Bettas Spawned In My Community Aquarium

You could get a good sized bowl and "scoop" the eggs, bubblenest AND dad all in one careful swipe. I did that once and it worked quite well. I kept dad in the bowl with the eggs until they hatched. It was easier for him to keep the eggs in the nest....he didn't have to travel so far to scoop them up when they fall out. You just have to change out the water EVERY DAY while he's in there. You don't need to feed dad while he's careing for the eggs...he may not eat anyway and the food would only foul up the water. It takes about 2-3 days for the eggs to hatch depending on the water temp. The dads are usually safe with the fry until they begin to "free swim"...then they may become a snack for dad....it would be a good idea to remove him as soon as you notice one fry swimming horizontally.

You could leave the bowl floating right in the tank and also another bowl with clean fresh water in it. Use the water from the fresh bowl as changewater so that you know it's EXACTY the same temp as what you remove from the bowl with dad and the eggs. Just be sure the bowl can't float over underneath the filter outlet if you have a HOB....where it'll get swamped.

Set up a fry tank with a sponge filter too...so you have someplace to put them as soon as possible. Seed a sponge filter in a running cycled tank. The fry may do ok in a large bowl until the sponge is seeded....IF you are good about changing out the water every day...maybe even twice a day..couldn't hurt......AND you have some way to keep the water temp up in the lower 80s. Put some gravel from a cycled tank in a nylon bag and place it in the tank with the fry...that too is helpful in starting up a cycle as well.

Just some quick tips.....wrote this quickly...so details are a bit sparse. Hope it goes well with the eggs......keep in mind you'll have to seperate out the males at about 3 months of age...THAT's THe fun part !!!

Check the betta spawning article MQP started a while ago. It addresses a lot of general concerns regarding the successful rearing of betta fry, including what to feed them. If I recall correctly, the fry will need really itty bitty tiny food, and I don't think powdered fish flakes will cut it. But this is all from memory, so you'd be better off reading the thread to be sure.