A Black Orchid In Our Midst

As you will now clearly see, I'm still learning lots and have no doubt what-so-ever that I have a mountain of information still to comprehend...case in point:

I now believe our first crown tail (CT), Midas is actually a Black Orchid CT.

Read this description from

http://bettysplendens.com/articles/page.imp?articleid=1040 (I highly recommend reading the entire article)

 

Black Orchid, Black Devil, Black Ice

Henry Yin first coined the name Black Orchid to describe his particular development of dark bicolor Crowntail, which was (so I've been told) NOT a marble-based black but a melano type with excessive steel iridescence, particularly in the fins. The name has since been applied to any fish of similar coloration in a multitude of forms, from HM to Plakat, but these almost always come from marble. Essentially, the Black Orchid betta is a dark black color with streaks of steel blue in the fins, often forming almost a butterfly pattern. The iridescence is not always limited to the fins, and many Black Orchids also develop red wash (another indicator of the marble gene messing with this line). Increasing the red wash has given a new type of 'black' - the so-called 'Black Devil', which is a marble type black with red in the fins instead of iridescence. They do not breed true, and the production of the Black Devil betta seems to be very much the luck of the draw. The Black Ice betta is also derived from marble, and can appear randomly in marble spawns. It is a black fish which varies in intensity and possesses generous iridescence in the body and the fins. The iridescence in the Black Ice fish can be either steel, royal, or green. Selective breeding has increased the percentage of Black Ice offspring from Black Ice pairings, but it still does not breed true.

The parts I've highlighted has led me to a number of conclusions:

1. My expectations of a Midas x Lilly pairing are way off the mark in most instances.
2. Midas is most likely a marble based genotype (his genetics will produce marble offspring)

So, we will still definitely pair up Midas and Lilly and sit back and enjoy the genetics lesson any successful spawn will give us. Should be fun!

Swish

He shoots...he scores!

Picked up a couple of two foot tanks tonight, and a two and a half footer, all for $60! All of them need new lids and they have been heavily taken to with the silicon, but they will be ideal for grow-out tanks and as a sorority for the girls.

I've also changed things up a little in the 'almost-fish room'. We've switched from a heater in every tank, to heating the room with a single halogen heater. Running the heater at half strength keeps the tanks around the 25-26C mark even when it's around 15C outside...even with the roller shutter up to allow some sun onto my spawn tank!

Some money saved there...we hope.

Next, we have cut back on the feedings. No longer does everyone get fed twice a day. All stock gets fed in the evening. Anyone being conditioned also gets fed in the morning. Fry, over two weeks old, also get fed in the morning. Younger fry get fed three times a day.

Currently, I have Cichlid Convict fry who are approaching five weeks, and my first Betta fry having just ticked past their second week. All are now on a mix of frozen Daphnia and BBS. Turns out my mature female Convicts like the Daphnia as well. My male Convict, who is now over three inches in size (started at about one and a half), only wants blood worms and shrimp - so he tends to miss out on the morning feed.

So less feedings, less money spent on food - more savings...we hope.

Getting the extra tanks also allows us to look at firing up the second spawn tank. This weekend we will introduce Midas to Lilly:

 

Midas (our very first crown tail (CT))

 

 

Lilly (Who beat up Herman last time she allowed in the spawn tank)

 

We're pairing these two up for a couple of reasons:

 

1. Because Lilly was so un-lady-like last time she was in the spawn tank, we thought we'd match her with someone a little older and bigger. Hopefully this time, she learns what is expected.
2. Midas is a Local Fish Shop (LFS) rescue - our first CT - so we would like to have some of his offspring to remember him by when he's gone.
3. The majority of any successful spawn will be saleable. With Midas' colouring, it is highly unlikely we will want to keep anything other than maybe a male and a female - but probably only one.

What we would like to see from the spawn (another shot at trying to get the genetics right):

 

1. Lilly's dorsal (the fin on top) is beautiful in shape and extension. We would like to try and get another female with this trait fixed.
2. We will be looking for that female to also be turquoise. We expect a mix of blue, turquoise and steel from this pair.
3. We would expect them all to have red wash but will be picking a female with as little as possible.
4. We would expect a mix of double ray and single ray CT's.

Beyond that, we're not sure due to the unknown background of both fish but particularly Midas. He could have anything mixed in his genetics so it will be quite a surprise bunch that could result. Fun times ahead...

It's The Little Things...

The new Reverse Osmosis (RO) unit was installed today.

She is sitting, behind the washing machine so hopefully out of everyone's way. Ran a water test on the end product and it dropped my General Hardness (GH) level from over 300 part per million
 (ppm) to less than 50 ppm! That's like changing your ride from a soapbox car, made from odds and ends, to a Ferrari!

But that's too soft, so I'm mixing it, 50/50, with the aged water I've been using all along. My GH is now at an acceptable 143ppm. There seemed to be a spike in my pH which scared me but that turned out to be a false test, so all is good on the water front - never expected someone living in Adelaide to say that!

Next cab off the rank was a small wood working project to hold my test tubes - both while I did testing, and for storage. This little unit has the added benefit of giving me somewhere to dry them between tests ;)

Lastly, the camera was, for the first time, able to focus on the fry. I've taped a small measure to the side of the tank. The little ones seem to like swimming along the glass at the surface, it isn't long before they cruise past my measure. Most of what I've seen so far at about the 5mm mark.

According to the growth chart Betta breeders the world over seem to use, and converting it to metric, my guys should be around 6.3mm by week two. Better hurry up guys, only two days to go and another 1.3mm to get...

Vinegar Eels

After all the work on the weekend, not much to be done today so I thought I'd touch base on something which has made life much easier for me during the first week after the fry hatched.

Vinegar Eels

I have three large jars of Vinegar Eels on the go in the fry larder cupboard. When required, I pour part of one of these jars into a long neck container, like this drink bottle.

I fill it up to the base of the neck with the VE medium (solution). I place a fibrous plug in the neck (here I'm using a bit of sponge), with fishing line tied around it to make extraction easier later on, and use a rubberband to secure it in place so the bottom of the plug is just touching the VE medium. That leaves about 5mm of free space between the plug and the top of the bottle. Into the space, I slowly pour some clean aged water - up to where I have the rubber band works for me for one batch of fry.

To harvest, I leave it in the pictured state for about an hour or so, and then shine a torch through the back of the clear area. You'll see thousands of glittering little specs. These are the eels all trying to get to top of the bottle to find air.

They swim up through the apple vinegar solution, wriggle through the fibrous plug, and into the clean water - so when you put in a pipette and suck them out, you only get clean water, and clean eels to feed to your fry.

How to make your medium:

You need to order a starter culture from somewhere, I ordered mine through my local fish shop (LFS) for around $10AU. I ordered two just in case. You really don't need more than one.

It comes in a bag much like a fish does, double bagged and sealed with rubberbands. These bags are inside a plastic container supplied for you to start you culture in.

Get yourself a couple of pickle jars, preferably new unused ones. The ones I found had the false centre in the lid, so you ended up with just the ring with the thread if you so chose - which is what I wanted.

Open the bags carefully. Pour half your starter culture into each jar. Top each jar up with apple vinegar - make sure you get the kind without any added preservatives. I threw in a few pieces of cut up apple as well but this isn't strictly necessary.

Cut up a chux cloth so you have a couple of squares which will fit over the jar tops. Screw them down with the threaded ring.

You now have two cultures. When your fry arrive, pour some of the medium from one of your cultures, into the long neck bottle. Fill your culture back up with apple vinegar.

And there you have it. My long neck bottle lasted for the whole week, for my one batch of fry, providing three meals a day. It was expended by the end of the week, but my little guys were onto frozen baby brine shrimp (BBS) by then.

According to an accepted growth chart sizing, they are spot on where they should be.

Deperately Seeking Safety

The female Convict Cichlid has been removed from the tank for her own safety. Affectionately called Ma Kettle, she seems to have either let first born snack out on the second batch of eggs, or decided she wasn't getting enough food herself.

Here she is hiding in her new, temporary home. I had to completely remove everything from the tank to be able to get her, and in the end she pretty much just gave up and let herself be caught. Just as well or I'd have been there all night!

It did give us a chance to count the young from her first batch. We can confirm we have 11 survivors from 17 starters.

Now the dad is in the tank with the kids - we'll see how that works out.

Weekend Catchup

My back is killing me. Ran out of medication on Friday, and did way too much with the fish. Paying for it now.

Male barracks has had a make-over going from :

This

 

To this

 

And now this

 

 

The boys seem very happy.

 

Also moved the girls dorm onto the newly completed shelving unit.

 

Windsor line fry are doing well - really must check them against the size chart from Wayne Schmidt.

 

Saw an amazing thing this morning for the first time: I went to feed William, squirted a few bloodworms next to his face. He normally gobbles them up if he hasn't already attacked the pipette. This morning they floated past his face and dropped towards the bottom of the tank. All the worst thoughts were going through my head - had he eaten the fry, was he sick? - then he spat out five fry he'd been holding in his mouth and went and retrieved his breakfast.

 

I believe he'd been cleaning them or mouthing them to make sure they were good.

 

Amazing thing to have seen.



Aquatic Rabbits

The Convicts have been at it again. We have suspected over the past few days that Ma and Pa Kettle were getting somewhat friendly again.

During this mornings feeding, the whole clan was hanging around the front of the tank...together. Not something we see normally. I put in the blood worms and noticed Ma would eat one and then duck off into the big pot we have for a hidey hole.

She came back a little while later, ate one, and then ducked off again.

I finished feeding the brood, and retrieved my torch. I watched Ma. Into the pot she went, and was seen to be fanning an area with her pectoral fins (the steering fins at the front). I got my magnifying glass...there was definitely something there.

This is Ma inspecting her clutch of eggs that have been stuck to the side of the pot. At best guess, we think about a 100 eggs are there. We should have known they would breed this weekend, I'm getting them a new tank next week.

When I was setting up the tank they are currently in, they decided to breed in the 9L of water they had in, what is now, Kate's quarters. They really will breed anywhere as long as there is a cave/pot for them to breed in.

From 9L they produced around 17 fry, of which we believe 10 have survived. There are still a couple a little smaller than the rest, but I thought we'd done well.

Now they are in 50L of water. Five times the water may equal five times the fry... 85 - that wouldn't be too far away from our guess-timate of the egg count...if extrapolate that out to the survival rate we had last time of around 59% that gives us approximately 48 survivors from this batch.

Added to the current population, makes 60 fish. The new tank is designed to hold the 10 we got plus the Bristlenose catfish.

Just as well I found somewhere to sell all these fish when they get to be around 2" in length.

A Typical Day @ 'Work'...

At the moment, everything I'm involved with at work is being delayed for one reason or another. It's annoying as at some point, someone will want it all done in a very short period of time and I'll suddenly have to be flat out. Nothing worse than waiting on the incompetency's of others...

Until then, I have plenty of time to do research on Betta-related topics!

Today I did research on the following topics:

• Green genetics
• Betta Diseases
• Reverse Osmosis (RO)
• Fish Transport (particularly through Aus Post)

Why?

Green - Grass Green should be highly possible with the introduction of yellow into the Windsor line. As William is a dragon, his scaling and iridescence should, when mixed with the nr1 gene, remove all trace of red, and improve the quality of the green displayed. What I want though, once I've got this Grass Green (with no red or blue influence), is to deepen the green. This may require the finding or creation of a Super Green-type gene. There is a Super Red, and a Super Blue. Super Blue apparently breed true Super Blues. Normal Blues, when bred with other normal Blues, produce Steel, Turquoise and Blue. So, if I can get to Grass Green, and make it reproducible, then I should be able to move forward from there towards a better green.

Sidebar to this is the commencement of a yellow line of Crown-Tails (CTs) to begin the search for a yellow Half-Sun :D

Betta Diseases - Herman  the Half-Moon (HM) currently has a couple of issues. Firstly, his fins after being mauled by Lilly during an attempted spawn to start the Munster line.

Next would be his left ventral fin. It's been slowly changing since I got him. It doesn't seem to be bothering him in anyway but it is definitely a defect. Research, and the wonderful people at AusAqua have been great to reassure me it's not a big issue for breeding stock, but I'm hoping the defect isn't what caused Lilly to beat down on him...

RO - Two of the types of Betta most affected badly by hard water are the HM and the CT. Hmmm...no real surprises then that research into RO would come about sooner rather than later. So much sooner, that I may actually go purchase a unit this weekend.

Lastly, Fish Transport - All of the fish I have purchased from interstate came through Parcel Express. All of them were extremely well packed. None leaked or had any form of 'incident'. All fish arrived in good condition.

All may have been shipped illegally!

There has been some anecdotal evidence that live fish through Parcel Express is okay. There has been just as much (if not slightly more) evidence to say it's not okay.

So I emailed Australia Post for a definitive answer:

Dear Sir/Madam

I breed Siamese Fighting Fish in Adelaide, South Australia. It has been suggested to me I would sell more stock if I accommodated for sending fish interstate.

I've read through varied sites, that it may be illegal to send live fish through Australia Post.

Can you please confirm or deny this, and if it is illegal, could you suggest correct methods for the sending and receiving of fish in a timely manner across states?

Thank you in advance.

Brenton

The journey continues...

Windsor Line - First Spawn

William (Turquoise, Double-Ray (DR) Crown-Tail (CT)) x Kate (Turquoise, DR CT)

 

Expectations – green DR CT’s, possibly some blue or steel.

Goal: Get a deeper, truer green while looking for ray curvature.

Again, this expectation list was drawn up before I learned a few extra things, as was the goal list for this spawn.

If done now, I would expect a turquoise DR CT spawn and would hope for a bit of ray curvature but not hold my breath.

2013-07-07 Honeymoon suite cleaned and given partial water change. When water parameters settled and matched barracks, male placed in tank first and given six hours to claim as his own territory.

Female placed in isolation tube 30 minutes before bedtime.

2013-07-08: AM – no bubblenest, but plenty of flaring going on. Female looks somewhat terrified and is sitting on bottom of isolation tube.

PM – returned from work, still no bubblenest and now much less flaring going on.

Going away in a little under 48 hours. If they were to spawn, I wouldn’t be around to separate, or to remove male. Decided to put male back in barracks. Left female in Honeymoon Suite for now. Will try again with same pair once I return.

2013-07-10 Not going away now. Female in tube at 10ish. A new half polystyrene cup added. Male added. Back to flaring at each other. Female managed to squeeze under tube (must have been sitting on edge of IAL). Self-released at 11ish. Male still occasionally chases her, but they spend most of their time circling the tank – female hiding from male. Sometimes they come together for very brief periods. No bubblenest yet. L

2013-07-11 3PM Wrapping – Can only see a dozen or so bubbles in the nest. Female dropping lots of eggs and helping to pick them up but there doesn’t seem to be anywhere to put them.

Need to tape cup with large open end facing glass so I can see inside better.

4PM – Female chased away and removed – unharmed.

Need bigger net to make recapture easier.

Added second IAL to make water stickier.

Need to brew IAL tea in future.

Light on over tank and will be left on till fry are free swimming.

2013-07-13 7:30pm: We have fry. Or, as they apparently say 'in the trade'...we have tails! Dad’s nest has been deteriorating all day. Now we have at least 50 fry but no nest. They seem to be clinging to the side of the cup. Dad still doing well retrieving them.

 

11pm: Dad has started to roam the tank on occasion. Decided to try feeding him. He ate all blood worms offered and went back to collecting any fallen fry. Counted 55.

2013-07-14: Dad still doing well this morning. Fed plenty of blood worms. Doesn’t seem to be as many fry on the visible side of the cup but still plenty. Counted 40.

 

2013-07-16: Removed cup. All fry now free swimming and seem to be doing well on Vinegar Eels (VE). Male still patrolling the tank and feeding well. Counted 40-50 fry around the tank in three distinct groups. We have a filter crew who hang out around the filter where, I suspect, the heat from the light is warmest. There is a Java Moss crew who hang out above the Java Moss. I suspect more infusoria gather there so a more plentiful food source. Lastly there are the cover seekers. A group of 15-20 hide within the confines of the Anubis plant or hang out on its lowest leaves. Managed to siphon a little of the gunk from the floor of the tank - +100ml of water. Replaced with 100ml of aged water.

 

2013-07-17: VE culture still producing eels at the beginning of day 3 of use – impressive. Temp on spawning tank down to low 26C this morning. After feeding the temp dropped to high 25C’s. Turned heater up a little, and turned on room heater. Not a lot of fry visible this morning but I’m not really looking. Will leave light on today. Supposed to warm up a little later with sunshine – tomorrow is supposed to be cold. Need to look at starting microworms (MW).

 My VE culture still going strong

 

2013-07-17: Siphoned tank bottom with baster. Managed to remove a great deal of crap and 250ml and no fry!

Replaced 500ml – increase to water level commenced. Will siphon a little each day and replace with double.

Had a look at MW. Nothing was climbing the walls. Nothing seemed to be on the bit a paper towelling. Scraped a toothpick across the surface and then dipped it into clear aged water. Seemed to be something in the water, but nowhere near the numbers I get from VE. Think I’ll wait till I see the culture I got from a recent Betta Australis auction. If no better, I wont go with MW again. Second MW culture seems to have dried out. Need to defrost BBS for morning meals and probably last evening meal. VE will do for one more week as afternoon meal. Might buy frozen daphnia on the weekend from Local Fish Shop (LFS). Need more frozen blood worm anyway.

Munster Line - First Spawn

BJT20130706

Spawn naming convention: BJT = Brenton & Jodi Tomlinson + date in reverse

Using the date in reverse allows me to list the dates chronologically easier.

Below is my first attempt at listing expectations for a spawn. I now know they are wrong, and more importantly, why they are wrong.
 

Expectations:

Some green, some turquoise, possibly red, steel, and/or blue CT’s with close to HM finnage.

Goals: to get a better green, reduce red seen in green fins, move towards a half sun tail, and/or look for curved rays to aim for King CT.

2013-07-06 Female released after male built lovely bubblenest overnight. Seemed to warm to each other, female took interest in nest. Male ended up chasing her off and subduing her in a corner. Female fins clamped. Put female back in separation tube before bedtime. 

2013-07-07 Female released early morning. We went out, returned some hours later to find tables turned. Male subdued at opposite end to nest. Female under nest, destroying bubbles. Closer inspection of male revealed he’d taken heavy damage.

Male removed to ER. Female removed to barracks.

 

Lilly looking ready and interested

 

Lilly trailing around behind Herman - vertical breeding stripes showing

 

The happy couple promenading...where did it all go wrong?

 

 After we returned home, we found this:

 

 

Why?

 

I think Lilly is a little older than Herman or any of the other girls. I think I should have known this by her being so much bigger than the other females. In fairness, I did ask the person I purchased her from but got no reply.

 

It's also possible there is something a little off with Herman. He has a ventral fin slowly turning inwards and becoming white. He underwent treatment in quarantine when he first arrived but it has since got worse, so he will now undergo further treatment, possibly with antibiotics.

 

The Munster line is currently on hold :(



 

Breeding Stock - The Munster Line

As mentioned in the last post, I gained a larger female Crown-Tail (CT) as a replacement for Matilda. At the same time, I ordered in a male Half-Moon (HM). The HM is intended to encourage a greater spread of the caudal (tail) fin.

The line would become the beginning of the Half-Sun search, as per My Goals. And as he travelled here in a confined package, with the larger female CT, I thought it might be a good match to get the ball rolling. The name Herman came to me one morning while sorting out feeding. So if the male was Herman, what was I going to call the female...no brainer really for someone of my vintage: Lilly.

The Munster Line

Herman

 

Lilly

 



Breeding Stock - The Windsor Line

The Windsor Line began due to a death. I needed a breeding line as a starter on my journey towards my goals - as stated here - and just a spawn would teach me lots. We decided on Crown-Tails (CT) already and my better half was keen on naming all the fish, so I decided all the CT's would follow the names for the Kings of England, starting with William I, better known as William the Conqueror.

His wife, was named Matilda, and so, on the arrival of our first purchased breeding pair of turquoise CT's, we named them William and Matilda. Six hours later, unfortunately, she developed a terminal case of Dropsy and died.

I ordered another turquoise female as a replacement, and asked for a male Half-Moon (HM) while I was at it.

I was happy to call the second female Matilda II, but I was over-ruled. So the idea of following the lines of olde England went out the window. The replacement female was a bit bigger than Matilda was, so I was reluctant to pair her up with William. Being in the stock gathering mood, I'd also managed to procure, through the kindness of my third secret weapon, a pair of turquoise CT sisters.

One of these was a better size match, and I thought she had lovely form, so she became Kate, and her sister - obviously - became Pippa.

The larger CT female, and the HM male became the beginning of the Munster line (Herman and Lilly). I'll introduce them next post.

The Windsor Line

William

 

Kate



Pippa

 



Secret Weapons

I promise I will not be posting so often as we move forward...

Below I have stated my goals for all the world to see and allow them to snicker at me behind poorly concealed faces of contempt. I care not!

Well, maybe a little bit.

Still, I've shouted from the rooftops (or maybe just the safety of my home through the interweb) and will now begin the journey to infamy!

Let's get a few basics out of the way:

My level of fish keeping skill: 0

My years of knowledge: 0

Tanks in the house before fish-sitting for eldest daughter: 0

Fish killed to date: 3

Fish breed to date: 10 Convicts and 50+ Betta CT fry currently in spawn tank (we'll get to these in a post of their own shortly)

So, my CV is not going to fill anyone with confidence. But I have a few secret weapons ;)

Get a pen because you need to write this down if you want to succeed:

Secret Weapon Number One

I have the encouragement and support of a wonderful wife, partner, and bestest of friends. My Jodi is never one to say I cant do something. She is always willing to listen, and she doesn't automatically start yawning when I start talking about fish. But, you cant have this secret weapon. You'll have to find one of your own.

Secret Weapon Number Two

This one you can share. http://ausaqua.net/ and all the wonderful Betta gurus who reside there. If you are Australian or a Kiwi, and want to own, raise, or breed Betta, be they Splenden, or any of the other varieties out there, you need to get onto this site. They would probably not even mind people from other countries dropping in. You will fail without help from people who have been there and done it all before.

Secret Weapon Number Three

The IBC, particularly their Technical Assistance Library, and the magazine Flare! are worth the price of membership alone. But I found them through Betta Australis. Victoria, New South Wales, and soon Western Australia, will all have their own IBC-sanctioned Betta chapters. Betta Australis is kind of the Queensland IBC-sanctioned chapter, but also the catch-all for us lonely people with nowhere else to go. South Australia has the worst water for raising Betta - it's even more damaging on the delicate fins of Crown-Tail (CT) and Half-Moons (HM) - so I've not found many other breeders as of the time of writing this, but there are plenty of Betta fanciers, and these people should be members too....sorry - off track. Anyway, the secret weapon: a guru, who is a member of your 'local' IBC chapter and is willing to put up with all your annoying newbie questions. I was lucky enough to find one who hasn't yet added me to his spam filter.

If you can get the first, and join the second, you will go a long way to being successful. Not living in Adelaide would probably help, but if you can add the third to your first two, then you could live in the Sahara Dessert and I reckon you'd still have a shot at success!

Breeding Goals

My Goals:

I want to create an emerald green line.

I want to breed Half-Sun Betta Splenden

I want to breed King Crowns

What does all this mean?

(pictures are given credit to breeder and photographer whenever possible. If you can prove that a picture is yours, or of your fish, I'm happy to provide credit and links to your site(s))

In the world of Betta genetics, there is no such thing as a real emerald green. There is a grass green, a yellow, an orange, and lots of other colours...but not a true emerald green. It may not be possible...but then a few years ago, there was no such thing as an orange. A couple of years before that, there was no such thing as a grass green, and a couple of years before that, there was no such thing as a Crown Tail!

With the introduction of new, reproducible, traits within Betta Splenden the world over, anything may be possible.

What is a Half-Sun?

This magnificent creature is:

 

The possible result of a cross between a Half-Moon (HM) and a Crown-Tail (CT)

 

These guys are very hard to come by, as there are many factors, environmental and genetic, which need to be right to produce such a specimen. If that's not hard enough, I want to produce a yellow Half-Sun (because they should be yellow, don't you think?) and a green one. In essence, it is a Crown-Tail whose caudal fin (tail), spreads to 180 degrees like a large letter D, or a backward facing one if judged against our friend above. He must also have a dorsal (top) and anal (bottom) fin mirror each other on either side his body, so you end up with a torpedo-shaped body, almost fully surrounded by spikey fins. In truth, our friend comes up a little short on the top line, but I did say they are hard to come by...didn't I?

 

Lastly, what are King Crowns?

 

Here's one that was prepared earlier:

 

 

A King Crown needs to have a minimum of 8 crossed rays. This specimen had the ultimate 10!

 

And, of course, I'd like to do one of these in green as well.

 

But hang on, I hear the astute among you cry. King Crown is also a Half-Sun, so does that make him a King Crown Half-Sun Betta Splenden? Try saying that after a few shots of Tequila!

 

Answer: no. Half-Suns caudal (tail) fin rays, do not cross.





And so endth todays lesson :)

Convict Cichlids

I'm not going to back track and document everything I've done over the last two months. I tried that with a journal here: http://btomlins.livejournal.com - so if you'd like to do a catch-up, the journal is the place to go.

In the way of a summary: this is the fishroom

It is an ever evolving space. The Convict tank is closest to camera. Next along is the male barracks. In front of them was an experiment on trying to hatch a couple of batches of Baby Brine Shrimp (BBS)...which failed. The small tank on top of the black cupboard is the current spawn tank - this is where the magic currently happens, but more importantly, it is where it is happening as we speak...type...whatever.

One post per subject - lets start with...

The Convicts:

 

Mum and a couple of fry (babies) in the middle of a BBS storm

 

Ma coming out of the large pot where she was telling Pa off.

 

Fry at 20 days old

 

The Convict tank

A New Blog

And so, a new blog...no longer am I maintaining http://musingsofanaussiewriter.blogspot.com.au/, where many of my fumblings, as well as my mumblings, found a home.

No longer am I writing prose in the pursuit of a second job, or even a first job, a new career even. That dream is dead. I'm too analytical. I keep getting ideas and shooting them down in flames long before they hit the page.

But now...but this...but hang on!

To begin at the beginning and not get bogged down in detail - another issue I had with my writing...

A little over two months ago, our eldest daughter asked us to fish sit for her while she moved house. We did. The subjects turned out to be a couple of male Betta Splenden Veil Tails. They were in little bowls with no heaters, no filters, no water change instructions, and gold fish flakes for food.

They didn't last long. But before they shuffled off, we had gained two more: another Veil Tail (VT), and a Crown Tail (CT).

I give you Prime, our first purchase:

 

Who was quickly followed by Midas:

 

 

 

Midas stole our hearts.

 

Due to the loss of the first two, and because of the curl in Midas' rays (the long spikey bits of his tail), I decided to do some research into the Siamese Fighting Fish. Now I'm a Betta Splenden breeder and a South American Convict Cichlid breeder (another story we may get to down the track).

 

On this blog, I intend to keep a track of the daily comings and goings of my fish. I'll keep spawn logs and lots of photos.

 

I'll try to keep the tags sorted and relevant to make searching for answers easier. If I find a site or magazine of interest, I'll pass it on here.

 

This is my journey - welcome aboard!