Our Conclusion (With opinions included)

In conclusion, I feel that the time taken for the betta to spawn depends on the individual betta itself. For example, its mood, its experience, health and age. The time taken for individual betta fry to mature also differ. Even if they are from the same brood. I don't really think it depends on the presence/absence of the aquatic plants or whether the plants are floating or submerged.

Report on Saturday, 18.06.11

We planned our time well. Today is the last day of the holiday which we will be able to return to school to feed and take care of our fish. Tomorrow, Jo and I will be flying off to Perth for our competition/training trip with our academy. Our flight is at 9.05 but we have to be at the airport by 6.45am, no time to squeeze in a visit to our dear fish.
Northern Dancer is ready to be taken out from his tank. His fry are all beginning to swim horizontally. He has done a commendable job and his fry are maturing fast.
The rest of the news is the same for MuchoMachoMan and Big Red's fry, they are all in good shape.
We both want them to survive but one thing that calls for our concern is that since we couldn't find anyone to look after our fish, we asked Mrs Lu to help us. But her kids are really boisterous and we are praying fervently that our fish will not be too distressed by them. They keep on plunging their hands into the water, I hope the fish will be alright.

How Long? How Long?

I was wondering how long it would take for our Betta fry to fully mature and here's what I found. Check the link out:
http://www.bettatalk.com/fry_growth.htm

Report for Friday,17.06.11

Here's the report for today:

Big Red: Not much to say, he's eaten abit after I removed him from the tank. The brine shrimp eggs that I poured into the tank yesterday still haven't hatched yet. Most of his fry are hiding amongst the roots of the Water Hyacinth. I read somewhere that they would feed off microscopic bits of the plant. So its a good thing even if the brine shrimp eggs don't hatch.

MuchoMachoMan: He decided to repair his nest today. Abit late eh? Remember I said that most of his fry were at the bottom of the tank and I was unsure whether they were dead or alive? Here's the good news: They're ALIVE!!! There are only a handful of them still down there, but majority of MuchoMachoMan's fry are beginning to swim horizontally already!!! Yeah! I decided to continue on leaving him inside to take care of his fry for one more day, though I still reckon that he didn't do a good job on that. Taking him out tomorrow.

Northern Dancer: Listen here!! Turns out that our dear Northern Dancer is quite a resourceful guy(: When I first observed his tank today, I couldn't see any sign of eggs or fry. Just a tiny little bubble nest at the far end of the tank. After taking a closer look, I saw tiny new born fry clinging on to the leaves of the Cabomba Plant! It was a very interesting and surprising sight. The very plant that the female used to hid in is now a sanctuary and haven for her offspring(: I even managed to catch Northern Dancer blowing a tiny fry which had 'fell of its perch' on the Cabomba Plant back up onto it. Once again, I wish that I could have recorded it down but my camera isn't that advanced, I tried but the picture was too blurry. Anyway, I reckon that Northern Dancer is the best! Do you realize that his fry hatched the earliest? Good ole' Northern Dancer!

Report on Thursday, 16.06.11

Here's the Report for Today:(there's some good news in it:)

Big Red: Took him out from his tank today. All his fry are already swimming horizontally(: I poured 1.2g of brine shrimp eggs into the 'fry tank', hopefully, they will hatch in 24 hours and our fry will all have something to eat by the time they have finished using up all the 'food' in their yolk sacs. Big Red ate a little today after I took him out. Haha, I think he's slimmed down quite alot.

MuchoMachoMan: I decided to continue on leaving him the tank, just in case he decided to be a good father and start building his nest for his kids. Anyway, I was also using Big Red's fry as a gauge-it took 3 days for them to all start swimming horizontally and tomorrow will be the 3rd day for MuchoMachoMan's fry.

Northern Dancer: Surprise, surprise! He spawned with Northern Lights today!!! I am really glad:) However, I was unable to catch a video of them spawning because this happened during training.(I checked the tank before training and after). When I went back to check after training, I was greeted by the sight of Northern Lights hiding in the Cabomba Plant. She was so still, I thought she was dead. I knocked the tank a little and she moved...whew! I then saw that there were many eggs floating on the surface of the water(Northern Dancer having not built his nest properly)

I took Northern Lights out because Northern Dancer kept chasing her into hiding.

After Northern Lights had been removed from the tank, Northern Dancer began to store the eggs in his mouth and blow them up to the surface in bubbles, he is, from what I've seen, definitely more experienced than MuchoMachoMan.

Our experiment is a SUCCESS! (Although our hypothesis is wrong, but it worked!!!)

Cool but unrelated stuff

Hihi, I know this is random but check this blog out!!!

http://blog.fish-school.com/?expref=next-blog

Report on Wednesday, 15.06.11

Big Red-Majority of his fry are already swimming horizontally, but a small handful still require his help to hang on to the bubble nest. I'm estimating and I think that it'll take at most 2 days for all of them to fully mature into free-swimming fry. Then we can remove Big Red from the tank and let him have his well deserved rest(:

MuchoMachoMan-Poor fish, he has the look of a man who has totally given up on trying to keep his kids under control. He has not repaired his bubble nest and only a handful of his fry, those hardy ones, are surviving by clinging on to the sides of the tank:(......Guess its the 'SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST'. Really hope that some of the fry at the bottom of the tank are alive.
Northern Dancer-Northern Lights keeps on hiding from Northern Dancer by swimming into the cabomba plant. Whenever I see her there, she is totally still and the only parts of her that are moving are her gills and fins. Perhaps she's been traumatized by Northern Dancer or perhaps he's been too pushy with her. However, one good thing is that though his bubble nest isn't very big, it is apparent that Northern Dancer has been working on it and it's now around 2-3 bubbles thick.

Sorry, my phone couldn't capture ND properly so I went to search the net for a Betta that looked like him and yeah, here's a Northern Dancer look-alike

Report on Tuesday 14.06.11

Headed to school today to feed the fish. Here's a report on how they're doing.

Big Red-Some of his fry are already beginning to start swimming horizontally instead of bobbing up and down in the water. It's really fun to watch these tiny little beings darting around. However, Big Red still remains ever vigilant for those tiny fry that aren't quite capable of swimming yet. Will not remove him till all the fry are able to swim horizontally through the water.

MuchoMachoMan-His eggs have all hatched into tiny little fry. However, he has not repaired his bubble nest. Many of his fry are trying desperately to cling on to something in the water. Most of them have sunk to the bottom of the tank and I have no idea whether they are dead or alive. Probably mostly dead:( Really wish the nature of our experiment didn't have to be this way.

Northern Dancer-Just released Northern Lights again today although the bubble nest Northern Dancer built still is not big enough (Big enough being around the size of a 50-cent coin and 1-2 bubbles thick) Hope that there wouldn't be too much fighting this time and Northern Lights will be okay.

Report on experiment, Monday 13.6.11

Bid Red spawned with Fires of Revival last Friday. His fry hatched today (: They are really tiny and hang onto the bubble nest that Big Red has built for them. Whenever one of these little fry sinks to the bottom of the tank, Big Red is sure to gingerly pick them up in his mouth and place them back into the bubble nest. Big Red's bubble nest seems to have grown. Probably to accommodate the 'influx of fry' after spawning. Haha.
We managed to observe Big Red spawning with Fires of Revival and it was a cool thing to watch!(: Jo has the video which she'll upload. I couldn't take any cos my phone's lousy and old (:

MuchoMachoMan spawned with Tarnished Pride yesterday. His bubble nest wasn't built on as firm as a foundation as Big Red and hence, all his eggs are floating around the tank. Hope he manages to repair it soon though.

Northern Dancer has yet to repair his bubble nest, so we have not released Northern Lights yet.

Report for Sunday 12.6.11

We released all the females from their tanks last Wednesday- 08.06.11. We left them for 2 days like this so that the males would be 'motivated/instigated/encouraged' to build a larger bubble nest with physical contact with the females.

After the 2 days (erm...we did return to school to feed them) we realized that there was alot of chasing in Northern Dancer's tank. He was quite aggressive to his female, so we took her out as her tail was torn by Northern Dancer. We put 2 drops of anti-fungus liquid and put her back into her cup and into ND's tank again. I hated to do that but, the experiment has to be fair, though you would have to agree that you can't make it totally fair:( Big Red has built a very stable and big bubble nest under that water hydrilla. Good ole' Big Red!!

Northern Dancer and MuchoMachoMan have built their bubble nests at the sides of the tank and that isn't a very good place for it (bubble nest) to be as their bubbles keep popping. So every time we have our hopes up that the 2 of them have built big bubble nests, those hopes pop. "POP" "POP" "POP"

一，二，三，开始！！！

Yesterday, Jo and I went to set up tanks for our experiment. This is what the respective tanks contain:

Green: Male Betta-Big Red
Female Betta-Fires of Revival
Water Hyacinth (SORRY I SAID WATER HYDRILLA IN THE VIDEO)
Pump Filter

BLUE: Male Betta-Northern Dancer
Female Betta-Nothern Lights
Cabomba Plant
Pump Filter

RED: Male Betta-MuchMachoMan
Female Betta-Tarnished Pride
No Plant
Pump Filter

Plants involved in our experiment

I searched the net and found out that the aquatic plants that we got are:

the CABOMBA PLANT (the submerged one)

and

WATER HYACINTH

I realized that we forgot to ask the uncle@the fish shop what plant we got...... Hahas

Change of Plans?

I was just thinking:

The Great Salvania vs the Elodea= Floating plant vs Floating plant

If you don't get what I mean, I'm saying that it wouldn't make too big a difference if we use both of them. We should use something like:

Floating plant vs Fully Submerged plant.

However, if we do that, it means that we'll be needing a medium(e.g. gravel) to hold down the Fully Submerged plant. This will pose as a problem to our male betta during spawning, he would find it difficult t0 retrieve the eggs that have sunk to the bottom of the tank.

Should we use :

Floating plant vs Plastic plant instead?

At least we can use something else to hold the plastic plant to the bottom of the tank (they usually come along with suction pads) But if we do it this way, we'll sort of be measuring 2 variables at once:

Floating,LIVE plants vs totally submerged PLASTIC plants.

What do you all think?

Haha, we could anchor it sideways on the side of the tank...

Eh, check this website out, it is very informative:

www.bettatalk.com

The Anatomy of Betta

We will be checking for a small white tube (ovipositor) to be sticking out between the female's ventral fins before releasing her to be with the male. This means that she is ready to spawn.

Check this site out

Another Website for Breeding Bettas

http://elizabethchristopher.wordpress.com/2010/01/26/betta-mating-betta-breeding-101/

Spawning

Sorry, this is sort of what spawning looks like, forgot to mention earlier.

Spawn refers to the eggs or sperm, released or deposited, usually into water, by aquatic animals. As a verb, spawn refers to the process of releasing the eggs and sperm, also called spawning. Most aquatic animals, apart from aquatic mammals, reproduce through a process of spawning.

Spawn consists of the reproductive cells (gametes) of aquatic animals, some of which will become fertilized and produce offspring. The process of spawning typically involves females releasing ova (unfertilized eggs) into the water, often in large quantities, while males simultaneously or sequentially release spermatozoa to fertilize the eggs.

~Adapted from Wikipedia

Fish Farms selling Tropical Fish

Anyway, if that farm doesn't give us the information we need, then I went to search for other fish farms that sell tropical fish:


Check out the link: http://http://www.eguide.com.sg/Products/Fish-Tropical

Fish Farms in Singapore

Hihihi!!!
Managed to find 1 Fish Farm in SG tt sells Betta ( Swee Seng Fish Farm)

The Address

#01-23, 109 Clementi St 11, Singapore 120109

p: 67795072

Website& Email - None Supplied

I called up the farm on Friday and the operator said that they have 3 types of Betta.
Why don't we go check it out?

Proposal Form Done!! (not really well done)

mLower Secondary Science Research Project
Proposal Form


Group Name: _We're a much betta group_____ Class: ____2D_______

Name of Members and Signatures:
1) Deborah Wong
2) Josephine Yeh
3) Yee Herng Hwee
4)
5)
Project Title:
Breeding Betta


Problem Question:
How does the presence of aquatic plants affect the breeding of betta?


Hypothesis:
The 2 tanks containing water plants would have a more successful rate of breeding betta



Web-Address (Url) of Project Blog:
http://thisbettawork.blogspot.com/


Expected date of research completion:


Project Mentor and Signature:


Apparatus and Materials Needed:
1. MarOxy
2. Five gallon tanks (x3)
3. The great Salvania (x2)
4. Water Hydrilla (x2)
5. Water Dechlorinator
6. Betta Fish (3 Males 3 Females)
7. Hurricane globes (x3)
8. Soft fishing net
9. Artemia, Tubifex worms and Bloodworms


Experimental Procedure Setup:
1. Choose a male and female fish of roughly the same size (to avoid one of them getting badly injured during the initial stages of courtship).
2. The pair should be given a lot of nutritious food, provide them with a combination of high-quality flake food and live brine shrimp. The water quality must be kept up and the water chemistry should resemble that of their native environment.  
3. When both fish 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.
4. Proceed by making it impossible for the male to see the female for a while, before moving him to the breeding aquarium.
5. 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. 
6. 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).
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. Betta eggs are white and can be easily spotted inside the bubble nest if you use a magnifying glass. Using MarOxy or any similar treatment is not only good for the male; it will also decrease the risk of fungus attacking the eggs. To prevent cool air from entering the breeding aquarium you must cover it with glass or plastic wrap. Without this type of protection the fry can easily develop pneumonia when they swim up to the surface to test their labyrinth organ for the first time. (This normally happens when they are 5-7 weeks of age.)
12. Approximately 36 hours after the spawning really tiny fry will start falling out of the bubble nest and landing on the bottom of the aquarium. At this stage, the fry will look more like a black dot with a tiny tail than a miniature fish. The male will swim down to the bottom, pick up the fry, and place them back inside the bubble nest. As you can see, it is very important to let the male stay with the fry. Do not remove him until the fry is free swimming. In some cases, the male will however start eating the fry that he retrieves from the bottom and if you notice this type of behavior the male should be removed from the aquarium. It is possible for Betta fry to develop even if they have fallen down to the bottom of the aquarium, as long as there are no other fish in the tank that can eat them.  
13. Newly hatched fry will feed off their yolk sac and should not be given any addition food. When the yolk sacs are gone, you can start giving them infusoria. After roughly two weeks the fry will be big enough to eat newly hatched brine shrimp and microworms. Feeding your fry a lot of small servings throughout the day is better than giving them a lot of food 2-3 times a day.  
14. It is very important to keep the water quality up in the breeding aquarium. The new water has to be of the same temperature as the water in the breeding aquarium, because Betta fry do not handle temperature changes well. It is hard to perform water changes without involuntarily sucking up the tiny Betta fry, but they will normally survive being siphoned out as long as they are returned to the aquarium immediately.
15. Betta fry are extremely small when they hatch and even when kept on a nutritious diet they are remarkably slow growers. In most cases, you will not be able to notice any coloration until they are over 7 months old. The tiny fry will spend most of their time at the bottom of the aquarium and move only when you feed them. As the males mature, they will grow increasingly aggressive and should be moved to their own aquariums or jars. The females are more docile and can be kept together in the same aquarium until they are big enough to be sold or given away to other aquarists. If you have used a very small breeding aquarium you may have to provide them with bigger housing to keep them healthy and happy.


Independent Variable:
The water plants in the tanks
Dependent Variable:
The successfulness of breeding the betta

Controlled Variables (Constants):
-The temperature of the water
-The location where the tanks are placed
-The water conditioner used to condition the water
-The amount of food fed to the pair of fish
-The size of the tanks
-The volume of water