How to Raise Baby Bettas

Maintain high water quality in your baby betta tank by installing a sponge filter. Sponge filters provide mechanical filtration without creating enough suction or water flow to put newly hatched betta fish at risk.

Set the thermostat on your aquarium heater to maintain a stable temperature between 74 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit. If the water temperature in your baby betta tank changes too much it could have a negative effect on the health and growth of your baby betta fish.

Wait for your baby betta fish to absorb the remainder of their yolk sacs. If your betta fish are a bubble-nesting species, the male betta will care for the fry until they absorb their yolk sacs and become free-swimming. Mouth-brooding species of betta fish will release fully formed fry after an incubation period of up to 16 days.

Feed your babies small amounts of infusoria several times a day after they have absorbed their yolk sacs. Infusoria is a liquid fry food that can be added directly to the tank using an eyedropper. Look for infusoria in stores and online or raise your own colony from cultures.

Transition your baby betta fish into accepting brine shrimp nauplii after a few days of feeding them infusoria. If fed properly, young bettas will grow quickly and they should be ready to accept larger foods after three to four days.

Offer your fry finely crushed freeze-dried and frozen foods such as bloodworms and daphnia after three to four weeks.

Transfer the baby fish to a 10-gallon grow-out tank at 6 weeks of age. A grow-out tank is simply a larger tank where your fish will have adequate space to continue growing. If you have a large number of baby bettas you may want to divide them into two grow-out tanks.

Maintain high water quality in your grow-out tanks by performing weekly water changes of 25 percent of the tank volume twice a week. Use an aquarium vacuum or a length of airline tubing to siphon dirty water from the bottom of the tank and replace it with dechlorinated tap water at the same temperature as the water in the tank.

Feed your baby betta fish a variety of foods, offering small amounts of live, frozen and pellet foods several times a day until they reach three-quarters of an inch in length.

Separate your baby betta fish into individual cups or bowls to raise them to maturity. At this size you should be able to tell the difference between males and females—males will have longer fins and brighter colors. You may separate all your betta fish or you may choose to keep the females in one tank and separate the males into cups.