BallardFishGuy
New Member
The Story:
So I recently decided to try my hand at breeding fish more than just a happy accident like before. I became enamored by the Mouth Breeding, Betta Albimarginata (Strawberry Betta). They weren't easy to get a hold of but Corry's shop (Aquarium Co-Op) had some via a breeder up in Bellingham. Anyway, i got his last three he had and then got a beat on one more male up in Bellingham at Clarks. Mine from Cory were wild caught and the one from Clarks was tank raised. So i thought I had 3 males and 1 female but it turns out I have 2 males and 2 females which is fine. To my surprise my male I brought home from Clarks which had a female with it (wish I would have bought her now) was holding eggs... a lot of them. A week later my male spit 22 tiny fry and thus started my effort in ernest. There isn't a lot of info out there on this rare Betta but luckily one small breeder decided to post her luck with these fish and all of her experience via a forum and that helped me lots.
Setup:
I have my four adult breeding Albi's in a planted 12g Eclipse tank. It wasn't the best set up but it was what i found for free and you can't beat that. That was only tank I had ready to go and I didn't know one of my new fish was holding so I had to scramble as the fry were due...I set up a small 5g tank that I had empty for a hospital tank and left it bare bottom with oak leaves, alder cones and one big plant in the middle for the fry. I used a sponge filter for gentle circulation and a heater as my tanks (all but one) are in my basement fish/work room. Before the adult male spit the fry I put him in a breeders net to separate him and give him some rest from the other fish. Once he spit the fish I put him in the hospital tank to rest from 16 days without food and so he could fatten up before the female could get to him again (Albi female will breed a male to death if left to it). The fry stayed in the breeders net for micro feeding several times a day for a week until they got bigger and then I transferred the males back to the main tank and the fry until the 5g tank. That was working great until I realized 22 fry in a 5g was getting cramped quickly. My next step was to get a larger fry tank. I found a great deal on a 20L on CR and added that to the fold, again with oak leaves, a few empty clay pots and some java moss and floating frogsbit and red root floater (thanks Daniel). I also have a sponge filter on that tank.
Next I added a metal wire rack that I got for cheap again on CR (pic below) to hold my three tank breeding station.
Currently: I have about 30 Albi fry from two breeding groups with the dominant male holding another large clutch of eggs, due in about 14 days. Albi are slow to grow and hold only 10-30 eggs max (the most i've seen yet is 25) thus the reason for their high prices. Aquarium Co-Op and Clarks have sold them in the $19-$24 price range. I also have a few really nice blue Betta Splendens fry that I was given so i'm raising them too, although I won't do that again.
Food:
I'm feeding my fry many things but first start with micro worms and live BBS, then on to live Grindal worms, and now they eat all of those and mostly frozen blood worms and chopped up live black worms.
Temp: 70-73 degrees
Water: soft Seattle tap
Pic:
Here is the rack/breeding station...I'll upload the fish pics later but you can see a big (2.5'') male in my avatar...
So I recently decided to try my hand at breeding fish more than just a happy accident like before. I became enamored by the Mouth Breeding, Betta Albimarginata (Strawberry Betta). They weren't easy to get a hold of but Corry's shop (Aquarium Co-Op) had some via a breeder up in Bellingham. Anyway, i got his last three he had and then got a beat on one more male up in Bellingham at Clarks. Mine from Cory were wild caught and the one from Clarks was tank raised. So i thought I had 3 males and 1 female but it turns out I have 2 males and 2 females which is fine. To my surprise my male I brought home from Clarks which had a female with it (wish I would have bought her now) was holding eggs... a lot of them. A week later my male spit 22 tiny fry and thus started my effort in ernest. There isn't a lot of info out there on this rare Betta but luckily one small breeder decided to post her luck with these fish and all of her experience via a forum and that helped me lots.
Setup:
I have my four adult breeding Albi's in a planted 12g Eclipse tank. It wasn't the best set up but it was what i found for free and you can't beat that. That was only tank I had ready to go and I didn't know one of my new fish was holding so I had to scramble as the fry were due...I set up a small 5g tank that I had empty for a hospital tank and left it bare bottom with oak leaves, alder cones and one big plant in the middle for the fry. I used a sponge filter for gentle circulation and a heater as my tanks (all but one) are in my basement fish/work room. Before the adult male spit the fry I put him in a breeders net to separate him and give him some rest from the other fish. Once he spit the fish I put him in the hospital tank to rest from 16 days without food and so he could fatten up before the female could get to him again (Albi female will breed a male to death if left to it). The fry stayed in the breeders net for micro feeding several times a day for a week until they got bigger and then I transferred the males back to the main tank and the fry until the 5g tank. That was working great until I realized 22 fry in a 5g was getting cramped quickly. My next step was to get a larger fry tank. I found a great deal on a 20L on CR and added that to the fold, again with oak leaves, a few empty clay pots and some java moss and floating frogsbit and red root floater (thanks Daniel). I also have a sponge filter on that tank.
Next I added a metal wire rack that I got for cheap again on CR (pic below) to hold my three tank breeding station.
Currently: I have about 30 Albi fry from two breeding groups with the dominant male holding another large clutch of eggs, due in about 14 days. Albi are slow to grow and hold only 10-30 eggs max (the most i've seen yet is 25) thus the reason for their high prices. Aquarium Co-Op and Clarks have sold them in the $19-$24 price range. I also have a few really nice blue Betta Splendens fry that I was given so i'm raising them too, although I won't do that again.
Food:
I'm feeding my fry many things but first start with micro worms and live BBS, then on to live Grindal worms, and now they eat all of those and mostly frozen blood worms and chopped up live black worms.
Temp: 70-73 degrees
Water: soft Seattle tap
Pic:
Here is the rack/breeding station...I'll upload the fish pics later but you can see a big (2.5'') male in my avatar...
