If you have bettas (Siamese fighting fish), you might one day be surprised to find babies in your tank. These baby bettas are called fry, and they hatch within four days of spawning. When they hatch, the babies will spend three or four days absorbing what remains of their yolk sac for nutrients.
During this stage, the babies probably won’t need much in the way of additional food. But to make sure, hard boil a chicken egg. Place a small piece of the yolk into a jar of water. Shake the jar hard until the yolk has broken up. Pour some of this water into your baby bettas’ tank. Keep your fry in a separate tank from adult bettas for ease of feeding.
Feeding at the free-swimming stage
When the fry have grown to the free-swimming stage, they are ready to eat small live foods. This can be in the form of infusoria. These are liquid foods for fry and are recommended for baby bettas.
Infusoria are very small, the ideal size for newly-hatched fry. They move, making them very attractive to the babies. You can raise your own infusoria from a culture. Otherwise, you can buy them online and in some pet stores. Use an eyedropper to pick up some of the infusoria and squeeze them into the tank above the baby betta fish.
Feeding at the brine shrimp nauplii stage
When the fry has eaten infusoria for a few days, they should be big enough for larger foods. A great, protein-rich source of nutrients is baby brine shrimps, also known as brine shrimp nauplii.
They’re easy for the fry to eat. You can buy these shrimp online or in some pet stores. To feed the shrimps to the fry, use an eyedropper to suck up as many shrimp as possible from their container. Then squeeze them directly into the baby bettas’ tank.
Feeding when older
When the fry are three or four weeks old, they will be big enough to eat other foods. These include frozen and freeze-dried foods, traditional betta pellets and live foods. Keep feeding shrimps to your fry, but now add some crushed bloodworms, microworms or Daphnia.
Purchase freeze-dried and frozen foods from a reputable source to prevent contamination by harmful bacteria and parasites. Traditional commercial betta pellets or granules can be crushed and fed to the fry to see if they will accept it.
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