I'm sorry to hear about your pair! It's rare that a pair dies because of breeding, but it does happen. I'm glad this wasn't the case. The fry sound healthy. The colors will be interesting to see. I'd like to see how the combination will look.

What are your goals for this spawn? I know you stated colors, but do you mean a combination in between? Will you later introduce another color like, lets say, black?

Are you going for pure Rblue/Steel; Steel; Rblue or though/thinking about marbles? Marbles are my favorite BTW. Though I support you 100% regardless of your choice!

Good Luck and hopefully you'll get pictures up soon enough

 

I'm really sorry you lost your pair. Hopefully some of the spawn will have the traits you are breeding for. I too am trying to spawn show bettas. Guess we are in this together.

 

I should get mostly royal and steel blues from this spawn, but since they were pet store fish i'm also expecting some odd balls here and there. I haven't decided which way I'm going to swing yet color wise(royal or steel).

I wand to keep 3(at least one male and one female) so I guess it comes down to which ones end up being my favorites from this spawn. another factor to look at is web reduction so perhaps whichever blue the ones with the most web reduction end up being are the ones i will keep?

Genrally speaking(from what i've read) royal x steel with produce 50% of each, but with of course the exception of any stray genetics running around. SoI may just end up working with both royal and steel.

Up untill this spawn all i've worked with is marble. I LOVE them, but I want to get a more...predictable line going I think. I might introduce marble later if i can find a black/melano marble/butterfly. Marble is easy to introduce but harder to get rid of, like red. xD



Also,mini update. The fry are just over 2 weeks old(two weeks and 2 days). there's alot of size variation because they went about a week with no water changes(i was out of town for new years) but they all look healthy and enjoy watching me watch them. i did another head count and got to around 35 before my eyes started to cross, which sounds about right as i started with around 40 and had to remove 3 who were having issues but see no dead babies.

ETA:
just finished doing a 12% water change and i'm warming water for another one I plan to to after they finish eating.

also, i think i've asked this elsewhere but can't find it, has anyone tried setting up two spawns in one tank?
I was thinking divided 20gallon(divided into three parts) with a spawn on either side of the tank and the middle empty so they can't see each other, then when you removed the fathers and fry are free swimming removing the dividers? This would of course not be for people trying to keep certain strains clean.


@tpocicat oh? Have you set a goal and generation/time limit?

and yeah, i was rather fond of both parents. Most sad for the loss of the mom though, she was going to be a part of my sorority when i got more females.
Now i'm down to two adults, one old female(upwards of 4 years?) and one new-ish walmart female whom(with my experience with walmart x.x) i'm not expecting to live as long as my other girl.

hmm...maybe if i get enough females in this spawn i'll keep enough for a sorority then keep the 3 best males(one best royal one best steel and one with best web reduction). >.>

 

I should get mostly royal and steel blues from this spawn, but since they were pet store fish i'm also expecting some odd balls here and there. I haven't decided which way I'm going to swing yet color wise(royal or steel).

I wand to keep 3(at least one male and one female) so I guess it comes down to which ones end up being my favorites from this spawn. another factor to look at is web reduction so perhaps whichever blue the ones with the most web reduction end up being are the ones i will keep?

Genrally speaking(from what i've read) royal x steel with produce 50% of each, but with of course the exception of any stray genetics running around. SoI may just end up working with both royal and steel.

Up untill this spawn all i've worked with is marble. I LOVE them, but I want to get a more...predictable line going I think. I might introduce marble later if i can find a black/melano marble/butterfly. Marble is easy to introduce but harder to get rid of, like red. xD

Ah, I see. So you basically want something different. I understand. Just to let you know, I want to work with the HMPK salamanders. They are beautiful and are adored by almost everyone I know (who enjoys fish of course)!

I agree that the marble gene can be very tricky to get out. It takes a while, but can be accomplished. It is known to even pop up in generations far from the original marble/s that you added prev. Very unpredictable and such a surprise when perfected the right way. I enjoy the surpise, but love the butterfly gene as well. Mostly HMPK's are my favorite so that's why I strongly want salamander HMPKs.

Just as a suggestion, try to look for even fins if any. Some generations do and some don't.

 

No generation time limit, I'll just keep breeding the ones I think are the best. If I get any I think are good enough, I'll enter them in a local show (north or south California) and see what the judges think. That's the plan so far. I love marbles, I have a melano male, platinum male, adn red dragon male, to work with. I have a yellow dragon female, a blue marble female I might breed with my platinum male just to see what I get, but that is in the future. Just one spawn at a time

 

Hehe yeah. If I had any males i'd be working on a second spawn right now. I miss living in Fresno,it was much less boring then where i am now and based on your lovelies they sell better fish there. xD

The marble and the plat sound like they would have nice babies.

 

Would you believe that my royal blue pair produced some greens/turquoise? And they weren't from the fish market/LFS. Both breeders claimed that each came from a blue spawn..... I guess somewhere up their genetic tree there were greens....

Good luck on your fry. Hope they turn out the way you want them to.

 

You could always come visit. I get most of my bettas from Kaz's tropical fish. He imports them from Thailand.

 

Bettalover, yeah Salamanders are lovely <3 and for the most part breed true from what i've seen of photos of their spawns.
I'm also a HMPK fan. ~giggles~ I find them lovely, but the only PK sold here are 'dragons' and not all of them have the hm spread. I'm crossing my fingers a breeder here in town will have some white HMPK soon to sell/donate/rehome to me xD
And I'll try to look for the best fin form possible but since the breeders weren't very grand themselves i'm not expecting to much in the first generation other then seeing where I stand for a starting point.

indjo : well the blues and greens are basicly the same gene, greens are just alot more rare, so it's doesn't surprise me a green would come from a blue spawn..just that you got some greens, lucky you <3

tpocicat I might do that. I have some friends up in Fresno it would be nice to see again aswell. Maybe when you black spawn grows up I'll come visit to take one or two off your hands. xD It's just a 5 hour bus ride there and 5 hours back. x.x

 

Bettalover, yeah Salamanders are lovely <3 and for the most part breed true from what i've seen of photos of their spawns.
I'm also a HMPK fan. ~giggles~ I find them lovely, but the only PK sold here are 'dragons' and not all of them have the hm spread. I'm crossing my fingers a breeder here in town will have some white HMPK soon to sell/donate/rehome to me xD
And I'll try to look for the best fin form possible but since the breeders weren't very grand themselves i'm not expecting to much in the first generation other then seeing where I stand for a starting point.

I like big fins and all, but I love that HMPK/PKs have attitude and speed. Plus everyone loves HMs. I like being a little different at times lol.

I love dragons! Though I have to say my favorite betta would be a DTPK or HMPKDT. I find that the female pkdts are just so cute and look very "clean" when they have even lobes.

Anyway, thats very wise to see how the first generation turns out and what you want to breed in or find a way to breed out.

I agree with indjo that you really never know what your going to get 100%, remember when I said that some genes could come back far away from when you introduced the color/s and used the marble gener for example. Well indjo has experience with that.

!!MAN I LOVE BETTAS!!:-D

 

Bambi, you'd be welcome anytime.

 

had a mini heart attack. Went to feed my fry and could only find two until i put food in the tank, the rest were hiding in the plants. ><

 

That has happened to me too...they just seem to love hiding in the plants LOL, big fish eat little fish, they just feel safer there I think.

 

The rare green looks like a really rich forest green, will very little/no blue.
There's green with blue over it/mixed with it which isn't to hard to find. umm i'll look for a pic...but it's like a true purple...there's salamander which alot ofpeople call purple and think it's the rare one but it's not? ya know?

But that like...a melano isn't hard to find, but a melano with no iridescence over it is. Or how most white's develop red wash as they get older and getting a line with the redloss gene(where they would loose red and not gain it) is hard.

~giggles~~ I love dragons too,like my old Tux may he rest in piece, but without any dragon females around it would be a while before i set up a line.
I adore CTPK and HMPK...as long as the DT is even then i like dtpks..but most are the 'mitten' type where the split is to high or to low and it makes the fish look weird to me.


Update, found a dead fry when i woke up. I removed him and did a water change. He was one of the larger ones so i'm kinda bummed but i still have over 30 fry so I guess i should count myself lucky that i haven't really had any group deaths and such.

 

~giggles~~ I love dragons too,like my old Tux may he rest in piece, but without any dragon females around it would be a while before i set up a line.
I adore CTPK and HMPK...as long as the DT is even then i like dtpks..but most are the 'mitten' type where the split is to high or to low and it makes the fish look weird to me.


Update, found a dead fry when i woke up. I removed him and did a water change. He was one of the larger ones so i'm kinda bummed but i still have over 30 fry so I guess i should count myself lucky that i haven't really had any group deaths and such.

Well if you really are thinking of having a lone of hmpk or eben hm dragons and there are only males around you, I suggest buying online. Maybe even from chard or somone else.

I cant really say much about CTPKs. I crossed a pair before but the fry didnt make it. Though I havent really had much of an experience with them. Also ive mostly seen them at their worst so that wouldnt make it better at all.

Im sorry to hear that a fry died, but dont worry there are many more and some that you may find later down the road. Trust me I think this spawn is going to have a good outcome!

 

http://bubblesandbettas.blogspot.com/p/betta-breeds-tail-types.html

This is a green that had melano and peibald as well and i guess would be an ok example? but basically a nice dark green.

 

Omg, that almost doesnt look real, its soooo beautiful :shock:

 

well, with long fin being dominate a ct + a pk would give you combtails the first gen anyway. you would have to cross the two with the best web reduction together. I'm not a big CT fan because of how their rays curl in hard water. But the CTPK's i've seen seem to be a little more sturdy in that regard and look kinda...badass xD

Also, as much as I adore Chard babies, if i was going to pay for shipping he would have to have a stunning pair cheaper then I could buy from aquaid. xD because i'd be willing to pay the extra five to get it from thailand if it was better quality. I just HATE paying shipping.

And yeah, this is probably one of my more..healthy? spawns. I've had larger ones and lost alot of fry(starting with eighty ending in like 20-30). This one was smaller(about 40) but I've lost less fry. since most deaths i've had in other spawns happen in the first 3 weeks(bad genetics dying off/weaker fry dying) i'm almost 'in the clear' *knock on wood*.

On the green: isn't it? I've considered getting a turquoise or less vibrant green and breeding it to a melano to work with a line to try to produce something similar. But I need a really fish room and multiple breeding tank set up before i start working on other things. xD

 

I love crowntails. They used to be my favorite betta before I started breedinf hms and hmpks. I also want to breed cts again and get a few that have nice we reduction and fin length.

I used to have some spawns with fry numbers in the 100s, but that was with nice show pairs that were imports or from show breeders.

 

Yeah. I've considered getting a couple females from martinis mommy because i've heard her lines are pretty fertile. I've never had more then 80 fry to start with but i've only bred either petstore fish or fish red from petstore fish. Which out here aren't very good(not a large betta fan base in my town, we just recently got another breeder who moved here xD he imports his fish from thailand and wants to start a betta shop one day out here and if he does it will mostly be thai imports and fry bred by him or myself or other local breeders....more breeders need tomove ouut here so we can have a local club, xD

 

Yeah, Karen's fish are truly top of the line breeders. They have stunning colors and finnage.

Your the lucky one!! I dont have any breeders that live near me let alone in the same town. Probably in the next state or so, but thats as close as I get.

I wish I had someone else who enjoys fish keepong in general around me. If I was to be lucky id know of someone that likes bettas that live near me. And would like a breeder to share experiences.

 

There are a couple breeders in/near new york i've seen around some forums. no names come to mind though.~looks~
(here's one on another forum i'm on: http://www.ultimatebettas.com/index.php?showuser=10169 ) I think I've seen other member on bettafish listed as in new york aswell.
You could also maybe make a small flyer about bettafish.com or just wanting to start a fish lovers group in general and ask if you can leave it/some at your local fish shop?

I just happened to be stalking someone on another site(well, his fish) when he mentioned moving and iasked where and he mentioned the (larger) town next to mine.I told him where I lived and he said that's where he was moving but didn't think I would know about it(small town) xD. It was just luck.
He said he would normally sell the white HM male he's gonna sell me for $25 in aquabid and I believe it, his fish are gorgouse, but since he semi-know me I can get the boy I wanted for $15 <3 Gonna get him and breed him to my walmart rescue if she ever un-stress stripes. x.x she shows no signs of illness. Has places to hide, has clean water..but has been stressed since I got her about two weeks ago.>.> I think she just hates me cuz she's eggy and swims around fine,and eats(when i walk away)) but whever i go to look at here here come the stripes.

 

Thats a good idea! Will do. I also know the lps owner since ive been in his shop everyday for the past year and a half so im sure hell let me do that.

Also thats a good price for a good quality halfmoon because usually hms are around $25 when they are in good enough shape.

Heh. Well your female doesnt hate you. To be technical, bettas dont have that emotion. She has only been there a couple of weeks so just give her some extra time. She'll keep the stripes away and warm up to you. Try putting a mirror in front of her or showing her one of your males. She will get comfortable.

 

I have no remaining males. >< I'm hoping she'll warm up to the new white boy who I might be picking up today or tomorrow(will try to have the guy take a decent picture for me since I can't).
I've never had a fish take so long to warm up to me. I can see her from across mt bed right now and she's not stress striped, but I know as soon as I walk over to feed her they'll pop back up. xD

No more dead fry this morning. I woke up to see them begging for food. xD It seems like they grew so much overnight. <3

 

I'mnot breeding for dragon. ~giggles~ but yeah I know the basics of their genetics and the partials and all that.



So...kinda exciting news? Mixed with sad? I have an albino fry... which is awesome.
But..he has sinking issues. I'm hoping he'll get better. I'm guessing this is a swimbladder issue? I've never had this problem(or..any real health problems) with any of my spawns. Is treating swimbladder issues different for fry then adults? Should I just QT him in a warmer/shallower tank(or rather a shallow container floating is warmer tank)?.. D;


Also..doing a 100% on my ten gallon today. the fry have been moved to two one gallon tanks

 

Wow, an albino! If he's having problems reaching the surface then I'd put him in a shallow container.

 

Fry are loving the super clean tank. xD

The albino is floating in a small container in the spawns tank and seems to be doing better. he swimming and not hopping now.
All the other fry are hanging out by the container trying to see inside like "why is he in there? o.o"

 

Sounds like everything is going according to plan.

Good luck.

 

Yeah. I just lve sitting and watching my fry.

I'm thinking I might do a second spawn. Either dragon hmpk x hmpk or HM x hmpk if my petco has a decent HMPK girl. I'm going to call them tomorrow and see when they're next shipment is and if they can order some maybe...
Hopefully I can get a good pair and stat conditioning them by the time this month is 5 weeks old and then bred by the time this spawn is 6-7 weeks old.
Then simply move this spawn into a larger grow out, then move the new fry into the ten gallon. And when it's time to jar up/move to more permanent tanks/sell this spawn the second should be ready for the grow out? And I can keep it going like that. Have two lines to work on in a rounding fashion... Hmm >.>
..or maybe a DT girl instead of a HMPK girl. D;
I always think too much when U'm up at one in the morning. ~goes back to staring at my fry~