Big female and beta babies

[GuppyBabe]

I have a really big female beta, shes about the size of some of my males and shes bigger than 2 of them. I'm just not sure that she's a female at all, she may just be a male with a short tail or something.
next thing whenever I have baby fish the aggs hatch and all, but i have are hard time getting air into the tank and sometimes they die because they don't have enough air I keep them in a 10 gallon tank. I'm afraid to put the filter thingy in with them because they willl get sucked up and die that way. And anything blowing bubbles stuns them and it scares the monkeys outa me. so is there a way to give them air without them getting killed.

 

[Emg]

Use a sponge filter. The bubbles they put out should not be too much for them. I suspect your problem with them may be that you need to make sure the top of the tank is well covered so that cooler air cannot get in. I used plastic wrap and just made a hole I could stick an airline tube through...and I used that airline tube to syphon out the tank for cleanings....and also syphon heated clean water back in. I would also feed them the brine shrimp through that as well...again, using airline tubing.

Betta fry are VERY sensitive to cold air....they go to the surface for air and if the it's cold it shocks them. It needs to be warm and humid.

Also, it is possible that you have a short fin male or plackett betta. Take a look at the ventral fins....the fins that hang down in front just below the gills. If they are long it's probably a male....if they are shorter it could be female. Female bettas also have a different sort of profile than males...when you get to know bettas pretty well you can tell male from female just by thier profile...also, if you see an ovipositor..definitely female.

Put your betta next to a male for awhile. If it's female it should start plumping up and the ovipositor should start protruding.

 

[GuppyBabe]

A spongy filter hmmm that sounds like it would work. I saw your fish tank page and u have some gorgous fish tanks. I would love to have that many fish tanks, but I'm only 14 and can't buy that many. u have some very pretty fish to.

 

[Emg]

Thank you Guppy !

My daughter will be 14 this month. She has a 10 in her room and a 20tall as well for her green and black auratus dart frog. She's not as interested in the fish as I am though.....

How many tanks do you have....and what size ? You did good to get some betta fry Guppy ! Try that sponge filter and covering the tank......having live plants in the water help...because they bring infusoria into the tank for the little fry to eat. If you can get a good bunch of java moss, that may help too. Keep the water temp at no less than 80 and you actually can go up to 85 and be just fine with betta.

When you do a water change, syphon the change water in slowly and make sure it is heated to the same temp as the tank water.

Good luck with your next batch of bettas !

If you look in the archives on my blog page linked to in my signiture....I have a pic of a batch of betta fry that I raised a few years ago. I havn't tackled another batch of those since...lol...too much work ! I think it's in the month of August if you look in the right column "Archives" section....

 

[GuppyBabe]

I have 3 tanks, two 10 gallon tanks and a tall 20. Im not using the 10 gallon tanks right now, but the 20 has fish that I caught from a lake along with some rosy barbs, corys and Gouramis, they all get along just fine. I used to breed Guppies and I was amazed at the different colors and fins that I got in the males. My males were just gorgouse (I can't spell) and i'm not just saying that because they were mine. I had some that I had never seen in fish stores. Then I realized I could get money for them so I sold them because I couldn't handle how fast they breed and all the babies they had, and it was just to easy to breed them and I wanted something that was more of a challenge. Thanks for the spongy filter info