Well today I was pleasantly surprised to see that one of my Betta hendra F1 females was wrapping with the original male under a bubblenest. Based on the purchase date of the original pair, the oldest this female could be, is 6 months. I am quite happy with this rate of growth considering the 'hands-off' approach I took. However, while I was pleased about this most recent spawn, I was curious as to what had happened to the eggs from a spawn between the original male and female, that took place on Friday. Let's just say it did not take me long to find out... It turns out the other male and female juveniles/sub-adults in the tank were eating them. Any time the pair were wrapping, another fish would sneak in and grab the eggs out of the nest. Similarly, if they were too slow to pick up the eggs that fell to the bottom of the tank, these would also be consumed.
If I want to continue working with this species, I know I am going to have to separate the breeding pair from the main tank. There has definitely been a drop in survival rates of fry over the past couple of months because of predation by older siblings. Ideally, I would like to have a tank dedicated to breeding and a tank dedicated to the housing of immature fish. Unfortunately, present space constraints make this all but impossible, so for now I am going to have to put up with cannibalism. I noticed the same thing in my grow-out. One of the males claimed the film canister and spawned with a couple of his sisters, but the eggs were always eaten. As per your suggestion, I removed the film canister to prevent civil war between the males lol.The tank is much nicer now! I separated out a possible pair, but telling apart the submissive males and the females is so difficult for me, even with the ventral trick you've talked about before...
Ashlea
9/4/2014 07:59:16 am
Hey Gianne. Firstly, I have to say I have been over reading your site recently (yours is the Inglorious Bettas one isn't it?) and you have done such a great job documenting all your spawns, both your goals and what you have achieved. You have some lovely fish. Comments are closed.
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AuthorLocated in Melbourne, Australia, I currently keep and breed a number of species from the coccina complex. Archives
November 2017
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