Last night my male Black Orchid plakat died of dropsy. I'd noticed he was starting to bloat a couple of days ago and immediately started him on a course of Kanaplex (Kanamycin). Seems he was beyond aid.
A few people out in Australia have aunts and uncles of these guys so maybe the line will continue under someone else's guidance.
The two spawns I have been trying to get up and running continue to remain unsuccessful - not surprising really as my heart just isn't in it at the moment.
I think it's time to put the fish away for a bit. My lack of energy is not doing the right thing by them.
If I can find the inspiration, I would still like to get some photos of my current stock and send them out to new homes, but I may just end up putting all the girls into a community tank and keeping what boys I have as pets.
Life outside the Fishroom just isnt conducive to me to persevere with my current efforts. The idea of creating my own lines doesn't have the draw it once did.
So that's it - if I get around to doing photos, I'll post them here, and maybe auction some off. If not, I'd like to thank everyone who helped me along this part of my fish-keeping journey. I'll probably be back at some point, just no idea when at this time.
One fish-keepers journey through the world of Betta
Tuesday 17 March 2015
Thursday 5 March 2015
Oops - She Turned Out To Be A He...And So Is His Sister
The presentation for auction of the White DTHMPK's has been placed on hold for another week or two due to stupidity on my behalf...
I separated two females and paired them up, one with a brother, and another with a male from a different line.
During the introduction phase of conditioning, it began to become clear that my female was actually a sub-dominant male, just beginning to exert his masculinity. As he bloomed, he became a better candidate than his brother in the other spawn tank, so he went in there, and his brother became a second male to be put up for sale.
I sorted out the next best female to take his place...and she too has begun to lose the female traits and exert his male form when confronted with another male. The poor fella I'm trying to find a mate for must be worried as everything I put in front of him changes from a dominated female to a male.
So I'll play it safe and wait a little longer for the DT's to grow out a bit more before offering them up. The good news is that there will probably be three pairs available now.
I'm also going to play it safe with the luckless male and spawn him with his sister for F3 - crossing in DT will have to wait till next time.
Still haven't made the time for photos - but it's on my to-do list...
I separated two females and paired them up, one with a brother, and another with a male from a different line.
During the introduction phase of conditioning, it began to become clear that my female was actually a sub-dominant male, just beginning to exert his masculinity. As he bloomed, he became a better candidate than his brother in the other spawn tank, so he went in there, and his brother became a second male to be put up for sale.
I sorted out the next best female to take his place...and she too has begun to lose the female traits and exert his male form when confronted with another male. The poor fella I'm trying to find a mate for must be worried as everything I put in front of him changes from a dominated female to a male.
So I'll play it safe and wait a little longer for the DT's to grow out a bit more before offering them up. The good news is that there will probably be three pairs available now.
I'm also going to play it safe with the luckless male and spawn him with his sister for F3 - crossing in DT will have to wait till next time.
Still haven't made the time for photos - but it's on my to-do list...
Wednesday 25 February 2015
White DTHMPK Spawn and the next cabs off the rank
Only two months later than expected, my white spawn has sufficiently grown out to be sent out into the world - yay!
Bad news is there is only one male up for grabs. Only two survived through to maturity, along with a dozen or so females.
I'm keeping one male and two females, the rest are available for new homes. I still have a few females growing out, but I can put together a sibling pair for sale and then a few individual sisters.
These will all go up for sale on the Betta Buy/Sell Australia Facebook page and advertised this blog and on the CTPK Project Australia page.
I just need to find the time to take the photos...
On the spawning side, currently being conditioned are:
Male Yellow F2 combtail x female white DT HMPK (with extra yellow iridophores obvious)
Goal - increased chances of getting plakat combtails
- increasing spawn tank temp to see if I can get a better male ratio
- Commencement of DTCTPK line
- Introducing new blood into the recessive line for F3
- Looking to get yellow back in F5 (unless my white DT's have the nr1 gene somewhere)
- Looking to get DT back in F5 - maybe even Yellow CT DT PK
(very small chance though...something like 1.6%)
(not sure on the correct presentation of a fifth generation line which has had new blood introduced at the third generation...do I go back to F1 - which hides the amount of work that's gone into the line, or is the annotation more like F5 -2 to show the 5th generation two generations removed from new blood...)
Male White F1 DTHMPK x Female White F1 DTHMPK
These are F1 as far as I am concerned. Not sure what generation they came from when imported. I asked but wasn't informed so I can only play it by ear and keep an eye out for deformities. The spawn above with the yellow male will help as it will allow me to cross over and introduce new blood from a line of cousins.
Goal - Continue a line of white DTHMPK
- Breed out (as much as possible) the marble gene, which I wasn't aware of but has appeared.
- Gain more males in a spawn without any sign of marble
- Gain males with better dorsals
- Increasing tank temp (but different to above spawn) to test theory for gaining more males
Fingers crossed these spawns will take off over the next week or two.
The auction for the available white DT's will hopefully happen next week :)
Bad news is there is only one male up for grabs. Only two survived through to maturity, along with a dozen or so females.
I'm keeping one male and two females, the rest are available for new homes. I still have a few females growing out, but I can put together a sibling pair for sale and then a few individual sisters.
These will all go up for sale on the Betta Buy/Sell Australia Facebook page and advertised this blog and on the CTPK Project Australia page.
I just need to find the time to take the photos...
On the spawning side, currently being conditioned are:
Male Yellow F2 combtail x female white DT HMPK (with extra yellow iridophores obvious)
Goal - increased chances of getting plakat combtails
- increasing spawn tank temp to see if I can get a better male ratio
- Commencement of DTCTPK line
- Introducing new blood into the recessive line for F3
- Looking to get yellow back in F5 (unless my white DT's have the nr1 gene somewhere)
- Looking to get DT back in F5 - maybe even Yellow CT DT PK
(very small chance though...something like 1.6%)
(not sure on the correct presentation of a fifth generation line which has had new blood introduced at the third generation...do I go back to F1 - which hides the amount of work that's gone into the line, or is the annotation more like F5 -2 to show the 5th generation two generations removed from new blood...)
Male White F1 DTHMPK x Female White F1 DTHMPK
These are F1 as far as I am concerned. Not sure what generation they came from when imported. I asked but wasn't informed so I can only play it by ear and keep an eye out for deformities. The spawn above with the yellow male will help as it will allow me to cross over and introduce new blood from a line of cousins.
Goal - Continue a line of white DTHMPK
- Breed out (as much as possible) the marble gene, which I wasn't aware of but has appeared.
- Gain more males in a spawn without any sign of marble
- Gain males with better dorsals
- Increasing tank temp (but different to above spawn) to test theory for gaining more males
Fingers crossed these spawns will take off over the next week or two.
The auction for the available white DT's will hopefully happen next week :)
Tuesday 13 January 2015
A New Year Begins 2015
It's been a long time since I've done an update, but that was because there has been a lot going on in the background that needed to be resolved before I knew what this update was going to be.
There was a strong possibility that I was going to have to rename this blog from Adelaide Betta to Townsville Betta. An opportunity arrived which may have led to the whole family moving north but the numbers didn't add up and so it has been shelved for the foreseeable future.
Due to us figuring out if we were moving or not, breeding programs were also put on hold. Pairs scheduled to spawn are yet to have their chance in the honeymoon suite. This will be rectified from early next week.
Current state of play:
Originally I had two green lines running side-by-side, but one of the F2 generations didn't pan out. I have, however, been keeping a F1 female from that line - a little green dragon girl I quite liked and couldn't bring myself to let go. So now I'm going to cross her with a F2 male from the second green line. It is a small step back in progressing to true CTPK's but I keep the genes in the green pool, and reduce the amount of lines I've got on the go.
My recessive line is looking promising, except I seem to be lacking male plakats from the F2 spawn. I do seem to have a few choices of female plakats though. I'll match one of those up with a male from my DTPK spawn. I also seem to have the beginnings of a green pastel line...need to think about whether to pursue that one or not...
Black Orchid plakat line is looking good and ready to go onto F3...or have DT introduced...
White DTPK spawn is almost matured - maybe another month before being fully cooked...which is fine as I'd rather only have a couple of spawns going at any one time with only a partial overlap.
Next move(s):
Green Line F1 female x F2 male...if not successful, F2 male will be crossed with sibling for F3.
Recessive F2 x DT (yet to decide on which sex from which spawn).
Sell excess fish from Recessive and DTPK spawns (February).
Spawn Black Orchids in March.
Have a break....start again :)
Heading away for the next few days, but I'll be looking to setup my spawns and take photos of the fish next week...stay tuned :)
There was a strong possibility that I was going to have to rename this blog from Adelaide Betta to Townsville Betta. An opportunity arrived which may have led to the whole family moving north but the numbers didn't add up and so it has been shelved for the foreseeable future.
Due to us figuring out if we were moving or not, breeding programs were also put on hold. Pairs scheduled to spawn are yet to have their chance in the honeymoon suite. This will be rectified from early next week.
Current state of play:
Originally I had two green lines running side-by-side, but one of the F2 generations didn't pan out. I have, however, been keeping a F1 female from that line - a little green dragon girl I quite liked and couldn't bring myself to let go. So now I'm going to cross her with a F2 male from the second green line. It is a small step back in progressing to true CTPK's but I keep the genes in the green pool, and reduce the amount of lines I've got on the go.
My recessive line is looking promising, except I seem to be lacking male plakats from the F2 spawn. I do seem to have a few choices of female plakats though. I'll match one of those up with a male from my DTPK spawn. I also seem to have the beginnings of a green pastel line...need to think about whether to pursue that one or not...
Black Orchid plakat line is looking good and ready to go onto F3...or have DT introduced...
White DTPK spawn is almost matured - maybe another month before being fully cooked...which is fine as I'd rather only have a couple of spawns going at any one time with only a partial overlap.
Next move(s):
Green Line F1 female x F2 male...if not successful, F2 male will be crossed with sibling for F3.
Recessive F2 x DT (yet to decide on which sex from which spawn).
Sell excess fish from Recessive and DTPK spawns (February).
Spawn Black Orchids in March.
Have a break....start again :)
Heading away for the next few days, but I'll be looking to setup my spawns and take photos of the fish next week...stay tuned :)
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