# Fancy HMPK x Blue EE HMPK



## Asiakp (Oct 25, 2013)

I decided to wait until I had perfected my technique before I decided to do another spawn log. I hate starting one and then having to report that the spawn died off  So the babies in this spawn are a bit older than most, but I will still post as many pics as possible of the process from start to finish!

I did some things differently with this spawn that I believe helped quite a bit. I used a 5.5 gallon filled with tons of java moss, and two sponge filters that ran non-stop. I only turned the sponge filters down far enough to avoid disturbing the bubble nest, but otherwise I kept them turned up full force, even when the fry just started free swimming. They didn't seem to really mind, other than kind of staying to the side opposite of the filters.

Another thing I did was started water changes the day the fry were free swimming. Not a lot, maybe like four cups worth of water everyday for the first week. Basically, I would siphon the water at the bottom where all the gunk was, and all the water that came with the gunk was what I changed out. I just used a turkey baster to return any fry to the tank that got sucked up accidently. 

I believe sucking up the gunk everyday helped, as I don't have a single fry that is deformed or missing vents from this bunch. 

The pair spawned on 2/20/2015, so they will soon be 6 weeks old. I have been feeding them live VE, MW, GW, BBS. Now they are also eating frozen BBS, as well as live black worms. They are already fighting quite a bit, and I've been noticing some fry getting vertical stripes while fighting. 

They have quite a diverse amount of colors. I have seen shades of red, green, blue, and lavender. I don't see any that are predominantly white like the father is. Most are a brown color with patches of irids on them, although there are a few that are vividly colored. 

The father is a HMPK fancy. At least I consider him a fancy, while others may consider him to be a grizzle. He's a big long boy! I purchased him, as well as the vast majority of my other fish, from a veterinarian in my area whom has been breeding bettas for years, although he doesn't show or even auction them online. He truly just loves bettas and breeding them is a relaxing hobby for him. He has some very nice and healthy fish, but I don't believe he puts as much emphasis on form as most other breeders do.

The mother is also from the same breeder, although from a different spawn. She is from a HMPK pairing, which is why I have her labelled as thus. However, I have not personally seen her hit a full 180 degrees when flared, though that could be because I never have actually seen her flare. She's got EE genes, but doesn't display them to the extent that a lot of other EEs do. 

Why am I breeding bettas? Well there are a few different reasons. First of all, I am fascinated by the whole process. I love everything about spawning bettas, from selecting a pair to culturing food forf the fry. That may sound odd, but I really do enjoy preparing the cultures for the babies. I even enjoy cleaning the tanks and performing the water changes everyday. Spawning bettas is a rewarding and intriguing endeavor. 
Another reason I am breeding bettas is to provide my customers with a more diverse selection of bettas. I work at a tropical fish store, and we get many requests for more variety with our bettas.
Although we order HMs and EEs on a regular basis, often all that we get in are VTs, CTs, and the occasional DeT or SD. Once is awhile something amazing will ship in, such as a flawless bright yellow HM or a white dalmatian King betta, and of course, those fish generally end up coming home with me:-D So I am breeding to meet the demand of my customers. We sell a lot of bettas every week. Probably more bettas than any other fish, aside from maybe plecos. I am not sure why, but people buy at least ten plecos a day from my work. I think its because they aren't cleaning their tanks enough, and are hoping the plecos will do the work for them. :roll:

The reason I bred these two bettas in particular is because I am hoping to create a more colorful EE. I am always seeing the salamander EEs, or the white EEs, but I rarely see fancy or marble EEs. I am not expecting any EEs this first generation, nor have I seen any sign of the EE trait yet, but these guys are carriers so I may see some EE in the next generation.

Now that I have rambled, I will start posting some pics! First, heres some pics of Dad, followed by mom.

Please note, pics of mom are after spawning, so yes, she is sporting some fin and scale damage. I apologize for the quality of the photos; taking pictures is not my area of expertise by any means


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## Asiakp (Oct 25, 2013)

And now some baby pics. I have kept them in order from oldest pics to newest pics


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## Asiakp (Oct 25, 2013)

More photos


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## Asiakp (Oct 25, 2013)

Growing like weeds!


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## BlueInkFish (Jan 13, 2013)

Cute!

Your female, looks like my previous one. I'll be sticking to this log and I may need to snatch one like mom!


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## Asiakp (Oct 25, 2013)

More


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## BlueInkFish (Jan 13, 2013)

May I ask, when did they hatch?


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## Asiakp (Oct 25, 2013)

most recent photos


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## Asiakp (Oct 25, 2013)

The very last photo is of two fry squaring off with one another lol...I wasn't laughing when I noticed one was missing half of its caudal afterwards though :shock:


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## Asiakp (Oct 25, 2013)

They hatched on 2/20/15...my bad. Parents spawned 2/19/2015


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## Asiakp (Oct 25, 2013)

Oh I have LOTS of blues...but none are displaying the EE trait. I have some four day olds by the same mom, different father, however. Maybe one of those will have the EE trait. I'll offer fry here when old enough, and take the leftovers to work!


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## BlueInkFish (Jan 13, 2013)

Haha, no problem! I was just curious because now I know that my fry are 1 and a couple days older! 

Your fry are adorable! 
I don't see a half caudal? I only see a full one..


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## Asiakp (Oct 25, 2013)

I mean later during the day, I noticed one of the fry was missing a chunk of its caudal. Little buggers are already bickering!


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## Asiakp (Oct 25, 2013)

Here's the father of the four day old spawn with the same female. Might get a lot more blues out of him, compared to this spawn. Although he's a fancy as well, he's predominantly blue, and has better form than the white male. The blues from this spawn have a lot of green in them anyway, not a whole lot of dark blues.


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## Asiakp (Oct 25, 2013)

*Six Weeks Old*

Babies are officially six weeks old! Man, I love these little guys! The biggest are just barely an inch, the smallest 1/2 an inch. I am not sure how I'm going to part with any of them! There are 43 babies in this particular spawn by the way, not sure if I already mentioned that or not. 

If anyone ends up wanting one, it'll be $5 for females, $10 for males, plus shipping. Not really looking to make money off these guys, so I will definitely work with people with the price if it's a bit much for some. The ones I don't sell online will be going to the store. And of course, I'll be keeping some. It's still early, so plenty of time to decide if you're interested in a baby. They all carry the EE gene, but I'm not seeing it yet in any of the babies.

Here's some pictures of them at six weeks of age!


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## Asiakp (Oct 25, 2013)

*7 weeks old*

Well the fry are now 7 weeks old, and thriving. I have decided to keep most, if not all, of the females from this spawn. The reason why is because they are so healthy and robust. I have never seen such a healthy spawn in my life. My other spawns I have going at the moment are fairly healthy, but I do see deaths once in awhile, or deformities. I have not had any deaths or deformities or disease (The 3 D's lol) in these fry since they started free swimming, and they are bigger at 7 weeks and 2 days than I have ever seen or heard of before. It can't be due to my vigilance, since as I said, the fry from my other spawns do have the occasional death, and are not growing nearly as fast as this spawn, so I am assuming it is in their genetics. I've also had to cull about 10 fry from my purple/black hmpk spawn that had crooked spines. I believe that may be because the mom is DT. It's made me really rethink spawning DTs. I do have about 100 healthy fry from that spawn, but culling is so depressing. MY single tail spawns have never produced deformities.
I need healthy robust females. I am sick of spending a fortune on females only to have them drop dead on me out of nowhere, for no apparent reason. So I will keep the females from this spawn, and hope that any spawns I get from them will be as healthy. I'll probably keep a few males as well. Luckily working for a tropical fish store has its perks, as I have access to a lot of supplies for cheap/free that otherwise wouldn't be available to me, so I am able to keep large amounts of fish. Plus I can always keep fish at the store if I needed to.
If there's any interest I will create a spawn log on my other two spawns I have going, but if not, I'll just stick to updating this one every once in a while. 
The other spawns are two weeks and four weeks of age.
I have only one fish from this spawn that I think may take after dads coloring. Well, maybe. It started off as brown, then turned cambodian, then the red fins darkened to black, the body lightened to white, and now is a cello. I'm pretty sure it won't stay cello, and I am hoping he/she will start coloring up again soon. If not, I may have to incorporate it in a koi pairing I have coming up soon.
Here is a picture of this spawn's current home. It's a 20 long with a sponge filter at either end, a heater, a small piece of driftwood, and lots of guppy grass, java moss, and a moss ball.


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## Asiakp (Oct 25, 2013)

*Cello*

Here are a few progression photos of my cello guy just from this last week, to give you an idea of how what color loss looks like. I know most people on here have already seen that for themselves, but I find it interesting and maybe someone else will find it interesting as well.  I wish I knew where the pictures from when his fins were red were. I would have to really dig to find them though :/


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## Asiakp (Oct 25, 2013)

And now some other babies from this spawn! And by the way, if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask. I am a bit scatter brained, and sometimes I forget to include information. 
Sorry about having so many pictures. I can never decide what pictures to post. I take so many...I very much enjoy my fish


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## Asiakp (Oct 25, 2013)

more pics


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## Asiakp (Oct 25, 2013)

Just for reference, the largest are about the size of the average young female you would find for sale at petco. The smallest are a bit bigger than the average petco baby


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## Alaura123 (Jul 4, 2014)

I like the look of the babies!!
Still no elephant ears showing up?


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## Asiakp (Oct 25, 2013)

No sign of EE trait  I have another group that have the same mom, so I will see if any of them are displaying it. All research I have seen indicated that the EE gene was extremely recessive but I guess I had to find out for myself in order to believe it. I do that a lot, unfortunately. I have seen conflicting reports on whether or not the EE gene will present itself in F2. I think it may, but the percentage of fry that do display it will be minimal. Which is a shame, I very much enjoy watching the EE females I do have fluttering around the sorority like little butterflies


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## Alaura123 (Jul 4, 2014)

Hehe yea, hope eventually they show up in later spawns


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## Asiakp (Oct 25, 2013)

*8 week old betta fry*

I think I may actually have gotten a couple of EE in my 3 week old spawn with the same mom...pecs are looking bigger than in my other spawns anyway 

I only have a few pics to share of this spawn this week. I've been busy setting up tanks for a couple more pairs I ordered. 
There's a couple pics of the 'cellophane' who is actually beginning to get some color back. I noticed all my blue eyed babies are losing color right now. I think they are going to cellophane and then gain back color like the first one did. Its odd because the ones with blue eyes weren't all just one color, they came in reddish and blue tones, and yet every single one is losing color.
I also noticed some babies are starting to branch out. There's a couple with four rays now, though the rest still have 2 rays. I would have to double check, but I think dad was 8 ray.
My pur[le/black spawn, which was out of a double tail mom, ended up being at least half double tails. I hadn't expected to have such a large percentage of DT. 
Anyway, here's some pictures! The last two are the of the cellophane. You can see some patches that look dirty, where color is starting to come back in.


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## Asiakp (Oct 25, 2013)

*5 week old betta fry*

And heres a couple pics of the purple/black spawn. Both parents HMPK.


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## Alaura123 (Jul 4, 2014)

They look great! The cellophanes look so delicate to me for some reason xD
But I can see some marbling starting out lightly? Does that mean they are going to be fancy like their dad?


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## Alaura123 (Jul 4, 2014)

Aw the little ones are soooooooo cute!!!
I like the little grump face on the last one x3


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## Asiakp (Oct 25, 2013)

*My next spawn*

And to anyone who has been reading this log, here's a preview of my next couple of spawns. 
Pic #1 HMPK Red Koi sibling pair- I don't have a picture of the female yet, but will update when I have one. The fish pictured is the male
Pic # 2 HMPK Super gold sibling pair- Pictured is the female, I do not yet have pictures of the male. I will update when I receive the pair

Both pairs should arrive this week. The Tiger Koi pair is from Thailand, and the super gold pair is from an awesome breeder in the U.S. I normally don't have my head turned by U.S. bred bettas, but I am a big fan of the female. She has a couple of minor flaws, but nothing that can't be improved upon. I've always wanted to work with golds, so I'm pretty excited about this  Her and her brother are out of two gold bettas, and according to the breeder, that breeding resulted in all gold babies, so I imagine my pair should produce 100% gold in varying shades. 

With the koi pair, I don't really consider the male a koi, but that's what the breeder had him listed as. Whatever he is, when I saw him, I just fell in love with him. Proper koi bettas should have a far greater amount of white, but for whatever reason I am more drawn to the ones that have lots of red and black. The ones that are mainly white just don't do anything for me. Regardless, the pair should throw at least a couple like dad. I have read so many contradicting theories about koi bettas. Many say you won't get any kois in F1, but since the pair are siblings, I believe this would be considered F2? So hopefully I get more like dad. 
I will update with more pictures and create separate spawn logs once I get the pairs conditioned, just wanted to give a little sneak peak into my future plans.
Just a note, neither picture was taken by me, both are from the breeders, Bettapro Thailand, and Bettabunker.


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## Asiakp (Oct 25, 2013)

Lol i know what you mean about the cellophanes. They do look fragile, maybe because all their organs are just so visible 
It's been said that fancy is a form of marbling, but there seems to be different opinions on the subject. I have seen some people say that fancy is a different ball game. So I am not sure yet if the cellophanes are simply marbling, and will remain two colors, or if they will develop three or more colors and become fancy. I have looked everywhere for other fancy spawn logs to see how their fry developed, but I was not able to find much on that either :/ Even if they turn out just to be marbles, I will be ok with that. I am a big fan of marbles 

Lol yeah for some reason, a lot of fry from my second spawn have those grumpy little faces! Not sure what they are so crabby about, but I didn't have any grouch faces in my first spawn!


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## upstatebettas (Mar 15, 2015)

Asiakp said:


> No sign of EE trait  I have another group that have the same mom, so I will see if any of them are displaying it. All research I have seen indicated that the EE gene was extremely recessive but I guess I had to find out for myself in order to believe it. I do that a lot, unfortunately. I have seen conflicting reports on whether or not the EE gene will present itself in F2. I think it may, but the percentage of fry that do display it will be minimal. Which is a shame, I very much enjoy watching the EE females I do have fluttering around the sorority like little butterflies


It is likely none of this spawn will have EE trait show up. Since EE is recessive and this is an F1, you could either breed offspring to mother which would yield the most EE offspring, or sibling to sibling which would get less EE but still maybe 25 to 50 percent EE.


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## Asiakp (Oct 25, 2013)

Yeah I'm honestly not expecting to get any EE, but I am keeping my eyes out, as I've been surprised before by recessive traits popping up!

Babies are....10 weeks old now? I dunno lol I am starting to lose track. They are flaring and barring, and there's quite a few that are definitely male and definitely female, so thats pretty neat. I haven't seen any major fights break out, but did have to remove a couple of the smallest as they kept getting nips out of their fins. Now that they don't have a bunch of other babies to worry about, they will start to flourish! 

There are a few that are up to 4 rays in the caudal, and a lot that are still stuck at 2. Most that are stuck at 2 are just beginning to branch out. I see a few that have really nice wide dorsals. I'm a little dissapointed how the overall form is turning out though. Some of the males have long anals for being HMPK, which makes me wonder if mom had some HM in her background. Its hard to tell when the mom has something else mixed in her:roll:

Heres some pics of my probably 10 week old babies!


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## Asiakp (Oct 25, 2013)

Last pic is from my younger spawn


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