Hi all, so after my previous CT spawn (which brought me a lot of joy and valuable learning experience), I've been experimenting with Red Dragons HMs since July 2012. They're one of the strains I'm completely mesmerized by, and I remember it was like dream come true when I obtained my first pair. I bought them from a renowned local breeder online for a ok price in February. Sadly though, the male passed on only about 3 months after I had him from some tumorous growth on his side despite all my TLC. This was him at his prime:
Picture. He was a bit of a rosetail.
I never did manage to find a replacement HM male for his sibling. They're quite rare here. However I managed to secure a full mask Red Dragon HMPK import for approx USD17 during a pet fair. I didn't really know what to expect from a cross between HM and HMPK..I heard there is a chance that HMs could appear so I just went for it. Plus, considering the HM female's sibling was a rosetail, thought that having HMPK genes would somewhat balance it out.
First try
So I spawned them on 9 July 2012. Everything went smoothly, too good to be true...there's gotta be over 200 eggs..until the next morning when I found them all gone. Dad ate all the eggs...along with my heart, lol. After scouring the tank, I found only 10 eggs left. Took out the dad, left the eggs there and 3.5 months later, today, I have 9 adult babies with me (one jumped out from his container a few weeks ago) :/. One grew up to be a breathtaking Red Dragon HM I wouldn't even dream of owning. This is him today:
Second try
As for the egg-eater dad, I tested him again the week after with one of my Marble Cambodian CT female from my previous spawn. I half expected him to eat the eggs, but he didn't, surprisingly. This batch resulted in slightly fewer than 100 babies. Didn't expect much from a clean Cambodian cross. However, now they're almost all grown up, some are pretty impressive in their own ways. I might cover this on my next thread if I have time. ;D
Third try
About a month later (24 August) once my Red Dragon HM female is all healed up, I bred her again with the same male. He didn't eat the eggs this time, and there was probably more eggs compared to the first try. The babies are 2 months old now and thriving. This batch of babies will be the focus of this thread. :)
I have taken some photos of the parents spawning. Now organizing the photos before I upload them. ;)
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