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When my Bettas breed and the fry are free swimming, how long until i feed them brine shrimp? How old do the shrimp have to be? Any help would be nice. Thanks!

What came first? the chicken or the egg? No really.....

Hi,
When I was breeding Bettas, I would feed them "fry food"
until they could fit something larger in their mouths.
I found the trick was to carefully watch them feeding.
At first it is all they can do fit baby brine shrimp in
their mouths, then they can easily gulp them. When they
can eat easily eat the baby brine shrimp, then it is time
to switch to adults. I started mine with green water,
and then went to baby brine shrime, then to adult (frozen)
brine shrimp (break off a piece and put it in a glass
of tank water and allow the frozen chunk to thaw. Then
stir it up, and dump it in the tank)

Hope this helps...
Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

thanks, but how old do the baby shrimps have to be when fed to the bettas the first time?

What came first? the chicken or the egg? No really.....

Most of the baby brineshrimps will hatch after 24 hours. They are the best for newly hatched frys. Some frys could not fit 36 hour brineshrimps in their mouth. 48 hour baby brineshrimps have little to none nutrition value.

Baby Brine Shrimp ( aka napulii or artemia ) are a very healthy food for baby fish. Betta fry are too small to eat these, and like frank stated must be fed something first so they can grow. Green water is very good for them, and then they can be fed the bbs until they're older. Growth rate will depend on your specific conditions, but they should be on bbs within a week.

ok, thanks! i hope i acctually get to that point of breeding them!

What came first? the chicken or the egg? No really.....

There are a few varieties of brine shrimp, and if you can find them, get the NZ variety as they hatch to a smaller size.

Wait until the fish are free-swimming before you feed them anything.

If you can't do green water (and I'll freely admit that I'm useless at it) what you do is you get an egg and a water spray bottle, and you feed them egg yolk. There is a trick to this, you can't just lump in the yolk, it'll go bad and make the water smell.

boil the egg, toss the white, and get a pinch of the egg yolk (wrap the rest in plasic wrap and stick it in the fridge as you need to do this fresh at every feeding) and ix the pinch of egg yolk with some water. Put the water in the spray bottle, and spray 3-4 squirts on top of the water.
Its a small amount of yolk, it stays suspended for a decent amount of time in the water, and fry of all sizes can eat it.

3 days of that and you should have most of them onto brine shrimp.

Failing that, try vinegar eels, they are quite tiny too, and most babies can get those into their mouths at about 24 after freeswimming


PRACTICE hatching BBS before you need them, and have some frozen ones on hand if you can. Always have a backup food

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

i have some cut lettuce in a jar of aqairuim water. its supposed to be a breeding ground for the food they need when they are born

What came first? the chicken or the egg? No really.....