Kaosu (female marble HMPK) x Sekihan (male HMPK)

My little lady Kaosu is from a breeder in Thailand, I have had her since March. She was my second fancy betta. Her mate, Sekihan was imported to the States and I bought him off a guy on ebay, he was my first fancy betta. I had 4 wild bettas before that, but have sold all but one and the last one isn't looking too healthy despite my best efforts to keep him alive, so the fancy bettas are taking over.

I have spawned these two once before, with great initial success. It was practically text book how it went, a little nipping and chasing, but Seki bubble nested, they embraced, and he tended his eggs perfectly. Especially considering it was the first time for both of them. However, 3 weeks later, all the fry died due to a fungal outbreak and me not realizing what was going on until it was too late. Totally my fault. I tried feeding them freeze dried baby brine shrimp, and it is my suspicion that it didn't get eaten and caused the fungus. I know better now. I have the baby brine shrimp eggs, have hatched a few practice cultures, and I also have vinegar eels and fairy shrimp eggs for when they get a bit larger.

All that aside, I did try to breed them again 2 weeks ago, but I do not think that either of them were ready to try again. So I have been conditioning them for almost a month now. I have Seki in a separate tank next to Kaosu, with a cardboard divider to keep them out of the line of sight most of the day, but I do let them have flirting time for an hour each day. I also have a male in the same tank behind a mostly covered divider with Kaosu to keep her hormones racing. She is getting mighty fat and full of eggs. As soon as my in-laws and family are gone after visiting for my hubby's graduation, I am going to my couple try again. If it doesn't work this third time, I am going to condition Kaosu to spawn with my CT male Spike to try and get some comb tails.

Attached are pics of Sekihan, the red marble male and Kaosu, the orange, white, navy blue marble female. I expect some very interesting babies from this paring if I can manage not to lose them all this time!