The babies are now about 2.5 weeks old. They are still so stinking small, so it's hard to get any good pics or video of them. I was lucky enough to get the video below of two of my larger fry meeting in the middle of the tank and having a stare down
The following is a detailed account of the last 7 days since breeding my male HM Hotaru with my female HMPK Kaosu.
Kaosu is one of my first bettas. I received her in February 2014 as a Thai bred import, the username Phusit on aqua bid.com stated he had bred her from HMPK Marble siblings. She was approximately 4 months in when I got her, making her 14 months now at the time of this spawn. She is definitely on the older side for breeding bettas, so this is her last time I will ever bred her. This was my final attempt with her due to age and having tried 3 times before with little success. I have never been able to raise any of her fry to maturity.
Below is her picture at 4 months of age and then at 14 months of age.
Her mate is my store bought HM male Hotaru. He was found at a local Petco when I was buying two bettas for my children as their first pets. I spotted Hotaru and was immediately drawn by his steel metallic body and bright red/grey fins. He was slightly larger than my female, but I chose him hoping her shorter finnage will help balance out his longer anal fin but still maintain the 180 degree tail spread.
His pictures are below, current at age unknown and parents unknown.
To set up my breeding tub I chose to reuse the one I alrady had. It is a 10 gallon clear storage tote with lid. I have in it a 15 w heater, live Water Sprite and Java Moss along with two plastic plants, a ceramic mug for hiding behind, a waterproof led light taped to the lid, a canister filed filled with aquarium gravel and filter floss, one and a half 6in Capatta leaves, and at the time of spawning a small square of packing foam taped to the side of the tub. This was used by Hotaru to build his bubble nest on. You can see the set up below.
I let the tub sit for a month without the filter, then seeded the filter with some aged media and let that run for a week before the spawn so my water parameters would be suitable. You can see my water testing results using the API master kit on the chart below.
After meeting satisfactory water parameters I was ready to introduce Kaosu and Hotaru. They were placed in the tub with Kaosu in a glass and Hotaru free to swim in the tub. I left them like this for a night then released Kaosu in to the tub in the morning. You can see video of them chasing each other in typical betta courting behavior
It took 24 hours of chasing and nipping before I saw wrapping. I kept the tub covered with a blanket and the light on the whole time. I got one blurry picture of them wrapping.
I left them alone for another 24 hours then check on them the next afternoon. There were eggs in the nest and a protective Hotaru chasing Kaosu away, so I removed her and placed her back in her home tank. I left Hotaru in the tank for another 3 days until I could see the majority of fry swimming freely. One interesting note, unlike in my past spawn attempts, I did feed Hotaru a couple blood worms while he was taking care of the fry. I know this is not generally done by most breeders, but it seemed to keep him satisfied enough not to eat the eggs or fry.
Below you will see video of day 3-6 of fry growth. They are currently being fed vinegar eels, microworms, detritus worms, and insuforia. In another week I will introduce baby grind shrimp in small doses so as to avoid over feeding and fouling the water.
Hotaru tending eggs
Fry day 1
Fry day 4
Fry day 5
Fry day 6
I am adding a gallon of water every few days in addition to the 2 gallons I already had in there, as well as running the canister filter on low to maintain beneficial bacteria growth. I keep the tank between 80-84 degrees F. So far the fry are showing great leaps in growth from day to day and eating well. I am uncertain about how many their are but I have counted at least 20.
Thanks for reading. I am planning on updating on their progress weekly.
Peace, Love, and Süßwasser---April R
I bred a new male HM named Hotaru with my female HMPK Kaosu. So far so good. The fry are now 4 days old. See the videos below for clips on the spawn and progress of the fry so far!
