[ShadeSlayer]

Hey, guys! I'm back after a break. I've decided to start a general journal to just rant about my fishes. (Warning, sarcasm and irony is going to come up at some point in this thread. Be warned.) :grin2:

Some things to come in this summer are:
1: The possibility of potentially breeding my new half-moon, Luc, who I talk more about later on.
2: the addition of a female betta (First ever, if that happens)
3: A guppy breeding program
4: The moving deal my family might be having.
Lots going on.
I like pets. They’ve always been apart of my life. I currently have three beloved orange tabby cats (all male) Three bunnies (Again, all male) a dwarf grey and white hamster called Dipper (Male again) I ride a breeding-stock paint mare, a seal-brown QH 25 year old gelding, and I love on the pack of dogs that run around our neighborhood. And, of course, my fish.
I have two tanks. One, a ten gallon community, is stocked with my male betta, a blue/green veiltail I rescued from Petsmart called Samwise. (Yeah, like the hobbit, because I'm a fan, too) Sam came to me as a Christmas present I got a gift card for fifty bucks and ended up dropped a hundred on a 3.5 gallon tank and the works. About six months ago Sam got seriously ill and without the help of you guys on here he would've passed away. I was doing all sorts of dumb things like changing ALL the water and completely scrubbing the gravel every month or so. Not smart. Sam is slightly special needs, as he has a odd crook in his back that was a result of the illness. His fins are pretty meh looking due to two bouts of finrot, but ever since I got my ten gallon he has been in good health.
Sam lives with two guppies and five mini corydoras. The guppies are males called Hydra and Nicholas.
The story behind the guppies is complicated. When originally had the ten I bought five gupps, two male, three female. I got really attached to them and all was well. After a brief quarantine I introduced them to Sam, who behaved well enough. I then bought four corys for an official and great LFS. (All of which are alive today) I had them for about two months before the females died off, (because I’m real great with fish, right) which was sad. I ended up with just Twitchy, a spazzy female, and Phoenix, one of my all-time favorite guppies. Twitchy passed away of wasting disease, which was hard on Poe. They were bonded. Poe was alone on that aspect for a month before I brought home Hydra, Nicholas and Peaches form the LFS. Peaches was victim of a bad accident with a faulty gravel vac. (Still sad about that). Poe died shortly afterwards of bloating from overeating. So after all those I have only two of my rainbow snakeskins from the LFS, hence Hydra and Nicholas. I'm on the fence about getting a new batch of females to try again.
As for Corydoras, I bought four pygmies to start. They're doing well. I can't tell them apart. A while ago I added three more salt and pepper mini corys. One died of an injury from my gravel, the other simply passed on of unknown causes. After the first one died I changed my gravel to sand and added live plants.
I have two assassin snails by the names of Capone and Spiral. They do a decent job of eating the many bladder snails that road in with my plants.
I have collected over the months Java moss, guppy grass, a moss ball, duckweed (Which Sam eats voraciously) and three other types of plants which names escape me. That about covers tank One.

Tank Two is located in my brothers room. About a month ago I got my second betta, a pearl-white ad black marble half-moon male called Luc, which means pure and radiant or whatever. The java moss relocated to his tank, alone with a small amount of duckweed. He lives alone with marbles for sub and a few fake plants in addition to a bridge hide. I hope my brother will one day upgrade to a ten gallon, since he is really friendly. I've floated my guppies in a bag in with him to test him, and he's such a sweetheart that he doesn't do a thing. For now I'm settling for giving him a snail as soon as I can get back to the LFS.

Soon I hope to get a few more guppies for the boys and see what other fish I end up with. I never seem to be able to go to the LFS and end up buying what I came in for. Who knows? I could end up with a whole new tank tomorrow.

I apologize for any typos. Stupid key broad and operator error.:wink3:

~ShadeSlayer, Sam, and Luc.

Pics of Sam in a photo bowl- not his home. More pics to come. xx

 

[ShadeSlayer]

Found a gorgeous steel HM female on aquabid. Not sure about her colors or form with Luc, but she is very pretty. AquaBid.com - Item # fwbettashmp1464168002 - Silver Dragon HM FEmale##2 - Ends: Wed May 25 2016 - 04:20:02 AM CDT

 

[Sadist]

I'm not sure what would happen if you cross veil tail with half moon. I can usually find some cute red veil tail females at our Petsmart. They're really young, though, and need lots of time to fatten (and grow) up before they'd be ready to breed.

 

[ShadeSlayer]

I’m not sure what wold happen, either, but it seems to me that if a veiltail had broad, wide enough fins and good rays it might work with Luc. He had almost rose tail-type fins, though, and I think I’d like to keep that. I wonder what colors I’d get if I did a red female, though. They’re a lot easier to find rather than pure white or the pearl color I like. Have you ever tried breeding? I think what I’m looking for most in a female is a halfmoon with silver color with a nice base, maybe a marble jean and good form. I’m definitely keeping an eye out for good females. The ones at the petsmart are really young, but I don’t mind waiting for a while.

 

[Fenghuang]

You'll end up with mostly DeTs if you cross a HM with a VT. There will probably be a few with more VT-shaped tails, but with more than 2 rays.

I am very curious though. Do you have a picture of Luc? (The mobile version of this site is weird on my phone and doesn't show the attachments sometimes, so sorry if you did pist one).

 

[Sadist]

Oh, I missed the part that Luc was the breeder and not Sam. I'll keep an eye out for girls in our store, but so far I don't see any that match those colors. I've seen black coppers (which might work), but they've all been crown tail females. For females halfmoons, I've seen yellow ones and whitish ones (which could just be pale/stressed). I'll check next week and see if anything nice comes in.

 

[ShadeSlayer]

You'll end up with mostly DeTs if you cross a HM with a VT. There will probably be a few with more VT-shaped tails, but with more than 2 rays.

I am very curious though. Do you have a picture of Luc? (The mobile version of this site is weird on my phone and doesn't show the attachments sometimes, so sorry if you did pist one).

I do have pictures of Luc, and I’ll try to get them up soon. My camera’s being worked on atm. I’ll find some similar ones in a sec, though, but he’s very unique. I’ve never sen anyone like him. :wink3:

 

[ShadeSlayer]

Oh, I missed the part that Luc was the breeder and not Sam. I'll keep an eye out for girls in our store, but so far I don't see any that match those colors. I've seen black coppers (which might work), but they've all been crown tail females. For females halfmoons, I've seen yellow ones and whitish ones (which could just be pale/stressed). I'll check next week and see if anything nice comes in.

Thanks for thinking of me!!! I hope I can figure out something soon. I have been prepping/saving cash, but my parents are a bit reluctant about the whole deal. Like I said, we have a lot of pets. I think it will be fine, thoguh, as long as I don’t end up with a whole bookshelf full fo thanks. Though, one day....

 

[ShadeSlayer]

Update:

Been looking online for any cheap big tanks to go in the living room. Like 50 agllons + just to see. That would be amazing for me to stock. Good for keeping young females if I do end up breeding Luc.

 

[ShadeSlayer]

Woke up today and one of Luc’s beautiful vents is shorter than the other. I don’t know when that happened, but I'm not pleased, to say the least.
Ten gallon tank is fine. I need a restock on duckweed. I’ll porably be headed tot he LFS sooner than later. Maybe they’ll have a good female for me. They keep their girls in community tanks, tho.

 

[ShadeSlayer]

Luc photos. All recent. He’s in great condition right now. I think he may have marble genes. One thing about the photos is they don’t show his pearl incandescence that is really striking in person. It gives off a well, peraly, shimmery tint to his body. I’ve never sen anything like it.

 

[ShadeSlayer]

Sam the first day I got him (Over a year ago) (pics plus my cats, Chip Dale and Teddy (The poster above is a my Thor: The Dark World official movie theater thing. I’m quite proud.), and my guppies + small pic of half the ten gallon. What’s with the thumb nails tho? Annoying.

 

[ShadeSlayer]

On Luc
I’d really like critiquing on his form. I know he has a slight spoon-head and such, but I haven’t found anything I didn’t like other than one vent is smaller than the other for some reason. When he flares he has a full 180 halfmoon fins and a slight almost rosetail edge which I LOVE. His dorsal and anal seem okay to me, but I’m really a novice. Is the dorsal a little too far back?
I’d really like the female I get to have straighter lines, but Luc’s fins are superb as far as I can see. Do they even have rose-tail HM females? I’ve never seen one. It would be a miracle to get a marble or a light steel RTHF female with the form I want.
I was thinking about maybe a light blue/silver marble female for Luc, since he’s a black/steel grey marble. Interesting colors. I want to avoid yellow/orange/red as much as possible, however.
I spoke with my parents and they are warming up to the idea as long as I pay for it and manage it myself. I think I’ll spawn/raise fry in a tub to make things easier and not have a big tank on my dresser along with Sam’s ten. Still hoping to find a cheap 20-50 gallon tank for the living room.

 

[Fenghuang]

Luc looks like a black copper marble. There are rosetail females, but it isn't actually recommended to breed RT to RT. If you have a heavily branched rosetail male, you'd want to breed to a female HM with less rays. Extreme rosetails are linked to genetics issues, like x-factor, and are way more likely to have problems swimming and fin biting (and their fins are so delicate anyway that overtime, their fins can end up looking like a mess).

A lot of rosetails with excessive caudal branching also have shorter tails that make them look unbalanced.

 

[Sadist]

A lot of rosetails with excessive caudal branching also have shorter tails that make them look unbalanced.

I've seen that at the pet stores myself. They look like my boy did when his fin biting got super bad.

Luc is pretty! After thinking about the females I've seen at the pet stores, I think most of them have weak peduncles. I'm not sure if it's because they're so young, but they all have skinny peduncle areas. I do believe I've seen pearly white females with fleshy scale areas, and I'll keep an eye out for that color pattern and a good head. You might have to find your girl at an actual breeder, though. Some of the breeders on here can critique your boy and suggest what body form you want to find in a girl (like Fenghuang letting you know about the RT gene).

 

[ShadeSlayer]

Luc looks like a black copper marble. There are rosetail females, but it isn't actually recommended to breed RT to RT. If you have a heavily branched rosetail male, you'd want to breed to a female HM with less rays. Extreme rosetails are linked to genetics issues, like x-factor, and are way more likely to have problems swimming and fin biting (and their fins are so delicate anyway that overtime, their fins can end up looking like a mess).

A lot of rosetails with excessive caudal branching also have shorter tails that make them look unbalanced.

ah, good to know. I deffinitly don’t want to overdo the rosetail effect, but I wold like to strengthen it since Luc’s trait is pretty mild. I’ll be on the lookout for a HM female as you described, however. Thank you for your input.

 

[ShadeSlayer]

I've seen that at the pet stores myself. They look like my boy did when his fin biting got super bad.

Luc is pretty! After thinking about the females I've seen at the pet stores, I think most of them have weak peduncles. I'm not sure if it's because they're so young, but they all have skinny peduncle areas. I do believe I've seen pearly white females with fleshy scale areas, and I'll keep an eye out for that color pattern and a good head. You might have to find your girl at an actual breeder, though. Some of the breeders on here can critique your boy and suggest what body form you want to find in a girl (like Fenghuang letting you know about the RT gene).

Yeah, I have noticed that in the pet store females. Thank you for looking for me again! I did put up a critique thread for Luc.

 

[Fenghuang]

ah, good to know. I deffinitly don’t want to overdo the rosetail effect, but I wold like to strengthen it since Luc’s trait is pretty mild. I’ll be on the lookout for a HM female as you described, however. Thank you for your input.

Oh, yeah, I was going to add that Luc's branching isn't actually that excessive, from what I can see in the pictures. HMs can have that scalloping on the edges without being way too high up there in rays.


Edit: I was looking through folders of my betta pictures and thinking how much this female would have matched up with Luc. It is a shame I never got a chance to breed her before she passed.

 

[ShadeSlayer]

Oh, she was Gorgeous! She would’ve been a great match. I love her eyes, too. Very pretty. She has neat almost pinkish accent, too, right? I love her coloring.

 

[Fenghuang]

Oh, she was Gorgeous! She would’ve been a great match. I love her eyes, too. Very pretty. She has neat almost pinkish accent, too, right? I love her coloring.

I think the pinkish accent you're referring to is the copper in her. I always consider it to be more purple myself.



You can kind of see it too on this EE. He was a copper marble as well (got more copper later on in life).