# Blue Tiger ButterflyxBlue Marble HM



## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

Hey guys! Some of you know I've been attempting to breed a butterfly and marble together-but it didn't really work out as the male was too passive and the female is way aggressive. So I picked up a male at the pet store who had perfectly aligned fins and nice tiger butterfly coloring and he's been such a good daddy and mate, and I have eggs!

I'll try to snap a picture of the bubble nest, they're both still wrapping as the female was extremely eggy. The bubble nest is also giant! It's about 1/4 the size of the 10g tank. Anyways, without further ado-parent pictures-

Along with producing eggs, the female is helping the male bring them to the nest instead of eating them like female's tend to do lol. I must say they're such great parents! The female is helpful, the male is very active and helpful and was very gentle toward the female the whole breeding process [can't say the same for the female] and only nipped when she got out of line. So now they're spawning and picking up eggs together.

Alias-









Sade-









I'll be posting updates!

Also if anyone's interested, I'll be selling a lot of the fry.


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## Greenapp1es (Dec 4, 2014)

Will be interesting to see how this turns out!

I hope you find a suitable mate for the other boy though. He was gorgeous.


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

Thanks!

Yeah haha, I have a mellow female that I might pair him with but I kinda wanna work on this line first haha.


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## mashp (Feb 24, 2015)

beautiful pair, I want to see how this turns out.


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

Thank you! I wish everyone could see them in person, they're so gorgeous. I actually have a video of the wrap if anyone's interested.


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## Greenapp1es (Dec 4, 2014)

Haha - I'd like to see a better photo of the sire. The lighting doesn't let me see his coloration very well. 

I suppose a video of the wrap would provide that though


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

Yeah he doesn't have a light on his personal tank but he does in the breeding tank.


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

Alright well they have been wrapping for hours and as I went to check the tank, the male was chasing the female off so I scooped her in the net and delivered her back home. She's resting and healing her wounds while the male is feverishly guarding the eggs.


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

Wow! I'm glad you found her a good male.


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## BlueInkFish (Jan 13, 2013)

Awesome! I would love to see the video of the wraps! This spawn is very similar to mine. Just curious but what happens to th other male?

I would love to compare fry once yours have grown older!


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## aaronpham (Feb 15, 2015)

litelboyblu said:


> Awesome! I would love to see the video of the wraps! This spawn is very similar to mine. Just curious but what happens to th other male?
> 
> I would love to compare fry once yours have grown older!


I'm not op but I think the other male was to passive, which caused spawning to go badly (him not putting the female in her place during courtship) so she bullied him and whatnot. However this male was more agressive which suited the female better and spawning went down much easier and better.


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## BlueInkFish (Jan 13, 2013)

Oh ok. Well, thank you!


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

Yep that's exactly right, thanks for explaining.

The video is apparently too dark :c but I'd definitely love to compare fry!

My mom looked at the spawn while I was away and said "the male was giving me the evil eye" lol.


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

Well the male is bloated so I'm assuming he's been eating eggs...so I removed him today, thank goodness there's eggs left.


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## aaronpham (Feb 15, 2015)

Bailmint said:


> Well the male is bloated so I'm assuming he's been eating eggs...so I removed him today, thank goodness there's eggs left.


This is normal. When it's their first time spawning they generally eat all the infertile eggs which could be a big portion. It's okay though, you can artificial hatch them now.


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

Oh okay...I was scared he was eating fertile eggs. He's doing fine in his own tank though anyway.


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

THEY HATCHED!

Not all of them, there's still ton of eggs [a lot are at the bottom]. 3-4 dead fry, about 20 or so have seemed to hatch.

I named one Loopy lol cause he keeps falling and he falls in circles and swims back up.


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## Fenghuang (Dec 28, 2012)

Congratulations! :-D


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

Thanks! I'm sooo happy, I've never seen actual fry in person . Just another experience to add to my betta book xD.


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

Awesome!


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

There seems to be around 70-100 now, I woke up to waaaaaaay more fry than yesterday, there's still about 5 dead guys. And there's still more eggs that haven't hatched xD.


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## BlueInkFish (Jan 13, 2013)

Yay!!! It's very exciting, ain't it? Wait until they grow and grow. Your gonna love doing water changes every day or every other day!


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

Haha trueee, btw pictures are coming in soon.


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## BlueInkFish (Jan 13, 2013)

We'll be waiting!


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## KafkaDream (Dec 30, 2013)

I can't wait to see how they turn out!! I'm currently addicted to spawn logs. And I also just love blue bettas. Congrats!


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

Kinda low quality cause my sister took these on her iPod and they keep moving xD these are just a few of them:


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

Wow, congratulations!


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

Thank you! I'm a happy fish mommy xD.


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

Just worked out my feeding schedule for when the fry start free swimming, lol I know I should've done that a while ago but I'm a procrastinator, plus I was busy with 10 water changes earlier.

So I was speaking to Indjo and a former mod (dramaqueen) on Skype and dramaqueen told me that there was this food that NLS makes that her friend uses on her betta fry...yeah, it's that small, so I decided to add that to their diet later on.

Week 1- Vinegar Eels 2x daily
Week 2- Vinegar Eels 1x daily and NLS Fry Starter 1x daily (2 feedings in total)
Week 3- BBS 1x daily & NLS FS 1x daily (2 feedings in total) 'till fry can eat some form of pellets.

I may have to separate some of the weeks depending on how fast they grow, like 2 weeks of just VE instead of alternating to NLS.

Cleaning-
Week 1- Fill tank 1 inch daily
Week 2- Finish filling with 30% water change.
Week 3- 30% change twice.
Week 4- 50% change twice.
Week 5- 50% daily.
Week 6+- 90% twice a week.

Also will be using a siphon or turkey baster to get out food and dead fry once at the end of the day and will be priming the tank daily.

I may have some flaws in my schedule but it's technically a draft and this is my first spawn, so if there's something I'm gonna do wrong please let me know haha.

Also I'll be starting all of this when the fry start free swimming.


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

So I put in some VE, I'm unsure if they have eaten it yet...I hope they have.

About half are free swimming. I'm getting more VE ready to be put in the tank just to make sure they've eaten...they're getting a siphon at the bottom of their tank and some water added also today.


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## Fenghuang (Dec 28, 2012)

I think the food Indjo and Dramaqueen were talking about is the NLS Small Fry Starter. It uses whole fish, krill, spirulina, garlic, and a lot of other good stuff. It comes in a very fine powder...a total pain if you spill it, but it is excellent. Hadn't bred my bettas yet, but I reared all my current guppies to adulthood on this stuff.


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

Aw good! Mine's coming on Wednesday .


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

Just fed the fry VE (still not sure if they're eating it?), siphoned some of the bottom of the tank, filled the tank an inch, and primed it.


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

Just siphoned out the bottom of the tank for dead fry and just random debris lol. Added about 2 inches of water and primed the tank. They'll be getting more VE later tonight.


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

It's so hard waiting to see how they'll turn out!


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

On the same boat lol, just trying to get past babyhood though, it's hard.


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

I'm stumped on why the water is so cloudy...I'm thinking it's either the leftover vinegar from the VE or the thermometer having leftover residue from the saltwater tank. Regardless, I took out the thermometer and did another small siphon and water adding with Prime.

Most of them seem to be thriving, some are bigger than others and they're a dark brown color, others are white. I skipped a feeding this morning just because the water was so cloudy, but I'm preparing the VE because the fry do seem to be hungry, so I'll feed some VE now and some NLS FS tonight as it's coming in today.

It's so friggin hard waiting for them to grow up...

Also there's less and less dying, I don't believe I had any deaths today which is good cause in the beginning a bunch died, but I still have quite a bit of fry.


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

I'm glad so many are thriving!


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

Thanks! Just fed a few eels to them, the fry just won't eat it >.<, I'm not sure if they know it's food lol. I see one fry that's always curious and is always ready to eat but also isn't sure if the eel is food or not. Can't wait for the NLS, they'll probably be more sure that that's food than the eels.


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

Just fed them some Fry Starter, they seem to be more intrigued to it than VE. I'll be doing another siphon later to clean out the food.


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

Wow, you'd think they'd be more interested in the moving stuff as food!


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## BlueInkFish (Jan 13, 2013)

Right? Wish my babies were like that when I did have fry food of various kinds. To bad gram threw them away thinking it was crap


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

Makes me a happier mom lol I don't like feeding vinegar eels because they're harder to spot when the fry are eating. Also the Fry Starter is reeeeeeaaaaally smelly and stays on the surface so my fry do crowd around it somewhat.

Awe I hate when parents do that...my mom threw out my microworms >.<. Oh btw who'd you get your male from in your spawn log litelboyblu? I could've sworn that was the male I was originally going for on AB for my female, but he got taken.

Just scooped out all the food with a cup cause it was on the surface, also did another siphon [I'm paranoid about pristineness cause the water is so cloooouuudy], also primed the tank and added yet another inch of water, most are still thriving.


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## BlueInkFish (Jan 13, 2013)

Lol, it's annoying, they think some fish stuff aren't necessary or is just crap lying around!

Haha, well if you were looking for this boy around a couple months then probably. But his auction ended and no one bought him, I was to late to place a bid so I bought the same fish out of aquabid and through email.


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

Ah it's not the same fish then lol, he sure looks like it though, it was a male from Patsayawan.


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## BlueInkFish (Jan 13, 2013)

Yea. My fish was from a seller named Hippo1800.


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

Normal drill, did a larger siphon than usual cause I'm sick of the cloudyness, cupped all of the leftover food from this morning, left a tiny bit in case someone wants to munch lol. Added two gallons of water [cup by cup], another dosage of Prime as well. I tried a sponge filter but the fry totally and utterly hated it so I removed it. Most are thriving.

Also, I counted up all of the fry for the first time...I counted up twice and got somewhere in the 70s each time. It surprises me how many there are but how little it looks. My most recent count was about 75 fry. Pictures soon ;P.


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## BlueInkFish (Jan 13, 2013)

Yay! Sounds like everyone is happy and healthy!

I wonder why your tank is so cloudy?


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

Not sure, but I Prime it often to ensure that anything that's causing it is safely tucked away, in turn helps them thrive. I don't think the cloud is anything dangerous, a little vinegar spill a week ago, dead fry, tank being previously dirty [I cleaned it with hot water multiple times but it was always a bit dirty, a baby goldfish previously lived in it].


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

Just moved a sponge filter in! The herd crowded to the other side, except for Advent (I named him lol) who explores everything. He's also a tough guy/girl, they're hard to detect from eachother but I get this feeling when I'm looking at him, also he's always checking stuff out so he's not hard to miss. He once swam into pure apple cider vinegar just to see what it was (he's fine and very healthy lol don't worry, he's a survivor), also when his siblings huddled up on the side of the tank, he was the only one to go out and explore the filter. He's the cutest thing, he's also the first one to eat lol. I just love him/her so much<3. I have a feeling that he'll definitely be one of the survivors. Anyways, I'll be doing a small feeding in an hour or so and cleaning a little bit about 30 mins-an hour after that with another dosage of Prime (I'll always be a clean freak with tanks). I also have a picture, it's low quality because I just cracked my phone, but you can see all of the little black dots. It's not all of them but it' most of them, some of them are huddled along the sides of the tank.


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## BettaBoy51 (Nov 13, 2013)

they all look good! nice job so far. what size tank are you breeding in?


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

Thanks!

I'm breeding in a 10 gallon haha, I just gave them their night feeding. They'll be moved to a plastic tub I have in my room, not sure how big it is but it's at least 30 gallons when they get to growout stage.


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

Had a bad scare this morning, thought the fry were dead because of the filter. I'm so relieved that most were just hiding and I have most of them, a few died for unknown reasons though, but I still have the majority.

Also, since I have both white and brown fish (most have stripes, some don't), I asked Indjo why. Depending on your parent fish, browner fry tend to end up as the Royal Blues in a blue spawn and the whiter ones end up Steel Blue or green. It would make sense as I have a green daddy with royal blue patches and a royal blue mommy. I also found that one of my whites has stripes and another white doesn't, which makes me think they're a steel or green with royal blue patches like daddy lol but I'm not certain.


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## BlueInkFish (Jan 13, 2013)

Wow! Well, now I can determine what I will expect from the spawn! A lot of my fish are a mix of mom and dad!


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

Haha yep, mine too.


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

Just did a nice big water change, I know it's not recommended but my fry have grown used to the daily water changes, they have their own little hiding spots lol. The tank is a lot less cloudy, which I'm very happy about, also primed the tank once more. Like I said, I'm livid on priming cause of the cloudiness. I prime 1-2 drops in the morning because of the leftover food that I won't be able to get to 'till later, and a dosage during water changes.

Anyways, this morning I scooped 75% of the food at the surface out, dropped in Prime. I decided not to feed because there was already a ton of food left and I assume that they already ate enough lol. So just did the huge siphon, got the rest of the food out, more prime, and added 2 gallons [slowly-don't worry!] of new water in.

I find that some brown fry are going white, and the white ones tend to stay near the bottom. Also, there's these two whites that always swim with each other, it's cute. I found Advent today! I was so scared that he died off in the filter trauma, but he wouldn't leave me alone when I was dripping water in.

1 dead guy though 

So overview:
>1 dead
>Big change
>.5 inch of water added
>Food scooped
>Primed twice
>Everyone's thriving


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

*Hey guys, I just went back in the spawn log to see when they hatched-and they're exactly one week old today!*


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

*One week and one day!*

Ahh it's Sunday so it was water change day for _everyone._

So my clothes are soaked and I smell like algae xD. Can't wait to go into Petco later today...

Something crazy happened though during the fry water change, I saw a _huuuge_ vinegar eel with a bunch of fry food in his tummy climbing up the side of the tank! I was wondering if it was fry in his tummy, but I looked closer, it's a reddish brown which thankfully is the color of the food. It was soooo gross.

Anyways, more and more whites! Seems some are definitely converting to white haha. More and more each day. I just can't wait to see how this turns out.


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## MattsBettas (Dec 18, 2012)

That is almost definitely not a vinegar eel, and rather some other sort of nematode or worm. Also, what type of filter are you using?


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

Well then someone must have given me some jacked VE cause it came from the starter culture...anyways I removed it and I bet I'd see them if there are more because he was big lol. He was actually trying to escape o-o. I'm not using a filter, as the first time I used one I found about 10 dead guys in the morning [sponge filter], and the fry are doing fine without one as I'm committed to daily water changes.


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

I'm looking, it seems all pictures of nematodes are microscopic and this guy was definitely not microscopic. I did scrape him off and dump him in my tub though, down the drain he went I believe.


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## aaronpham (Feb 15, 2015)

Bailmint said:


> Well then someone must have given me some jacked VE cause it came from the starter culture...anyways I removed it and I bet I'd see them if there are more because he was big lol. He was actually trying to escape o-o. I'm not using a filter, as the first time I used one I found about 10 dead guys in the morning [sponge filter], and the fry are doing fine without one as I'm committed to daily water changes.


That's strange.. I've had my sponge filter in since day 1.. Without problems! Glad your fry are doing good so far !


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## BettaBoy51 (Nov 13, 2013)

non on my VE are that big and i sent you them! lol i dont think its a VE though i didnt think they got that big lol.


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## aaronpham (Feb 15, 2015)

I'm thinking that was already in your tank, and you just thought it came from the VE culture.. Who knows.


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

Haha don't worry BettaBoy I had another VE culture from eBay as well, I don't blame you for anything xD. I don't think it was already in the tank, I boiled it down and I saw it in one of the cultures.


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

They're looking great! I saw little tails on the last picture.


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

Thanks! I'll try to snap a video of them eating lol but I hate disturbing them xD.


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

*Update on the parents:*

Mommy his her normal, happy self! She loves food, loves life, and always follows my finger and swims up to greet me. Gosh I just love her so much, she reminds me so much of my little Vivi.

Daddy is aggressive and depressed, he turns his back whenever I come near the tank and barely eats. He spends most of his time showing off to other fish and wrapping himself around his heater. Breeding changed him, I think he doesn't trust me after netting him out of the spawn tank. I'm watching him closely in case of disease though.

Also, I renamed Alias [daddy] to Tiger.


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

Poor guy. I hope he learns to trust you again.


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

Yeah, he seems to be healthy enough though. He flares at little Blu (the great nephew of my deceased fish, Atlas<3) across the divider and makes little nests along the heater so he seems healthy, just grumpy. Maybe if I butter him up with a bloodworm he'll be nicer xD.


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

I've been lazy on updating...

I skipped a water change yesterday, as the fry seemed fine and I didn't put in as much food. Just scooped out some food and dropped some Prime. Today I did a normal 20-25% change, scooped out food, gave it some more Prime, all that jazz.

The tank is amazingly clear now and I'm more than happy! The fry are okay and getting bigger. 90% of them have changed from brown to white. I also noticed that some have SBD, but I'm not too worried as it is common and most will outgrow it. The rest seem to be okay though, I'll just cut down on food a little.

I had to cull one guy with _severe_ SBD. Also, the fry are nearing 2 weeks! About 2-3 days left .


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

Almost 2 weeks! Did a water change today, they're looking big and strong. I fed less, and it looks like no one is showing signs of SBD anymore, I'll try snap pics later.


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

I can't wait!


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

They're quite big now! Tomorrow they're two weeks old.


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

It's 3 weeks today! I spot little pectorals!

EDIT- Just looked closer, I can see all of their organs and they have little tails now!!

They've been getting their own little personalities, and I've grown quite attached ;o;.


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

Awesome!


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## KafkaDream (Dec 30, 2013)

Get some pictures when you can! I love baby photos


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

xD I'm trying, but zooming it makes it low quality :C.


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

So sorry on late update. I've had so much going on with SOL prep for school, I've been incredibly lazy with the fry tank. I don't have many left, and the ones left are stunted, but do show signs of color. I'm doing 50% daily water changes and Prime with warm water and food readily available to catch their growing up. I can see some nipping, which indicates to me I have at least one male.

Tiger, the father, died this morning. I buried him before school and took a faster route to make it on time. He infected Blu, the nephew of my long dead fish in my profile picture, and Blu will probably be dead by morning.


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## BlueInkFish (Jan 13, 2013)

I'm so sorry about the sire. I hope everyone grows and heals up well!


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

Thank you very much  At least he can watch his offspring grow from the little river in heaven.


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

I'm sorry for your losses. I hope the offspring start working on the food.


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## NYorkieBetta (Apr 21, 2015)

So sorry about Tiger and fry...
Hoping Blu makes a turn-around for you.


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## Bailmint (Jun 15, 2013)

Sadly no, Blu bled out and died yesterday morning, Septicemia hemorrhage.

The fry are getting bigger every day, I hope they all make it to adulthood to carry on Tiger's legacy. He was one of the greatest fish I ever knew.


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## BettaObsessed (Mar 8, 2015)

I was just wondering how the fry are? I tend to silently stalk spawn logs whenever I lose a betta. *sigh*


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