# King Billy and Killer are pleased to introduce .....



## Thistle (Jun 4, 2006)

their 7 day old baby bettas! I'm guessing they're about 3/8ths of an inch long now. Feeding them bbs, egg yolk and the betta starter food from Ocean Nutrition.

This is the most progressive I've made in all my spawning attempts. I guess patience and perserverance pays off. 










(sorry the pic isn't that great - will hopefully get better ones next week)


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## Pablo (Mar 27, 2006)

Congratulations


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## nightowl1350 (Mar 19, 2006)

Congrats! I've seen newly hatched baby bettas and the pic isn't bad as they are tiny. If you can get your hands on some microworms they should work as well.


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

Congrats!!!!! Now comes the challange of getting them to grow nice and fast ^^


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## Thistle (Jun 4, 2006)

14 days old now and about 1/4th of an inch long. I was counting them up, got to 30 then they decided to move around on me so I lost track. lol


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

Very nice!!!


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## Thistle (Jun 4, 2006)

21 days old! woohoo! *throws confetti*

As far as I can tell I've only lost 3 since day 7. I've noticed a big difference in the sizes of some of them - some are quite small still. Not sure if this is an early indication of gender or not since they're certainly well fed. 

Dorsal fins are really starting to show.


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

big bellies on them!  What is thier main food now? the Brine?


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## Thistle (Jun 4, 2006)

Yep, bbs is their main food, still giving them cooked egg yolk once a day cause I figured it'd be good for the smaller ones. They're also getting the Betta Starter food from Ocean Nutrition.


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## ontariobetta (Mar 13, 2006)

Do your guys eat the starter food? Cus only a few out of my spawns will touch it. They are sooo picky!


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## Thistle (Jun 4, 2006)

Some of them will eat the betta starter food but then again I think they'd eat anything that moves. I've seen the way they watch the snail. lol

I'd read in a few places that it was good to provide them with a variety of foods and since this is this first spawn that's made it this far I figured I'd give them that variety.

They're so darn cute! I could spend hours watching them.


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

Yea mine wont touch anything that doesnt wiggle in that tempting way.. lol

I even tried to trick them with half frozen half live brineshrimp and no go LOL durn it! 

~_~! I am at grindal size now.. Just so hard to get a good worm population going :/


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## Thistle (Jun 4, 2006)

Today I moved all the babies to a 2.5 gallon tank as the spawning tank was getting pretty "ugly" even tho I've been doing 50% water changes every 2-3 days plus using a battery operated siphon with a mesh bag to get the gunk off the bottom of the tank.

Perfect opportunity to count how many of the little darlings were in there. As I moved them back into the 10 gallon my daughter and I kept track of how many I scooped up each time. Good thing we were sitting down cause we almost fell over once we finished.

Double checked our addition and the magic number is:

72

Now I can't wait to try again with the pair of half moons that I have.


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

Holy smokes!!! Excellent!!! :3


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## Thistle (Jun 4, 2006)

28 days old now and I can't believe how fast they're growing. They eat like they're little fishie vacumn cleaners lol



















Count is now down to 71, lost one of the really, really tiny guys on Saturday. *sniffle*


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

awee... sorry you lost one.. That growth is excellent!!!!

My guys are a bit behind...>.> cant get the right food growing. But they are well! ^^


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## ontariobetta (Mar 13, 2006)

Awww how cute

I've recently been loseing a lot of smaller ones to. But noticing a lot of much bigger ones....so I moved out the biggies and now the smallies are growing like mad!


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## Thistle (Jun 4, 2006)

They're now 35 days old! *throws confetti* 

I noticed that the "sibling fights" have started already so I've moved the much smaller ones out to a 2.5 gallon tank.

Some of the really big babies are about 2/3" long already and showing colour on their dorsal, caudal and anal fins.


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

Mine havint started fighting and they are quite old.. but still hard to tell what sexes they are...

They look cute!!! Any colours comming in yet?


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## Thistle (Jun 4, 2006)

Some of the larger ones have colour coming in on their fins - looks sort of reddish-orange.

I think I've lost a few more also but no sign of corpses. *sigh* I think the snails cleaned them up tho.


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## Thistle (Jun 4, 2006)

45 days old now and growing like mad! Behaving like typical miniature bettas: always hungry. 

Feeding them HBH Fry Bites that I got at Finatics and slightly ground up Ocean Nutrition Betta Pro pellets.

Did my first culling. *sigh* So sad but tis an unfortunate necessity as there were some with strange tail deformities.

At least 95% of them are showing red on all fins now but there's a few that look like they might resemble their mother: pure white. *crosses fingers*


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

amazing!!!!


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## UniFish (Jul 20, 2006)

Quite fascinating indeed. All the more reason to get my five gallon set up as soon as possible.

If there is insufficient room to accomodate all your bettas, you can always send one my way. I can in return give you some free Cryptocoryne (Wendtii) plants that I have been dying to get rid of.


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## meow_mix450 (Mar 22, 2006)

Hey

Its Jay, from the pet store haha. I didn't know that you were on this site untill you told me the other day. I can't wait to see them full grown. 

Meow


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## Thistle (Jun 4, 2006)

Jay! lol, fancy meeting you here.

They're 49 days old now but I still can't sex them. *sigh* Since I moved the smaller ones out to their own tank there hasn't been any more fighting with the bigger ones so there's no rush to jar them up.

I'll be keeping 2 or 3 at the most and putting 10 aside for friends and fellow betta addicts on here. The balance will most likely be going to Mike at Finatics.


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

I'll save some room for babies! ^^


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## Thistle (Jun 4, 2006)

> I'll save some room for babies! ^^


But of course! 

In my world one can never have too many bettas, computers, books or "sparklies".


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## Thistle (Jun 4, 2006)

51 days old and many of the larger ones look to be about 1.25" - well ahead of growth schedule. Feeding them a mix of HBH Betta Bites and Ocean Nutrition Betta pro pellets. I plan on getting them some frozen bw's this weekend.

Is it just my eyes or does any one else see possible CT on the tail of this one?


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

Quite possible eh? If not a crown a definate comb dont you think?


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## Thistle (Jun 4, 2006)

Without knowing the lineage of the parents it's hard to say what they'll end up as. 

Today I jarred up 8 of what I suspect are males: longer fins and showing aggressive behaviour. (awfully funny watching bettas that small flare)

Should hopefully know within the next 2 weeks how many boys and girls I got out of this spawn. I can't wait to start the halfmoons. *grin*


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## Thistle (Jun 4, 2006)

More baby betta pics. (these will probably be the last ones posted from this batch as they'll be starting to go to their new homes starting the end of next week)


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

They look wonderful!!!!! You got some great growth this spawn!!


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## Thistle (Jun 4, 2006)

Thanks! It sure has been an adventure with my first successful spawn.

I still can't believe the colours on them considering sire was orange with some slight black on him and dam was pure white with irid blue/purple. Oh well, that's petstore fish for ya. lol

Once they're all in their new homes I'll be taking a few weeks break before I try to spawn my HM pair. This should give me time to catch up on some other stuff that's been neglected cause of all those water changes.


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

God they are sooo pretty ^^


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## Thistle (Jun 4, 2006)

It's been an absolute joy to watch these guys grow up. *beams with motherly pride*

I've raised kittens (even had to play midwife a few times during breach births) and baby budgies in my time but nothing compares to watching something grow from barely the size of the head of a pin to well over 1". Well, ok - there is my daughter but that's a whole 'nother story.


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