# breeding prep!!!



## Lucillia (Apr 29, 2013)

HI EVERYONE!! I am finally seriously going to try breeding  I just wanted to make a post to see if theres anything im missing and if anyone has any tips that would be fantastic!

Here is my handsome boy! 

And the girl!


The girl is only about 2.5 months so I will be waiting until christmas break to let her grow out but also for time reasons. 

Currently I have a ten gallon I will use to spawn and raise the babies for the first weeks. Im using one of the fancy japanese sponge filters for it or my slightly bigger one. The slightly bigger one is already running in my 20 to culture some benebac. 

On it's way now I have an order of Indian almond leaves, APR, fine ground spirulina, decap bs eggs, "fry crack" (not sure but sounds good!), walter worms, micro worms and finally banana worms!
http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/closed.cgi?view_closed_item&breeding1411268355

Is there anything else I should invest in? Should I seperate the cultures at all? Ahh I will be putting in some live plants as well. Just easy things like water sprite and wisteria. Barebottom tank as well.


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## Sena Hansler (Aug 24, 2011)

What is "fry crack"?? 

Sounds like you are on the right track!! 

Do you have a growout tank? I know you will not need it right away, but trust me - when you do, somehow you won't be able to get one  I also suggest a turkey baster.... Sounds stupid, but it works. Use it to suction out the gunk from the bottom of the spawn tank when the fry have been hatched. It also helps you avoid sucking up as many babies - but keeping the ammonia levels down by keeping it clean.


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## Alaura123 (Jul 4, 2014)

Glad you found a girl!! Cant wait to stalk this spawn log xD


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## MattsBettas (Dec 18, 2012)

I would try to add hatchable (non-decaps) brine shrimp to the list... Live bbs is really great food for them.

Turkey basters are great, like Sena (welcome back!) said, and you can also try starting a siphon out of airline tubing. I prefer doing that, it's faster but a bit easier to catch fry... Make sure to look through your bucket either way. 

Not sure what you mean by "separate the cultures"...


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## Sena Hansler (Aug 24, 2011)

The cultures should always be in their own containers, and make sure to change them out to a new substrate (I did it every week) to keep the smell down and keep them alive and well. I forgot to mention the live BBS... They probably won't touch the "non-live" foods right away... And BBS is a lot less messy, or smelly, than the other cultures. But you definitely have a good selection.


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## Lucillia (Apr 29, 2013)

Whew! Thanks for all the replies!! Bare with me as I try to answer everything.

Sena: I have no idea. But here are links to his description of the foods I bought. I'll probably end up using that and the flake food for my guppies instead. http://fishguysplace.com/Fry_Food_Package_2_Most_Requested_Desc.htm
As for the growout tank, I was planning on using my 20 long. Its been running for a few months with just guppies and a pair of killi fish.. I'm trying to find a home for the killis.. I love them, but I doubt I'll ever get them to breed. (Poop tons of java in there too, still have no interest)
I use turkey basters for everything! XDDD I use it to feed all my adult fish and I use one to clean the gunk out of my betta tanks. It isn't efficient for the full water change, but definitely for the gunk. What I was thinking is I will turkey baster the poop and waste, then either do the airline siphon or use use a cup of water gently to do a good change. Any idea on how much/often I really should change it? Would I be able to do a turkey baster siphon every day to cut down on how much I would have to change at a time? I know the less changes to everything, the better for the fry. Also, I had been reading that you should use tank water from another established tank. Enter the 20L again. Do you think that would be the better way to go? 

Matt: I'm not sure either. I don't know if he has them all together, or if they will be separate when they come in... o.o Here is the link for that... http://fishguysplace.com/Universal_Nematode_Culture_Desc.htm

I guess I need a lot of help deciphering what I should be doing along the way... I feel like I'm too worried about the food source and not enough on the babies. 

As for the BBS, I at least have some spirulina powder now! I will have to try to get some eggs and do the bottle hatch into the big storage bucket method. XD 


Alaura: Me too!!! I hope it works out well! I'm also really hoping the adults won't die off... Thats one of my main concerns.


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

How often you change it depends on how many fry you end up with. Be careful to keep the water nice and clean...and use a white container to siphon or squirt waste water in. That way you can give it a few minutes, then shine a light over it and look for fry. The paler the container, the easier it is to spot the telltale pairs of black dots.

Many people recommend water from an established tank for fry water changes, since they are so delicate. This doesn't mean a tank that has other fish in it, this means a tank that's been specifically set up to age water. Set it up with a heater and a filter, and get it cycled, and refresh the water in there after every water change. It will give you an easy source of water that's already at temperature and free of ammonia. I plan on doing this for my spawn, and leaving shredded IAL at the bottom of the water aging tank, and adding one teaspoon per five gallons of water. Just a tiny, tiny bit to help ward off bacteria.

If your tap water is pristine, you might not need to do that...although having a heated tub of water ready is going to be convenient no matter what, and letting it age will let the PH settle, giving you one less thing to worry about. It's so hard to judge temperature differences using the tap, and I've been told PH can take a little time to settle down.

As far as how to do the changes...carefully? Haha. There are a few different methods to get the water back into the fry tank. You can drip it in using airline tubing or a drip acclimation kit at a couple drops per second. You can lower a container of new water that's filled to the brim into the fry tank and allow the water to mix (must be filled to the brim so the water doesn't rush in, must be at temperature). Whatever you do, you want a minimum of disturbance to the fry. If you don't age the water, use the drip method. Fry don't handle water chemistry changes well.


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## BettaMummy87 (Jul 26, 2014)

Going to follow this thread.


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## Lucillia (Apr 29, 2013)

Ahhh boy. I may still pull from the 20.. the tap is clean but I dont have any alkalinity so my pH comes out at almost 8 and then drops to 5.5. I use crushed coral to keep my ph around 6.8-7. I will have the tank running for a bit to figure the amount of coral I need to keep it nice... do we know if fry prefer a certain pH? I think I will need to do the drip with the tubing, im extremely clumsy when it comes to pouring water in my tanks. I get the evil eye from most of my bettas xD.
Thankfully my dirty bucket is completely white ^^ it makes life easier!

Bettamummy - im glad to hear it! I will update this with everything with the parents until the spawn. Once that happens I will create my log!


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

I believe a PH of close to 7 is ideal, but I know nothing about messing with it and can't give any advice on that. >.<


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## Alaura123 (Jul 4, 2014)

That's the fear that I will have if I breed too, and I definitely want to breed one day....


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## BlueInkFish (Jan 13, 2013)

I'm very excited! I will be defeniatley stalking this spawn!!!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

For Betta's they actually like soft and acidic water (mainly to hrutan but to anyone as well) so 6.5 is preferred with anything from 5.5 (more for wilds) up to 8.5 are all tolerated just fine if acclimated proper ^_^

I can't really think of anything else for you Luci!


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## Lucillia (Apr 29, 2013)

Durhhh. Derp I feel dumb. I forgot thats why my bettas usually do well. Though lately I dunno. But anywho! Okay so poop tons of water changes, not a ton of food... grow my cultures in oatmeal... and stuff them away in my room with a candle near by. Apparently they smell like yeast and the only thing I associate that with is when a dog has an ear yeast infection.... unpleasant smell. Oh!!! Any tips for hatching bbs? Also I dont know how well I can keep salt water nice :/ thats my other concern. Hmm...
I dunno but the more advic3 the better!!


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## Lucillia (Apr 29, 2013)

Aha! Completed my oatmeal containers. I should be getting my foods and worms tomorrow!! And hopefully next wednesday the babies come in!


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## BlueInkFish (Jan 13, 2013)

Ya!! Very exciting! I remember when I started my spawn... Fry grow up so fast!!


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## Lucillia (Apr 29, 2013)

In a way, I'm hoping I can get all of the tough stages out of the way before I start school again in February. That's the goal anyway... I dont think that will happen though! XD And I may actually be doing two spawns at once instead of one... We shall see though!


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## BlueInkFish (Jan 13, 2013)

And we will defeniatley stay tuned and we hope we get updated with yor spawns XD?!


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## Lucillia (Apr 29, 2013)

Possibly!!! 
Here is Sashimi!! 


And this is Renoir!! 


That would be my possible second pair.

I got my microworms in yesterday! They're all in my containers, happily squirming and eating xD


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## Alaura123 (Jul 4, 2014)

Oh mustard gas!!!!
Nice.


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## Lucillia (Apr 29, 2013)

Yess!! Sashimi needs a bigger blue border though, Hopefully Renny can help that.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Oh lol, that's not Renoir, that's HMPK girl. Also, it's Rennie, it was easier to distinguish Rennie from Remmy that way is all. 

This is Rennie


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## Lucillia (Apr 29, 2013)

Whoops! I went quickly.. >.< Derp. I should've just let you send me one. They look similar when you go quick but I see the much bigger border now. I love her little ventrals!!! Sashimi has some border, but I want more like Rennie's* Sorry about that too. >.<


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Lol, that's okay, it happens!


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## Lucillia (Apr 29, 2013)

SO! My worm cultures are taking off!!! I thought one had died because the other two had worms on the sides much quicker, but when I looked yesterday the 'dead' one had them too!!!! My new concern though is that I can see the bottom of the oatmeal getting soupy on the other two, and even a little on the third... How do I know really when I should make new oats? I should have gotten a picture of the consistencies too. One was really dry, (Thats the one I thought had died) the second was pretty dry and the third was not as dry as I had liked. But the worms seem pretty happy in all three. Also... Uhh how do I change it without killing all my worms? Or do I basically just restart the culture? I was thinking about selling some little duck sauce type containers of the worms when I know they are completely stable too. I don't want to just throw them away all the time.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Yeah I need to reculture mine too, I didn't put enough bedding in mine either since they've already made it soupy and plus I put too much yeast in too.

But you basically only need a teaspoon of the worms to get a new one starting. I'd take your fourth tub (I think we'd gotten four, right?) and set that up with new bedding and yeast and put the worms in that and they'll start to culture really quick. I throw the small bits away after. For me, since I don't have an extra container that is used for worm cultures I take out a few teaspoons of worms/bedding to set aside, clean out the current culture and prep everything to put the worms back in after. So a lot of my worms do end up in the trash or down the sink since it does get soupy after awhile--though, no idea if that's supposed to happen or not lol.


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

The culture will naturally liquefy after a while because of the yeast. It's normal. When it gets too soupy, you can either restart the culture or just stir in a couple of new spoonfuls of whatever medium you're using.

If it smells really rancid and foul (more so than microworms usually smell, lol), you'll probably want to restart the culture the way Ilnaugrim suggested.


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## Lucillia (Apr 29, 2013)

Oh gosh... I feel like ive only had them a week and thryve exploded!!! I have worms even escaping!!!


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

Same here lol, it's crazy how fast those are growing!


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## Lucillia (Apr 29, 2013)

At this rate I may start trying to sell them!!! XD anyone want some Micro, Walter and banana worms? 
ALSOOOO
BIG NEWS
THE BABIES CAME IN TODAY!!!!! I am meeting up with Lil to get them!!!!! <3


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## Lucillia (Apr 29, 2013)

Get ready!!! Here are some pictures!!! My boyfriend has already taken the credit for naming them. Dun dun dun... 

No it's cute actually. Their names are Mousse and Mochi, two of my favorite deserts. Especially daifuku mochi!!



And Mochi!!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Love the names! She's looking a lot better and he just looks amazing haha. I'm so glad they're already feeling better for you! :-D


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## Lucillia (Apr 29, 2013)

I have started to prep the girls and boys! Minimal interest in each other except for Rennie. Rennie is really into both Mousse and Sashi. XD Mochi doesn't have the best form but its much better than it had been when she was smaller. She still has her butterfly coloration and nice rays on her fins. Mousse went on a fin biting rampage when I rearranged his 5 gallon. I'm kinda pissed at him. And Sashimi is just... Sashimi.


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