Natural Fry TankMy Betta palangkarensis pair have given me at least 50 fry from several spawnings that occurred within the span of a couple of weeks. It wasn't until I actually physically separated them that all spawning activity ceased. Because I had been waiting what seemed like forever for them to spawn, I decided to separate the fry into two groups in case something happened to them. One group was left in the main tank (parents were both removed by this point) , while another smaller group was moved into a more traditional grow-out tank. As you can see, the water in what I call the 'natural' tank is very dark. The decaying leaf litter (pictured above) has caused an explosion in the growth of infusoria and other microorganisms. This provides a constant source of food for the fry in between feedings, and as I have fry of all different ages in there, it takes some of the pressure off the smaller and younger fry. There's not as much competition for food as there would be in a more traditional grow-out when most of the infusoria is consumed fairly quickly and the fry are much more reliant on regular feedings. Even when I don't feed the fry in this tank, they almost always have full, rounded stomachs, which shows they are actively hunting and consuming the microorganisms present in the water. Their growth rate has been fairly consistent and I am starting to see some quite large fry now. They seem to be growing at the same rate (perhaps slightly faster) than the other group, even though they do not receive as large or as frequent water changes.
I have already noticed with my burdigala and uberis fry that those grown out in the tank alongside their parents (even without supplemental feeding) seem to grow at a much faster rate than those raised in a more traditional setting. Like all coccina complex species, it will be quite a while before they reach adult size. However, I will be charting the progress of both groups as well as that of my other fry, here on this blog.
Steve
24/2/2013 07:23:44 am
Hello again, I wanted to add that the brownorum fry that I've rasied on grindal and white worms and bbs have reach young adult size quite quickly. My 1st batch was born in December 2012 and the males are blowing bubble nests already.
Ashlea
24/2/2013 09:32:33 am
Yeah I usually switch onto grindals ASAP as I find that gives good growth. I would have had my larger fry on white worms already, but I almost killed my culture because it's summer here and my bedroom got really hot. 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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