Raise betta Fry, The first egg layer I ever spawned was Betta splendens. I did this in a five gallon metal framed aquarium with no heater. Now those of you who know anything about how Betta fish love warm water for spawning are going to be a bit skeptical about this statement, but I kept the water warm by keeping the incandescent light in the metal hood lit continuously. I don’t know how those fish coped with no night time, but they did. Keeping the tank lit all the time had a side benefit. I wound up having a small culture of infusoria going in the tank, which provided a good source of food for the fry (the fry are raised in the same tank as they were spawned in). These days, I try to use a little more sophisticated methods to accomplish the same result. Raise betta fry The starting point for accomplishing this result is that I use floating water sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides) as the support material for the bubble nest. Dwarf Gouramis particularly appreciate this plant as a nest site. The water sprite usually comes from a well established aquarium and I can’t confirm it as a scientific fact, but there seems to be an association of micro-organisms with the water sprite. These days I use fluorescent lighting, but I make sure that I have good intensity so that the water sprite, as well as algae, gets a good start in the spawning tank. As the breeders are being conditioned in the same tank, there may be left over food. A very small amount will also help the in-tank culture, but too much can spoil the tank. If the tank is not greening up with algae, I might also use a little trick that I learned from raising fry. I might put a very small amount of egg infusion into the tank.
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