Baby Betta Progress Log

I picked up 4 new bettas yesterday, 2 for sure females and 2 being babies. I'm quite certain these won't be the average VT baby bettas I'm surprised both these lovely babies were only 2.99$ each.

The first one is a double tail labeled as a "baby boy" but I see an egg spot and short pelvic fins. Might possibly be the only doubled tailed female I've seen for sale. I don't think it's a plakat as the analfin looks too developed





The second was labeled as a "baby girl". It's so pearly white that I have a hard time seeing an egg spot. Plus the pelvic fins look pretty long. I feel it might be a male. I'd guess it's a dumbo HM, possibly dragon scaled.



Both are in breeder baskets, the DT is in my male CT's tank and the white one is in the 20gal betta sorority. Both are eating and active. Once they put on size, if they are girls they will be added to the sorority. If they are boys...looks like I'll have to re-seal a 10gal or split the 2 10gal tanks that already have one male each. Let's hope they are both girls

 

Here is a picture of my beautiful "Baby Boy" from PetCo. There is only one problem, 3 weeks later an egg tube showed up. I don't do females. She is in the shrimp tank until I split a 10.
Good luck.

 

I am hoping for my next betta to be a baby, so I'm definitely following to see their progress!

 

Your new bettas are beautiful!

Petco should really stop trying to label the baby bettas. If they get it wrong 50% of the time, why bother? Experienced betta owners will be able to tell the difference, and for everyone else it'll be fun seeing what they grow up to be.

 

Everyone is still doing great and eating plenty. I have to be more careful with feeding the white one as it doesn't seem to know how to gulp the food and press out the air from its gills before swallowing. I fed it 2 tiny bits and then it was bloated and had buoyancy problems. The double tail eats just fine and she isn't as hyperactive and frantic when I go to feed them. No new pictures or videos of him/her though, it's in the mesh breeder basket which makes for awful picture taking.

I gave the white one a Methylene blue bath last night, only because there was a very thin film of something over it's body. You know how sometimes if you look really close at the plants and you can see the "slime" or diatoms? It looked kinda like that. Or maybe the slime you see on the tank glass. Either way it made me worry enough to treat it and I don't see it today. Might of just been the slime coat, but better safe than sorry.

 

I released the 2 little ones a while back. Seems the white one is indeed a female, I would think the fins would of already developed more if it was a male...right?



The double tail doesn't hold still for very long, she is very active.

 

Not too sure if any of you have seen my other thread where I've had to treat the white betta (Vitya) for some sort of internal infection, possibly swim bladder.

Help - Sick Female Betta

She's doing well now, swimming and eating better. Her fins are now longer than ever too. The tail is absolutely huge, much larger than all the other females. Her dorsal is very long, as is her anal and pelvic fins. If this keeps going I dare say she is in fact a he... After all, I've never really been able to see the egg spot on this one :/

The double tail is doing very well, she's gotten pretty big and her colors are lovely. More on her next time.

 

looks like it could be an elephant ear? I'm no expert, whatever it is, its georgous!

 

So my suspicions seem to be correct. While observing the sorority I noticed that Vitya was blowing bubbles and would display his fins whenever one of the girls came near. I have yet to see any flaring but I feel like it's safe to say Vitya is a male. I've had my suspicions from the start and now I feel less crazy about my ramblings of her being a him.


I've had Vitya in the breeder basket since whatever illness popped up so I suppose that's a good thing. He still has issues eating, misses more times that he catches the food, therefore he's thinner than I'd like. Seems that it's easiest for him to eat frozen blood worms and brine shrimp rather than pellets. I should give flakes a try and see if he can get them too.

I'd guess he's either a halfmoon or a delta. I thought he would be a dumbo when I first got him but the fins are a normal size as of yet.



I smell a color change in the near future. There's getting to be some dark red showing up on his pelvic and other fins. Still can't see much of a beard though. I'm every so slightly debating on whether to try keeping Vitya in the sorority or to move him to the 3.4 gal I recently set up for shrimp. I'd have to dampen the flow of the filter or something because it surprising strong. Plants need to grow a bit more before I get shrimp and/or move Vitya.




As promised, picture of the double tail whom I've named YurI (the character not the genre fyi). She's a little pig but doesn't cause problems. The trouble makings would be the CT and evil non-koi plakat.



Entire sorority:

 

Vitya showing some HM characteristics.





He's quickly becoming my problem child. I think he is getting a bout of pop-eye. ATM he's being treated with fungus guard in a half full 5gal bucket. When I started treatment his right eye was just swollen, now it's gotten a little cloudy (4 days later)

 

I moved Vitya to his own 3.4gal a couple weeks ago. His eye hasn't gotten any worse nor any better. He's become far more picky and prefers being fed brine shrimp from a chopstick.





His ugly eye, seems as though there is a fluid pocket right behind the eye rather than the eye itself. His health is good otherwise.

 

Poor baby! I'm sorry he's going through the eye trouble. I recently bought an unknown Betta as well. It exhibited all signs of being male EXCEPT for the eggspot that was very prevalent on its underside. I introduced 2 of my "for sure" females and he started showing off his beard and dancing. Shortly he started blowing bubbles but I don't know if he's ever done it before, cause he's not the best nest builder lol.

 

Does the betta that have eye problems have popeye, in which case isn't it treatable with meds?

 

It is but the eye itself isn't the problem. Theres a bulge behind the eye, and I have tried treating it with antibiotics/antifungal meds as well as epsom salts. Tis a work in progress

 

I wish fish veterinarians were a more common occurrence... Maybe I should go to school

 

I wish fish meds were cheaper and there was a greater variety in my area.

 

I wish fish meds were cheaper and there was a greater variety in my area.

aquabid, google it

 

Oh my goodness you said meds! Just research the best ones for you and check out amazon. The amount of savings can most times outcompete the cost of shipping and you also aren't limited to one or 2 brands. Best of luck!

 

The problem is, I need to get a card to order stuff online I plan to get one in the near future as all my checks are now direct deposit into my bank account.

Also, I've seen aquabid and it makes me want to spend hundreds on fish I don't have room for...

 

Lol! I think that is true with us all. Have you ever considered a prepay card or PayPal?

 

I think I should set up a checking account first :/ Still relatively new to the whole "adult world" where everything is paid with a card.

Vitya's eye deflated over night, looks pretty normal. I'm going to do a water change to hopefully prevent infection.

 

What do you think is the cure that fixed his eye?

 

Yay! I'm super glad he's doing better!! My female just finally recovered from her first attempt at breeding. I wish they could meet up! She has malfmoon metallic teal eyes with the rest black. They'd make cute kids

 

What do you think is the cure that fixed his eye?

I think it was a fluid filled pocket that finally ruptured. Much like a cyst, I would imagine. He's acting fine and ate his frozen brine shrimp. There is no redness or anything but a tiny bump. Hopefully it doesn't fill back up with fluid.

Yay! I'm super glad he's doing better!! My female just finally recovered from her first attempt at breeding. I wish they could meet up! She has malfmoon metallic teal eyes with the rest black. They'd make cute kids

Speaking of breeding, after many attempts at getting fry to the free swimming stage I finally got my first batch going. They became free swimming today There isn't as many as I've had before, a couple dozen at most. I think dad ate a lot of the eggs.

The proud father, who has a major marble gene. He used to be nearly all white.

 

That's so cool. I want to breed mine so badly but the process literally terrifies me. I don't want my baby girl to die. And I currently own only one male and he's a red dragon plakat. He's not the best bubble nest builder either and it seems now that his first two popped, he doesn't want to make another. My LFS doesn't get too many females, and most of the males are $30+. I have a female dalmatian molly with my female betta though so that may affect breeding. But I'd feel bad taking her only friend away.

 

Not too sure how the molly will effect anything. The process isn't all that hard so long as both fish are ready and willing. It’s getting the fry to free swimming that makes me nervous.

I’m going to continue updates here for the fry. These are real babies rather than the juveniles from petco!

2 weeks old, I‘ve counted up to 14 so far.

 

OMG!!!
I want my bettas to like one another so bad. Finding a breeding female out here is difficult. Horrible walmart/petsmart of course, otherwise my LFS has juveniles and even those are rare...

 

What are you feeding them??? They need fry food. Preferably freshly hatched baby brine shrimp. Or at the very least HikarI First Bites.

 

What are you feeding them??? They need fry food. Preferably freshly hatched baby brine shrimp. Or at the very least HikarI First Bites.

Not my first rodeo with tiny fry. They are being fed micro worms and baby brine shrimp. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't bother going after HikarI first bites.

 

I need cultures before spawning. I had my livebearers just recently explode and I have stuffed the tank with all sorts of things from some old fake plants I had to spawning mops I quickly whipped up to give them ample hiding spaces. I had nothing to feed the surprise babies so I took a bit of every food I own and crushed it up and they go crazy at feeding time lol. I notice some things they spit out, but having over 8 different foods in there, I don't know which ones they dislike, but the shrimp don't mind the excess food

Anyone have a good source for starting vinegar eel cultures? Or how did you start your microworm culture?

 

It's been a while so here are the updates on my betta fry.

These are the runts and medium sized fry.



Some of them are showing nice color, others not so much... The largest ones are about as big as you would find the "baby bettas" sold at petco. I've jarred 5 of them so far and they've taken to eating micro pellets, frozen brine shrimp and daphnia.

This is by far the best looking of the bunch as of yet.


This one, not so much.

 

Another update! Decided to try getting the boys to flare for me, looking good. It's nearly time to decide who I want to keep and more importantly, do I need to set up another tank for them?

Note that these guys are about 1-1.5 inches long.

 

The largest fry are doing great. Pretty sure there are 4 males now. The two that are in breeder baskets, one looks like a male but pretends to be a female and then one that is just now starting to show male characteristics. Said betta is pictured here. Note the white tips on pelvic fins, slight beard, and more robust and compact body. This guy just does't look like a female to me.



A family photo, note the big blue girl who was the baby from the first post. The two bettas in cups are just being added today. Let's hope their month long quarantine was enough.

 

Pelvic fins are getting longer and he's filling out a bit.




The other brother that hasn't been placed in a breeder basket


One of the females

 

Might as well add the new girls I bought 2 weeks ago on.

Little copper halfmoon that's the same size as the other juveniles.


Slightly bigger white halfmoon that seems to be marbled, she had dark patches here and there when I got her and now she's just starting to get some red in her fins. Should be an interesting color development.




Size comparison between my 3 year old female and the new girl.

 

They all look so cute! Who was the mama?
And how is Vitya?

 

Mama is a plakat and all the females look just like her. She's nothing special, no specific fin type nor coloration, about as close to "wild" as you can get. She has a bad attitude and can't go in the sorority.

Vitya is doing alright, no further problems with his eye but his fins are less than perfect. Despite great water quality and frequent feedings, they just don't seem in the best shape. Not necessarily fin rot but more like fin melt? I'll try remembering to get some picture tomorrow.

 

Here's Vitya with his ugly tail...



I would also like to announce that both male fry that are in the breeder baskets have started making bubble nests I will also say that tomorrow I'm trading in a few of them, at least one male and a couple females, it's time to whittle down the ones I want to keep.

 

I took in one of the red and this is the red I still have.


The boy I put in the empty basket is starting t o act like a boy. He's blowing nest like a champ and flares really well. Not sure why his lips are white, perhaps he's still developing color.

 

I think there could be 2 more males, we'll see in a couple more weeks though. I've got some more flaring pictures and I think dad's doubt tail gene really did make their dorsal fins super full.





Look at their cute little bubble nests! They're actually pretty good at it for amateurs. Ignore the oily surface stuff, this was before a water change and basket rinse.