Raising betta fry... food.

[Pyfe]

I'm good with the water changes, and the filtration, and the spawning. I want to start raising my second generation before the end of summer, however... I'm having trouble with food. No longer can I swing by a friend's house to pick up some daphnia and worms. I must make my own (I'm not buying starter cultures).

Right now, my tank is full of ostrocods, a robust, gentle male betta, and some white planarian-type worms which my first batch nearly drove to extinction. I'm not sure they'll like the ostrocods (they are edible, but shelled), so I'm going for worm-raising. Please help me cultivate these worms!

Also, how else can I prepare some homemade fry foods?  

[BluDragon35]

I'm not sure if you're up for it, but brine shrimp would be a simple and quick solution. You can hatch them with a cheap kit (think sea monkeys but less elaborate and way cheaper) or you can buy them frozen. I think the frozen might be the easier choice. Go for the baby brine shrimp, cuz the adults would be too big for fry. Or you can order decapsulized brine shrimp eggs from the interweb. They're brine shrimp eggs that have had the hard shell removed so that fry can eat them.  

[Pyfe]

BluDragon35

I'm not sure if you're up for it, but brine shrimp would be a simple and quick solution. You can hatch them with a cheap kit (think sea monkeys but less elaborate and way cheaper) or you can buy them frozen. I think the frozen might be the easier choice. Go for the baby brine shrimp, cuz the adults would be too big for fry. Or you can order decapsulized brine shrimp eggs from the interweb. They're brine shrimp eggs that have had the hard shell removed so that fry can eat them.

I've actually looked into that, but my pet store doesn't sell any type of eggs, and only frozen adults (which are great for pre-adults). I guess I'll have to travel to the big city for that... Unless you could tell me where I could buy eggs in bulk? At most pet stores, I see only tiny tubes of eggs. Would that be enough to raise a batch so that they could eat easier (bigger) foods?  

[BluDragon35]

http://www.worldpetstore.com/brsheg.html

The 6 gram size should be enough to grow out your fry.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+7927+8890&pcatid=8890

Hikari's brand of baby brine. Can usually be found in most tropical fish stores.  

[Pyfe]

They are four months old now. 4 males, 2 females. ADORABLE. I need a camera...  

[snaky2319]

Hmmm....
My pet-store sells baby brine shrimp frozen. another option would be ordering them? I don't know. I've only raised one batch of fantail goldfish.  

[Pantodon]

I raised my bettas on infusories from a lump of javamoss I got from another tank, then I fed them deshelles artemia eggs and later somethink called "mysis" its a small freshwater creature. Then I gave them bloodworms and later artemia.
I gave them a lot of food too, after three months they were big enough to sell and I got a lot of compliments on my results.