beta fry

Question
QUESTION: hi,
 i have beta fry which are almost a month old. I have been feeding
them microworms. i juat wanted to ask you when should i start feeding them
some freeze dried worms or slightly bigger size food? or should i keep
feeding them microworms?
    they are crown tail beta fry. I feed them quite good amount of
microworms.
 your reply will help me take care of them in a better way. thank you.
Regards,
Rashid

ANSWER: Hey Rashid,

You can feed them brine, betta flake or pellet, or just about anything that will fit in their mouth. When they're capable of eating bloodworms, i'd graduate to those. As adults, they can live fairly good lives on just bloodworms, and from a retail point of view, worms are a perfect temporary dietary setup.

Hope this helps!

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION:  Hello again,
    thanks for ur reply. i tried to feed them some other food which they ate very lil so i am still feeding them micro worms.
now i have to ask you another question. I noticed lately that fry are starting to get sick. they swim with jerky movements, breath very heavily and those which died had their mouth stretched opened. i am not happy with all this. i keep the tank very clean but i do not know what is causing them to get sick...is it a bacterial disease? can i use any medication to treat them? please help me as i really want my fry to grow into beatiful adult fishes.
Regards,
Rashid

Answer
Hey Rashid,

Sorry it took so long to reply, i've been having issues with school and work lately.

You can try to treat the water for bacterial issues, but i doubt that the fry are strong enough to handle rapid water quality changes, and slow dosing wont cure a late stage infection. Your best move is to keep the water quality perfect, and find a low-dose medication (like 1 jungle fizzy tab per 20-30 gallons) and dose slowly over the course of a couple days to prevent system shock, and quality shock on the fish.

Usually, 60% of fry are not truly fit to survive, and will grow into unhealthy adults, so this process will help weed out the fish that wont make good pets later on. Dont get discouraged if only a handful make it to adulthood! Best wishes, and good luck