u/CalmLaugh5253

The coccinas enjoying a little summer snack!

We have this weird fig plant that apparently needs a lot of light? Well, it dropped all its leaves before we finally figured it out and we've since been keeping it on the balcony. The plant recovered, but it got swamped with aphids. So naturally what do we do? Feed them to the sharks. 😬

There's a clear preference for green aphids over black ones, I think. The chilis had no idea what was going on, but were happy to be included. ♥️

The tiniest flare. 🥹♥️

I've lost my mind with the amount of baby betta videos I'm taking. They are just too cute, I cant help it. 😭

Edit: forgot to add in case anyone's curious, these are wild betta coccina fry :)

and greed amongst the children 😔

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Betta coccina fry

It changed quite a bit since the last time I posted it here, so here's a small update!

It still houses a small group of betta coccina (and their fry!!), kuhli loaches and a group of chili + strawberry rasboras. Parameters are KH/GH 0, TDS ~20-30, pH ~5

The scape and everything from before is actually still there, just buried under leaves. Especially after I started adding palm leaves! The fish are LOVING the big branch sitting on the wood.

I must admit, doing a larger blackwater setup like this was very daunting, but it's been smooth and stable sailing for everyone so far, and I am eager to upgrade to something longer and possibly shallower in the future. :)

He did something and now his mouth is permanently slightly more open. It makes him look even dumber than he is 😭

As exciting as it is having all these fry swimming around, (and the issue of having a too small group resolving itself) what happens when they grow up? I only have one adult male in here at the moment (and 3 beautiful ladies), and I dont want him breeding with any of the fry when they grow up.

The obvious answer would be removing him, but what do i do with him? I can't keep him alone (...right?), and I dont really want to rehome either. I realise this wouldn't be a problem if I got all girls, but they were all so young and small when I got them, and impossible to sex. Not to mention, the information I got online forever ago basically said that they are not at all easy to breed, and that's what I mostly counted on. I counted on them either not pairing up and not breeding at all, or the fry/eggs not surviving. But that's clearly not what happened.

Currently they are all together in a 35g tank, but I can do a different setup if needed. They share it with chili/strawberry rasboras and kuhli loaches.

Could really use some advice on how to better manage and keep them all happy and healthy!

Edit: added some more info!

Edit 2: since it wasn't clear enough (sorry!), my question is about inbreeding. How do i manage the group better without inbreeding if I cant(?) isolate the dad and if i want to keep most of the fry, or if there's any way to slow down my extremely prolific pair 😔

Literally nobody eats daphnia in this house. Live or frozen. 😒 The shrimp had a good time though! And in turn Dante also had a good time with that, I'm sure. 😬

Dropped in a bunch of blackworms for the adults, but everyone collectively decided they dont feel like it... However, the babiesTM at least had a fun time nipping at them here and there, and being cute overall! 🥹❤️

(Betta coccina fry!)

The surface of our 20g housing a betta, an ever growing number of scarlet badis, pygmy corydoras, and an indestructible shrimp colony that's been going strong for about 3 years now. ❤️

Still waiting for that magical moment when the red root floaters flower 😔 Probably requires more blood sacrifices or something...

And then the attitude at the end like it's my fault he doesn't think 🙄

An overwhelming amount of food swimming all around makes everyone happy!

Messed up the light/settings for the video though ugh

There used to be wood and sticks and other cool stuff to look at at some point, but now it's all just palm leaves I guess. Not having an actual aquascape to maintain is kinda liberating tbh, as sad as it was covering it at first 😅

The fish certainly love it! And that's always the priority anyway. ❤️

Babies (b coccina) popping up all over the place lately 🥹❤️

Some are sooooo tiny, and some resemble tiny bettas. Sometimes they even follow and kinda interact with us through the glass, which is clearly a behaviour they observed and learned from the parents/adults. Their mom especially lmao she's such a beggar and glutton. Actually, all the girls are. They're all pigs. 🐖

Our 3 boys CD, DVD and Floppy enjoying a meal together! We recently upgraded them from 25g to 35g too. :)

Still super shy around the phone though :(

So the mystery fry are indeed betta coccina! And there's several spawns of different ages all over the tank. Saw one that even resembled an actual small fish the other day while doing some light maintenance!

Tearing the tank down will be a slow and careful nerve-racking experience. 😀🔥

I just love watching him work for his meals lol Though compared to neo shrimp, brine shrimp are certainly more of a break than workout. 😅