Piineapple babies! At least that's the hope :-D This will be my first spawn if all goes well.
Dad is a show quality OHM Pineapple Butterfly imported from Thailand. I'm showing his eBay pic because his fins sadly will probably never look this good again after he bit them up during shipping:
Mom is a similarly sized Pineapple HM with a slight copper sheen to her iridescence (dad's is more blue). She also has very thin black edging on her fins. I don't have pics uploaded of her yet, will get those as soon as I figure out where I left my camera.
Anyway, the breeding tank is all set up. It's a 10 gallon with about 6" of water in it. It has a bubble filter in place for when the fry are free swimming, lots of frogbit on the surface with good roots hanging down, an IAL (I'm adding more today), a snail and a Krabby Patty decoration for cover. I didn't have any styrofoam cupos so I took a piece of flat styrofoam about 1" thick and carved out a hollow space in the middle but left the sides touching the water. It also has an insulated metal sheet over it which I'm hoping will keep in the humidity underneath it. The whole tank is very humid right now too, I didn't cut out any pieces on the versatop cover so the water cannot evaporate easily.
I also have an LED light over the whole tank so daddy can see at night. I thought it was just a blue LED but realized this morning it has a daylight/nightlight feature so the daylight is mostly white LED with a few blues.
The spawning tank is set up in my closet XD It was the only good solution, my fish room is my bedroom and since the light will need to stay on for 3 days after the spawning it needs to stay in there so it doesn't drive me nuts at night.
The growout tank is a beautifully planted 20gal long tank. It has fluorite substrate with a sand cap, two African mopani driftwood logs covered in rare mosses, and lots of frogtbit in there too. Plus some java fern, anubias, and crypts.
ANYWAY, I put mommy in a 2 gallon tank which I placed inside the breeding tank last night, and somehow she escaped into the main tank XD I decided that since she was the one who jumped and the not other way around, I'd let her stay in there and see what happened. I was conditioning them in side by side tanks for a week before this so I figured they could be ready.
Mom was displaying vertical stripes and bowing her head down at dad, swimming up to him to flirt and then swimming away, At first dad seemed to have NO CLUE what was going on lol. Then he got the picture and started chasing her back and flaring at her. He also decided he liked the styrofoam area. They did this for about 4 hours and never once stayed close long enough to attempt an embrace. it was almost midnight at this point and I decided that since there were no bubbles I'd take out the mom for the night, since I wouldn't be available to remove her from the tank in the middle of the night if the spawning occurred. I'm going to try them again after my job interview today. I am a tad worried that the water is to viscous still to support a bubble nest. I added extra API water conditioner (I usually use Prime) because I've noticed the slime coat stuff really helps with keeping bubbles on the surface. I will also keep the tank hood open to let dust fall in.
I have been feeding mom and dad several small meals per day of their regular pellets, defrosted bloodworms and brine shrimp. I wish I had access to mosquito larvae, but it's reached the point of getting too cold outside at night to support them.
Hoping this afternoon's breeding goes more successfully. They're both first-timers and so am I, so we're all kind of just trying to muddle through this XD At least I have everything set up well and did my homework!
Babies
If you're interested in a pineapple baby (or several) please subscribe to this thread! Should my spawning be successful I will definitely have babies available for the BettaFish.com community, to thank you all for your help and expert advice. Depending on how the spawning goes, I will have pet quality babies available at a very reasonable price, and potentially some show quality babies as well.
Dad is a show quality OHM Pineapple Butterfly imported from Thailand. I'm showing his eBay pic because his fins sadly will probably never look this good again after he bit them up during shipping:
Mom is a similarly sized Pineapple HM with a slight copper sheen to her iridescence (dad's is more blue). She also has very thin black edging on her fins. I don't have pics uploaded of her yet, will get those as soon as I figure out where I left my camera.
Anyway, the breeding tank is all set up. It's a 10 gallon with about 6" of water in it. It has a bubble filter in place for when the fry are free swimming, lots of frogbit on the surface with good roots hanging down, an IAL (I'm adding more today), a snail and a Krabby Patty decoration for cover. I didn't have any styrofoam cupos so I took a piece of flat styrofoam about 1" thick and carved out a hollow space in the middle but left the sides touching the water. It also has an insulated metal sheet over it which I'm hoping will keep in the humidity underneath it. The whole tank is very humid right now too, I didn't cut out any pieces on the versatop cover so the water cannot evaporate easily.
I also have an LED light over the whole tank so daddy can see at night. I thought it was just a blue LED but realized this morning it has a daylight/nightlight feature so the daylight is mostly white LED with a few blues.
The spawning tank is set up in my closet XD It was the only good solution, my fish room is my bedroom and since the light will need to stay on for 3 days after the spawning it needs to stay in there so it doesn't drive me nuts at night.
The growout tank is a beautifully planted 20gal long tank. It has fluorite substrate with a sand cap, two African mopani driftwood logs covered in rare mosses, and lots of frogtbit in there too. Plus some java fern, anubias, and crypts.
ANYWAY, I put mommy in a 2 gallon tank which I placed inside the breeding tank last night, and somehow she escaped into the main tank XD I decided that since she was the one who jumped and the not other way around, I'd let her stay in there and see what happened. I was conditioning them in side by side tanks for a week before this so I figured they could be ready.
Mom was displaying vertical stripes and bowing her head down at dad, swimming up to him to flirt and then swimming away, At first dad seemed to have NO CLUE what was going on lol. Then he got the picture and started chasing her back and flaring at her. He also decided he liked the styrofoam area. They did this for about 4 hours and never once stayed close long enough to attempt an embrace. it was almost midnight at this point and I decided that since there were no bubbles I'd take out the mom for the night, since I wouldn't be available to remove her from the tank in the middle of the night if the spawning occurred. I'm going to try them again after my job interview today. I am a tad worried that the water is to viscous still to support a bubble nest. I added extra API water conditioner (I usually use Prime) because I've noticed the slime coat stuff really helps with keeping bubbles on the surface. I will also keep the tank hood open to let dust fall in.
I have been feeding mom and dad several small meals per day of their regular pellets, defrosted bloodworms and brine shrimp. I wish I had access to mosquito larvae, but it's reached the point of getting too cold outside at night to support them.
Hoping this afternoon's breeding goes more successfully. They're both first-timers and so am I, so we're all kind of just trying to muddle through this XD At least I have everything set up well and did my homework!
Babies
If you're interested in a pineapple baby (or several) please subscribe to this thread! Should my spawning be successful I will definitely have babies available for the BettaFish.com community, to thank you all for your help and expert advice. Depending on how the spawning goes, I will have pet quality babies available at a very reasonable price, and potentially some show quality babies as well.