Red Dragon HMPKxBlack Dragon HM Spawn!

[Panthera]

Well here goes yet another spawn attempt; hopefully this will be my last...and I may end up with some fry. I've tried spawning bettas since February with little to no success. The closest I got was in Mid-April, when my Black Dragon HMPK Zankou and my Black Dragon HM Sprinx actually embraced once, and there were about 30 eggs in the nest. Well needless to say he ate the 100 eggs she released onto the floor. I should have taken that as a sign, because when I woke up the next morning, all the eggs in the nest were gone :(

Now that I've gotten a job, I have more money to spend on my addictio....hobby, so I've really tried to make the spawn tank the best it can be. Its a 5 gallon full to about 5" of water, an IAL, some Wisteria, and a Lava Rock in the middle with a Java Fern attached to it. The male I'm using I picked up about 2 weeks ago at Petco, (I know not the best stock, but he really is amazing, and to be honest I don't care if he's a Petco Fish.) The Female I purchased around a month and a half ago, with 2 of her sisters off of Aquabid.

I added him to the spawn tank about 3 days ago, and he instantly started building a nest without even seeing her. Once it got huge, (Little did I know that it was going to get bigger....), I added her into the tank inside a cup. I released her last night, and things seem to be going well; he's chasing her but mostly just bubble nesting, she has no damage whatsoever though and still has her breeding bars. Anyway, enough babbling, here are some videos and some pics that I've taken. I hope you enjoy! Any insight would be appreciated :D

Cerberus Bubblenesting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjPQK_aHj8E

Sprinx, meet Cerberus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKFGA4QYQrM

Pics










Well I hope you guys liked the vids/pics, I couldn't get any good pics of Sprinx though...she hates the camera :/ Anyway I'm gonna stop typing now since I don't want to make you guys stop reading due to boredom. Still nothing going on in the spawn tank, he just chases her really fast whenever she gets near the nest, she has gone towards it a few times though, so I think thats a good sign. Bye for now :P

[indjo]

Good luck. Hope all goes well this time.

[youlovegnats]

Good luck!

[AngelicScars]

Good luck!

[leeb62]

If that male eats the egg too. You can try to articfial hatch your eggs it isn't hard and that way you know you have some fry for sure.

[Panthera]

I have eggs! After chasing the female around for like 10 minutes I finally got her, and she's back i nthe divided 10 gallon. But now it LOOKS like he's eating the eggs. He kind of takes a big chunk out of teh nest and it looks like he's either chewing or choking and then spits some bubbles out every once in a while, but I cant see him really putting eggs back.

What do you think I should do? Take him out? I can't be sure if he's eating them or not though :/ Help please!

[Panthera]

Anyone wanna help me count the eggs? I see a bunch of something, but I'm not sure if they're eggs or bubbles =/

[SashimiBetta]

I read this article about Lava Rocks...they said that they aren't the best choice for tanks because if they rub against it, they can loose some scales or minor/majorly injure themselves. Not to scare you or anything..But that is what I read.

If I were you I would just stick to silk/live plants instead of fancy rocks(: Good luck!

[youlovegnats]

I can see 5 eggs in that photo. Other than that, I think that's all you might have. :/
Was it your fishs' first time? My first pair didn't spawn properly their first time and the male ended up eating all of the eggs because they were infertile. This might be what has happened to you- hence your male (eating?) the eggs.

[youlovegnats]

Oh and about artificially hatching the eggs- I feel that unless that dad is being negligent to his spawn, that you really shouldn't do it. The dad takes care of the eggs & fry that are infertile, weak, sick, deformed, malformed, or infected. IMO, I just think that if you want fry, you want them to be as healthy as possible.