I know my bettas had babies out in the tub water garden a while back - bubble nest, female kept away, and I saw a few reeeeely tiiiiny babies at one point.
But I haven't seen nada since, and I figured the male and female have eaten all the babies. Can't understand why they haven't started on a new bubble nest, though.
Well, today I spied two little bitty babies out there. I fished them out - I mean, about ½" long or LESS. The biggest was just starting to show color, but no long fins yet. I put the largest one in a mesh basket floating in the pond, and the other will come in the house 'til his bigger. Later, I found two more even smaller ones, and fished them out to bring inside, too.
I bet that where those came from, there are still a few more out there. When they first hatched and were swimming on their own, I took a Chinese restaurant spoon and scooped out some and put them in my tadpole tubs. If they could feed themselves at that age, they are probably alive still, too. In another month or so, they should be big enough to find easily - at which point, they will need to be seperated.
Since I've never had any koi or goldfish spawn actually hatch, this is pretty exciting!
