The following weeks that follow after your fry begin "free swimming" will be very critical for them. They are very small and require an abundance of small foods.
There is a fry in this red circle. Look at how foods. We recommend feeding the fry 2-3 times a day. I usually feed mine once in the morning and just before i go to bed. Make sure you don't overfeed the fry and pollute the water. At the age the fry are it would be difficult to stick a tube in the tank and suck out all the uneaten food. So just don't overfeed them and you won't have a problem. If you have time it is probably best to feed the fry a little bit at a time. Wait until all the food has been eaten then give them a little bit more. When the fry appear to have round little bellies stop feeding them. During the time of the fry's life when they are feeding on small organisms, they are also developing their labrinth organ in their head. While they are developing this organ the fry are extremely sensitive to cool drafts passing over the surface of the aquarium. This is why you will need a tight-fitting aquarium cover for your tank. If the fry's labrinth organ is damaged it will cause the fry to DIE! It is also now ok to turn the light off every night so the fry can get their rest. You need to watch out for diseases like ich, velvet, and finrot that may plague you fry. If some disease where to pop up you should use some of the medications you spent all your money on to cure the disease. It is common to have a couple dead fry in the tank per day. It is just natures cycle of taking away the weak and deformed fry. After the fry age and become 2 weeks old the cover can start to be removed an inch at a time every few days. It is not recommended that you move the fry at this critical stage. But, if they must be moved; here is the best way to go about moving them. You will need to drain the water out leaving an inch or 2 of water in the tank with the fry in it. Now, gently pour the water into the larger tank. Then, get some water the same temperature as the tank water (if it isn't the same temp. the water temperature fluntuation may kill the fry) and pour it in the large tank you just put your fry in untill you get your desired deepthness of water. As the fry become 1 month old it is time to cull them if you would like. If you have limited space and don't have enough room to keep and raise all the fry to adulthood, then it is recommended you cull the weak, small, and deformeded fry. This can be done in many ways. If you have an aquarium tank you can put them in there for the big fish to eat. Or you could have a glass of COLD water and suck up the culls through a tube to the COLD water. Both of these methods are believed to be painless to the fry. Also at about a month you should move the fry to a larger tank(around 40 gallons). The males may begin fighting. It is now nessasary to separate each male that is fighting into his own separate container. You will usually need a lot of jars for this task. All the females can be left in the tank together.At around 1 1/2 months you can start weening the fry onto different foods such as bloodworms or flake foods. At about 2-3 months old the fry can be shipped to other buyers.
Here is a picture of the many females in a spawn courtesy of Liz's bettas. She has great site for photos, so if you want to see a picture of something you've read about , she'll probably have it. Her site is at www.planet-hawaii.com/liz/betta.
