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Hi. My betta fry have difficulties in eating the microworms and sometimes the worms escapes.

The fry were able to swim horizontally yesterday. ( eggs were laid on 09.11). Temp is 29*C(84.2*F).


Is there any way to keep the worms off the bottom ( or make them a net so that they can stay there for some time) ?
Also is there any way i can grow/collect "minimicroworms"

Why are they not able to eat micro? Can I feed them some eggyolk until they can eat micro?

get your cooked egg yolk, mix it with water, pop it in a spray bottle and squirt it on the surface of the water. This should help it float for the longest time possible instead of just falling in a lump to the ground.

Hunt down some vinegar eels. They are marginally smaller than microworms and will swim at all levels of the aquarium for 12-24 hours.

I'm not sure why they weren't able to eat the microworms, perhaps some managed and some were just too small.

Do you have any brine shrimp to hatch for next week? If they are sourced from NZ then you could try starting those now as they are a few microns smaller


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

Try frozen decapsulated brineshrimp cysts, or a finely ground fry food. Most fine fry food still has a microscopic coating or is compressed during production, so if you beat the hell out of it, really grind it in to a flattened surface, you can make it small enough for just about any fry. My cichlid young are far smaller than any betta fry, you can barely see them with the naked eye when first hatched ,and they can eat that. Failing that, turn to aufwuchs, a selection of tiny algae and protozoa that usually reside in any mature fishtank on big gnarly bits of bogwood, and the root stems of woody mature plants. See if you can nab a bit of bogwood with java on it it, or a piece of mature and not especially clean moss from someone. Itll contain lots of microfoods for fry. It can often see them through for a week or so until they can take something bigger.It will of course have to come from someone with a disease free tank, but no ultraviolet system.

Thanks for the replies. I feed the fries eggyolk for 2 days, but now the fries are able to eat micro and have their belly full.

However.. I would like to share this image with you. It is such a hilarious pic. A must see for all .
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a138/dukydaf/pesti/Sep172007003copy.jpg

Gosh! look at those eyes!



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