Fry first bite! (Hikari series)

Well, not actually Hikari that took the first bite but it's my betta fry (from breeding log#1) that took the first bite :D They are now two weeks old and they took dry food instead of live ones. This could safe me a lot of hassle growing live food for the fries. I'm considering the New life Spectrum series for my bettas. Let's see how they respond to this brand. I think there's around 20 fries left. So excited to see their progress.  

Microlife video

This is a video about infusoria that I took from the main tub. I also attached a picture below. You should be able to see them moving towards the flashlight.

The microlife density is achieved after adding hay ( just a few pitch, not too much) into the tub, for a duration of 3 weeks for the hay to decompose nicely. Airstone is a must since the rotting hay would quickly foul the water. Of course, the result is faster when I seed the water from a nearby green pond. Had problems of mayfly nymph and dragonfly larva in the tub, which is not betta fry friendly! I think I spend more time catching these buggers then actually taking care of my Bettas xD 

I tried culturing daphnia, had a few floating in the tub but they never seem to multiply quickly. On the other hand, I got lots of other 'stuff' , so this is still a win for me. I prefer infusoria more than microworms because they are nose friendly and I don't have housemates complaining about the smell. ( Had to act like a ninja, hid my microworm cultures under the sink, together with my grindal worms ) 

Infusoria & stuff

Well... yuck and also amazing. Why yuck? I cultured infusoria a month ago with banana peel and egg yolk, not only it didn't produce the infusoria I needed at that time, it also stink! (by the way, did I mention slimy?) That's a failed attempt. 

So few days later, I added green water instead, taken from a nearby pond, sprinkled some yeast, and waited for a week. It's better than the black banana egg yolk slimy nose torturing infusion thing, and my fry actually eat some of those stuff, but I soon ran out, so most of the fry died of starvation, leaving only 6.

Amazingly I came across the hay method while Googling(Google is my friend :) ) , so I started adding hay to my culture. A few days later, the water turned cloudy and started to stink! Added aeration to the tub. I think all the rotting hay is depleting the oxygen, causing the culture to smell funny. A day later, the water started to clear up, and I can see lots of tiny movement in the water. Let's see how this goes...  

Update! 

After 3 weeks of adding the hay into the tub, the water turned greenish and contains lots of cyclops, daphnia and other micro life. I scoop some up and fed to the fry. 

The picture below shows my back up, just in case of crashes... all have hay and occasional yeast food added when I have the time.

This is my grindal worms culture. I bought my initial culture from Jit Sin, during MAHA 2012. Now I have 3 cultures going strong. Instead of using soil or peat as medium, I use scrubber pads, with 3 or 4 layers in each plastic container. Picture below is one of my grindal worm culture.

I also bought some microworms starter culture from BettaVillage during MAHA 2012. Since then I subculture and this is the result. I just add bread and moisten it with a bit of water. 

Breeding Log #1

This is Sexy

This is FlamingIce

Both were placed into the breeding tub on 30/11/2012. A bunch of Egeria densa and some Malaysian trumpet snails are in the tub. Waiting for FlamingIce to build bubblenest before releasing Sexy. FlamingIce is very aggressive so I need to make sure Sexy stay alive!

Update! (2/12/2012) It didn't go well. FlamingIce was too aggressive with Sexy. So I took  Sexy out and put in another female, named Diamond, a marble female betta. Feeding both with pellets and grindal worms. (extra worms for Diamond)

Update! (3/12/2012)  :D I saw eggs! By the way, this is Diamond. 

And this is the nest

Update! (6/12/12) Removed FlamingIce and start feeding microworms and infusoria. I want to try giving them Hikari First Bites, it's time to do some experiment! 

Welcome back! My Bettas

Finally got back into betta keeping. I used to keep those long, veiltail bettas back when I'm in high school, bred them for 5 generations, before losing them all when shifting homes. Well, uni life is awesome and now I have my own room! It's Betta Time!