I love reading journals so here I am to give back in turn. Not much experience with bettas so here is to hoping it will be a smooth ride :grin2:
A few weeks ago I was checking out local fish for sale. A breeder of bettas living a little over an hour away was offering a few adults no longer fitting with her breeding projects. There was my first experience in seeing a betta I just could not pass up, a nicely evenly marbled nemo koi (or so she was labeled, thought that any koi with blue iridesence showing was a galaxy koi?). Had to skip out on my brother's birthday party for an hour to pick her up as the breeder had an appointment near his place, hehe.
Got to liking her a lot more than I thought, and two weeks later three additional beauties have taken up residence. I was actually planning to buy two more in a fish store about an hour away - they imported some kois which generally cannot be found in my local stores and I went over to get them. I spent a good two hours staring at their various tanks (to be fair, they had about a hundred on display) observing their behaviour and flaring. Then I came across a lonely lad, with the most spectacular colour scheme, in a tank sandwiched in between sororities and without a label. I asked the shop owner if he was a male plakat - he was. Then I got to talking with the guy and ended up buying him for the price of girl. As well as a koi male and another koi female.
So here we are:
Versailles, HMPK nemo (?) koi lady. "The one that started it all". She has a fearless but calm, and curious personality. If I ever got to starting a sorority, she would certainly be its queen. According to the breeder I bought her from, she is slightly over a year old and has had a batch of fry. Not sure if she is quite the halfmoon are just a super-super-delta though, my eye isn't experienced with these things. She is clearly rocking her new tank.
Osaka, HMPK koi male. Also counts as a galaxy I guess, with the iridescent scaling? I'm not actually sure if he is a halfmoon, because he doesn't flare much. I really love his colour scheme, I picked him out over the other koi males they had because of it, as well as his personality. Just like versailles, he is cool-but-collected. Very inquisitive, always swims over when someone walks by the tank, but on the other hand he rarely seems to flare. He moved about all day though, just kind of swimming hither and tither. He started his efforts in making a huge bubble nest today after I added another batch of plants to his tank yesterday.
Ulaanbatar, HMPK koi lady. She is my only koi without any blue. I bought her mostly because she seemed to have a mellow personality in the sorority tank she was in, without being a pushover. When she flared I could clearly see the perfect 180 degree of her caudal. She is the only one so far having some trouble adjusting to her new environment, mostly spending her time up, hiding in the plants so I do not have a clear picture of her, hence she is missing below. Maybe in the coming days.
Kyoto, DT(?)PK marbled(?) multicolour. Though I love the koi colour scheme by far the most out of all the named colours that I have seen, this guy just stunned me from first sight and still does so. Low-key stealing the show. He is more feisty than my other bettas, and loves exploring the substrate, pecking at this or that, inspecting his favourite plants. Currently busy building a massive bubble nest that already cover a good portion of his jungle. He is the king of the hill. Whenever I peer into his tank he rushes over and then swims back and forth near my face, flaring once at first, then just checking me out before going back to his business. Busybody. Would love it if someone could tell me where his colour scheme comes from.. is that just weirdly lucky marbling that has turned his tail into a perfect split of red and blue?
A few weeks ago I was checking out local fish for sale. A breeder of bettas living a little over an hour away was offering a few adults no longer fitting with her breeding projects. There was my first experience in seeing a betta I just could not pass up, a nicely evenly marbled nemo koi (or so she was labeled, thought that any koi with blue iridesence showing was a galaxy koi?). Had to skip out on my brother's birthday party for an hour to pick her up as the breeder had an appointment near his place, hehe.
Got to liking her a lot more than I thought, and two weeks later three additional beauties have taken up residence. I was actually planning to buy two more in a fish store about an hour away - they imported some kois which generally cannot be found in my local stores and I went over to get them. I spent a good two hours staring at their various tanks (to be fair, they had about a hundred on display) observing their behaviour and flaring. Then I came across a lonely lad, with the most spectacular colour scheme, in a tank sandwiched in between sororities and without a label. I asked the shop owner if he was a male plakat - he was. Then I got to talking with the guy and ended up buying him for the price of girl. As well as a koi male and another koi female.
So here we are:
Versailles, HMPK nemo (?) koi lady. "The one that started it all". She has a fearless but calm, and curious personality. If I ever got to starting a sorority, she would certainly be its queen. According to the breeder I bought her from, she is slightly over a year old and has had a batch of fry. Not sure if she is quite the halfmoon are just a super-super-delta though, my eye isn't experienced with these things. She is clearly rocking her new tank.
Osaka, HMPK koi male. Also counts as a galaxy I guess, with the iridescent scaling? I'm not actually sure if he is a halfmoon, because he doesn't flare much. I really love his colour scheme, I picked him out over the other koi males they had because of it, as well as his personality. Just like versailles, he is cool-but-collected. Very inquisitive, always swims over when someone walks by the tank, but on the other hand he rarely seems to flare. He moved about all day though, just kind of swimming hither and tither. He started his efforts in making a huge bubble nest today after I added another batch of plants to his tank yesterday.
Ulaanbatar, HMPK koi lady. She is my only koi without any blue. I bought her mostly because she seemed to have a mellow personality in the sorority tank she was in, without being a pushover. When she flared I could clearly see the perfect 180 degree of her caudal. She is the only one so far having some trouble adjusting to her new environment, mostly spending her time up, hiding in the plants so I do not have a clear picture of her, hence she is missing below. Maybe in the coming days.
Kyoto, DT(?)PK marbled(?) multicolour. Though I love the koi colour scheme by far the most out of all the named colours that I have seen, this guy just stunned me from first sight and still does so. Low-key stealing the show. He is more feisty than my other bettas, and loves exploring the substrate, pecking at this or that, inspecting his favourite plants. Currently busy building a massive bubble nest that already cover a good portion of his jungle. He is the king of the hill. Whenever I peer into his tank he rushes over and then swims back and forth near my face, flaring once at first, then just checking me out before going back to his business. Busybody. Would love it if someone could tell me where his colour scheme comes from.. is that just weirdly lucky marbling that has turned his tail into a perfect split of red and blue?