# Breeding a HM Female and PK Male?



## Betta Slave (Dec 8, 2009)

I just contacted the breeder I got Peanut from and he has some Halfmoon females mg: I have been looking for HM females FOREVER and so i'm going absolutely berserk. :crazy: I can't believe it  lol anyway....
If I bred a HM female with a PK male, Peanut :-D (which i have been trying to do for a while, but haven't found any halfmoons!) what would I get? Fins that looks like PK halfmoons? 

Thanks.


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## Foxers (Mar 14, 2010)

oh my- HMPK's are so pretty- ive seen them on Aquabid often. They're quite popular i must say


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## 1fish2fish (Sep 10, 2009)

Yep.. with an HM and a PK you'll get a mix. You might even get some HM and some PK but I'd say you'll get mostly HMPK.. very nice fish BTW.

What color female would you breed? I love HMPK


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## doggyhog (Apr 30, 2009)

Get a red dragon female if you can!!!!  

I too, love HMPKS! Especially if they are dragons.


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## Betta Slave (Dec 8, 2009)

Thanks guys, for the info. 
Yeah, I just got back from the breeder, he has three females to choose from, bred and imported from Thailand.... if there's a red dragon female, I'll snatch her up!! The fry will be dragons, with Peanut, who is a dragon too... I'm excited


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## Zenandra (Nov 14, 2009)

Ooo good luck! Dragons are cute! Is peanut a traditional pk with the round tail, or a Hmpk? Breeding PK x HM you'll gets HM's, SD's, Pk's and HMPK's


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## Betta Slave (Dec 8, 2009)

Peanut is a tradition red dragon PK with a round tail.
I'm excited for the pics to come, and when they do, I'll post them. Can you guys help me with deciding which female to pick when the pictures come?


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## Zenandra (Nov 14, 2009)

Haha of course we'll help!!


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## Betta Slave (Dec 8, 2009)

Thanks, I love this forum, everyone is so helpful and friendly!

Hopefully I will get the pictures soon.
Zenandra, I'm not sure if you've seen Peanut, so here is the little guy... 

















He's brighter in real life, the lighting was bad in the room he was in at the moment. His fins have filled out almost completley, it's barely noticeable. This is an old-ish picture. He had an incident with another betta at the breeders place, but he is hyper and puppy-like and growing as normal. He's not a full dragon, but I think that when he got in a fight with that other betta some of his scales may have been torn off and grew back as red. I'm not sure, but I love him anyway lol. A red dragon female would go with him perfectly... I'm so excited ^_^ If there are no red ones, I'm thinking blue.... or.... I'm not sure.... the breeder said if you bred Peanut with a HM female, he though the fry would have the coloring of the female and fins of the male, but he wasn't 100% sure. He imports his bettas from Thailand, doesn't breed them. But still, his bettas are absolutely gorgeous. Peanut was the last dragon.

I'm sorry guys that I'm babbling about nothing in particular but I am very excited


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## Zenandra (Nov 14, 2009)

Hes Gorgeous!! Do you have any pictures of him totally flared out? Look at how straight the edges of his caudal are. And I think I count up to 6 rays on some parts of the caudal. He is definitely closer to being a HMPK then a traditional pk.

Here are some examples of a traditional PK verses a HMPK

Traditional - Round tail, only 2 rays in caudal

























HMPK - Straight caudal edges, 4 or more rays


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## Betta Slave (Dec 8, 2009)

I'll try to get some pics, I'll try to get some as soon as I can. He's really stubborn with flaring.... hold on...


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## Betta Slave (Dec 8, 2009)

Bump. Got pics. I've tried to get some flaring pics of him before but he looks at the mirror, looks at me, goes, "Whazzat??" Then zooms around the front of his aquarium eyeing the food. I think he's more of a round tail.


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## 1fish2fish (Sep 10, 2009)

He looks more like a traditional PK to me. My HMPK male's tail is bigger than that at rest. But the only way to really know is a flare pic.


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## Betta Slave (Dec 8, 2009)

sorry, I meant traditional, yes. He stretches out his fins fully, but doesn't flare his gills. He has once, only once, and his fins were the same from in the picture.


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## Zenandra (Nov 14, 2009)

I wish I could count his rays in the pictures. A traditional pk usually has 4 rays max, and it looks to be like your boy has 6 in a couple places. I don't think he's a traditional PK, or a HMPK I think he would be more qualified as the Delta or Super Delta version of a PK. He does have much straighter caudal edges then a traditional PK would have! But regardless he's gorgeous!! ANd I can't wait to see his potential girlfriends!


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## Betta Slave (Dec 8, 2009)

Well, here are his potential girlfriends- I am definitely going for the blue dragon girl in the centre, what do you guys think? She acts exactly like Peanut!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU6ZPWXdY3M

I love the patch of shiny scales she has on her nose, she's so cute!! I want her! ^-^


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## 1fish2fish (Sep 10, 2009)

I like the blue girl as well. She has really nice fins.


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## Betta Slave (Dec 8, 2009)

I'm assuming the fry would be dragon, if both mom and dad are dragon?


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## 1fish2fish (Sep 10, 2009)

I dunno. I would assume you would get some dragons. You would probably also get some regular red and blue bettas.

Zenandra will be able to tell you better.


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## Betta Slave (Dec 8, 2009)

Cool, thanks  
I'm excited 
Edit- sorry, I'm just wondering, in terms of plants bettas like, Banana Plant, Hornwort, Red Lotus, Hygrophila sunset, or Vallisneria? These are just plants he has for sale that are cheaper than regular plants in stores. Thanks.


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## Zenandra (Nov 14, 2009)

I love that middle girl!! She is gorgeous! Would be a perfect mate for him! 

Heres a piece from an article about dragons from Betty Splendens


> What genes determine the "dragon" phenotype?
> We can clearly see that the unique appearance of the "dragon" clearlyaffects the iridescent layer. So far several genes have beencharacterized which affect the iridescent layer, for example theclassical iridescent colors steel blue (blbl), turquoise (BlBl) androyal blue (Blbl), metallic or yellow reflecting iridophore (thewildtype variant of the reduced yellow iridophore locus) [18] and thespread iridescence gene (Si) which is responsible for the increase indensity and distribution of the iridescent color.
> In 2007, Joep van Esch of Bettaterritory.nl made some experimentalcrosses with "dragons" in his fishroom in order to learn more about theheredity behaviour of this trait (see pedigree below). After crossing a"dragon" to a regular metallic (BT171007A)he observed that all offspring had a copper phenotype. Considering thefact that a copper phenotype (homozygous metallic steel blue, blbl ++)can only be obtained when the offspring obtains one steel blue (bl) andone metallic (+) allele from each parent [3], this result suggests thatboth traits may play an important role in the unique appearance of the"dragon" phenotype. Interestingly, the metallic scaling of theoffspring seemed more thick and solid than observed in regular metallicfish. This characteristic was also passed on to the offspring when aheterozygous "dragon" was crossed to a heterozygous metallic fish (BT271107). The offspring resulting from crossing two heterozygous metallic sibblings (BT171007B)resulted in homozygous, heterozygous and non-metallic offspring withoutthis unique appearance which was observed before. Off course we have tokeep in mind that these findings were purely based on macroscopicobservations (with the naked eye). Nevertheless, these crosses showthat the "dragon" trait is hereditable and suggests that it behavesquite dominant as it already clearly affects the iridescent layer inheterozygous fish.


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## Hopeful (Dec 27, 2009)

I have really slow dial up so I can't see the girls. :C But I love the way HMPK Look especially when their dragon XD


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## Betta Slave (Dec 8, 2009)

The middle girl it will be! I'll probably get her next weekend, as a local forum I belong to is having a group buy and it will be cheaper that way.


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## beta novice (May 9, 2010)

very nice


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