Betta will, unfortunately, die in a relatively short time period. Have enough fish in your fish room, and it will seem like your turning over fish to the Reaper on a regular basis.
For all these reasons, Betta obituaries would become too regular for my liking, but for Ghost I will make an exception.
Ghost was sold to me by a lovely young lady based in Melbourne, who had kept him for a while and hadn't had any success in trying to breed him. She had got him from an importer. It was estimated that he was around 12 months old when he arrived in my Fishroom.
After investigation, and the seeking of advice from more experienced breeders than I, it was determined Ghost was a White Dragon Marble Halfmoon Plakat.
Ghost was placed in the spawn tank nearly every month I had him, without success. There was doubt cast upon his partners gender, doubt on my ability, and doubt over the environment and/or processes involved. It was a very frustrating time for him and for me...
Eventually, on the 13th of December 2013, Ghost was paired with Pippa in the attempt to start another CTPK line, and to expand the hunt for a better green line.
They spawned over 180 eggs! For the first month or so, there were lots of deaths and it was very disheartening, but things have stabilised now and there is 20-30 fry growing quite nicely now and awaiting their movement into bigger premises (scheduled to happen soon).
At five weeks, as you can see with the fella above, the iridescent layer is beginning to show. A sibling pairing from this spawn will not only advance the CTPK line, and possibly the hunt for green, but may just give me back some grandchildren who take after their grandad.
But Ghost's experiences with the spawn tank didn't end there.
I'd lined up a Yellow CT I really wanted him to spawn with - actually it was becoming an obsession. They had three attempts previous to me matching Ghost with Pippa. After his success, I thought it time to try him again. The Yellow CT had been named Jury (due to the debate over her gender, and the jury still being out). With meticulous care, I conditioned the pair up and put them together...
On the 3rd of January 2014, Jury's gender was definitively declared as female, as she and Ghost produced a nest of about 30-40 eggs.
At week two, all fry are very pale or white. Fingers crossed I have not only a second line of F1 CTPK from Ghost, but these little guys are carriers of the Cambodian, NR1, and Dragon genes. A sibling cross from these should give me CTPK versions of Ghost, and allow me to introduce the Cambodian and NR1 gene into all the CTPK lines moving forward.
Lastly, I'm also hoping to a get a lot of good F1 CTPK males from Ghost's efforts. With his passing, I currently have only one definite adult male (a long fin copper SD tail-biter) in my Fishroom. Still waiting on the final verdict for two possible male juvenile F1 CTPK from another line, but if they turn out to be girls (like their five sisters), then there will be a serious lack of testosterone in my tanks until these spawns grow up...
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