Thursday 20 February 2014

Thank you

It's always nice to know that others are reading my ramblings.
 
 
It is very surprising to see where you are all coming from
  
 
And interesting to see what is attracting you here...
 
Thank you for visiting
 
:)

Tuesday 11 February 2014

What Happens When Nothing Is Happening

I've come to the conclusion that my selected F1 pair are not yet ready. She's not striping up as I would like, although she fattened up quite well. He made a nice modest nest and danced well for her, but then chased her away when she submissively approached.

They got a couple of shots at it, but couldn't get in sync, so they've been pulled and put into separate areas. We'll try again in a few weeks.

So what's happening in the fish room in the meantime? I'm glad you asked ;)

I've finally broken down the old sorority tank which has been empty for the past couple of weeks. I moved the couple of surviving Anubias into the new male barracks and the last remaining clump of grass into the empty community tank in the lounge. Now the fake jelly fish has something to keep him company - pitiful, I know but we'll hopefully be able to add more soon...maybe even real fish :)

The old sorority will be re-purposed as the next growout tank. Currently the black line is in one, the green line is in another, and now the whites will have a place to stretch out...once I get some more plants...need to pay some bills first :(

Other than the normal feedings of the fry and the adults, nothing is happening in there, but that doesn't mean I'm doing nothing.

More research! I'm trying to spread what little knowledge I've gained so far to more members of the Australian Betta community, while continuing to learn myself. Topics on my Google list this week have been:

Red Genetics
Opaque Genetics
Columnaris
Salt and Freshwater Aquariums
Guppies
Mollies
Aquascapes

Always plenty to read up on!

Blog posts are pretty boring without a picture, so:

 
Black Orchid CT x Black Marble HM (10 weeks)
Making a pig of himself on blood worm

 
White Marble HM x Yellow CT (5 weeks)
The majority of these guys appear white to the naked eye
 
From about week 6 on, my fry seem to fall behind the accepted growth rates around the place. This is due, in part, to them being plakats, and in part, due to me being in Adelaide (so a non-tropical locale), and in part due to their diet.

The last part I'm hoping to change this week with the introduction of grated frozen blood worms. This hasn't been possible to this point due to me not having purchased a Fishroom only grater.

Guess what I'm buying this payday :)


Friday 7 February 2014

Never Straight Forward

Before going on about my F2 trials and tribulations, just a note to celebrate the 'apparent' stabilisation of my 'Chosen Ones' line.

The recently passed Ghost was finally spawned with Jury (as covered in Ghost's obit), and resulted in 30-40 fry, most of which were, and remain, very white to the eye. Almost every day, I've fished out one or two dead fry :(

At the rate I was going, I would be left with very little to chose from by the time they got to four weeks, which is when I'm going to be looking to move them into bigger accommodation. For the last four days - there has been no dead fry! Yay! Double Yay even!!

The Chosen One line will be the key to giving me a grass green CTPK line, and for removing red wash from the other lines. They also have a date with the creation of a gold CTPK line a little down the track, but don't tell anyone... :)

As for my green CTPK line, to be continued with the sibling cross currently attempting to be spawned...no go at the moment :(

They're close, but they're having trouble getting in sync. The male builds a modest nest, and the female isn't interested. The male chases female until she gets interested, stripes up, and looks like she fills with eggs. She swims over, he hammers her. He's now decided he's not ready yet...

After a couple of days of this, I removed her to give her a chance to rest and recuperate. Other than a couple of nips out of her anal fin, she's still in good nick. They rested for two days, and then reintroduced. The high protein diet was given a days grace before being recommenced. She's gone back into her tube after they spent the day in view, but separated. Yesterday morning, he was busy rebuilding his nest. They were so close to syncing up their desires last night, I left a dim light on for them and went to bed. This morning, they're back a bit of chasing, a bit of coaxing, etc, etc, but no result...but...he no longer has a nest, even though he's still trying to lure her back to the selected spot. This could be good news as I've only ever had one successful spawn when a nest was involved :)

All of my spawns have hatched between Thursday and Sunday. Maybe they just wasn't interested in the early part of the week...might have to check out my Feng Shui....

The wait goes on...