# Artificially Hatching Eggs



## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

Hey guys! 

I just came home from work to see Smirnoff and Princess spawning!~ Yay! Buuuttt here's the problem. Smirnoff hasn't made a nest and he's eating all of the eggs.  Sooo I grabbed a small cup and started to siphon the eggs up as they were spawning. I have about 30-40 of 'em now and I was wondering if they'll be ok on their own until they hatch..? 
Thanks!


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## SillyCone (May 7, 2011)

idk... I guess is better to try than being a snack food for your male >_>!


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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

SillyCone said:


> idk... I guess is better to try than being a snack food for your male >_>!


Seriously... I had to push him out of the way to get the eggs... -__-; *sigh* 
It was like a game of "last piece of pizza" over and over...


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## Oldfishlady (Mar 1, 2010)

Success rate with artificial hatching varies...often when the male is not tending the eggs and/or eating them...he may have a good reason...something is wrong with the eggs.....

Are you sure he is eating them or holding them....sometime they will coat them with mucus and let them float until after they spawn and then build a nest or even leave them on the floor until they are done....

The way I artificial hatch my Betta eggs...I use a small cup that I can float in the heated tank to maintain a water temp in the 80F range, cover the top with plastic veggie wrap for heat and humidity, I add floating plants like water lettuce and/or frogbit, in 12-24h I add one small common snail...I want the snail to start eating any bad eggs to limit pollution/decay....I don't want to add it too soon or the snail will eat the good eggs too...I will have hatch in 24-32h usually.....once hatched...I tip the container and add small amounts of tank water every day until they are about a week-10 days old and then I release them in the tank.....I usually will add a few newly hatched BBS twice a day at about day 4 from hatch or once they are free swimming for 24h...

Congrats and good luck.....


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## SillyCone (May 7, 2011)

Huh... Does that makes you a dad/mum (forgot your gender... SORRY!) of 40ish kids?

Daaang people these days... Jookes! XD


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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

OFL- Yep! I have them in a small floating container in water that's 82F and covered with plastic wrap. Well, it's their first spawn ever...so maybe they aren't fertilized right..but it's worth at least seeing if they hatch or not right?  

SillyCone- I'm a girl  So a mum of 40 hahaha xD 

I have the parents (still spawning) in a 110 L (about 29 gallons) long container tank/ bucket thing so the babies will have TONS of room to swim  ... oop- they just finished. xD Princess is goin' nuts...better take her out.


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## Oldfishlady (Mar 1, 2010)

You may want to give them more time...sometimes they will take a break and start up again....

Right...nothing wrong with giving it a try and good experience for you too......

Be sure and attach the container to the side of the tank so it doesn't sink....I am sure you already did this...but for other reading and learning.....


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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

Oldfishlady said:


> You may want to give them more time...sometimes they will take a break and start up again....
> 
> Right...nothing wrong with giving it a try and good experience for you too......
> 
> Be sure and attach the container to the side of the tank so it doesn't sink....I am sure you already did this...but for other reading and learning.....


Ok! I'll check on them a bit later then. 
Yeah- the container is sitting inside one of those guppy breeder boxes (I use them to introduce my bettas instead of the chimney way) and it's pretty well sealed in there- it can't budge. ^^


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

Good luck with them.


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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

dramaqueen said:


> Good luck with them.


Thanks DQ!~ :-D


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## leeb62 (Oct 22, 2010)

If you wanted your eggs to hatch. You can try putting them in a ten gallon or 5 gallon and use a airstone attach to a airpump and let it run to agitate the eggs to keep fungus off the good one. I had 50% hatch rate the last time I tried so its a pretty good and simple way to art hatch them. I have also try putting them in a small container in the same spawn tank without any thing to agitate the water and only had like 1 or 2 fry hatch. So agitate the eggs is the key of artficial hatching.


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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

leeb62 said:


> If you wanted your eggs to hatch. You can try putting them in a ten gallon or 5 gallon and use a airstone attach to a airpump and let it run to agitate the eggs to keep fungus off the good one. I had 50% hatch rate the last time I tried so its a pretty good and simple way to art hatch them. I have also try putting them in a small container in the same spawn tank without any thing to agitate the water and only had like 1 or 2 fry hatch. So agitate the eggs is the key of artficial hatching.


Cool, thanks! I'll get that set up right now! ^^


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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

We have fry!!!! DD 

Hopefully these guys won't die off like that last 2 spawns did! WHAT AM I DOING WRONG!? (((( *cry*


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## SillyCone (May 7, 2011)

BREASTFEED NOW!... oh wait. Jookes xD!

Idk, do you have the plants and stuff? Maybe some live mosquito larvae..?


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

I hope everything works out this time. Good luck!


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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

Sillycone- YUP! I've got plants and there are TONS on mosquito larvae outside in a bucket by my front door. Think they can eat those at such a young age?? o^o 

Dramaqueen- Thanks! I hope it works out too!


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## SillyCone (May 7, 2011)

idk... I think once OFL said that some microstuff beings grows on live plants and the fry eat them?... How are you going so far?


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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

Sillycone- I've got some plants and the fry (30-40) in a small tupperware thing floating inside a giant storage box. The water is heated to 82F and the top is covered with cling wrap - nice and humid . The fry all seem to be doing well! (they're almost a week old ^^)


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

U'm glad they're doing well.


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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

Thanks Dramaqueen!  

Do you guys think they would eat really early stages of mosquito larvae? They're are TONS of them in this bucket outside and there are ones that are super tiny- like not even a mm long!


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## M00n (Jun 15, 2011)

Good Luck with your adoptees. I am excited to hear how the do!!!


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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

M00n said:


> Good Luck with your adoptees. I am excited to hear how the do!!!


Thank M00n!!  Good Luck with yours as well!


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## M00n (Jun 15, 2011)

What do the parents look like? Will you be selling the fry once they are old enough?


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## Oldfishlady (Mar 1, 2010)

When I get lucky enough to find really tiny larva...I feed them to fry......and you will find larva small enough too......lots at different stages/sizes.....that is why I like to use my brine shrimp net to gather larva......then when I rinse I will transfer the larva to a small mesh net to separate the larva so I will have a container of fresh water with tiny larva and a net full of larger larva to use/feed


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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

Oldfishlady said:


> When I get lucky enough to find really tiny larva...I feed them to fry......and you will find larva small enough too......lots at different stages/sizes.....that is why I like to use my brine shrimp net to gather larva......then when I rinse I will transfer the larva to a small mesh net to separate the larva so I will have a container of fresh water with tiny larva and a net full of larger larva to use/feed


You. Are. BRILLIANT!  What a great Idea! I'll do this too.


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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

!!!!!::UPDATE:::!!!!!

I have 4 fry left! They are 3 weeks and 5 days old now!  
They LOOVVEEE eating BBS and swimming on the bottom finding junk to eat. xD 
They are soooo cute!~ I'll upload pics later tonight when I get home ^^


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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

Here are pics of the babies I promised! ^^ PIC SPAM WARNING! hahaha







Here's Smirnoff! (Daddy) 








Some babies~ 










































And here's Princess (mommy- the white one)


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

Aww, how cute!!


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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

So as I was doing a water change today, I noticed that one of the little guys has color! o0o I am sooo surprised! They're only a moth old!  He's got a little blue sheen to him <3 awww


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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

*Update!*

It's so crazy how fast these guys grow! ;__; They grow up so fast *sniff* 






























<3


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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

*Update!*

They're now 6 weeks old! It's amazing how fast they grow!  I have one little squirt who's terribly smaller than the other three xD I hope he doesn't get picked on :/


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

Aww, so cute!


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## Jirothebetta (Jul 15, 2011)

SOOOO cute XD


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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

Hahah, I fed them some finely chopped bloodworms- just to see if they would take it. OMNOMNOMNOMNOMSSS 

I had missed one- it was about 1/3rd the length of a whole blood worm and the biggest fry scarfed it! O_O I was so scared he/she was going to choke! But it's fine now  <3


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## Jirothebetta (Jul 15, 2011)

Awww poor baby, glad he was okay! I once accidentally dropped a whole blood worm in Lucky's tank and he went for it, managed to get it half way down and then decided it was too big and spit it back out...scared the life out of me at first cause I really did think he was gonna choke to death...I had an image of my self performing fish CPR


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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

Lol, yeah I was about to!


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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

Update on the little guys!  
3 of them seem to be doing very well, however I'm worried about one of them. S/he seems unable to swim horizontally...and kinda just swims with his/her body underneath the whole time. Now I'm not sure if this is fixable or not, but s/he seems not to have any problems getting around, breathing, or eating. 






















They really do look a lot like their mom. :3


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

They're turning out very nicely.


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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

Wellll, two days ago we had a little "accident"... :'( 
One of them choked on a worm that wasn't cut up finely enough. By the time I noticed and got the worm out, s/he had already passed. (( R.I.P. little guy.


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

Oh, no! I'm sorry. Those things happen, unfortunately.


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## mernincrazy8525 (Feb 28, 2011)

poor baby. but the others are looking beautiful.


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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

Yeah, kind of a mistake on my part I guess...I still feel bad about it :< 
But I still have the three ones left


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## Jirothebetta (Jul 15, 2011)

Sorry about the baby, but don't be too hard on your self, such things happen.
At least you still have three to love and care for. They are all look 100% by the way XD


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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

Thanks Jiro! You're so nice. :3 
Yup! I'm glad I still have the ones I do, they're my little babies.


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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

*Updated pics!! *

Here are some new pics that I *just* took. :-D They're soooo cute!~ 

Here's the biggest (and prettiest IMO) one of the three. 






















Here's the runt of the litter.  






















And here's the last one.


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## BettaGirl290 (Jul 29, 2010)

there beautiful! glad they survived this far!


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## Jirothebetta (Jul 15, 2011)

XD There so Beautiful! They look like they are gonna turn out to be butterflies XD XD


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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

@Betta girl, Thanks! ^^ 

@Jiro- OMG I KNOWWWW when I saw the patterns I was all "WTHECK!?" Princess def. does NOT have butterfly patterning...neither does Smir.. o__O' *IsConfused* 
But they are sooooo pretty!~ The 1st one actually is a lavender color in natural light! SO PRETTY! I might have to keep him. :3


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## Jirothebetta (Jul 15, 2011)

XD I would keep the first one too, he is very fetching :3 XD XD


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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

I know! He and the 3rd one (who I suspect are both males) are adorabblleee!~ <3


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## Jirothebetta (Jul 15, 2011)

O.O since when is a baby betta fish not adorable!!! XD


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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

^ VERY true. They're al cute! :3 

Now time to hunt down the 3 week-olds....they're so hard to focus on! SO TINY! ><


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## Jirothebetta (Jul 15, 2011)

Good luck! XD I know what you mean...a magnifier is a very useful tool at that age XD XD


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## Amphibianite (Aug 6, 2011)

XD soo tiny but so cute.. I can't wait to breed lol


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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

Thanks Jiro! I ended up not being able to get any good ones. I'll try again tonight.  
@Amphi- It takes a while to get what your doing right. Took me 3 spawns before any of them survived. D: But they are oh so cute!~


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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

*Update!*

Here are the three HMPK x VT babies!~ Now at..oohhh 4.5 months I think. 
They're slow growers, lol.  

Here's the runt  















Here's my big n' strong one! He's all black/marble-y.  






















And here is my favorite one! He's got a black head! >:3 I think I'm keeping this one.


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

They're so cute!


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## Jirothebetta (Jul 15, 2011)

Those pictures are awesome XD XD XD I love that last one! He's stunning XD ;-)


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

One of them looks almost gold.


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## mernincrazy8525 (Feb 28, 2011)

they are beautiful!!


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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

Thanks guys! The biggest one made a bubblenest today! xD Adorbs! >:3

EDIT:: Oh they all seem to be VT as well. booo. I was hoping for broader finnage, but at least they're all cute. And several of my friends want them...but I wanna keeeeeep them! :<


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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

*New Pictures!*

Here they are at 3.5 months!


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

Aww, cute, cute, cute!


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## hermeh (Jul 27, 2011)

I love the last pic. He's like "I'm mad at you!" lol


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## mernincrazy8525 (Feb 28, 2011)

i want the second one!!!


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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

xD Aren't they precious? xD I love 'em! Mernin- I can send him to you if you want! ^^


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## mernincrazy8525 (Feb 28, 2011)

really? that would be amazing but I dont have any money right now. =(. he is so adorable!!!


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## Tikibirds (May 26, 2011)

I like their colors


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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

Mernin- Awwwsss I'd totally give you the fish for free, all you'd have to pay is the shipping  

Tiki- xD I know right?!


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## mernincrazy8525 (Feb 28, 2011)

how much would shipping be?


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

What tail type are they, Nat?


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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

Mernin- Looks like $15-25. :x yikes. I didn't realize shipping was so expensive! @[email protected]' 

DQ- I believe they're round-tail. I'm not sure what specifies a Delta, but they kinda look like that as well. ; ?


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## mernincrazy8525 (Feb 28, 2011)

i don't think i have 15 - 25 dollars. But he sure is beautiful!!!!


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