# (DTRT x CT)



## Trixa (May 31, 2015)

I bred my Red-purple DTRT Male, named Lovey, and my Royal Blue(sort of purple) CT female Breeze on 7/3/15



















Sorry for blurry pic of female, she wouldn't stay still.

This is the babies as of 7/5/15


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## Nimble (Aug 31, 2014)

What's your goal with this cross?


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## Trixa (May 31, 2015)

I'm hoping to get some purples or blues in the fry. I also like the way combtails look. 
Mainly though this breeding is to see if I can handle caring for the fry and if breeding bettas is something I want to pursue (if it is, I will buy some quality breeding stock). It was brought to my attention that breeding the male was a bad idea after i already bred him, since he's a rosetail. I'm going to keep a close eye out for any deformities and rosing.
I have contacted a few LFS that have said they'd take some of the babies when they're old enough, as well as a few friends, so I do have homes for them.


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

Good luck!


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## Trixa (May 31, 2015)

Thanks! Having good luck so far, babies are now free swimming and checking out everything. Daddy is resting in his own tank now, and my cleaner snail has been added to the baby tank.

A quick question about the snail, he's a large (ping pong ball sized) mystery snail. He cleans the bottom but he seems to put out enough poo on the tank bottom to replace what he cleaned, if not more. Is it worth it to have him in there?


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## Sepiaceus7 (Jun 18, 2015)

Interesting cross and cute pictures of the fry c: 

For me, only nerite snails have been better at cleaning without making as much waste (and the waste itself was easier to clean). Even small mystery snails and small breed/baby plecos were poop machines from what I could tell.


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## Trixa (May 31, 2015)

Fry are doing well, they got their first bbs feeding today and are digging it. I've been carefully siphoning the snail poo off of the bottom with a turkey baster, and replacing what I took with clean water. I haven't seen any dead ones yet, but maybe the snail ate them. I'll be putting some fry pics up in a bit.


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## Trixa (May 31, 2015)

^I've nicknamed this one Sassy Mcfry


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

Ha, Sassy McFry. He does look sassy.


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## Trixa (May 31, 2015)

I took these pics on 7/14

























I see caduals! Squee!








Found this guy the other day. He doesn't seem to be struggling with swimming or getting food, as evidenced by his full belly. Would he still be able to live a decent life with his deformity?


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## Nimble (Aug 31, 2014)

Not with one that bad... I mean, it's possible, but I wouldn't risk it. Keep an eye on him, and if he starts struggling, put him down. 

In all honesty, he'll probably starve out as the others get bigger around him and his spine keeps him from competing.


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## Elleth (Feb 23, 2015)

Cute babies! I love seeing fry pictures.


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## Trixa (May 31, 2015)

Nimble said:


> Not with one that bad... I mean, it's possible, but I wouldn't risk it. Keep an eye on him, and if he starts struggling, put him down.
> 
> In all honesty, he'll probably starve out as the others get bigger around him and his spine keeps him from competing.


Ok, thanks Nimble. I just wanted to check and make sure that he didn't have a chance of having a decent life before I did anything drastic. He had a hard time getting at the food this morning...I'll probably put him down later this evening.  poor fishy.


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## Trixa (May 31, 2015)

On a happier note, I see dorsals! I also see anal fins too but they're too small to show up on camera. Pictures taken on 7/17








And Sassy Mcfry strikes again!








Sassy Mcfry says "I see you, snappin that picture...I got my eye on you, food bringer..."


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

It's good to see those fat little bellies. You're lucky to have just one spinal deformity! It seems to show up a lot on the DT spawns that I've seen.


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## Trixa (May 31, 2015)

Pics taken on 7/20. I'm seeing some blue irid fry and green irid fry. Very faint, and very hard to capture on my camera phone. But at least their dorsal and anal fins can be seen in the pics now!


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## Trixa (May 31, 2015)

I feel lucky. Other than that one cull, I've had no deaths. Unless my snail ate the dead ones before I found them. 
I hope it's not running out though, I had a huge nitrite spike this morning for no apparent reason. I got to spend the day taking 50% water out and putting it back in, then 50% out and 50% in again. Double dosed prime just in case, and I'm gonna check it in the morning.


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## Trixa (May 31, 2015)

I've been doing a ton of water changes the past few days and the nitrite levels have only gone down a little. Pretty sure my cycle crashed . I've been putting some Prime in there and hopefully that will help the babies till it stabilizes. 
The fry seem to be doing great. They are going through more and more bbs every day, and I've seen a few having their stripes come in!
I'll take some pictures tomorrow.


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

Awesome!


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## Trixa (May 31, 2015)

So...I've occasionally found these piles of white goo on the bottom of my tank the past week. I siphon every day, so I figured it was random goo from my snail. 

Well I found one this morning and I had the horrible realization that the goo was shaped like a fry. The goo pile couldn't have been there longer than 8 hours. When fry die are they supposed to just poof into goo? I always thought they floated to the top like the adults do 

On a happier note,* Nitrites in the fry tank have now stabilized, woo!* 
I also have another spawn tank (a 20g long) thanks to the petsmart $1 per gallon sale. I have a happy couple in there courting as we speak, a pale blue and yellow mustard gas hmpk EE male (bought when I went to get the tank, my mom almost killed me lol) and a cambodian hm female. Going for some blue/red (purplish if I'm lucky) fry from that spawn. If not what I want, I'm sure I'll still get some beautiful fry. The male is showing her his nest but she isn't going for it yet. Both are virgins. I will start a separate spawn log if they finally decide to make eggys


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## Trixa (May 31, 2015)

Fry pics taken 7/24

















Every time I take a pic and zoom in there's always one or two fry giving me this look, lol.









Stripes and a hint of blue irid. And look at all the fins! Dorsal, anal, cadual, and...are those little ventrals starting?! Squeak!


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

Awesome pictures!


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## InStitches (May 26, 2014)

perfect babies


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## Elleth (Feb 23, 2015)

So precious!


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

I love searching the Spawn Logs and seeing these adorable teeny things!!!!


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## Trixa (May 31, 2015)

Thanks for all the compliments on the babies! The fry are always the highlight of my day :-D 

I'm currently just using my camera phone to take pics of the fry and zooming in after the pic has been taken to get the close ups. I have a friend who's parents are photographers and he's offered to borrow one of their cameras and take some pics for me when the fry are older.

I forgot to update that *the fry were 3 weeks old as of 7/26*! In this third week they've really started to get a bit of color on them. I've been seeing hints of royal blues(A purple shade!), Turquoise, and some of them are starting to have red come in on their cadual and anal fins! 

I tried to count them today and got to 40, but I hadn't even counted half of them. I'm guessing I have 100-120 fry at the moment. They all seem healthy, with maybe about 3 or 4 runts. I had one case of swim bladder issues but it cleared up quickly.

The fry are still solely on bbs, but I'd like to get them onto something I can culture (grindal worms or white worms) so I can save on costs. _If anyone knows a good place to get grindal or white worm starter cultures for cheap please let me know! I'd really appreciate it, and the babies would too! _


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## InStitches (May 26, 2014)

someone on aquabid has sold me cultures before, with yeast and care instructions and pipettes, for I think about $6 or so? I can send you his email info by PM if you would like! And see what he has available.


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## Trixa (May 31, 2015)

Sure that'd be awesome! Sorry for the late reply. 
Half my spawn now has swim bladder disorder  I think I either overfed the bbs or too many bbs egg casings got in there the last feeding. I'm gonna fast them for a day and I just put some epsom salt in (1 tsp per gallon). I saw one or two of them pass large stools and then were swimming better right after. Hopefully they'll all be better tomorrow. I'll take some fry pics in the morning.

Oh and a question about runts: If they are half the size (or less) of their larger siblings should I jar them, set up a separate grow out, put them in a floating container in the main tank, or just leave them?


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## FishMemory (Jul 7, 2015)

BTW I love all the pictures that you posted they all look amazing. Can't wait tell they show their colors !!!!


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## Trixa (May 31, 2015)

Fed them ground up pellets for the first time today. A few pellets didn't get ground up enough though, so some of my larger fry got even larger bellies. Mom is taking me into town tomorrow, I'm gonna see if the aquatic store carries any live or frozen foods I could use for the fry. Pics in next post.


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## Trixa (May 31, 2015)




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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

This guy is gonna be SO STINKIN CUTE. I'm just sayin....


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## SparklingStarfish (Jun 28, 2015)

Adorable! ^-^


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## Elleth (Feb 23, 2015)

Eeeee, all the babies!


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## Trixa (May 31, 2015)

Sad news guys. I've had 9 fry deaths in the past few days. 8 were from an illness that seems to be slowly killing my fry, and one was a siphon accident (oops  ) At first I thought the illness was sbd from too much bbs, but they continued to deteriorate even after a day of fasting and epsom salt treatment. In fact, some of them were as bloated as they would be after just eating even though I fasted them a day...

I'm thinking either I'm finally getting the normal die off and it just hit really late, or the fry have something like velvet or dropsy. I haven't had my glasses for the past week and all my fry are irids, so I have a hard time telling what shiny stuff on them shouldn't be there. I'm doing 1 tsp per gallon of aquarium salt like normal, but I am also adding Paraguard at it's recommended dosage and I have a towel over the tank.

I hope this isn't dropsy.


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## Nimble (Aug 31, 2014)

Dropsy is a symptom, not an illness. Dropsy is when the fish swells up and their scales pine-cone out, and it's a sign of organ failure. If none of your fry are showing this, then they don't have dropsy.


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## Trixa (May 31, 2015)

Oh ok. The way most people talk about Dropsy I had thought it was an actual disease. Thank you for the clarification Nimble 

Big thanks to kittenfish and hrutan for suggesting possible illnesses this could be and recommending Prazipro! I have had no fry deaths since I started treatment and they seem to be doing a lot better!

I've lost about 24 fry during the course of this illness and I have 4 I may have to euthanize. SIP little buddies. 

Current fry pictures incoming.


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## Trixa (May 31, 2015)

They look like little guppies now! Sorry for blurry pics, they're faster now too!


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## kittenfish (Dec 1, 2013)

I'm glad the PraziPro worked for you. They look great!


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## Trixa (May 31, 2015)

I caught my four critical care fish (the ones I thought I'd have to euthanize) swimming around in their cup this morning, they were clumsy and had some problems staying upright, but they were swimming. I say I "caught" them swimming because as soon as they saw me they immediately stopped and pretended like they could hardly move again. Silly fish lol.

They haven't eaten in 2-3 days, at least as far as I could tell, and they've shown no interest in non-live foods. I put enough bbs in their cup so that the bbs would pretty much swim right into their mouths and I've seen them take some bites. Right now as I'm typing this two of them are even swimming after it a little. 
I'm gonna give them about 10 or 15 minutes with the bbs in there and then I'm gonna change their water.


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## Trixa (May 31, 2015)

Fry are 5 weeks old either today or tomorrow. Critical care fry were healthy enough to be added back to the fry tank. 
I am setting up a 20 gallon long tomorrow as another grow out since the 20 gallon high is getting crowded enough for a few fins to have been nipped. 
I also got a baby betta at petco, because I have no self control lol.He/She is *not* a baby compared to my babies. I'm going to divide off a small section of the 20 long and keep it divided untill my babies aren't bite sized.


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

The fry are looking great! Funny finding a baby at Petco to bring home, too.


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## Trixa (May 31, 2015)

I added the "baby" betta to the main tank a few days ago and she (looking very female to me) leaves the smaller fry alone, other than shoving them out of the way during feeding time lol. 

Due to the success of the baby betta in the main tank, I added my smallest female to the 20 long tank yesterday and she leaves the fry alone as well.

I've had to separate bully babies from the main tank, 3 so far, but I'm seeing about at least 10 more. I know it's not play aggression because one of my fry ended up with their whole caudal ripped off (I know it wasn't the newly added female because the bite marks were too small to be her's).

Just letting you guys know that *I will have no internet till 8/19, therefore probably no picture updates till then.* I'm using my mom's phone as a hotspot to post this, but she has a 1 gb limit.

*Suggestions for housing jarred aggressive fry are appreciated.* I _was_ going to float 2 liter bottles cut in half for them in the main tank, but I think I'm going to need a different plan. Too many are needing to be jarred already...


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## Trixa (May 31, 2015)

I am using McDonald's WiFi right now. I took pictures, my mom's phone died and so I'm letting her use mine, and that's where the pics are. 
I found a 10 megapixel camera in my stored stuff, so when I do get net, I will have even better pics than before!

The fry are about 1/3 to 1/2 the size of my smallest female. The most aggressive ones are completely colored up now. I'm assuming these are males, since when they flare they have cute lil mini beards, it's adorable. The rest of the fry still seem to be a flesh base color with blue purple irids and some turquoise irids. They all have the nice big dorsal and anal fins from being DT carriers. Their caduals are two ray so far, but I'm hoping they'll have more come in as they get older. They seem like they'll be delta tails, or maybe super delta if I'm lucky.


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## Trixa (May 31, 2015)

My mom decided to switch service providers, and the earliest appointment to set up the net they had was the 29th. So I'm stuck with McDonald's WiFi till then. I took a few pics of the baby petco betta and my jarred fry. I'll try to get them uploaded while I'm here. I know you guys don't come here to read me rambling on and on. ;P


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## Trixa (May 31, 2015)




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## Trixa (May 31, 2015)

I've jarred about 24 fry, I'm assuming most of the jarred are males since a few have made teeny bubble nests. Still see some in the main tanks fighting, so jarring isn't done yet. Gonna get more jars on Wednesday. 

*I think I might sell some of the fry in a week or two, if anyone is interested. *


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

Wow, the combtail look isn't bad on them! I love the colors coming in.


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## InStitches (May 26, 2014)

cuties!


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## Isabella15 (Feb 23, 2015)

Omg they are SO cute


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## Nimble (Aug 31, 2014)

Combtail isn't really a BAD look if both parents are good-quality fish. Most of the bad combtails come from CT x VT crosses, from newbie breeders not knowing what they're doing.

In fact, Combtail on a Plakat is actually rather attractive-looking, from what I've seen pictures of some people's crosses.


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

Nimble said:


> Combtail isn't really a BAD look if both parents are good-quality fish. Most of the bad combtails come from CT x VT crosses, from newbie breeders not knowing what they're doing.
> 
> In fact, Combtail on a Plakat is actually rather attractive-looking, from what I've seen pictures of some people's crosses.



there was a rather impressive combtail doubletail at my Petco today.. DEF messy, but he was young enough with short enough fins that hadn't really grown out enough yet to be quite pretty, even while a little messy. I'm sure it would have gotten "worse" tho...


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## Trixa (May 31, 2015)

He's behind me isn't he....








AHA caught ya!

















































This fry has the biggest fins so far.


























And I'm planning on keeping this fry. Yes the two pictures below are the same fry. He looks different colors in different lighting.


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## Nimble (Aug 31, 2014)

No red at all. Very nice, a handsome blue boy. Gonna use him for F2?


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## Trixa (May 31, 2015)

Yep. I've seen a few of his sisters who seem like they have the same color he does, but it's hard to keep track of them when they're in the growout tank. Hard to get a picture of the females too, since whenever I walk up to the tank they swarm like a pack of hungry pirhanas. Even if I fed them five minutes earlier.

The Swarm:









One of his jarred brothers that is sort of the same color as him.


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

oh, I love the brother... so handsome!


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

Wow, look at them swarm!


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## InStitches (May 26, 2014)

oh wow! I love the blue brothers 
Look at all the happy chubby tummies!


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