Fry Food

[Jung]

Inspired by the posts on daphnia culture. Compared to hatching BBS or culturing microworms, keeping a viable daphnia culture is frustatingly difficult. Yet people keep trying, or make daily trips to buy...makes you wonder why...

Discussion question:

What are the advantages/disdvantages of each of the following live fry foods?

1) Daphnia 2)BBS 3) Microworms

[Foo Hong]

Just a few aspects for further discussion.

The factors to consider for me are:-
1. Nutrition value - No matter how easy it is to culture/maintain it, its no use if the value of the food is low or prolong feeding leads to problems.
2. Ease of culture - this very much depends on yr location, set up, etc.[landed house vs, high rise apartment].

bbs is easy to hatch. but can be expensive - ok if used moderately. Newly hatched one are high in nutrition for fries...yolksac! They swim abt in water but doesnt last long. Longest I noted is about 8 to 10 hours. Fouls water if excessive deaths.

mw are just as simple to culture. Teh smell is one setback. Another is culture attract flies and when maggot appear in medium, its time to start a back up culture. Worms sink to bottom of tank. Can last up to 24 hours. Growth appears slower if fed mw than bbs in my case.

Daphnia can be tuff as well as easy to culture depending. a bit of luck does play. they live longest in water compared and are nutritious. Swims about the water. Once I was away for a week. Put 50 fries 2 weeks old in a 2 ft tank and flooded it with ample daphnias. came home to see fat bettas :) if they survive in tank before being eaten, daphnia reproduce and you get baby daphnias, which at 1 day old are slighter smaller than adult rotifers....bonus!

[Jung]

Hi FH,

Yup...agree... except I've never successfully cultured enough daphnia to feed my spawns (and buying daily is even more expensive than hatching BBS)

Any other potential problems? (Health hazards?)

[Foo Hong]

Well I dont use pig dung or chicken dung to culture daphnia so risk is lower. If you open up a bag of daphnia bot from LFS, you will notice the smell...yuccks. Having said these critters need something close to that to florish. I once saw a farm using clean green water from pond to culture daphnia but production rate is low. Then I found that subsequently the owner told his wife to throw in the water used to wash fish/meat/chicken/pork during dinner preparation. Boy the daphnias bloomed!

[Myron Tay]

Many of the forum members in Singapore use commercially available live daphnia to raise our fries. I have never used such to raise my fry and I am curious to know the fry mortality rate in spawns raised on such.

I am also interested to know of any others who use food for fries other than BBS, microworms and daphnia (or a combination of these). What is your fry mortality rate like?

[Lyon Goh]

I once tried feeding BBS for 1 month to my fry. They seem to be slow in growth. Only by the 1st month then they seem to be big enough to take worms.
Now I feed Daphnia throughout and I don't see any problems with it

[Myron Tay]

quote:Originally posted by Lyon Goh

I once tried feeding BBS for 1 month to my fry. They seem to be slow in growth. Only by the 1st month then they seem to be big enough to take worms.
Now I feed Daphnia throughout and I don't see any problems with it
Lyon

What is your fry mortality rate?

[Myron Tay]

Some of my 3 1/2 fry are taking decapsulated brine shrimp. Yippee! Considering doing away with hatching baby brine shrimp for this batch from now on. Think about this: No more brine shrimp eggs to remove!

[Junaidi]

any pics or links bout this decapsulated bs?
where n how much?
thanx in advance

[Myron Tay]

quote:Originally posted by Junaidi

any pics or links bout this decapsulated bs?
where n how much?
thanx in advance
Junaidi

Got mine at Aquarama. Not sure where else has them. Derrick, you still have the contact? Can sell this at the next BCS gathering in Feb?

Here's more information on decapsulated artemia:

http://www.artemia-international.com/artemia_cysts.html

[Myron Tay]

quote:Originally posted by HoSiewThean

Guys...i need ur help here...Hm..if i feeding my betta fry with BBS only,what will it happen?I mean feeding them until it bigger,is that they will late growing up?Or is that have other problem will happen with them?
Siew Thean

I believe this thread provides some answers. I have not fed my fries solely on BBS before, but I do notice that excessive feeding of BBS would lead to fries lying at the top of the tank, with difficulty controlling their swimming. The problem resolves itself as soon as the food is digested, but not sure of the long-term implications of feeding fry only BBS. Anyone has tried this can share their experience?

[David Esguerra]

Guess that no one uses the older methods of egg yolk and infusoria here. DOne at the proper amounts, this could also give fast growing fry.

My experience with BBS only diets (for maybe about a month) would lead to either top or bottom dwelling fry. SOme other breeders from the US say that they increase the chances of having swim bladder disease though I attribute this a bit more with most of their lines being heavily inbred.

[vinceyeo]

David does using egg yolk cloud the water alot? i am thinking of using egg yolk but worry about the water quality dropping drastically...

[Myron Tay]

I feed my fries on a balanced diet of initially microworms and BBS, then switching to Momizi Tropical Dried Foods, Bettamin, decapsulated artemia, Cyclop-eeze and Daphnia jelly.

[David Esguerra]

Vince, sorry for the late reply, anyway, egg yolk would cloud the water as its so easy to over feed. I pass egg yolk through silk screen (finer than any other fish net on the market) and basically feed them "egg yolk soup" rather than egg yolk. I also feed this in at least one galon containers (tried it for smaller, unfortunately the fry died from overfeeding). I also use this as a combo with infusoria, anything that the fry won't eat would inevitably be eaten by the infusoria preserving the water quality. You could also try that liqui-fry stuff, I have heard very good reviews of it though I have not used it personally.

[Sebas]

Liquifry:

Well, I dont usually use that. I dont see significant growth when using that on Bettas.

[Lyon Goh]

quote:Originally posted by Myron Tay

quote:Originally posted by Lyon Goh

I once tried feeding BBS for 1 month to my fry. They seem to be slow in growth. Only by the 1st month then they seem to be big enough to take worms.
Now I feed Daphnia throughout and I don't see any problems with it
Lyon

What is your fry mortality rate?


opps, didn't see this
Well, actually mortality rate not sure cuz I leave the dad with them

[Alex Lim]

quote:Originally posted by Sebas

Liquifry:

Well, I dont usually use that. I dont see significant growth when using that on Bettas.


I've used it.. clouds water.. and the supposed effect of creating more infusoria is suspected. and i agree with Sebas, not only is there no sig. growth at all, the fries don't even bother to take a look at it. to be fair to the company, perhaps it also depends on which Liquidfry we are using. i'm using No.2

[vinceyeo]

eh alex i tot no.2 is for livebearers? for me i use no.1 but hard to see the effects as well tho. i still put it in hoping they will either simulate infusoria or get eaten by really hungry fries...

[Alex Lim]

yah, but my sole purpose was to stimulate infusoria growth (which unfortunately was a total failure). the food for fry thought never came to my mind (partially) because i was advised by Myron that newborn fries only go after live food. which turns out to be the case. my conclusion: i've temporarily given up on it for direct fry food but still retain it just in case i make another attempt to experiment with infusoria again. [be]

[Myron Tay]

Another great source of live food for betta fries - saltwater rotifers - on the following thread: http://www.bettaclub.org.sg/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2201

[Kevin Carver]

It seems difficult to culture daphnia from what I've been reading and what I've seen by friends. I'd like to know how effective using egg yolk soup is because I've heard of using egg yolk before but it clouded the water. Also, I was using BBS and found that by not washing off the BBS first, I was raising the salt levels in the tank so high that it killed the babies. How feasible is it to just fill the tank with plants to encourage infusoria growth? And by what Myron Tay says, babies only eat live food - so how would egg yolk work for them?

[Myron Tay]

quote:Originally posted by kcarver

How feasible is it to just fill the tank with plants to encourage infusoria growth? And by what Myron Tay says, babies only eat live food - so how would egg yolk work for them?
For infusoria, you should add in some plants to the breeding tank to help to culture these, but I would not be dependent on them as the only source of food for your newly hatched fries. As for egg yolk, I have never used it so I can't really comment.

[Alex Lim]

Hi,

i've stopped attempting to culture infusoria. the reason being i reply mainly on daphnias & partially on MWs. but prior to any spawning now, i usually put in aquatic plants (those which helps to produce infusoria) prior to any spawning attempt. blast them with light for up to 3 days before i add in my male for familiarisation. equation is strong light + aquatic plants = infusoria

by the time, the spawning process has ended usually 4-5 days after spawning tank setup, you can see lots of infusoria swimming about in the tank & usually i keep the light on(to encourage further infusoria growth) for a further few days till free swimming stage afterwhich i'll feed with MWs (for 2 days) before switching to daphnia exclusively. this pertains mainly to my indoor experience and so far, there is high survival rate. please also note that the infusoria are not en masse as compared to pure infus culture but they are enough for first 48 hours, afterwhich they will be relegated to snacks bec of MWs & daphnia.

[Shannon]

Hi, I have tried all 3 foods.I like the microworms and the bbs,The daphina was a new culture and could not get it going. I raised 2 spawns on liquid fry, bbs and hikiri first bites which I like alot very fine powder slow sinker.Didn't seem to have any water problems I.E. dirty cloudy...

[Shan Yew]

Hi,

For those who use dry food such as Hikari First Bite and Argent Cyclop-Eeze, at what age do you start feeding them?

[Myron Tay]

Shan Yew

I typically try as soon as about half of them reach the size for which they are big enough to take the food. However, I would feed very small amounts initially and increase the feedings gradually, depending on the fries' ability to finish up the food. This is to prevent the build-up of uneaten food in the grow-out tank.

[tuckfai]

hi there, is the liquidfry for marine suitable for fries??? saw them for sell and tought maybe i can use it as fry food. any idea?
thx!

[Myron Tay]

Tuck Fai

Freshwater liquidfry did not work for most of us. It did not work for me when I used it a long time ago in my first few attempts at raising betta fry i.e. I lost the whole spawn. However, I must admit that I did not try marine liquidfry, though I am quite certain it would have the same outcome. Anyone has experience with marine liquidfry.

[Myron Tay]

quote:Originally posted by Jodi Lea

The newest food source available to me at the moment is Daphnia. Friend gave me a starter culture and I have been growing it in a bathtub in the yard. BEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD!!! Such a fantastic food. I am a mad woman in the mornings, trying to get ready for work etc. It's great to be able to harvest some daphnia and just pour it into the tanks. The bigger fry eat the bigger daphnia, the smaller fry take the bubs. Daphnia lasts for days, and the fry dine while I'm out earning their keep!! : ) I feed bbs in the evening. Since using daphnia for one of the feeds (oh ok - sometimes more than one if I'm busy and haven't set up the bbs!) I have virtually no sliders!! I used to lose whole spawns with the SBD prob before. I'm not doing any more water changes, or siphoning the muck from the bottom, so guess the live food is helping to cut down the waste too.
All I hope is the daphnia culture survives our 45oC + summer days...... (such a joy!)
Once the fry can take frozen blood worms I start adding that to the diet. I have lost some with choking, so initially I scrape a razor blade or sharp knife down the side of a frozen block to get bite sized bits.
I have also been in such a hurry that the only thing I had time to throw into the tanks of 4-5 week old fry were small bits of algae wafers. They hold their shape well and the fry had full bellies when I got home, so guess they picked at it all day.
Cheers, J

[Sue Ridout]

Jodi Lea gave me a starter culture of daphnia which I divided into two cultures and so far both are still going strong. I hope to have enough to start feeding them to my fry soon.

Jodi, where did you get the algae wafers from in Australia? Has anyone else tried algae wafers for their fry?

[Jodi Lea]

Most pet stores carry them. They are sold as spirulina wafers for catfish and bottom feeders (not lawyers!)
I feed my daphnia culture yeast.
Cheers, J

[Myron Tay]

quote:Originally posted by Myron Tay

quote:Originally posted by HoSiewThean

Guys...i need ur help here...Hm..if i feeding my betta fry with BBS only,what will it happen?I mean feeding them until it bigger,is that they will late growing up?Or is that have other problem will happen with them?
Siew Thean

I believe this thread provides some answers. I have not fed my fries solely on BBS before, but I do notice that excessive feeding of BBS would lead to fries lying at the top of the tank, with difficulty controlling their swimming. The problem resolves itself as soon as the food is digested, but not sure of the long-term implications of feeding fry only BBS. Anyone has tried this can share their experience?
quote:Originally posted by vinceyeo

i assume you know that once your fries are big enough to eat tubiflex you should switch and use tubi instead rite? estimated is around 4 weeks old in order to use tubi. or just try by putting a bit of tubi and see if the fries are able to eat them. tubi makes fries grow up fastest.
quote:Originally posted by David Esguerra

Hmm.. To my knowledge, feeding too much artemia would give you bottom dwelling fry (that's just by experience) other breeders would say that it increases the chances of swim bladder disease (but I haven't experienced that yet). I tend to steer away from artemia, though I still do give maybe 1-2 days artemia diet.

As for the tubifex, I don't know if your tubifex worms are high quality there but tubifex worms have been known to increase the chances of the fish having dropsy (at least in my area and in the US) However, you could be mixing tubifex and bloodworms, to the untrained eye, they would look almost the same (except that the tubifex usually comes in longer bundles live).
quote:Originally posted by vinceyeo

david you might wanna try this method out. use methylene blue to soak your tubiflex for 5-10 mins then rinse them clean with tap water before you feed them to the bettas. so far my bettas have no problem with dropsy or any disease since i started using this method. also keep the tubiflex fresh by using aged water to hold them as well as using a airstone to keep them aerated.

oh yea forgot to add that i usually change my tubiflex water once a day. ofcourse if you use a big pail to hold your tubiflex then you can change your water less often. personally i only buy 50cts worth of tubiflex and put them in a small plastic container so i change water once a day and after about 1 week or max 10 days i will clear any leftover tubiflex and buy new fresh ones.
quote:Originally posted by David Esguerra

Thanks for the advice vince, I don't use tubifex too much though so I don't have the problems. Actually its not more of the quality of the tubifex worms themselves that hurts the fish or causes dropsy, I think its more of the improper practice of some fish keepers of feeding fish monotonous diets. Tubifex have been known to be a very good protein source and to any beginner, they may have thoughts of "wow, high protein, I'm gonna feed my bettas this as they need a lot of protein being carnivores" so they feed tubifex and tubifex alone. Tell them that bettas need something other than protein/meat and they'll tell you that your no betta keeper. At any rate, so long as its not monotonous, I see no problems with tubifex and actually use them on my bettas from time to time (I feed them to my turtles, if there are any left sticking to my fingers, the bettas get it)

[Myron Tay]

I read that tubifex worms can find their way out of fries through various openings (including gills) after they have been ingested. Heard that it is quite serious if they come out through the gills. Is there any truth to this and if so, any remedies / precautions to take?

[Eugene]

Hi Jodi,

Can you share on culturing daphnia?

Cheerio!
Euge

[teiklim]

i usualy buy rm1 daphnia and put it in the 2 feet tank feed 50 fry for 4 day.i have to change water after a month they grow very fast about 1.5 cm a month .normaly dapnia just wash up all frys shit so the water no get dirty seriously.

[Dita]

hi...anyone tried feeding fry with baby plankton??

[Myron Tay]

quote:Originally posted by Dita

hi...anyone tried feeding fry with baby plankton??
Is the plankton wriggling and small enough to fit into their mouths? If so, they should take them with no problems. If it is too big, expect to have low survival rates as not all fries can cope with the bigger size. If the plankton is not wriggling, forget it.

[Dita]

its in powder form. the shop ppl reccommend it. hmmm....and its not wriggling..........
ok forget it

[Dita]

its in powder form. the shop ppl reccommend it. hmmm....and its not wriggling..........
ok forget it

[Myron Tay]

quote:Originally posted by Dita

Hi, my baby fry are about 40 days old now and im wondering if i can start feeding them crushed flakes?

currently feeling bbs twice a day
i tried feeding flakes this morning but they seem confused [cnf] (cos my bbs r not ready for feeding yet)
they only seem abit more interested in the falling flakes
some eat it but spit it out again~

http://www.bettaclub.org.sg/forum/uploaded/dita/20056112500_bb.jpgquote:Originally posted by Alex Lim

Hi Dita,

yes you can. they are fully supplemented with vitamins and sterilised. but unfortunately, there's the downside that comes with flakes. they pollute water real easily and fries do not react to them kindly, hence the spitting. it's recommended that live food be fed throughout, though fries can be trained to take flakes and powdered food. it'll take a little time.

to transit from bbs to flake, try starving the fellas for a while before attempting flakes, then they would probably try it out out of hunger. just beware of the accompanying pollutin that flakes cause.

hope this helps.

cheerZ,
alex
Fries do not take flakes in my experience.

[Alex Lim]

as a matter of fact, the thais supplement their fellas with pellets, a form of dried food. flakes do not fare well with most betta breeders.

[Myron Tay]

My fries do take freeze-dried Cyclop-eeze and (when they are bigger) Momizi Tropical for Small Fish.

[Myron Tay]

Sharing from **** Koon from Arofanatics thread:http://www.arofanatics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=186827

Guys,

All these while I have been advocating very strongly on the use of daphnia as the most preferred fry food.

Why Daphnia?
Pros
- natural freshwater food
- survive longer in the fry tank (being a freshwater creature)
- good protein source
- promotes digestive enzymes in fry

Cons
- supply inconsistent
- troublesome sourcing (esp have to travel far to get one)
- may come with nasty parasites (velvet, whitespots)

However, hand itchy and reintroduce bbs diet in some of my recent spawns. Ok, ok, part of the reason was also because I was lazy going to LFS to buy daphnia.

So how's the results? I am indeed surprised!

Why BBS compared to Daphnia?
Pros
- one of the most significant results - higher growth rate (must be HUFA)
- better palatability (maybe becoz it's a bit salty, that's why )
- better control of supply (u hatch as much as u want)
- the bbs brings out the irid color faster than daphnia (again maybe HUFA)
- free of parasites
- comparatively cheaper

Cons
- cannot survive long in the fry tank (have to feed the right amount)
- hatching troublesome (to some but for me it's just a 5min routine everyday)
- egg shells

This comparison was based on my observation. Nothing scientific about it. So if you are as lazy as me, bbs might worth a 2nd look.

[claire pavia]

The following foods work well for me:

Vinegar eels.
I put some in the tank even before the fry are free-swimming, and continue feeding them until the fry are 3-4 weeks old.

BBS.
Starting 2-3 days after the fry are free-swimming, and continue feeding them until the fry are 2 months old.

Powder/small size granulated food.
As soon as the fry accept it, at about 4 weeks old.

So my fry always eat BBS, but never BBS alone.

I prefer Vinegar eels because they swim and do not stay on the bottom of the tank like Microworms. And they are so easy to culture.

[Dita]

do your fish love frozen daphnia?? and how often do u feed frozen daphnia?

mine seems excited about it but doesnt really seems to enjoy eating it
they love flakes....i dont know why

[jessiezee]

quote:Originally posted by Dita

do your fish love frozen daphnia?? and how often do u feed frozen daphnia?

mine seems excited about it but doesnt really seems to enjoy eating it
they love flakes....i dont know why


:) they are not picky babies then . Mine is the exact opposite eat the worms and spit out the flakes ... worried about their state of nutrition

[Dita]

quote:Originally posted by jessiezee

quote:Originally posted by Dita

do your fish love frozen daphnia?? and how often do u feed frozen daphnia?

mine seems excited about it but doesnt really seems to enjoy eating it
they love flakes....i dont know why


:) they are not picky babies then . Mine is the exact opposite eat the worms and spit out the flakes ... worried about their state of nutrition


oops i mean the adult fish love the flakes...its wierd
but no.1 fav food for them is brine shrimp;)

my baby doesnt eat anything but bbs...maybe too young now or simply SPOILT![ag]

[jessiezee]

how old are the fries now? mine just reached the second month birthday .... [cannot think of them as babies already ><] Maybe their month still too small mine started eating worms at 1 month 2 week. else all they know to eat is just bbs too.

[Dita]

mine is about 1 month 1 week +
showing abit of colors *excited
im too lazy to find worms for them so bbs everyday :P

think the largest one is about 1cm+ and the smallest one is much much smaller
im thinking maybe the females r smaller........

[Alex Lim]

Dita, your name reminds me of the fabulous goalkeeper currently under the wings of AC Milan... :D

anyway, to get back to the topic at hand, at 5 weeks' old, bbs/daphnia diet is your safest bet. if not, you can try chopped tubis. many hobbyists have tried at this age and swear upon its success. it's a matter of personal prefernce. i dislike having direct contact with the slimmy bugs, though. the downside to this feeding method is that you have to be meticulous about feeding amount, too much of chopped tubis will render your water turning cloudy in shorter time. also, you have to really chop them into fine pieces which can be quite a chore. if not, be caution of the possibily of death through choking as i've experienced, probably due to my inexperience.

i suggest you make a slow transition from bbs to tubis. i.e feed bbs concurrently with tubis and switching to the latter ONLY when you are sure the fries accept tubis totally. some fries take some time to realise it's food and they'll rather starve then eat the worms. remember the chopped worms decompose rapidly.. in addition, it may be necessary to starve the fries a while so that you can hasten their learning curve on tubi-eating. at about 6-7 weeks , depending on size, all will accept tubis readily.

just to share

cheerZ

[Dita]

lol...u mean Dida?

thanks, is good to know more options for food incase the other runs out
im very green at this as its my first spawn :) pretty excited too. i'll try chopping tubis next!

i have a container that i use to seperate the female away from the male, and its been a month now (im have not wash it yet haha there's still poo & plant inside) i notice small tiny round thing swimming around...it looks like daphnia but dont know if it is. Swims pretty fast. Still nto sure what is that tho i siphon afew out into the fry tank to feed the fry. saw fry chasing it but still cldnt catch up with it. [be][33]

[Dita]

i fed chopped tubis for the first time today, they love it. They had RED tummy instead of orange from bbs~
but the process of preparing the tubis...kinda gross. I used sissors to cut them up. The larger ones take them up easily but not the smaller fry. The only down thing is the abit of mess to clean up from uneaten/decomposing/dying tubis at the bottom :P

[mervin_kei]

What can you guys say about powdered food like Sera Micron? Anyone tried this with their betta fry?

[Dita]

nope...but i think if its "not wriggling, forget it"...lol

quote from myron :P

from the website it sayd can be fed to brine shrimps!...maybe can grow bs with it?
http://www.tropical-fish-care.info/1942007200/Sera_Micron_Powered_Food_for_Fry____60_oz.html

[Alex Lim]

hey Dida, i mean... Dita :D sorry for late response. been overwhelmed with work recently to reply.. glad to know that your experiment has been successfully. yes, the TBs decomposed rapidly especially in S'pore! [bh] that's why it's good to feed the fellas when they are hungry. then they devour so fast nothing gets left behind. with experience, i'm sure you'll find the balance between leftovers and hangovers.

cheerZ

[Myron Tay]

quote:Originally posted by Vanice Yap

Which one of these will you feed your fry?
Do you notice that if they were fed with daphnia they will have really nice red pigment.
I'm new at cultivating microworm but successful.
I hadn't had a batch of bettas which are fed only with microworm, I wonder what are the adventages of them other then similar with daphnia being live and wriggling and nutricous.
Do microworm contribute to pigment colours?
Some useful information on this thread...

[Myron Tay]

quote:Originally posted by zong sheng

How many weeks muz i feed my fries with liquidfry #1 arhz?? Y my male dun seem to be building the bubblenest?? The male keepin flaring at the female onli lehz...
Ditch liquidfry and use the other fry foods mentioned on this thread. Don't quite understand what you are asking in your subsequent questions. They seem to belong to a different thread?

[Zi Chuan]

Heard there's a type of dried food for betta fries... think it's by Artisan and heard the fries do like it...

anyone here tried before?

[Myron Tay]

quote:Originally posted by Zi Chuan

Heard there's a type of dried food for betta fries... think it's by Artisan and heard the fries do like it...

anyone here tried before?
Believe you are talking about the fry food from Ocean Nutrition Betta products endorsed by Atison: http://www.oceannutrition.com/products/atison/index.html

My fries do not take the aforementioned dried food, but I have to state that my fry were sick and there was a lot of empty brine shrimp egg shells around my fry tank.

[dries]

Hi Myron,
I can assure you that the Betta fry do take the Atison's Betta Starter food very well, it has been tested extensively at Atison's farm. We have never encountered cases of refusal. But it is important to note that the food is intended as staple food for the fry during the first month, so no need to give any other food during that period. If you mix with brine shrimp, I am not sure of the result as this has not been tested. But as the nutritional value of the starter food is better than that of brine shrimp, there is no reason to mix.

[Myron Tay]

quote:Originally posted by dries

Hi Myron,
I can assure you that the Betta fry do take the Atison's Betta Starter food very well, it has been tested extensively at Atison's farm. We have never encountered cases of refusal. But it is important to note that the food is intended as staple food for the fry during the first month, so no need to give any other food during that period. If you mix with brine shrimp, I am not sure of the result as this has not been tested. But as the nutritional value of the starter food is better than that of brine shrimp, there is no reason to mix.
Hi Dries

Thanks for the information. Just like to know if all the fries take the food or only some of them i.e. those fries that do not get any other food would just serve as food for its siblings.

[dries]

Hello Myron, thanks for your interest.
Our experience is that with the Betta Starter the food distributes itself extremely well over the whole tank: first it will spread out evenly over the whole surface and than start to sink very slowly so that the food will be present in the whole water column. This is something you can not get with live food of course, live food will swim wherever it likes, by definition I should say. This makes that with the Starter, the fry will get a more equal chance to get to the food, which results in more consistent and homogeneous growth, which in turn prevents cannibalism. If the food is within striking distance of the fry, they will take it for sure. This is one of the reasons why the survival rate will be higher than with live food.
Hope this answers the question.

[Myron Tay]

Thanks again, Dries.

[Myron Tay]

quote:Originally posted by Samuel Lim

I have a pool of newly hatched fry, borned last wednesday (12/10/2005). I would like to ask if those small red-green fish food bought from local aquarium shop could be fed to my fries? Understand that brine shrimp is the best choice for them, but is there any alternatives?

Thank you[cnf]
quote:Originally posted by Martin

Hi Samuel

I am using the TETRA MIN baby dried powder food to feed the fries . The result is not as good as BBS .I dont think the small red-green balls pellets can be used as their protein contain is too low and too big to be consumed by fries .Alternatively , you may try the boiled egg york to feed the fries .
quote:Originally posted by leong chang yuan

ya..daphnia is another alternative..

[Alvin Lim]

Hi,

Any info about where to get this Atison Betta Starter in Singapore.
Willing to try it out on my spawns. Hope to stop slaving on harvesting BBS and shopping for live daphnia. [33]

[imported_n/a]

my fries have been eating tubifex worms since they were 3 weeks old. they're not so picky. they eat almost everything i give them, for example daphnias, flakes, tubifex worms, bbs, liquidfry and sometimes even blood worms. i feed my fries constantly and they grow really fast. the size of my fries are larger than the ones at the fish shop(the shop aunty's spawn). they're one week younger den the aunty's one.

[Myron Tay]

quote:Originally posted by Benjamin Cze

Have you tried feeding fries with Atison Betta Starter?Hi Benjamin

I have. I had posted my experience in an earlier post on this thread.

[Benjamin Cze]

Great! TY!

[Liang Heng]

Atison Betta Starter is available at petmart At Serangoon North Ave 2 Blk 151. [bolt]

[Usaid Umar]

Hi bros, jz wondering if there's a way to make ur live daphnia last longer?find it a hassle to buy them everyday:(

[Myron Tay]

Hi Usaid

Some ideas may be found on this thread on culturing daphnia: http://www.bettaclub.org.sg/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=552

[lianho]

blood worm to frys??

i fed my 4weeks frys FBW, and several choked!! they died with 1/4 worm still outside the mouth!!!!!

:(

[Myron Tay]

quote:Originally posted by lianho

blood worm to frys??

i fed my 4weeks frys FBW, and several choked!! they died with 1/4 worm still outside the mouth!!!!!

:(
Happened to me too when I did that. You could try frozen brine shrimp for fries.

[leong chang yuan]

quote:Originally posted by lianho

blood worm to frys??

i fed my 4weeks frys FBW, and several choked!! they died with 1/4 worm still outside the mouth!!!!!

:(

maybe u can try live tubi.its much smaller in size compared to FBW

[Usaid Umar]

thanks for the suggestions bros..bt i find that tubifex worm abit too big for my 1 week old fries to eat yet..scared they might choked to death..haha..

[Brian]

I heard that egg yolk can also be fed to fry. Anybody here tried it ? what do you think of this ?

[Myron Tay]

quote:Originally posted by Brian

I heard that egg yolk can also be fed to fry. Anybody here tried it ? what do you think of this ?
Yup. We have a thread on this here: http://www.bettaclub.org.sg/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1577

[alvik alda]

this may sound wierd. i had good survival rate using beef heart on my 3 week old fry.ive done this on several batches now and and works perfectly for me. wat i do is i trow in the meat in a food processor, during feeding i pass it through a strainer and believe it or not the babies love it and i never had problem with polluting the tank cause every bit of it is consumed by hungry fry. anybody ever tried this or am i the only one crazy enough to try this?

[simliangyi]

haha.. for me.. last time when i breed i fed them with liquifry for till about day 5 or 6 then switch to boon till around 3 to 4 weeks then can try feeding them tubi.. after feeding tubi.. the growth is very fast and sig..

[Ong Ginyew]

quote:Originally posted by alvik alda

this may sound wierd. i had good survival rate using beef heart on my 3 week old fry.ive done this on several batches now and and works perfectly for me. wat i do is i trow in the meat in a food processor, during feeding i pass it through a strainer and believe it or not the babies love it and i never had problem with polluting the tank cause every bit of it is consumed by hungry fry. anybody ever tried this or am i the only one crazy enough to try this?


how small is it after grinding? havant heard that one before:D