Some of you may have noticed my absence around the place, in the Betta Community Facebook pages and in the AusAqua Forum - it's not because I'm withdrawing from breeding my fish.
To be perfectly honest, I'm over the politics involved in the Australian Betta Community. I have friends in Betta Australis, Sydney Splendens Society, and in Victoria Betta. Unfortunately, it means I hear all sorts of things from all sides of the topics under dispute, from a wide range of people. It saddens me and frustrates me that people cant work together to come to an equitable solution for the benefit of the community as a whole. I am not pointing the finger at any one individual or group - but I'll not get into expressing my opinions here. That's not what this post, or indeed this forum, is for.
So, to maintain my love of the fish, and not get trapped in arguments with people over topics that aren't life threatening, I've decided to simply withdraw from interaction in the scene, at least for the short term.
I am still breeding, and I'm still contactable if anyone wants to talk about the fish, but I don't want to know anymore about the clubs/chapters, or the parent organisations. I will continue to watch from afar how the scene develops.
When my current memberships of the different organisations run their course, I wont be renewing them - with anyone. This means I wont be able to show my fish - so be it...I was never in this to show fish or win ribbons or trophies - the idea that I can create the fish I want, fascinated me -> still does, so I will continue to breed. Eventually, I may even offer some up for sale, but for now, and probably for the next year or so, I'll be very quietly working away in my own fish room.
I will interact occasionally on the forum, the AusAqua FB page, and on the CTPK Project Australia page. I will answer any questions or requests made to my FB page.
I will update this blog on occasion when I have something to report from the fish room.
I wish everyone nothing but success with their fish.
One fish-keepers journey through the world of Betta
Wednesday, 6 August 2014
Sunday, 27 July 2014
So Much For The Off-Season
Last weekend, I think, I setup two spawns after nearly ten days of conditioning my pairs.
I think I might have to come up with some names for my lines....
Anyway, as reported on my last post, the gold male ate his eggs. The green pair just didn't seem interested. Truth be told, I'm a little more blasé about the actual spawning process now-a-days. I condition, I introduce, and then I let them be once I think they've shown enough interest in each other.
So, every time I looked in on the green pair, she was on one side of the tank, he was on the other. Occasionally he'd go over and try to encourage her back to his pitiful nest. At no time did I see her acting submissive or hiding, and at no time did I see him trying to warn her away from the nest.
I checked the nest for three days, and saw nothing to indicate success, and the behaviour of the pair hadn't changed, so I called it a failure, fished the girl out, and went about my business a little disheartened. It was here I decided a I needed a break and implemented an off-season.
Today I thought it was past time I did a little tank maintenance, so I started doing some cleaning and water changes. Last on my list was the failed spawn tank, which the male was still in.
I began siphoning, and something moved, so I moved the siphon over to get it, and it moved again. I thought it was the biggest infusoria I'd ever seen, or maybe I's begun cultivating larger single cell organisms - I had been pretty slack in cleaning this tank up. There was hubris all over the bottom, I'd been feeding the male pellets each night, and I'd not done a clean since I'd removed the female.
I got up closer to the tank with my magnifying specs on...and there was fry in there....quite a few...
The tank has now been very carefully siphoned, new water, and BBS added.
These guys are very active, but a little on the small side, but then I have no idea when they were actually hatched. If they are a week old, then they're not so small, if closing in on two weeks, then maybe a touch behind where they should be. Plenty of BBS in there now though so they should catch up fairly quick.
I now have a spawn of Black Orchid F2's in the grow out, and now this Green F2 in the spawn tank...the early morning feeds continue then for the foreseeable future :(
Isn't Mother Nature grand...
- Gold HMPK pair
Female
The egg-eater Male
- F1 of the CTPK line Green II
He's marbled a little since this photo with a lot more black now showing in his fins
She's not changes at all
I think I might have to come up with some names for my lines....
Anyway, as reported on my last post, the gold male ate his eggs. The green pair just didn't seem interested. Truth be told, I'm a little more blasé about the actual spawning process now-a-days. I condition, I introduce, and then I let them be once I think they've shown enough interest in each other.
So, every time I looked in on the green pair, she was on one side of the tank, he was on the other. Occasionally he'd go over and try to encourage her back to his pitiful nest. At no time did I see her acting submissive or hiding, and at no time did I see him trying to warn her away from the nest.
I checked the nest for three days, and saw nothing to indicate success, and the behaviour of the pair hadn't changed, so I called it a failure, fished the girl out, and went about my business a little disheartened. It was here I decided a I needed a break and implemented an off-season.
Today I thought it was past time I did a little tank maintenance, so I started doing some cleaning and water changes. Last on my list was the failed spawn tank, which the male was still in.
I began siphoning, and something moved, so I moved the siphon over to get it, and it moved again. I thought it was the biggest infusoria I'd ever seen, or maybe I's begun cultivating larger single cell organisms - I had been pretty slack in cleaning this tank up. There was hubris all over the bottom, I'd been feeding the male pellets each night, and I'd not done a clean since I'd removed the female.
I got up closer to the tank with my magnifying specs on...and there was fry in there....quite a few...
The tank has now been very carefully siphoned, new water, and BBS added.
These guys are very active, but a little on the small side, but then I have no idea when they were actually hatched. If they are a week old, then they're not so small, if closing in on two weeks, then maybe a touch behind where they should be. Plenty of BBS in there now though so they should catch up fairly quick.
I now have a spawn of Black Orchid F2's in the grow out, and now this Green F2 in the spawn tank...the early morning feeds continue then for the foreseeable future :(
Isn't Mother Nature grand...
Thursday, 24 July 2014
It's The Off Season
Weather in Adelaide is getting a bit on the cold side of late, and hampering not only BBS hatching times, and the ability to keep a female in a separate tank during the introduction period, but also my ability to bend as well as I need to...and the fact that my gold HMPK pair spawned and then the male ate all the eggs...has led me to require an off season.
So, no more spawns for the time being. I'm thinking nothing till late September, when the weather should be well and truly warming up, maybe not even till October if need be.
Yes, it will slow down all the breeding programs I've got on the go, and all the lines waiting to be done, but so be it. I need some down time as well. I've been at this, flat chat, for a little over a year, so before I just burn out, I think a rest will do me good.
I'm not going away. I'm not packing it in. Just pressing pause on the spawns for a month or two.
I'm thinking June through to the end of August will work nicely for me as a break from now on...actually, I'm quite looking forward to sleeping in occasionally instead of getting up everyday to feed fry...and, as I wont be running so many tanks, there should be a drop in the electricity bill :)
This is not the end of posting on this blog during this time either. I'm expecting a new arrival soon, and then I'll post some pics of what is currently in the fish room, plans for the next 9 months once the on-season returns :)
So, no more spawns for the time being. I'm thinking nothing till late September, when the weather should be well and truly warming up, maybe not even till October if need be.
Yes, it will slow down all the breeding programs I've got on the go, and all the lines waiting to be done, but so be it. I need some down time as well. I've been at this, flat chat, for a little over a year, so before I just burn out, I think a rest will do me good.
I'm not going away. I'm not packing it in. Just pressing pause on the spawns for a month or two.
I'm thinking June through to the end of August will work nicely for me as a break from now on...actually, I'm quite looking forward to sleeping in occasionally instead of getting up everyday to feed fry...and, as I wont be running so many tanks, there should be a drop in the electricity bill :)
This is not the end of posting on this blog during this time either. I'm expecting a new arrival soon, and then I'll post some pics of what is currently in the fish room, plans for the next 9 months once the on-season returns :)
Tuesday, 8 July 2014
It's All About The Numbers
Since I gave away my first two spawns of F1 CTPK, I've had a rethink on a number of fronts.
I'll not be giving away anymore fish, unless it's in special circumstances. I'll be happy to trade or to have them purchased from me, but I don't think I'll be actively offering them up for sale in the short term. If you're after something specific, I'm happy to take requests and if I can help, I'd be happy to sell/trade to you the specimen(s) in question.
When I start creating good quality CTPK, then I will start actively offering them for sale...and that's still a long way away.
Next number I figured out the other day...while I was doing a water change on an F2 spawn...a 1 in 8 chance...that is the possibility in getting a male F2 CTPK out of a spawn.
The long fin trait is dominant over the short fin trait, so we can work a simple punnet square to work out the approximate chances of getting plakats (sf) back from a F1 sibling pair.
Long Fin (Lf)
Short Fin (sf)
Fish from a cross of a long fin CT and a short fin HM = F1 spawn carrying both LF and SF genes. Crossing a sibling pair from this F1 spawn gives us Lfsf x Lfsf:
x Lf sf
Lf LfLf Lfsf
sf Lfsf sfsf
25% (or 1 in 4) LfLf = Long fin
50% (or 1 in 2) Lfsf = long or mid-fin
25% (or 1 in 4) sfsf = short fin - these are the plakats we're after for the CTPK line.
Of course, we need a male and a female, so we have a 25% chance of getting a short fin, but then there's a 50/50 chance that it is either male or female (at least until someone figures out what is behind male or female heavy spawns).
So things fit nicely into all these number games, we then say that the 50/50 chance will play out evenly in the long run, resulting in every second short fin being of the opposite sex. Naturally, this is where Mother Nature steps in and laughs at our carefully prepared punnet squares and throws up female heavy spawns, or only female short fins, or the opposite with male heavy spawns or only male plakats.
Maths isn't a particularly strong point of mine, and genetic punnet squares are not as simple as the one I've depicted above. There is the background of the fish, the environment, the preparation, then there's the caring for the fry - cant say I know many people who have never lost a fry during the 3-8 months it takes to get them to maturity! What if the only fry lost are the short fins...or maybe only the male short fins? What if you only get a small spawn of 10-15 fry? You need 16 to better your chances of getting two short fin fish, let alone the astronomical odds of those two being a perfect breeding pair.
This is where time and patience come into play. Creating a CTPK line from scratch (HMPK x long fin CT) is difficult. You may have to spawn the same pair a couple of times, or cross an offspring back to a parent, or cross over to another line, or introduce another HMPK to increase the odds of getting short fin at the cost of webbing reduction. Lots of options, but what's right for the situation your line is in?
And what do you do with all these less than ideal fish you're producing looking for the elusive plakats with some form of webbing reduction? If you sell all of them off into the Betta community then you'll recover some of your costs...but what happens when you finally get to the quality CTPK specimens you've always been after....everyone else already has their/your previous spawns building up to the arrival of your quality fish....who will want, or have the room, for your newly discovered fish-par-excellence? Pet shops will only give you so much for them, and usually it's only in store credit.
So, I've come to the conclusion I'm not doing it anymore - selling (or giving away) less than quality fish, I mean. Like I said before, if you want something, then feel free to ask - if I can help I will, but I'll not advertise another fish for sale until I have some quality fish to sell...which should be right about the time I'm ready to show!
Now I need to experiment and find the best way to make home-made Oil of Cloves...
I'll not be giving away anymore fish, unless it's in special circumstances. I'll be happy to trade or to have them purchased from me, but I don't think I'll be actively offering them up for sale in the short term. If you're after something specific, I'm happy to take requests and if I can help, I'd be happy to sell/trade to you the specimen(s) in question.
When I start creating good quality CTPK, then I will start actively offering them for sale...and that's still a long way away.
Next number I figured out the other day...while I was doing a water change on an F2 spawn...a 1 in 8 chance...that is the possibility in getting a male F2 CTPK out of a spawn.
The long fin trait is dominant over the short fin trait, so we can work a simple punnet square to work out the approximate chances of getting plakats (sf) back from a F1 sibling pair.
Long Fin (Lf)
Short Fin (sf)
Fish from a cross of a long fin CT and a short fin HM = F1 spawn carrying both LF and SF genes. Crossing a sibling pair from this F1 spawn gives us Lfsf x Lfsf:
x Lf sf
Lf LfLf Lfsf
sf Lfsf sfsf
25% (or 1 in 4) LfLf = Long fin
50% (or 1 in 2) Lfsf = long or mid-fin
25% (or 1 in 4) sfsf = short fin - these are the plakats we're after for the CTPK line.
Of course, we need a male and a female, so we have a 25% chance of getting a short fin, but then there's a 50/50 chance that it is either male or female (at least until someone figures out what is behind male or female heavy spawns).
So things fit nicely into all these number games, we then say that the 50/50 chance will play out evenly in the long run, resulting in every second short fin being of the opposite sex. Naturally, this is where Mother Nature steps in and laughs at our carefully prepared punnet squares and throws up female heavy spawns, or only female short fins, or the opposite with male heavy spawns or only male plakats.
Maths isn't a particularly strong point of mine, and genetic punnet squares are not as simple as the one I've depicted above. There is the background of the fish, the environment, the preparation, then there's the caring for the fry - cant say I know many people who have never lost a fry during the 3-8 months it takes to get them to maturity! What if the only fry lost are the short fins...or maybe only the male short fins? What if you only get a small spawn of 10-15 fry? You need 16 to better your chances of getting two short fin fish, let alone the astronomical odds of those two being a perfect breeding pair.
This is where time and patience come into play. Creating a CTPK line from scratch (HMPK x long fin CT) is difficult. You may have to spawn the same pair a couple of times, or cross an offspring back to a parent, or cross over to another line, or introduce another HMPK to increase the odds of getting short fin at the cost of webbing reduction. Lots of options, but what's right for the situation your line is in?
And what do you do with all these less than ideal fish you're producing looking for the elusive plakats with some form of webbing reduction? If you sell all of them off into the Betta community then you'll recover some of your costs...but what happens when you finally get to the quality CTPK specimens you've always been after....everyone else already has their/your previous spawns building up to the arrival of your quality fish....who will want, or have the room, for your newly discovered fish-par-excellence? Pet shops will only give you so much for them, and usually it's only in store credit.
So, I've come to the conclusion I'm not doing it anymore - selling (or giving away) less than quality fish, I mean. Like I said before, if you want something, then feel free to ask - if I can help I will, but I'll not advertise another fish for sale until I have some quality fish to sell...which should be right about the time I'm ready to show!
Now I need to experiment and find the best way to make home-made Oil of Cloves...
Monday, 16 June 2014
New Arrivals
I've had some new fish arrive to extend my projects...but before I show you them, a quick fry update...
My recessive line has now had 7 of the surviving 11 juvies jarred. Unfortunately there is only one male in the group...and he isn't the stunning nr1, Cambodian or opaque gentleman I was hoping for...
Yep - blue...fast becoming the bane of my search for green existence! So, I knew dad was carrying Bl, and most likely Blbl (due to the result of another spawn involving the same dad), but mum was supposed to be a yellow Cambodian CT...which, phenotypically (how she looked), she was...but she was obviously a bit of a mixed bag genotypically (genetically speaking).
Taking some of the females into account from this spawn, the yellow must also have been carrying Blbl, but the outer iridescence would not have been visible due to the Cambodian genes removing the black layer...no black layer = no visible blue/green layer.
So, a solitary blue male who should be carrying the nr1 gene and the cc gene, but obviously not a pair of cc genes...or we wouldn't be able to see the blue layer :)
This guy will have his pick of a number of females, but the front runner at this point would be this girl...
I believe this girl is carrying two cc genes and the dots you can see are the iridescent layer. When crossed with the blue boy, I will hopefully see a return of yellow and Cambodian fry.
I have a spawn of Green F2's growing out well - around 15-20 coming along in there...first male and female jarred at 10 weeks (a new record for me so I'm quite chuffed :) )
I have a new spawn of Black Orchid F2's - lots of fry in there...
It's all go...but, onto the new arrivals:
The gold's will be used to breed another generation of gold HMPK's and they will be used to create a gold CTPK line, and will be crossed into my recessive line...busy times ahead for these guys :)
Thank you to Yolandi for helping me get the fish, and for the mg and green girls in particular (from her own spawns no less!).
My recessive line has now had 7 of the surviving 11 juvies jarred. Unfortunately there is only one male in the group...and he isn't the stunning nr1, Cambodian or opaque gentleman I was hoping for...
Yep - blue...fast becoming the bane of my search for green existence! So, I knew dad was carrying Bl, and most likely Blbl (due to the result of another spawn involving the same dad), but mum was supposed to be a yellow Cambodian CT...which, phenotypically (how she looked), she was...but she was obviously a bit of a mixed bag genotypically (genetically speaking).
Taking some of the females into account from this spawn, the yellow must also have been carrying Blbl, but the outer iridescence would not have been visible due to the Cambodian genes removing the black layer...no black layer = no visible blue/green layer.
So, a solitary blue male who should be carrying the nr1 gene and the cc gene, but obviously not a pair of cc genes...or we wouldn't be able to see the blue layer :)
This guy will have his pick of a number of females, but the front runner at this point would be this girl...
I believe this girl is carrying two cc genes and the dots you can see are the iridescent layer. When crossed with the blue boy, I will hopefully see a return of yellow and Cambodian fry.
I have a spawn of Green F2's growing out well - around 15-20 coming along in there...first male and female jarred at 10 weeks (a new record for me so I'm quite chuffed :) )
I have a new spawn of Black Orchid F2's - lots of fry in there...
It's all go...but, onto the new arrivals:
Mustard Gas long fin to start a MG CTPK line
These girls aren't enjoying QT, but they are really a very
nice green and will go into the Green Lines
Sister to the above. These will be a slight step back when introduced
to a CTPK line. They will somewhat counteract the webbing reduction
I'm after, but their colour is worth the regression.
Gold HMPK female
Gold HMPK male
The gold's will be used to breed another generation of gold HMPK's and they will be used to create a gold CTPK line, and will be crossed into my recessive line...busy times ahead for these guys :)
Thank you to Yolandi for helping me get the fish, and for the mg and green girls in particular (from her own spawns no less!).
Saturday, 24 May 2014
OMG
I have obviously stopped thinking like a fish owner and started thinking way too much like a fish breeder...I didn't think interest in my fish would be so frantic!
Yesterday I made it known publically that I was offloading my excess F1 Black Orchid CTPK. I had kept a pair aside for me to further the line, a pair for a friend I had promised a breeding pair to, and two females as a thank you to the wonde3rful couple who loaned me their boy to start the line in the first place.
So five were already taken, leaving only six left: one boy and five girls.
They lasted all of about 20 minutes before they had been snapped up.
So, one spawn down, just the green spawn to go...well, I was going to wait a fortnight, allow those still in the growout to have a chance at joining those on show, but stupid me just went on impulse and made them public as well...11 girls and 5 boys this time.
I was keeping one boy and two girls, leaving 4 boys and 9 girls up for grabs...all gone, in less than two hours. My laptop got so confused I had to reboot it!
So all up, I had 27 fish from these two spawns. I'm keeping five of them. Everything else has a new home. It will be a busy day on Monday at the post office. 7 new Fishrooms/tanks will house some of my fish in different states all around Australia...that is so cool.
I have one spawn of F1's still in a growout tank. There's about a dozen fish in there. No idea on males or females at this stage but if the ratios stay true, then it should be light on males :(
This last F1 spawn is the important one. It carries my recessive genes for removing red wash and black influence. I hope to be able to develop this into a Cambodian CTPK line and a yellow CTPK line come F2 and beyond. I'm also hoping I can introduce a double tail influence into this line sooner rather than later. Not sure how many of these I will be giving away...might give the CTPK project first dibs (other than a promise I made to someone else...).
So, the fish who will be staying and continuing my lines...
Black Orchid CTPK Line
Green II CTPK Line
Yesterday I made it known publically that I was offloading my excess F1 Black Orchid CTPK. I had kept a pair aside for me to further the line, a pair for a friend I had promised a breeding pair to, and two females as a thank you to the wonde3rful couple who loaned me their boy to start the line in the first place.
So five were already taken, leaving only six left: one boy and five girls.
They lasted all of about 20 minutes before they had been snapped up.
So, one spawn down, just the green spawn to go...well, I was going to wait a fortnight, allow those still in the growout to have a chance at joining those on show, but stupid me just went on impulse and made them public as well...11 girls and 5 boys this time.
I was keeping one boy and two girls, leaving 4 boys and 9 girls up for grabs...all gone, in less than two hours. My laptop got so confused I had to reboot it!
So all up, I had 27 fish from these two spawns. I'm keeping five of them. Everything else has a new home. It will be a busy day on Monday at the post office. 7 new Fishrooms/tanks will house some of my fish in different states all around Australia...that is so cool.
I have one spawn of F1's still in a growout tank. There's about a dozen fish in there. No idea on males or females at this stage but if the ratios stay true, then it should be light on males :(
This last F1 spawn is the important one. It carries my recessive genes for removing red wash and black influence. I hope to be able to develop this into a Cambodian CTPK line and a yellow CTPK line come F2 and beyond. I'm also hoping I can introduce a double tail influence into this line sooner rather than later. Not sure how many of these I will be giving away...might give the CTPK project first dibs (other than a promise I made to someone else...).
So, the fish who will be staying and continuing my lines...
Black Orchid CTPK Line
Green II CTPK Line
Monday, 19 May 2014
Black Orchid CTPK F1 - 2014
Tonight I jarred the last of the Black Orchid F1 CTPK - a big thing for me. First time I've cleared a grow out tank...first time I've raised a spawn from fry to maturity! Yay me! Only eleven from the spawn made it this far, but that's okay, what I do have is not a bad start for a black orchid CTPK line.
Judge for yourself...
The top boy and the top girl will be paired to progress the line :)
Pictures of all who will be looking for new homes will go up in a Facebook album hopefully before this coming weekend.....problem is two girls are already spoken for, and a breeding pair is waiting on a decision from another person I promised something too...after I take my breeding pair, that only leaves five girls...so if you're in the market for females for the cost of postage, stalk my Facebook page :)
There will also be some from my green line looking for new homes soon. Thirteen of these have been jarred and there is still six or so growing out. Haven't fully decided on what will be progressing the line forward, but there will be marble girls, royal blues, and some males looking for new homes (and quite possibly breeding pairs)...these will also be in an album on Facebook very soon :)
Judge for yourself...
A couple of the boys
A couple of the girls
Pictures of all who will be looking for new homes will go up in a Facebook album hopefully before this coming weekend.....problem is two girls are already spoken for, and a breeding pair is waiting on a decision from another person I promised something too...after I take my breeding pair, that only leaves five girls...so if you're in the market for females for the cost of postage, stalk my Facebook page :)
There will also be some from my green line looking for new homes soon. Thirteen of these have been jarred and there is still six or so growing out. Haven't fully decided on what will be progressing the line forward, but there will be marble girls, royal blues, and some males looking for new homes (and quite possibly breeding pairs)...these will also be in an album on Facebook very soon :)
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