# The Long Road to Fry



## caffanne (Dec 27, 2014)

After last night's debacle of Mork's mating dance and Leviathan's attempts to headbutt her way through the divider, I decided that rather than start to build and cycle my two 20 g grow out tanks to get a steady supply of aged water for future fry, I decided that I would spend my extra money on buying an extra male to take her place, and start a sorority tank. 

Why not just put Leviathan back into the 2 g that Mork started out in? Well, after calling a few local businesses, I found a family owned independent pet store that says that they sell about 100 bettas a week! Not only that, the owner lives near me, and said that his shop greatly prefers to deal locally when it comes to buying fish for his store. I'm not surprised--Petsmart and PetCo always sell out super quickly here, even the veiltails.

Not to say I'll abandon the other smaller stores, but knowing that I always have a place for any and all of my fry, no matter what the size of the spawn, has really galvanized me. Also, I've lucked out on another front, as I'm a "maker and producer," and therefore am exempt from paying for a business license, but still have the advantage of having everything that I buy for my set up be completely free of sales tax. 

I'm not going to try and spawn more to the detriment of my bettas, and one teeny little girl, no matter how sassy, can't handle the pressure! I'll be introducing the three new girls and the new male in the next few posts. They're all mutts, but if anyone can tell me anything helpful about my boy and girls, wisdom from on high would be welcome and appreciated!

((P.S. - Mork is definitely upset that I've taken his girlfriend out of the tank))


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## caffanne (Dec 27, 2014)

Meet Angel. He seems to have some partial iridescence, but he seems to mostly be what is referred to as a cellophane on the boards? The only exception is around the edges of his fins, gill area, and the rosy red dots scattered around his fins. He's also a double tail with an EXTREMELY long dorsal fin! After a bit of flaring and shyly (why are all my males even-tempered?) exploring his new habitat, he ate a little bit and is getting down to declaring the right side of the 10 g as his. 

His only glaring flaw that I can see from a form standpoint? His body is not very long at all. Angel is a beautiful, flowing, stubby-bodied boy. Is this a unique flaw, or something that tends to run with the double-tail gene? I am not very worried about it, as most of my females have very long bodies.










He's got a set of baby blues on him! And those fins are almost completely see through...










Unless they catch the light just right!










Here is a better shot of how his two tails branch off. I see some unevenness in the top, but I Love how long and flowing they are.


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## caffanne (Dec 27, 2014)

On to our sorority! Our first new "sister" is Koi. She is the fish in the foreground.










She's got more coloration on her head than Leviathan does. Will she be a cambodian coloring? Her ventral fins are nice and pointy.










Do you see the little blue tint? She has a surprise color...










She wasn't as shy as Angel, but she's still very laid back for a female betta in a brand new sorority tank.










Surprise! I had to use the flash, but here's Koi's secret! Almost her entire body has a solid coat of blue-green iridescence.


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## caffanne (Dec 27, 2014)

And here's our next possible-cambodian: Barracuda, or Rara for short. She's a similar color to Koi and Leviathan, but much stockier with fuller fins. 










At full flare! There seems to be iridescence on her rays, but not her actual fin material. I only have two photos of Rara for now. She was too busy investigating the new tank to hold still tonight.


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## caffanne (Dec 27, 2014)

Last but not least is Blueberry!










Green on the top, blue in some places, young in the face--I don't know what to call her coloring! She's still got a little bit of racing stripes around her face, so I know she's still quite young. And oh, theere's some read around her gills and her ventrals.










A better view of her fins from the back. Is that blue coming or going? How adorable and evenly spaced is her tail?










Asserting her dominance over Koi, who doesn't seem to mind.


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## caffanne (Dec 27, 2014)

Day two with the sorority tank, and everyone seems to have taken a spot on the pecking order, with only one bit of fin damage to speak of. I'm not sure whether it was from another girl or from simply flaring too much. It was on my biggest girl, Barracuda. 










Leviathan is starting to develop eggs in her ovaries (and learning how to determinedly try to get at flirty males. She's lost almost all her intense color after being separated from her "boyfriend"), but Rara's the only one out of the four girls that I can definitely see them. Still, she's only 3.5 cm at most, so she's still got some growing to do before she gets to see any of the males. As you can see from the picture above, Rara's the one who got a little tear in her fin. 










Koi's found courage overnight! She came right over to me when I got out my phone and started flaring and displaying like above.










Blueberry is still too active to get a better picture of! She never comes over to the front of the tank to flare and posture at me, preferring to zip around everywhere inspecting the whole of the tank. The pinkish red on her bottom fin is getting stronger.


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## caffanne (Dec 27, 2014)

Back upstairs to the boys! 










I think Tycho has gotten to healthy look, not counting aggressive or courting flashes of extra razzle-dazzle. 










He has a sort of white pattern that covers his head and a little blotch behind it. Is there a name for this particular pattern? 










Getting a lot of accusing glares from Mork. I took away his girlfriend!










Angel's lost a lot of his shyness too. This is his angry face!


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## caffanne (Dec 27, 2014)

Crud. Crap. Sugar. So many words that aren't allowed to be typed here. One scare with Leviathan is done, then I come upstairs to find Angel practically dead.

I bought him less than three days ago, he was fine yesterday. I'm doing all I can for him, but...it doesn't look good. I shouldn't be so upset, but I am. This is one of the reasons I want to breed pet quality bettas; so people in my area don't have to play Fish Roulette when they buy from a chain store here.

This literally went from 0 to 60 overnight, but he was probably already "compromised" when I got him. Ugh. I guess I got lucky with all my other purchases. I'm really torn up right now.


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## caffanne (Dec 27, 2014)

And the drama continues. I had a thread earlier today asking some other forum members to assess the damage to Leviathan's fin. They assured me that it looked like damage done from her "sisters," but after finding Angel in that state, a few *hours* later I checked in on her again, and lo and behold a stray piece of what I and others had mistaken for a stray bit of damaged fin had _grown to encompass her entire caudal fin._ 

I put them both in isolation with roobios tea for tannins, a bit of Prime to help all around, as well as their first dose of API's anti-fungal medication. With such an aggressive fungus, I didn't want to waste any time with the aquarium salt method. 

About an hour later, Angel was dead. 

I shone a bright light on his (divided) tank mate Mork, and lo and behold very tiny, almost invisible patches have begun to grow on him too. Was his lethargy when I introduced Angel not because of the loss of Leviathan, but because of the introduction of a pathogen? Had I cross-contaminated somehow between their tank and the sorority during the process of moving Leviathan out and Angel in? 

I can't find any visible fungus on the other girls, but right now, given how quick and deadly this is, I'm going Full Oprah: EVERYONE IS GETTING A TREATMENT. The full works, activated carbon out, meds, etc. with daily water changes. Given that she's further along than the others, Leviathan is staying in isolation. 

I bet I couldn't see it on Angel because of his coloration. Don't know how long he had it, but thanks to Leviathan's case, I know that this can encase the whole caudal fin on a juvenile in just under three days.

I hope everyone else makes it.


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## caffanne (Dec 27, 2014)

Also, for anyone who isn't screaming it at their computer right now: this is the number one reason to never forget a quarantine period for your new fish, however healthy they may be.


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## caffanne (Dec 27, 2014)

Leviathan has a matter of hours left; despite everything the fungus has spread from her caudal to her entire body in under twenty-four hours. 

On the other hand hand Mørk still has it contained to small spots and still swims and has an appetite. I think the difference is that he isn't stressed from a move/doesn't have any fin damage. I should be able to finish the seven day treatment before it gets too out of hand.

Still no sign of it on the other girls but I'm not stopping the tank treatment--not with how quickly it can move on an injured fish.


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## caffanne (Dec 27, 2014)

Overestimated on the time; Leviathan is gone.

I actually remember why I didn't observe quarantine with Angel. The employee from Petco who's helped me with a lot of other stuff when starting up my betta tanks told me it would be better to put new additions straight into their new home, as I had "messed up" Mørk by keeping him in a 2 gallon before movin him over to where he is now. It's still my responsibility; I brought that diseased fish into the house, but now I feel a little angry, both at him and at myself for trusting the advice.

Quarantine your fish. I've lost two and may lose a third because of this.


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## caffanne (Dec 27, 2014)

Nearly a week has passed since Columnaris was introduced to my tanks, and the last of my original three bettas has finally died. A new male scraped some of his fins off on his back, and even though I've only seen the tiniest hint of fluff and his wounds are healing, he's getting the full treatment right away. 

It's physically draining to have something so vicious as Columnaris to deal with this early in the process. I'm going to eat the further loss and throw out everything in Tychos tank save for his snail, even the Marimo ball. Mr. Snail can go into the grow out tank I'm getting ready to give the Java moss some waste to clean up. Even after all this I still want to try and raise healthy bettas.


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## DaytonBetta (Feb 4, 2014)

I'm sorry you've had such a rough time! I hope things better better quickly.


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## caffanne (Dec 27, 2014)

DaytonBetta said:


> I'm sorry you've had such a rough time! I hope things better better quickly.


Thank you. The things I'm doing now (directly applying super-salinated water to the growths, literally chucking a plant with a suspect film on it out the door, boiling my mopani for the same reason on top of antibiotics and such) might seem like overkill, but the whole reason I want to breed pet-quality bettas was so people around my area could know that they were getting healthy bettas. I can't start till all my tanks and bettas are squeaky clean! 

If everyone makes it, I'm still going to chuck out my substrate and plants that can't do without it. Just Java moss + floating plants and clean mopani or pots should give everyone a healthy tank with places to hide...but much less space for detritus and bacteria to hide that shrimp and corys can't find/I can't completely clean.


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## caffanne (Dec 27, 2014)

Blueberry took a turn for the worst and my sorority tank is back down to three (seemingly healthy) fish. Crackers, the male, is still staying in his little ball of java moss on the bottom, but when I tried to net him to check him for growths, he decided to turn into a frantic "you can't catch me" healthy boy. Hmm.

This is different than the course my other sick fish have gone. Did I catch his soon enough? His scales are healing rapidly from the heart-stoppping situation he decided to get in his first night out of quarantine - -shoved himself up to the dorsal fin through an impossibly small hole Mork had never even tried for that I had to CUT HIM OUT OF. *clutches chest* 

Two days and change later and he's almost completely healed over what gave me another heart attack every time I looked at him that night. If he continues, I'll go ahead and get things set for when he and one of the girls are ready to spawn. 

He's a turquoise bodied red-and-white butterfly dragonscale with cellophane edging to his fins. All three of the girls are cambodian, two veiltail, one crowntail. The two veiltail both have completely different full-body iridescence, while the crowntail has complete non-iridescent red to her fins (that's a desirable thing on a red betta, I've read on here in spawn logs...?) with a smattering of golden flecks that doesn't spread from her fins. I panicked at the store and thought it was velvet, but she's a healthy girl and just seems to have an odd iridescence to her, not including her red parts. 

I don't know how many people are still reading this journal that's taken a turn for the depressing, but which female do you guys think that I should try and match with Crackers?


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## caffanne (Dec 27, 2014)

Crackers before his ill-advised adventure


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## caffanne (Dec 27, 2014)

Two more down from Columnaris. Like I planned earlier, I threw out all the media, plants, everything (Tychos little 2.5 gallon is now a snail safehouse) and kept only the physical filter and the tank itself which went through another bleach-rinse-de chlorinate cycle before introducing all new plants and filter media with Prime. Not doing any stressful changes to the sorority unless it truly wipes everyone out. 

I got a sad little underfed youngling of a betta to "replace" the ones I've lost in my rebooted 10 gallon. He got very colorful when I brought him home, but he's still a little boy in a big tank (with lots of Java moss and hornwort to feel safe in). He's a picky eater, so I might pick up some ghost shrimp for the tank to take care of uneaten food. I bought four for the sorority and they had no problem staying in the bettas good graces.

Attachment is the "new" tank with its new inhabitant. (He's in my small bedroom that I use a space heater in. It's so effective that I'm wearing summer wear to bed midwinter. I'm afraid I'd cook him if I added a heater)


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## caffanne (Dec 27, 2014)

My more mature female seemed impressed by the "bubble nest" my filter made during today's partial water change.


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## caffanne (Dec 27, 2014)

I floated Jezebel, my crowntail girl in Ven's tank yesterday, and they were almost immediately ready to start spawning. It's good to know that out of all the difficulties of a spawn, at least I won't have to worry about a pair of uninterested parents-to-be.

Now for the task I never thought I'd have to worry about with bettas: fatten up my boy! He's finally got a little tummy and some fat storage going on, but he was quite the skinny betta when I got him. He needs to be nice and full when he's got those eggs in front of him.

Pictured: Venla and his new tummy. Also check out those lovely ventrals!


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## caffanne (Dec 27, 2014)

I may have gotten all my bad luck out of the way at the beginning of this all. When my initial pick for female decided she'd rather be aggressive than mate, I cupped my wild type, Wild Card and introduced her to the spawn tank. She had strong vertical stripes within minutes and I've left them at home happily playing "tag" with each other. It's mating behavior, but they're being much more gentle than I had braced myself for!


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