and become ammonium. Which is still toxic, but less than ammonia. Which helped with my goal of 0 ammonia/nitrates/nitrites and keeping the water as clean as possible.
when they reached a week old I added an extra hour in between feedings so 3-4 hours. (Small meals).
And the same when they reached two weeks, as they started developing more finnage and color, instead of just getting bigger.

pic of the baby bettas at 2 weeks (note colors developing) I first thought that this was some form of velvet and freaked out. But upon further investigation and posting on some other forums/threads I came to the conclusion that it was color. I just got freaked out because I lost most of my clutch already.








this picture was taken at exactly two weeks old (February 4th)

I kept the feeding schedule of every 3-4 hours after the two week mark. But I started mixing in crushed hikari brand micro pellets into the bbs (live baby brine shrimp) to try and add more variety to their diet. Which was super successful as they went into hunt mode and tried to eat anything that was moving.

Pictured here is the baby bettas at 3 weeks and 2 days









I had completely filled the tank somewhere in the middle of week two as they started growing really fast. And I felt that they needed more room to swim around in. Water changes were still the same with the turkey baster. But instead of using the turkey baster to do full water changes, I only used it to pick up all the waste off of the bottom, as I had a lot accumulating due to the snails and used a siphon to drain the water from the top of the tank (When I was trying to promote microfauna growth I had accidentally promoted snail growth instead lol)
I will be removing snails in my next attempt.

The fry at this point were measuring according to the only growth chart/guide I could find to be about 5-6 weeks old (about .85 inches) at the beginning of week three I decided to move them to a 10gal ASAP.

The reason is because the plants started dying and decomposing due to the water not having enough nutrients for them. which fed the snails even more. Who create so much freaking waste. And that they had grown faster than expected.

So I pulled out almost all of the plants since I didn’t need the microfauna anymore. I was left with a pest snail problem. I just left them as I was going to move the fry soon.

pictured are fry at 3weeks and 6 days old








I wrongly assumed the one displaying breeding stripes to be a female as he ended up being a male. And upon further investigation I believe since he had lost his baby stripes first he developed these stripes to either
1.Camouflage himself with his surrounding to avoid predators
2. To show submission and that he is not a threat to the others.
Not really sure though, I honestly think it’s a little bit of both.

Water changes are no longer 50% but now at 70%ish as they are bigger and creating more waste plus the snails. They are still fed small meals every 4 hours. And I still used a turkey baster for all of the waste. So everything else is still the same.

This week I gradually reduced the temperature to about 80F to prepare them for the 10gal, over the span of the week.

pictured here are the betta fish at 5weeks old








The fry are in the 10gal! They love it. They love hiding behind the plants and will actually come up to the surface begging for food lol (This photo was right after feeding them).
Feedings are now about every 5 hours (small meals) and fasting over night as their digestive systems are better developed!

Which honestly is such a relief. I was a little worried on the first night and kept checking on them, as it was a huge jump, but I was exhausted waking up so frequently.

The PH is about 6.8-7 and the temp range is about 78-80F the tank is cycled and I’m not to worried about keeping the parameters as close to 0 as possible because they are a lot more resilient and developed now.

pictured is the fry at 6 weeks!








*this was taken right after they had been fed

It’s hard to tell in the picture since they are in the middle of the tank, but the betta fry are measuring 2+ inches in 6 weeks! Which I’m so proud of! (The smallest being around 1.75)

Next time I will be keeping a closer eye on my male.

Can anyone tell me what color pattern the fry would be considered? I didn’t expect so many solid colored babies, as the father carries the marble gene, and I’m like 70% sure the mother does as well, though I’ve never seen her change color in my time of having her. But I have seen the male.

UPDATE:
one of my males today, they all ended up Koi, with the exception of my only plakat hm male who is a blue marble. I will make another post on this thread tomorrow with pictures of the babies full grown. I love the marble gene.


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## sparkyjoe (Feb 27, 2012)

I know nothing about breeding bettas, but the babies are beautiful! Congrats!


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## MRCPX005 (10 mo ago)

They are growing super fast.


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## Bunny1317 (11 mo ago)

MRCPX005 said:


> They are growing super fast.


Thank you! I put weeks of research into raising baby bettas it’s most definitely payed off 🙂


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## Blueberry the betta (9 mo ago)

Those babies are so cute!!


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## Multicolour321 (8 mo ago)

Awww so cutee


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