Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey, its dank fish back from a ruff winter... I wanted to say hi to everyone i knew before, and all the new Aquaponic fans! Welcome to the Library of Alexandra of Aquaponics.

Anyways.....

Over the winter I had to shut down my AP project because of a long move and lack of cash, but hey, I am out of my parents house

But what I did keep going was a small tank (about 1/2 Gal) with "Lucky Bamboo" and some A-sexual snails. and that was great...

About a mouth ago I bought a Betta (his name is frank.lol.) and frank has been happy in his new home built a nice bubble nest for him self.

But soon frank will go into a new tank with a couple of ladies to breed.
That’s the my new project.

Since Bettas are highly aggressive, ill need separate tanks.

I was thinking of 2 5g tanks. One will be for the females to live in peace, and the other will be for the stud (frank) and breeding.

I would like to do a AP system for both. Would this be a problem for the breeding tank? And also what about balancing it out?

I know for every gallon of tank 2 gallons of grow bed. But what if that tanks don’t a lot of fish in them, would I go with a smaller grow bed to get balance?

I also would like to know if anyone has ever bread Bettas before? And what to expect.

Thank you all your time


-DF

Welcome back DF... look forward to seeing your new adventures.

I bred betta splendens for awhile, they are very finickey fish. Due to the mass inbreeding (line breeding) to obtain these colourfull strains today they have been weakened as a species. Many of them do not see a female for their life and the mating is quite a confusion for them.

I had a small tank with a male in it (crown tail) i would expose him to the female (divider) every day for 2 days (note: she will jump in the tank so try to cover it or position a tank next to the males with her permanently in it). Once he has established the bubblenest you then introduce the female (VERY carfully) not destroying the nest in the process. If the female choses to breed she will point her body diagonally down and he will wrap himself around her squeezing the eggs and fertalizing them. The eggs will fall to the ground and he will carry them to the bubblenest (hopefully), make sure the substrate is dark to assist in him finding the eggs or better yet no substrate (bare bottome). After the mating the male will kill the female if left together so remove her to a tropical tank (if you have one) as they make great community fish.

Remember it is usuall for the male to damage the fins or chase the female when entered, he uses this method to tire out the female, include some plants or obstacles for the female to hide in (momentaraly) or she may be killed. But if the female rejects the male (destroys the nest) it is best to buy another or if the male doesnt breed and damages the female too much buy another.

Hope it goes well, thanks

Nic

Because Betta babies are so small, the only AP system I could think of that would work would have to be a passive system- either plants directly in the water, either on a raft or underwater plants or some sort of wick system. You couldn't use a pump and except for blowing air into the tank, that is about as high tech as you could get.

hey thanx for the replys

thank you rup, i am looking forward to getting settled back into a system.

nic-c- no substrate thats a big tip thank you. yea both of the tanks (Breeding and mothers den tanks) will have a lot of coffee cups and stuff for the fish to play in.

Angie- yea, thats what i was afraid of.

thank you

is 2 5 gallons enuff for this venture?


-DF

I bred Bettas successfully in a five gallon rectangluar tank, with an air blower, a cut off styrofoam cup taped to the edge of the glass, some plastic floating plants for the female to hide in and with no substrate- as mentioned previously- and I had a community 60 gallon tank for about 15 females, along with small koi, goldfish and other tropicals.
Two things I noticed or that I might have done differently- netting a fast female in a 5 gallon tank, without disrupting everything, is difficult- a 10 gallon and a partition that I could drop down, to trap her on one side, might have been a better option.
The other thing is even female bettas can be aggressive and they establish a pecking order, similar to chickens. The one on the bottom rung gets constantly harrassed so make sure there are plenty of things for them to hide. Keeping them with other tropicals seems to help in this regard, as they are ususally only aggressive with their own kind. Harrassed females can escape in the crowd.
I had all of my bachelor males living in mini AP systems- clear glass vases with live house plants and had them all lined up, next to each other, just above my kitchen sink (which looked into a covered patio so no algae growth). I got the beauty of the plants and the beauty and the animated action of the bettas when they confronted each other. The vases magnified the fish slightly so the flashing males looked spectacular. It worked out really well and easy to maintain too.

that sounds like precisely what i was thinking, this is going to be fun, and from what i hear, not to much of an investment, just only time, witch i have.

pics will be comeing soon, it will be under the "dank fish bed room system" page

thank you

-DF

I found that Walmart/Kmart have the cheapest glass vases; look in their fake plants/ sewing cloth section. I found some vases at Michael's Craft Shop too, so look in craft places as well. Other sources you might want to consider are Goodwill, used goods and 99 cent stores that sell everything, yard sells, and swap meets. You can find some interesting shapes and with a few colored glass flattened marbles on the bottom, they can add a great deal of interest.
Consider the type of plants you plan to use though, as some vase's top shapes won't work as well as others- for myself, I looked for slender necks that fluted outward to a ruffly edge but had a bulbous bottom for stability and more room for the fish. The slender neck prevented the plants that I was using, from sliding down too far into the vase, so I didn't need anything to hold the plant in place and be prepared to trim the roots, otherwise there will be no room for the fish to swim.
Another word of advise, don't use round marbles- I lost a beautiful male once when I was a child because he managed to jam himself inside a hole created by them.
Enjoy and post the pics of your new hobby.

The plants and the vases can be purchased fairly cheap but depending on where you purchase your Bettas, that can get expensive.
I bought my Crown Tails at
http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/ ... 1166130019

There are some Betta fish that are absolutely gorgous and if you win an auction, you can do what I did and purchase females directly from the seller that are related to the male you just won. I had three of them shipped from Thialand (1 male, 2 females) and they were routed to an intermediary in Colorada. Several bad storms hit so the fish couldn't be shipped out but she took care of them and kept me posted through the internet. I was so stressed by the time they arrived, (I had over a $100 invested in three little fish) but I got a call from the local post office and was escourted into the back room. The fish actually created a scene as everyone who was working there waited for me to open the box and pull them out. The workers didn't even know that you could ship live fish. The water was slightly yellow (not sure why) but all three were healthy and definitely worth the wait. I enjoyed them for a very long time.

GEEZE ,, I would have joined in LONG ago if I knew you where talking Siamese fighting fish ,, why the heck use the name Betta???? sounds like a brand of shoe ,, maybe an on-line betting agency or a new $1 shop.
A mate of mine sells them in these cute little square glass tanks with a wooden stand and roof ( including light) that looks like a Thai or Chinese temple. He's doing good.

I think I've got a couple of the tanks/ temple house here if you want to see a pic.

Betta , that would be the scientific name - betta splendens

as in "betta to use the scientific name" hehe

mine seemed to breed easier when I ignored them for days on end . I had to get rid of them when the cabinet they were on had the misfortune of having a whole carton of home-brew beer explode under it

glad we got your attention chappo.lol
correct boris, i use betta over any other name for them because that is easy to spell.
and lol brewing can be exciding- on a side note do you know how to distill ethanol, i am looking to use AP grow plants for E85 production. u can just message me.

angie what a great link, im looking into it right now

so i am thinking just a small ap system for my females, like 5gal of water, one NFT tube like 2feet long, and ill grow basil and other small herbs. dose this sound good?

-DF

I'd love to know how to distil ethanol DF , Im sure its easily found on the net somewhere

I dont know that the landlords would approve

Ethanol is alcohol, the same that we drink. Distillation is therefore regulated severely unfortunately, so the gear is hard to get.

Solution is at hand though.

The process is simple, make alcoholic substance through fermentation.

Heat gently until the liquid is above the evap point of ethanol (somewhere around 80°C I think) and below that of water.

Condense steam in a long cooled pipe.

If you're planning on drinking it, be aware that Methanol evaporates at a slightly lower temp than ethanol, and will come off first, this smells like methylated spirits.
I don't know what methanol will do to your engine, but it will kill ppl, it's a nasty poison.

If you seriously wish to distill your own ethanol, go to a beer brewing shop, they will be able to assist you in sourcing the equipment.

You will need 1x "Water purifier" generally imported from NZ
you will need 1x "Innocent looking drum that fits to purifier" this increases the volume from 1L to about 30L I believe.
There may be some other appartus. But as I said, ask the shop keeper.
There are other ways to do it, including the good old home made grappa distiller, but this is by far the cleanest and healthiest especially if you're planning on drinking it.

I in no way condone the distillation of alcohol at home, as the risk of methanol poisoning is great. However, if we could burn it in our cars, easily, then my opinion my change. The quantity required is what worries me. Is it even viable?

knowledge publications dot com is working out a still that can make fuel grade alcohol in a single pass. If I were to use local waste donuts then the fuel would free. Buying sugar would cost about $1 a gallon for fuel. I just dont have time or money to work this angle right now.