[Goldmoon]

This spawn log is for my hmpk pair, Aphrodite (F) and Eros (M). The fry are 5 weeks old as of today, and I decided to make a spawn log to celebrate the beauty of these little ones! If anyone is interested in more detailed information about this spawn let me know and I’d be happy to share (I’ve kept detailed notes, lol)!

I used a father-in method for this spawn, so he remained with the fry until 7 days after they hatched. He was fed on the day the fry became free swimming, and then twice every day after that. Here are some significant dates for this spawn:

8/30 - Spawning occurred (after only 4 hours of releasing the female!)
9/1 - Eggs hatched
9/2 - Fry became free swimming
9/8 - Eros was removed
9/12-9/13 - all fins (except for ventrals) became visible (ventrals developed, just not at this stage).
9/17-9/18 - Iridescence started showing
9/24 - Swim bladders forming
10/2 - Some red and black showing, most fry are about 0.5” in size

And some pictures!

Eros (copper hmpk):

Aphrodite (koi hmpk):

“Showing off” and spawning:

Fry (not sure why the pictures are out of order, but hopefully you guys get the point haha):

A special thanks to @FairyFishTales for all of the information about raising fry!

Thanks for looking! 😀

 

[Goldmoon]

Wow!! Keep me posted! This is very interesting

Thanks! I’ll be sure to post updates, I’m pretty excited about these guys 😃

Love the color on that male!

Thank you! He’s definitely one of the more beautiful fish I’ve owned… I really love his color and his form!

Me too!
And congratulations on your spawn!

Thank you! I’m really excited about this spawn, I’m looking forward to seeing how the babies look as adults!

 

[Goldmoon]

Wow your fish are gorgeous, and the fry have shuch a beautiful color!

Thank you! I’m really excited about this spawn, I’m hoping some of the fry will have marble patterns with the iridescence, but if not I won’t be upset haha. Thanks for looking 😁

 

[Goldmoon]

Do you know the male‘s genetic background/parents?

I actually don’t, but some of his siblings were also for sale when I got him. They looked identical in terms of color, there were just slight variations in form (one had longer ventrals, another didn’t have as nice of a dorsal, etc.). Eros was the nicest, strongest looking one (imo) so that’s why I chose him. I’d assume, since all of the siblings I saw were the same in terms of color, that he came from a copper or maybe even metallic line. But I can’t be sure. I mostly chose him for his form if I’m being honest haha (and he turned out to be a pretty awesome dad, too)!

 

[Goldmoon]

so beautiful

Thank you so much! I love these guys 🥰

Are you going to sell them? (the fry)

Yes, I’m guessing there are about 100 fry right now and as much as I’d like to keep them all, that’s simply not plausible haha. I plan on selling them online and maybe to some local fish stores once they reach maturity. I haven’t decided what I’ll charge for them yet though, it’ll probably depend on form and colors of the individual fish.

 

[Goldmoon]

Some pictures from today! On some of the babies, there is some red showing on their fins. Others have black coming in on their anal fins too. I’m so excited to watch them get/change color, they seem to change and grow more every day! The last pic shows a baby with some of the red on its fins (even though it’s not the clearest picture). Sorry about the water spots in the photos, I took these after doing the daily 70% WC and it got a little messy lol. Thanks for reading!

 

[Goldmoon]

Wow, they are so lovely!!!!

Thank you so much! I’m really excited to see how they change as they reach adulthood. I love them so much! 😊

 

[Goldmoon]

So sweet!

I‘ve read that Copper x (Red) Cambodian might produce fish like the father of your spawn is.

However, I think Coppers can have such diverse genetic backgrounds, that it will be difficult to predict.

Maybe @indjo can tell us more☺?!

To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what the male would be characterized as in terms of color. I made a post a while back asking if anyone knew what color he is and was informed he’s likely a copper. He does have a copper/metallic look to him (and thats what I presumed him to be when I originally got him) but usually the metallic and copper colors are blues and silvers, not red. It’s very likely his genetics aren’t from a pure line. I mostly chose him for his form, as I really liked his fin balance and body shape. I’ll be interested to see if his coloration will be predominantly passed onto the fry, or they’ll show more of Aphrodite’s koi/marble genes (although I know koi is recessive and may not be inherited because the father isn’t a koi). Genetics are very interesting to me haha. Thanks for reading!

 

[Goldmoon]

To my knowledge the male's color is influenced by marble genes - whether he is from a marble line or has marble ancestry. Years of breeding coppers, crossing to red and cambodian, naver gave me that color. But recently copper line x marble produce some "red coppers" - not as fully colored as him, but shows red backeground.

The female is marble - unpredictabie. Common regular color should range between turquoise, steel blue, royal, and copper - probably with red fins. But with marble genes, color and pattern could be anything - from red koi, multi colored koi, black/dark koi, etc. Since male is solid colored, most should have more solid patterns (not spots like koi).

*** All coppers are metallic line colors. However, red and royal blue cannot (usually) show the metallic trait (shiny). Your male is, to my knowledge, a rare red metallic combo.

Congrats on your successful spawn.

Thank you so much for the response and all of that information! That’s exciting to hear that his color is unique and on the rarer side. Im going to be really interested to see what color combinations I get in the fry, especially because it sounds like there could be a wide range. While I’m hoping for some marble fry, I’m not going to be disappointed if there aren’t any in this generation. I’m not too knowledgeable when it comes to the genetics of bettas, but I find it very interesting! I would’ve never guessed he had marble influence in his genetics, but it makes sense that the red had to be introduced into the copper genetics somehow.

Thank you again for the reply!

 

[Goldmoon]

Not the clearest picture, but I wanted to post this so you guys had an idea of how many fry there are from this spawn. Mind you, both Aphrodite and Eros were first time parents! (The fry are on the floor of the tank because I just fed them and they’re picking up fallen pieces off of the bottom haha). Thanks for reading!

 

[Goldmoon]

Very nice, I'm definitely interested in seeing how this turns out.
I have a male like yours, I call him scarface because I thought of the red blotch on the head was a scar, but looking are Eros, apparently it's not a scar. Mine was mislabeled as dragons scale at petco, but they seem to be called red gold or rose gold. I've recently breed mine to two females that are maybe partially metallic, a partial mask bi-color and partial masked cambodian(idk?partial dragon?).

As for genetic, below is from 2007, it's long fin, so maybe other breeders recreated it or these hmpk could be descendants:
View attachment 1046918
More: View attachment 1046919

That’s really interesting! That fish looks just like Eros, there’s just slight differences in the concentration of red in the body. I’ve never really been able to see fish that look like him before, so that’s really neat.

Do you have a spawn log for your fish? I’d be really interested to see how the fry turn out!

 

[Goldmoon]

The babies are 6 weeks old today! Majority are around 0.75”, some are a little bigger and some are a little smaller. They’ve started eating the whole frozen brine shrimp that I give to my adults, I think that’s really going to help speed up their growth. Thanks for reading!

 

[Goldmoon]

I know I already made a post today, but my sister and I just spent the last 2.5 hours moving the fry to a bigger tank and I really wanted to share this. We counted the fry individually and came up with a grand total of 462 babies. That is a number far beyond comprehension for me… I’m obviously not very good at estimating because I guessed there were around 100 haha. I feel so blessed to have all of these babies survive so far and be so healthy. This is my biggest spawn by far; in all of my others I’ve gotten very few to survive this long. Although this is a LOT of babies, I hope I’m able to raise all of them to adulthood. I’m already planning out a jarring system for them along with divided tanks in case I can’t fit enough individual containers in the bookshelf space I’m looking to use. I’m really putting my heart and soul into these guys. I hope that the bigger tank helps them continue to grow and turn into beautiful adults. And I’m forever grateful for the help of my sister— I can’t even imagine how long it would have taken without her. Overall, I’m just feeling very happy about this spawn and wanted to share. Thanks for reading! 😌

 

[Goldmoon]

I don't have a grow log, but I'll probably make a thread of the results. My male has a slight spade tail and unfortunately looks over inbred with a hunchback. So far the frys are still tiny, all the cambodian fry are light colored and some looks shinier than others, I'm expecting some metallic reds (probably not like the male tho) and cambos. The blue/red bi-color (definitely mix background ) fry are 3/4 light color and 1/4 dark.

Whoa, over 462 fry!

That sounds like a really interesting mix of colors, I’d definitely be interested to see the results if/when you decide to post them! I’m hoping to see similar results in my fry, plus some marbles because of the female’s koi genes.
Yeah, 462 is quite the batch haha. I’m going through $10-$20 worth of food almost every week (not to mention hours each day dedicated to water changes, observation, etc.), which is pretty significant compared to other spawns I’ve had. It’s all worth it though because I get to see these guys grow up and that’s the best part of breeding imo. I’d do anything for these guys haha… I went off on a bit of a tangent there, but you get the point… sorry about that 🤣

 

[Goldmoon]

I lost 3 fry in a siphoning incident during a water change today, I feel terrible… SIP little ones <3

 

[Goldmoon]

Sorry for your losses....

Thank you. They will be missed and I feel terrible about it, as their deaths could have been prevented. I guess it is a learning experience though, as I won’t be making that mistake ever again.

So lovely

Thank you so much!

 

[Goldmoon]

Today I started setting up my jarring system for these guys. Since I’ve never had a spawn this large before, I needed to come up with something much more intense than I’ve ever used in the past (which has mostly been divided tanks). I went out today and got 10 deli cups from my local grocery store. I wanted to start with a small amount to see how this system would work, and if the size of the container would be good for the fish. In hindsight I think I’m going to need smaller jars, possibly with recirculating water to avoid it fouling quickly. While it would be ideal for each baby to have a container this size, it simply wouldn’t be possible for me to have 400+ of these set up and heated.

Here are the containers I got:

I set up a bin with a heater and thermometer and put the cups inside so that they could all be heated together:

Then, I chose 10 of the biggest fry that have started flaring and “squaring off” with some of their siblings, scooped them up and acclimated them using pet store cups:

And finally, I added the babies into their new “homes”! I’m guessing the containers are about 1/4 gallon:

Aaaaaand… some pictures of babies still in the grow out tank:

Thanks for reading!

 

[Goldmoon]

Oh my goodness, they are so stinkin' cute!!!! That 2nd to last pic is ADORABLE!!!!! 💕

Thank you so much! I’ve been trying to improve my photography skills and that baby happened to turn just as I took the picture!

 

[Goldmoon]

Well, I just ordered 250 deli containers that are 32oz each (probably very similar to the ones I got from the grocery store). Although it probably would’ve made more sense to go with the 16oz size, I couldn’t bring myself to keep them in containers that small. I think I’m going to try getting a storage bin meant for going under a bed so that I can fit a bunch of containers in it. It’ll be a similar setup to the bin and containers I already set up, only it’ll fit a lot more babies. If I need to order more containers I will, but I figured 250 would be a good starting amount.

Aggression is starting to show in these little guys, even though they’re still small (around 1”). I don’t want any of their fins to get damaged and have the potential to not heal properly as an adult, so I plan on separating out the biggest ones a bit prematurely (unless someone wants to convince me otherwise lol). Like I mentioned before, this is by far the biggest spawn I’ve ever had and jarring fish is new to me (I’ve always just used divided tanks). If anyone has any tips for jarring fry from huge spawns like this, I’d be grateful for any suggestions!

Thanks for reading!

 

[Goldmoon]

It’s the babies’ 7 week old birthday today! Here is one of the fish I jarred, their colors are coming in really nicely! While most of this spawn looks like it’s going to be irid and red bicolors, there are a couple of fry that appear to be marbling. Also, the fin balance on them (even though they’re not even 2 months old yet) is starting to look promising! It’s really neat, because I’m also starting to be able to see ray branching on the bigger fry, and it’s looking pretty even so far.

The jars I ordered should be here tomorrow so hopefully I’ll be able to separate out a couple more of the bigger fry. I also got one of those plastic pools meant for dogs to splash around in, which I’ll be heating and putting the containers into. That way, they’re all kept at a good temperature and I won’t have to buy a ton of extra heaters and storage bins.

(Excuse these photos, I just took them on my phone instead of using my camera so the quality isn’t as good. You can see the ray branching better in the second photo, but the first one shows the color better).

Thanks for reading!