About a month or two ago, I separated out a pair of F1 Betta sp. cf. rutilans green from the others, and put them into a smaller 'breeding' tank. This pair has somehow managed to successfully spawn in the main tank, and the poor male with his mouthful of eggs was being constantly harassed by his siblings. To be honest, I never expected this experiment to result in viable fry. Not only were the breeding pair well over a year old (probably closer to 24 months), but past treatments with some rather harsh chemicals made me wonder if they would even be capable of producing fertile eggs. Surprisingly, the very next spawn resulted in fry, as did the several successful spawning attempts that followed. Because I wanted only a small number of fry to work with, it wasn't long before the pair was moved back to the main tank, and my attention turned to raising the dozen or so fry left behind in the breeding tank. As you can see from the photos, some of the fry are more developed than others. There is one particularly small fry, who somehow holds its own against older siblings, in spite of not being much bigger than the grindal worms I put in for them. My main concern was that this group of fry would be infected with oodinium through their parents. However, at this point in time, they seem as physically healthy as any of my other fry, and I doubt it's going to be all that long before they outgrow their current tank.
This species seems to have a particularly aggressive streak, and I'm already seeing aggressive posturing and chasing between some of the bigger fry. Based on my experience with the F1 group, and even the F0 pair, a steady increase in aggressive behaviour is to be expected, particularly as the fish reach sexual maturity. 21/8/2014 11:24:46 pm
Hello, thanks for interesting updates on B. sp. cf. rutilans green which I'm also keeping. Mine are also mouthbrooding. The other day I was able to see them spawning and I noticed an interesting thing. They mostly followed the bubblenester pattern with the male picking up the eggs instead of the female. However, the male picked each egg directly from the female's upturned belly immediately after they came out. This is different from what I have seen in other bubblenesters where the male waits for the eggs underneath. I wonder if you have seen the same behaviour that I observed in your fish of this species or any other betta?
Ashley
24/8/2014 06:31:27 am
Sorry to hear about the issues you were facing with your fry and the transport. Hope you and your bettas do better. Comments are closed.
|
AuthorLocated in Melbourne, Australia, I currently keep and breed a number of species from the coccina complex. Archives
November 2017
Categories |