# F Steel Blue Dumbo HMPK X M Galaxy Candy Koi HMPK



## bluecollie (9 mo ago)

*Hey!*

This is more of a in hindsight spawn log but thought I'd document a spawn I have currently that's 7 weeks old. Only a spawn with 10 surviving currently

Small country, not alot of betta stock, working with what we have.

I haven't bred bettas before, I've done much more research since I started this spawn, and I was familiar with the genetics and such before I paired my fish, just struggled with right choices regarding care.

*Gen 1*
_The goal of this pairing was long bodied larger bettas (not giants) that display marble and carry for steel blue and metallic, with the expectations of solid colors to.

*Male:* Galaxy Candy Koi HMPK_










Unfortunately I have lost my photos of the male and since petted him out, so cannot provide flaring photos, he was a overall relatively nice male, Decent length of body, nicely filled out, very nice 10 point dorsal. 2 ray male. Great head shape and peduncle. Anal fin is to long for my liking but correctable. Lovely Caudal Spread.

*Female:*_ Steel Blue Dumbo HMPK (Marble genetic background)










This Female Had a relatively nice caudal spread, I really liked her dorsal and she had quite a nice anal fin. Elephant ears were irrelevant as not something im breeding for. She had a decent length of body which I expected to be enhanced in her offspring when paired with the above male. She comes from marble heritage so possibly something could come of that though understanding of marble varies regarding dominance._

*Maintenance*


I aimed to do daily 50% water changes once fry were free swimming. There were days where this was not doable.
Micro Worms for first 2-3 days after free swimming
Baby Brine Shrimp all days after that
Grated Frozen Blood Worms 6 weeks on
-Temp: 28-30 degrees Celsius

*Mistakes*


I used to small a breeder using only a 5 gallon, it made it to difficult to do water changes safely for fry and stressed the male. This left no room for a sponge filter or bubbler.
Due to above issue, male destroyed his bubble nest and began eating eggs, I was forced to remove him early. In hindsight, i should of allowed him to eat his eggs as the resulting spawn was so small.

*Fixes*

- At 7 days old post hatching moved fry to a 150 liter grow out. Fry had no issues finding food, did not realize tank was not heating correctly for 2 weeks however which stunted growth despite daily or bidaily water changes.

_- _Added java fern to the bare bottom grow out which gave fry plenty of resting places and infusoria to nibble on.

*Hatching:*


http://imgur.com/MhWgIAY


*Free Swimming:*


http://imgur.com/9ulIFnU


*Various Stages of Early Development:*







http://imgur.com/5JQypxv
























http://imgur.com/MC0879M


*The interesting phase:


























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As of now 3-4 of the fry seem to be showing marble, the majority are darker and will likely go traditional colorings of reds/blues/browns, a few have metallic, one remains largely pale.

I will post further updates as things progress 

Will be keeping a female and male from this spawn ideally to breed back to each other.


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## bluecollie (9 mo ago)

Could I just grab some input from other breeders? I have this wee fry in one of my 8 week old spawns and he/she appears to be 'hunch backed'.

The rest of the spawn have more typical betta body shapes.

Do they grow out of this? Is it a deformity? Is it fine?
This is the largest fish in the spawn, it has traits I quite like but wont risk breeding if this is a deformity or gateway deformity

Cheers


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## bluecollie (9 mo ago)

A few fry photos~! Didn't expect copper and related variants but its popping up )


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## bluecollie (9 mo ago)

Small update! Heres a few of the fry, while their all prone to marble, i've not seen any yet as of 8.5 weeks. I've started to jar males who are being particularly stroppy. Using small tanks I have on hand till i run out of them (10 liter tanks).

Heres a few fry photos however;

1.) Displaying copper over a cellophane base with red wash

2.)Not sure about this one? I took the photo when the iridescence was largely visible, but under most light this fish looks normal plain celophane, I'm not quite sure what the gene is at play here, it appears to bealmost glowing rather than turquoise/royal blue/steel blue irid.

3.)Displaying steel blue with red wash. Gap in tail is from nipping.


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## bluecollie (9 mo ago)

How much changes in a week!!! The more bronze coppers have turned silver and are butterflying, the copper on a cellophane/brown base with red wash has turn nearly white. Heres a few update photos below  Fish are being reserved currently. While largely pet quality, theres 1 or two with decent potential. I am looking to keep the male in the first image if his caudal spreads slightly further at minimum. As of now I am uncertain as to keeping any of these females as the females I do have are either hunch backed or have 9 ray dorsals. There are several I am uncertain the gender on as of now so hopefully something comes up out of those that is adequate


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## betta4ever! (Oct 5, 2021)

You've got some extremely beautiful fishies!


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## bluecollie (9 mo ago)

betta4ever! said:


> You've got some extremely beautiful fishies!


Thank you so much! I'm glad you think so <3 I've been enjoying sharing the journey of rearing them


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## sparkyjoe (Feb 27, 2012)

Nice!!


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## bluecollie (9 mo ago)

A small video to update  The 'white' ones were once black based coppers but marbled to white and likely will develop koi patterning or grizzling. Still metallic 

Having a snack of decapsulated BBS eggs, they've doubled in size in a week since I put them onto them.




http://imgur.com/rR9NpCD


90% Pet quality, a few hunch backs. There is one nice boy in here.

Still trying to sex them, having a hard time due to missing ventrals on some as I had to feed microworms at one point for a week while I was ill with covid.


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## bluecollie (9 mo ago)

Another update, boys are starting to flare at each other, will be jarring over the next few days 

Anal fins are a bit longer than I like but was expected and can be corrected. Hopefully Caudals lengthen slightly during jarring 



http://imgur.com/ViWEa9j


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## bluecollie (9 mo ago)

Some photos of the Boy I'm keeping,I'll try get a direct side on flare tomorrow!

Note: His fins aren't ragged, hes butterflying at the moment and you cannot see the translucent webbing on the black backdrop.

Very happy with the body form and head on this boy. I am very much a believer a betta should be bullet shaped, which I feel I have achieved with this boy. Great strong body.

I need to work on the length of his Caudal and Dorsal fin. And I need to reduce the length of his anal fin substantially. 

Questions: 


Would pairing to a Asymmetrical HMPK or PK help correct the anal fin?
Would pairing to a Double tail help increase dorsal count even in non carrier spawn?


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## bluecollie (9 mo ago)

Some update photos  Majority is pet quality but the red wash steel blue will be staying on with me to evaluate for breeding.


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## betta4ever! (Oct 5, 2021)

I want the one from the first photo. It's sooooo beautiful!!! 🥰 If only they had fish like that at the lfs...


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## bluecollie (9 mo ago)

Didn't think I'd update much further, but got a pleasant surprise today. I had presumed most of this spawn of 10 were male, but to my delight upon checking all the fish in their jars I found this little girl, as of now not marbled.

The male I am keeping has marbled further, I'll attach photos below


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## bluecollie (9 mo ago)

Marble development over 1 week from left to right


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