My last Betta fry died today. I feel like a bit of a failure. It was somewhat of an experiment anyway, but part of me feels like hundreds of little lives shouldn’t be an “experiment.???

They hatched on 07 November, so they were four weeks old, and I lost them little by little. I did 20-40% water changes daily for three weeks, and then 30% every other day this week. I think I didn’t offer enough food; I had quite an infusoria culture going, but I weaned the fry onto dry foods because I didn’t have a microworm culture. I prepared egg yolk and they ate it with relish, but they never liked the prepared foods and I couldn’t feed them more than twice a day. Microworms live long enough for the fish to feed on them all day. I feel worse that they probably starved to death.

As an aquarium keeper, I’ve developed a keen sense of responsibility for the animals I keep. It’s tragic how some people treat their fish and I do everything I can to make my fish’s lives as happy as possible. Even with 25 years of experience, I’m still experimenting with my own ethics!

I am going to concentrate on the health of my reef and my five adult bettas. I’m thinking of converting the fry tank into a nice planted tank for the kitchen. Maybe a Betta biotope with the four females? I have each Betta in a 2.5-gallon aquarium, but I moved the females’ tanks together to see how they reacted to each other. While they are not supposed to be as pugnacious as the males, they “barred up??? and flared quite a bit at each other. I don’t want to put them together if they will end up beating on each other. Maybe I’ll make the 15-gallon tank heavily planted before I add the fish. That will also help me with the CO2 challenge: a DIY setup for CO2 can have drastic pH swings until the aquarist learns how to handle them.

As Calvin would say, Further Bulletins As Events Warrant.