Halfmoon Betta fish

BETTA GROWTH IN PICTURES A pictorial record of fry growth. (mirror page)

(Click on to return to the main betta page or on to browse 70 topics ranging from exotic kaleidoscope designs to the strange world of lucid dreaming.)

I thought it might be interesting to post a photo chronicle of a betta's growth from egg to adulthood. Every week I'll add a picture set to display at full size for a monitor setting of 72 ppi. This way visitors who haven't raised bettas can view the growth process.

As a reference, the line below is one inch long.

________

If it looks one inch long on your monitor, you'll be seeing the fish at their actual size. Be warned, young fry are so small that they will appear as little more than specks.

For the first five weeks the bettas were fed only baby brine shrimp. From five to seven weeks they received a mixture of baby brine shrimp and Grindal worms. Starting with the seventh week they got a mixture of Grindal worms and blackworms.

Three weeks old: 0.34 inches long

Four weeks old: 0.45 inches long on average.

Five weeks old: 0.6 inches long. Size ranges from .5 to .75 inches.

Six weeks old: 0.85 inches long. The largest are over an inch.

Seven weeks old: 1.1 inches long.

Eight weeks old: 1.3 inches long.

Nine weeks old: 1.55 inches long.

Ten weeks old: 1.7 inches long

Eleven weeks old: 1.9 inches long

Final Update: After eleven weeks of growth the amount of week-to-week change is too little to be interesting. From then to seven months of age the betta's body shape stays the same with a very slow increase in size. The fins grow at a glacial rate, eventually developing their full length at seven months.