F2 Tails!

I know I've been incredibly slack on keeping this blog updated, but life outside the Fishroom is keeping me extremely busy.

But...the good news is I've managed to have some additional success in the spawn tank.

Lets go back a step or two...

It all began with a marble dragon HMPK male x with a turquoise CT female

 

 

The above pair produced these guys:

 

All my mid fin and long fin fellas end up tail biting - it's annoying :(

He was paired with the female below

 

So the above pair spawned on the weekend, and their fry (F2) began free swimming this morning.

 

And I also paired up...

 

 

 

She doesn't have any fungus or disease - it's just an effect of the light behind her.

She was tried with the other male ^^ earlier in the year, but as you can see by the fin regrowth

he was somewhat unkind towards her - she came out without so much as a scratch this time round.

 

They spawned on Sunday, and I expect the fry to be free swimming by tomorrow.

 

These guys are all part of my Hunt For Green lines. I'm trying to get some metallic green fish and to get some better CTPK. F2 should allow me to get plakat's back in the fry, and although neither dad has very good webbing reduction, the mum's are a good start - fingers crossed.

Plans A Foot

February has been pretty much a non-event in my Fishroom, and March was scheduled to be somewhat busier, but has been pretty much a no go so far. Only difference has been the introduction of grated blood worm and pellets into the growout tanks. Growth rate increases have been quite obvious.

Week 1 of March was supposed to be: Finish prep of third growout tank before moving White Marble HMPK x Yellow CT fry into their new quarters. I had moved these guys onto grated blood worm, but the largest fry was found dead, and looking somewhat over stuffed - so I assume he choked due to being a pig! Blood worm was removed from their diet but I have now recommenced it now they are a little bigger.

These guys have now been moved to bigger accommodation and I expect they will begin a growth spurt any tick of the clock...

Week 2 of March was supposed to be: Conditioning of F1 pairings - this has only begun in earnest two days ago.

I completed setting up two spawn tanks on the 18th - and added occupants late that night. Conditioning is underway, first uncarding sessions have been done, and both males have begun work on their nests. Hopefully and intro isn't too far away.

Parents were Marble Dragon Multi HMPK x Turquoise CT

I only got two surviving males from this spawn so not much choice left open to me in regards of which males to choose...

I had five females to choose from, and went solely on best form - although one has already commenced marbling and the other is likely to follow suit.

Hopefully, I'll get a better range of plakat combtails from these pairings so I can begin the line of CTPK in earnest.

April will be all about jarring fry and sorting out potentials for F2 pairings next breeding season come September :)

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

 

:)

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 :)

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...

F2...And So The CTPK Search Goes On

I have moved the F1 spawns of:

 

Black Orchid CT Male (above) x Black Marble HMPK Female (below)

And...

 

Marble Dragon HMPK Male -deceased (above)  x Turquoise DR CT Female (below)

...into bigger accommodations. To the naked eye, they all seem to be benefitting from the move and growing nicely. According to my measurements, not a whole lot has changed...we'll see.

Moving the two spawns left me with two spare spawn tanks. One, I'm leaving empty for now. It may come in handy as a separate growout for a few females, or as a hospital tank. The other I've decided to setup an F2 spawn from:

 

 

Marble HMPK Male - deceased (above) x Turquoise DR CT Female (below)

 

 

The brother x sister pairing looks like this:

 

 

Turquoise (Metallic Green even...) Marble Combtail Male (above)

 

 

Royal Blue with Red wash (Marble Geno) Combtail Female (above)

 

They are only in the conditioning stage at the moment, being fed an increased diet of frozen blood worm. The male is taking claim to his new territory (which he's been in for the past three days). The female has been setup in a beanie box beside him. They are carded. They'll have their first view of each other just before bedtime tonight.

 

He has remarkable colouring with the dragon influence of Dad possibly adding to his metallic modifiers. The turquoise looks much more like a metallic green than anything I've seen in front of me before. He also has a good start to a dorsal, nice masking, single point ventrals, and nice top line. All his unpaired fins show the influence of mum's long fins.

 

She has an okay top line, a narrow-based dorsal, good masking, single point ventrals, an even anal and better webbing reduction all over than he does.

 

Hopes: As both carry impartial penetrant genes and the plakat genes of the father, and the DR CT long fin genes of the mother (who also had a nice dorsal), I'll be looking for plakats with better webbing reduction and who carry on the metallic green.

 

 

RIP Ghost

I'd decided a little while ago that I'd stop advertising the death of any of my fish. Betta reportedly live anywhere between 1-3 years on average, and there is a school of thought around that power growing Betta fry actually shortens Betta life span (anecdotal evidence only around for this, as far as I know).

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...