# HMPK - Dragonscale x Marble - Fifth time's the charm?



## umarnasir335 (Jan 9, 2014)

Wohooooo!

If anyone has been following my spawn attempts since late February, they would know that I've had the terrible luck of a beginner.

No more, however!

I decided I would NOT update or create a new thread unless the spawn was complete and daddy had done his job...well, THE FRY ARE FREE SWIMMING!

The father is a dragonscale HMPK bicolor purchased from a local fish store. I bought him purely on impluse, and I'm so glad I did. He more than made up for my last two males' lack of parenting and spawn etiquette...lol
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His caudal is a bit spade-shaped, but I'm sure it can be fixed since the female has great form and spread.

The female/momma is a cello-marble purchased from Aluka (Jamie). She's my personal fav 

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AND......here are the babies - they are free swimming and I counted about 30-50, but they are sooooo small I'm pretty sure there are more!
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Male and female were introduced wednesday night, and the fry were free swimming a couple of hours ago. Took daddy out promptly once I saw a few trying to escape the bubble nest.

I have LOTS of questions for those more experienced than me, if you can help, you will have my eternal gratitude:

1) I just fed microworms. There are about 15 fry on the bottom just staring at them. Is this a bad sign?
2) 10 gallon tank is filled halfway - when should my first water change and/or siphoning of the bottom be?
3) On the number of fry, did more and more babies keep popping up the first few days after free-swimming?
4) I got a hatchery of BBS going. Should I feed some tomorrow or is it too early? The spawn tank has many floating plants so infusoria should be plenty just in case someone wants to know
5) Any guesses what the colors of the babies might turn out to be? This is just me being an impatient newbie lol

Thank you for looking!


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## amphirion (Jan 15, 2014)

1) no, it's normal... very similar behavior with mantids, some fish are aggressive enough to attack live prey, some fish arent. the ones that dont end up starving to death. nothing you can really do. most however, become brave or hungry enough and manage to eat.
2) i try to have some sort of flux between freshwater and tank water (experience has a harsh learning curve -_-') . for every liter of water removed, add in two.
3) it appeared that way to me. i estimated about 100 eggs in my recent batch, turned out there were at least 200 fry once when the nest disappeared.
4) most usually use worms for the first week, then wean to bbs after. im sure the fry could tackle the bbs earlier though.
5) multi-marbled. blue, red, and cambodian?

congrats on your first spawn.


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## umarnasir335 (Jan 9, 2014)

amphirion said:


> 1) no, it's normal... very similar behavior with mantids, some fish are aggressive enough to attack live prey, some fish arent. the ones that dont end up starving to death. nothing you can really do. most however, become brave or hungry enough and manage to eat.
> 2) i try to have some sort of flux between freshwater and tank water (experience has a harsh learning curve -_-') . for every liter of water removed, add in two.
> 3) it appeared that way to me. i estimated about 100 eggs in my recent batch, turned out there were at least 200 fry once when the nest disappeared.
> 4) most usually use worms for the first week, then wean to bbs after. im sure the fry could tackle the bbs earlier though.
> ...


Thank you so much.
I guess I'll be siphoning the tank every 24 hours or so. Planning on just adding about a gallon every other day until fry can swim easily. BTW I'm running a 20 gallon sponge filter with low current from the get go that has been seeded from other tanks, so hopefully water quality shouldn't be a problem.


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## umarnasir335 (Jan 9, 2014)

I just fed them baby brine shrimp for the first time a few minutes ago. 

It's funny how pretty much all the little ones came out from under the plants to attack the BBS, allowing me to do a rough headcount, which was about 45 babies.

I'm thinking of siphoning the tank's bottom with a 5 ml syringe and plastic tubing in a few hours...gonna take a while...


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## umarnasir335 (Jan 9, 2014)

So the babies are doing really well. They've gotten a lot bigger in 10 days, allowing for me to do a more accurate headcount of about 54 last night. I've been feeding them BBS twice a day and have only noticed a couple of runts so far, which is good.
I can make out pectoral fins now and the caudals as well 
Wanted to update you guys with some pics 

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## bettaboyshiva (Jul 14, 2011)

nice looking well fed and healthy...keep up the good work!


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## umarnasir335 (Jan 9, 2014)

It's week 3 and about time for an update.
Here are some pics before I bore you guys though  

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As you can see, the fry are doing extremely well. I'm doing 50% water changes every 2-3 days and have only found 4-5 dead, all except pne were runts.

Raising these little suckers has been both stressful, but oh so rewarding and fun in its own way  Thanks to all who helped me get over the "hump" of the first 2 weeks. Been feeding BBS 2-3 times a day and been siphoning the bottom with nearly every water change.

Here is a vid of these little guys in action:

http://youtu.be/DomN1zLmS-4


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## BlueLacee (Dec 8, 2013)

wow, beautiful pair. good luck with this spawn


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## umarnasir335 (Jan 9, 2014)

Man, it's been quite a few weeks since I last updated...

The babies are doing excellent! Most of them have started coloring up, although I haven't seen massive growth on ALL of them.

Feeding them exclusively crushed pellets and bloodworms now. Water change every 2-3 days.

It's hard to give them perfect care and be on time with water changes with this much work and extracurricular activities 

Here are some pics and a vid (MORE PEOPLE SHOULD BE MAKING VIDS - CMON, WE LIVE IN THE 21st CENTURY NOW PEOPLE! XD)






VID:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0A3zIh3nLc&feature=youtu.be


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