OntarioBetta

Here you will find some useful articles regarding bettas and general fish keeping. If you would like to suggest a topic or submit an article juste-mail me.

Here I'll show you how to culture some of the more popular betta foods.

Microworms:
What you need:
-Small container, like a margarine container or anything else with a lid and without holes
-Culture medium, you can use bread, instant oatmeal, instant mash potatoes, baby cereal...
-Active dry yeast

Get your little container and add some of the medium. I prefer to use instant mash potatoes as they are easy and low on the smell. You don't need a lot, just enough to cover the bottom. This is because microworms stay on the surface. Then add your culture of microworms. Then sprinkle on some of the yeast, as much as you want really. You can also give the culture a little spray of water to dampen it up. Leave it in a coolish place for a couple days. After a few days you will see the tiny worms crawling up the sides of the container. You can then get a toothpick or whatever and scrape some off and swirl them around in the fry tank. Microworms will sit on the bottom of the tank and wiggle around for a few days. You will need to reculture every 2-3 weeks or so or else it will start to go bad and smell reeeeaaalllllyyy gross! To reculture just dump out like half the original and replace with fresh. Or you can place half the original into a new culture to start another one. Keeping 2 cultures going is a good idea since one may crash. If you notice the culture slowing down and it hasn't been 2-3weeks then just sprinkle on some new yeast.
 

Baby Brine Shrimp:
What you will need:
-A jar, I use a Mason Jar or pickle jar
-Brine shrimp eggs- found at most LFS
-Aquarium salt
-An airstone and air pump
-a brine shrimp net

There are a couple ways to harvest bbs. I'll tell you 2 of what I believe to be the easiest.
1. Pick up a San Francisco Bay Shrimpery , usually found at any LFS. All you really need is the box and cup, so don't keep buying the hatch mix stuff. Now, get your jar and fill it with water. Add the air stone, and brine shrimp eggs. You'll figure out how much to add as time goes one, but just keep in mind that not all will hatch! Let the eggs stay in the fresh water for about 20-30 minutes, this just lets them rehydrate. Then you add the aquarium salt. If you are using a mason jar then add about a tablespoon and a bit. The reason I use a mason jar is because it holds the same amount of water as the Shrimpery. If you can place the hatching jar in a warm place, like in a shallow heated tank or under a hot light, this will speed up the hatching. Brine shrimp take about 24 hours to hatch in 80degree temps. So if they are cooler they will take longer. So its a good idea to set up the hatchery in the morning so they will be ready by the next day.
Once 24hours rolls around you can turn off the airpump. The eggs floating on the surface are the ones that have hatched. If there arn't many or you can't see many brine shrimp then you can let it go for another hour. If you see eggs with little white things attached to them, thats the brineshrimp hatching. Anyways, pour the jar into the shrimpery, fill the little cup with fresh water and put it on. Put the shrimpery under a light and wait. In an hour or so you will see a bunch of shrimp swimming around- if you look closely. You can then feed these to the babies. As the day goes on, more and more shrimp will swim up into the cup and you can keep feeding the fry.
Once you empty the jar into the shrimpery, start the process over again so that you will have fresh shrimp for tomorrow!

Grindal Worms:

Here is a list of what you will need:

- cardboard box
- styrofoam
- tape
- heat pack (for winter)
- bags
- newspaper or styro peanuts

Pick a box that is big enough to fit the fish you are shipping, but small enough so there is no extra room. The styrofoam you can get from Home Depot (or esle where). It comes in sheets and is pink or blue and about 1" thick. Cut it to fit the box, so you will have 4 sides and a top and bottom. If its really cold out then you may want to add another layer. Next, put a layer of newspaper around the sides. Then bag your bettas. Add a small amount of water, and leave plenty of air. Tie the bag tight. Then put that bag upside down into another bag and tie it tight. This prevents any leaks. Wrap the bags in newspaper and place them in the box. Fill any holes with newspaper or styro peanuts. You dont want them moving around at all. Then tape the heat pack to the lid and close it all up. Tape the box to make sure it all stays together. Then you are ready to go to the post office.

*pics coming soon*

Egg eaters are the most annoying thing ever! You work so hard and get so excited when your pair spawn- only to have your hopes crash when the stupid male eats all the eggs. There are reasons why males eat the eggs. Mostly because they are unfertilized or have fungus. But then there are just the stupid ones who do it just because they feel like it.

There are 2 types, the ones that eat the eggs after putting them in the nest, and the ones that eat them right as they fall out of the female. The first type are the easiest to deal with. All you have to do is pull them out after they spawn. The second type is the pain. Fortunatly there is a way to stop them. Something I have done a few times with dumb males. It works, but you wont get as many fry and many eggs will not get fertilized. But at least you will get some.

Here is what to do:

Get a piece of airline tubing and a container. Wait until the pair is at least 20 min into spawning. If you disturb them right when they start then they will not continue, so its best to wait until they get into it more- that way they don't pay attention to you. Slowly sneak the airline tubing into the water, right under the nest. They will inspect the tube for a minute, so just keep it still and they will go back to spawning.  When the eggs start to fall, siphon them into the container. You have to let the male get some eggs though, or else he will think the female isn't releasing any and end spawning. Stop the siphon once you get the eggs and wait untill the next embrace. Make sure to hold it really still, as you don't want to draw any attention to it. Once they are embracing though you can move it where you want it. Once you have enough eggs, or your arm gets tired, just pull out the tube. 

Now you will need to take care of the eggs- its best to do this when you pull males after spawnig as well. I put all the eggs into a 2L pop bottle. An airstone is added to keep the water circulating. You can try adding anti-fungal meds but I find it doesn't really make a difference. Now you just need to watch and wait. You will need to remove and unfertilized and fungused eggs, these would have been eaten by the male. If you don't remove these eggs they can spread fungus to healthy eggs, thus destroying them. As soon as the fry start hatching turn off the airstone. If you are unsure what fungused eggs look like, see the pictures below. 

This meathod has worked for me a few times. But it has also failed. The main thing is timing. If you put the tube in too early it can disrupt them and they will stop. But other than that it is pretty simple.

	Unfertilized egg starting to fungus. Notice how its solid white.
	Healthy fertilized egg. You can see the small white spot, which is the body of the fry, and the clear shell around it.
	Unfertilized on the left and fertilized on the right. Notice how much larger the unfertilized egg is.
	See if you can see the unfertilized eggs. The rest of the eggs are very close to hatching and you can see the fry inside.

When you have many bettas it can be a lot of work to keep them in thier own tanks. So the easiest thing to do is to get a larger tank and divide it into different sections. Many petstores sell tank dividers, but they are usually expensive. So the cheap way to do it is to go to a craft store. Look for something called 'Plastic Canvas'. Its like a plastic mesh. There are 2 main ways of doing this. You can divide the whole tank into sections, or you can make little boxes.

Whole tank dividers:

Siliconed Whole tank dividers:
If you really want them to stay in place then the best way to do it is to use aquarium silicone. The only problem is if you want to take them down then you have to scrape all the silicone off, which is a pain. Simply cut the canvas to the width of the tanka dn make a line of silicone down the tank and stick the plastic canvas to it, hold for a few seconds.

Easy dividers:
If you are like me and you are always re-aranging tanks then you don't want to have dividers stuck to your tanks. So what I do is a leave the canvas longer than the width of the tank. That way you can bend it and it will hold its self in place. Its not as sturdy, so you have to be carefull not to bump into it. But it holds up well. For extra security you can place some suction cups on either side to help hold it in place (like in the picture above). The best part about this way is that you can remove the dividers easily to clean them, as algae and gunk can build up.

"Box" Dividers:

This is the best way to seperate mean little babies without having to jar them. This way you can keep them in their growout but they can't hurt anybody. The only downside is that it takes time to make. You will have to plan out how many sections you want and how big they should be, then cut all the pieces. Fishing line is the best to use to tie it all together. Make sure there are no gaps they can escape from. You can also make little windows to see into the boxes. Just find some thin plastic and cut to what ever size you would like. Then poke some holes and tie it on. Then cut 2 spaces on the tops of both ends and stick in some suction cups to hold it on to the glass. Easy right?