# Making Infusoria



## piranha (Apr 4, 2011)

Hi, I'm in the process of breeding bettas and want to make a infusoria culture. theres a lot of different ways on the internet so i was wondering what the best ways is? any ideas?


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## HMPKFAN (Apr 5, 2011)

*c/p*Chose a male and female fish of roughly the same size, but do not house them together yet. (They should be of roughly the same size to avoid one of them ending up badly injured.) The pair should be given a lot of nutritious food; you can for instance provide them with a combination of high-quality flake food and live brine shrimp. The water quality must also be kept up and the water chemistry should resemble that of their native environment. 

When both fishes are healthy and well-fed, it is time to introduce them to each other. Start by placing their aquariums close to each other and allow them to watch each other for a couple of days. Proceed by making it impossible for the male to see the female for a while, before moving him to the breeding aquarium. When the male has spent an hour or so getting used to his new home you can put the female in a hurricane globe and gently place it in the breeding aquarium. This will prevent the male from getting at her right away. Carefully monitor your fish and see if they show any interest in each other. Flaring is a good sign, and hopefully the male will soon start building a bubble nest. Do not release the female from the hurricane globe until the male has built a fairly big bubble nest and the female is showing vertical strips. She should also be assuming a head-standing position in the globe and ideal have a protruding breeding tube (look behind the pelvic fin). 

When you release the female, it is perfectly natural for the couple to engage in some nipping and chasing. Keep an eye on them and only intervene if one or both is getting badly injured. Really violent attacks means that they couple is not ready to breed, or simply incompatible. Place the female back inside the hurricane bowl and let her stay for a few days.

Some couples need to be together for 4-5 days before they start to breed while others can start within an hour. Some females will even start releasing eggs while they are still inside the hurricane bowl. 

When the time is right, the male will try to attract the female to his nest and she will follow him. As they reach the nest, the male will embrace the female and she will release her eggs. The eggs will sink to the bottom of the aquarium and the male will swim down and pick them up. Directly after releasing her eggs, it is normal for the female to stay completely still and motionless for few seconds while the male swims down. When the spawning is finished, the female will leave the nest voluntarily or be chased away by the male. In most situations she will have plenty of time to swim away and hide while he is down at the bottom searching for eggs. The female should now be removed from the aquarium since she will either eat the eggs or be violently attacked by the male as she tries to eat the eggs. 

Both the male and the female will normally have acquired torn fins during the courting process and they are therefore quite susceptible to disease. Most breeders therefore safe-guard by treating the breeding aquarium with MarOxy or similar and placing the female in a separate recuperation aquarium instead of letting her join other fish in a community tank. Treating the recuperation aquarium is also a good idea.


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## fishman81 (Jan 12, 2011)

piranha said:


> Hi, I'm in the process of breeding bettas and want to make a infusoria culture. theres a lot of different ways on the internet so i was wondering what the best ways is? any ideas?


Infusoria Culture


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

I find the best fry food for bettas to start with is vinegar eels.I have some small cultures if you need one.They are larger than insuforia and stay in the water column longer than microworms do.Also,make sure to keep the spawn tank covered for the humidity,and have the temp about 86 degrees.Any pics of the pair?What other types of fry food do you have?Do you have jars ready fro the juviniles when they start to spar?Not trying to be a downder but you you must be prepared for over 100 fish,all of which could be males.Not saying its deinate,but best to prepare for the worst and hope for the best,yes?

Ok so with all that out of the way,I have found the best way to culture insuforia,is to place a jug of water I pulled from a tank outside.Place a little lawn clippings or lettuce.Itll take most likely a few weeks to mature,so that is the perfect time to condition the pair.I dont encourage feeding flakes of any kind as betta are prone to bloat.I feed my pairs on a diet of live new hatched BBS,frozen and live bloodworms(easy to culture if you dont mind mosquitos)Atisons betta pro,NLS grow and sometimes my own beefheart recipe.

You will know they spawn when you see this:








Thats the underside view,lol.

and a video of what to look for from the pair.


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