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Reality Check


marc

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I must applaud those Betta breeders who hold regular 9 to 5 jobs and those busy betta breeders that have families too . I have just finished doing a home and design show that ran for 5 days it was 10 am to 9 pm every day.. ( very long hours for me ) and I was amazed how quickly my the fish room deteriorated in just under a week. I am very regular with my feeding and cleaning programs and enjoy taking my time in caring for my fish.. Most days i work from home and do a small tasks in the fish room over a break of a coffee or three . Every day I would spend a minimum of a few hours here .. I have a great routine that suits me and my family well... how do you guys do it ???

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Personally, I've tried to find ways and gadgets that cuts down the amount of work I have to do.... For example, I've bought some BBS Hatcher & Feeders (and about the buy more) for my grow out tanks. This means that I only have to top up the BBS Hatcher each night with new BBS cysts and clean them out about every 3 - 4 days. These gadgets feed my spawns continuously through the day up until their about 6 weeks old, and I only add a bit of TA food at night. I've put a lot of snails in the grow out tanks to clean up any left over food, and a good filter in each tank. So they just need a little bit of clean up during the week and the water change on the weekend. I have all my breeding males in 4 bay fighter tanks that all have filters, so again like the grow out tanks, I only have to do a little bit of clean up during the week, and the water changes on the weekend. All of my breeding females are in one large 5 ft tank with a couple of good internal filters. Besides throwing in some food a night, I have 'Worm Cones' attached on the inside of the tank. These are little gadgets shaped like a cone with small holes in it. You put the worms in these gadgets, and they gradually find their way out through the holes and into the water where the females are generally waiting to catch them. Still have some more work to do in the fish room, specifically about getting water in and out of the room, but I think I have a good start at the moment. I still have to get my 8ft barrack tanks setup for housing the juvie males until their sold. This set up will run off a trickle filter & UV steriliser for all 5 of the barrack tanks, so once this is set up, I won't need to jar juvies and do the continuous cleaning of jars / water changes.

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I manage it by sleeping for 5 - 6 hours a night (seriously). My job is not a 9 - 5 job, it is more like a 7am - 9pm job, plus I commute an hour each way, plus I have a teenage daughter... so when I don't post photos of my spawns guys, its because something's got to give! And when you ask for photos and I am abrupt and say "I haven't got time", it's because I'd rather be feeding the fish or sleeping than taking photos :P I am a pretty low-maintenance hobbyist anyway. I keep it all as basic as possible. No adult betta is kept in a tank smaller than 7 L and all the tanks have a sponge filter and are heavily planted. The need for water changes in those circumstances is not high - ie, I do not need to change water often. Fry are jarred in 1L bottles and changing water on 200 jars is something I also do not have time for, which is why I will be selling most of my fry as juveniles from the grow-out tank and just keeping the colours I want to develop.

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Time isn't too much of a problem for me. It's not having a constant supply of cash to support the addiction, and enough space to fit everything that is the problem... hmm.. I could swap my bed for a single bed, free up more space for tubs :P

You're a scream stefan :) Unfortunatley i too fall into the category of not having enough time. I am having a good day i get more than 6 hours sleep a night. I love spending a good hour or so with my fish each night. Most days I get there but it is slotted in around my family and work commitments so I am often still "playing with the fish" very late at night - But i love it. They relax me. Hopefully the new pond will free up some of my time!

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Wow, don't know how my initial reply ended up here. :P I do all my maintanence weekly - which is 20% waterchange in every tank. It takes me about 3 hours to do them all. If I need to medicate or feed (now I have bettas that need food twice a day :) ) I get up 30 minutes earlier to account for that.

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quite simple really - i have no life LOL ALL my spare time is dedicated to my fish! i work 40 hours a week on the books (not much i know, but hey, it's something!) but an extra 6 or so hours a week off the books (family business) and this doesn't include my lunch breaks, so i really don't have a great deal of spare time. my before work time, lunch breaks and after work time are dedicated to feeding and light changes as well as medicating if i have sick fish. every 3rd night i change 10 or so 1.25L plastic jars (empty, scrub clean, fill and replace fish in it). that alone takes me almost two hours. my one day off a week is dedicated to lots of water changes and travelling 45 minutes each way to get supplies like food for my fishies (ever had to race 45 minutes home with frozen bloodworms in +43c heat? not fun even with a/c!). i also look after all my cultures on this day. so yeah, the fish mean i have no social life, but yano what? they're worth it!

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