# Marble? "Mutt" Cambodian?



## caffanne (Dec 27, 2014)

I'm on the long road to attempting a spawn, and one of the things I want to have a better handle on what genotypes and phenotypes I will work with. 

I got this male because he had a lot of different interesting traits; for one thing he has purple color/iridescence, but the red in his fins is clean and streaked with completely clear portions.

The females in my sorority that are nearing breeding size are a crowntail Cambodian with that same clean red fins/iridescent body deal going on and a wild type veiltail. Both girls have clean, even branching in their caudals. Which female would produce the most interesting fry if crossed with him? As of now there is no specific profile I want to breed towards. 

((P.S. little guy is chowing down on a frozen bloodworm.)


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## hopidoo (Nov 7, 2014)

I would totally breed the Cambodian. I have a thing for fish with light colored bodies and bright fins.


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## caffanne (Dec 27, 2014)

I also forgot to mention that the Cambodian girl seems ready for SOMETHING. When my filter made a pseudo-bubblenest during this weeks partial water change, she hung out under it the entire time just "I know I'm supposed to do something here..."


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## caffanne (Dec 27, 2014)

Better photos of the male and the female. Took a picture of Jezebel, the crowntail, with the flash on so you can see the absence of iridescence on most of her red.


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## kevinap2 (Apr 3, 2014)

You may want to talk to some of the more experienced breeders here, but I do know that male has a really weird top line. Depending on what your objective is with breeding him, you may want to try and find a different sire.


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## caffanne (Dec 27, 2014)

You're definitely right about his top line. I've been watching him before purchase and the last day or so in his tank, and it doesn't seem to be anything that hinders his movement. He was very skinny when I got him and is a picky eater (he turned up his nose at freeze dried shrimp and pellets, so now he chows down on frozen blood worms and brine shrimp with a little host of ghost shrimp to pick up after him). Could it be something that developed from a nutritional deficiency during his key developmental weeks/months?

Even if it is genetic, Jezebel has (to my untrained eye) a very smooth top line and back; I picked her and the other because of this.

I would be using this guy as a sire for his coloration and the DT gene to ensure nice, long tails, as well as a chance to try and breed some decent DTs from the F2 generation depending on the spawn's outcome. 

Also important--I'm breeding for pet quality. My long term goal with breeding is to be able to provide people in my town with locally spawned and raised bettas, not a quality that is shipped to different states or be shown in competition.


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## caffanne (Dec 27, 2014)

UPDATE: I realized that I've been putting the cart before the horse, and floated Jezebel (female) in Venny's (male) tank to see if they were even going to be compatible. 

Venny flared, danced around the cup and kept going back and forth between Jez and the little bunch of floating plants in his tank. Jez flared back and did this weird snake wiggle thing in addition to headbutting the cup a few times to try and follow him. 

I read it as both of them ready to go, but I'm lacking in practical experience. Was that the sign of two fish who will mate instead of fight when the time comes?


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## FrozenSummerSky (Dec 23, 2014)

it means that they are ready to breed/mate, they still will fight a bit (or a lot) when your breeding them


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## indjo (Jun 6, 2010)

Color patterns are too personal. What do you mean by "most interesting fry". To the cambodian, you will only get cambodian line colors (cambodian, cellophane, grizzle, pastel). If the irid is "strong" enough, you will get grizzle and pastel. Otherwise you will only get some clean red cambodian and many cambodian-irid combo, maybe a cello or two.

Paired to a wild type color will produce a variety of color combos, most of which will have red fins. What ever cambodian produced will be what I call a "cambodian pattern" - too much irid but consistent with the cambodian pattern of light body with red fins. This pairing is unpredictable mainly because we don't know what pairing produced the wild type color (nor do we know the cambodian's background for that matter). So which color layer will be most dominant. Viewing dominant-recessive layers; you should have quite a few irid based colors, probably mixed with black on body and red on fins. But this isn't always true - the actual genetic background will determine the outcome.


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## caffanne (Dec 27, 2014)

Wow, thanks for all the information!


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