# Metallic Blue Marble HMPK X Orange VT



## tinybluefish (Oct 20, 2016)

Unofficially dubbed the "whoops" spawn...

Hello y'all! How's this for a first post? Just to calm people down before I get jumped on - I bred bettas in highschool, quit during college and was intending to start back up with a few new pairs. So I know what I'm doing, despite what the title implies.

In all honesty this spawn was unintentional, but I'm forging ahead anyways. Figured a 'practice' spawn wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, considering it's been a few years.

Starting Oct. 14 -
Setup: 20 gallon long - 4 inches full. Contained duckweed, three sickly anubias, a tiny sprig of hornwort and an almond leaf. Lots of plant detritus on the bottom. Female was loose in the tank, male was cupped- literally straight out of the shipping box. (Long story? I was in the middle of unpacking him when a neighbor called to help get her sheep off the highway. Stuck him in a cup and floated it in the 'plant hospital' for warmth. Forgot the female was in there after getting beat up by community-tank danios. Male was out and spawning when I got back. Cup still upright, I'm assuming he jumped out. Guess I'm too used to lazy HMs) 

Male was not conditioned. (Or acclimated, even. which is impressive, considering he came from the opposite coast) Female had been on a live daphnia/NLS pellet diet for 5 days prior to spawn. Introduction, nest building and spawning happened in less then 2 hours. I was impressed they figured things out so fast. The male is 3 months, the female is from about the same age, perhaps a little older.

Small nest, tiny batch of eggs, not more then a few dozen. Female removed, male was fed NLS pellets while dealing with the eggs. Eggs started hatching at 42 hours, fry were free swimming as of yesterday. Keeping the male in, he doesn't seem inclined to eat the fry and I've never tried keeping the male with the fry before. Curious to see how this goes. 

Fry are currently eating Vinegar Eels. 

Male (Image from seller)









Female (Post spawn - terrible phone quality)









Nest









Fry! (almost one week - sorry - more terrible phone quality)


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## Rhiannon (Sep 13, 2015)

Very interesting! That boy is quite the looker.

Will be following this


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## Fenghuang (Dec 28, 2012)

My goodness, that is pretty impressive lol. It took like a month of trying to breed my bettas to finally get a successful spawn out of them.

You parent fish are still quite nice too. Lucky.


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## tinybluefish (Oct 20, 2016)

Thanks guys! It's always the pairs you want that take to longest to get going. Two random oddball fish just thrown together? Fastest spawns ever.

Unfortunately I'm declaring the 'leave dad in' part of this spawn a failure. Male went on something of a rampage last night, major weather/pressure change may have triggered it. Anyways, official casualties are three MTS and a noticeable portion of the fry. This morning I would have said all of them - but it appears they were just very good at hiding. I can count at least a dozen out in the open now, hopefully more made it and are hiding in the duckweed. Since dad is relocated I've replaced the snails and added some daphnia, which should start reproducing soon for some additional fry goodies. 

In other news, I found an earthworm in the tank? I assume he came in with the old gravel I used for the plant pots. Moved to the garden- a much better place for earthworms!


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## tinybluefish (Oct 20, 2016)

They're next to impossible to photograph at this size, but I did my best:


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## traceyrollin (Oct 24, 2016)

The fry are so cute! Hope they turn out some beautiful betas! Will you be selling any of them? Id like pictures when they are ready for good homes!

Sent from my SM-G550T1 using Tapatalk


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

Aww, they're so cute. All eyeballs.


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## Penny20 (Sep 22, 2016)

These threads are so much fun to watch. I'd love to breed betas but I am such a noob and I don't know what I would do with all of the babies!


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## tinybluefish (Oct 20, 2016)

I'd _like _to have the up for sale at the end of all this, but I have no idea how many are going to make it. Unfortunately they got either ich or velvet, my bet is on ich since tank they're in had ich-y rasbora in there for a bit last month. 

Bumping the heat up didn't help and dad only left me 15 to work with, so I maybe jumped the gun a bit and treated with cupramine. Worked like a charm, which is good, but now I'm pretty sure they're going to end up without ventrals. Seems to be the case every time I had to use copper sulfate = no ventrals. Might just be that dirty tank = sick fish = no ventrals. Either way! > - <

Here's a photo of the second biggest fry, since the big guy was hiding behind the heater.


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

Sorry about the parasites! I recall reading that there was a connection with certain foods and no ventrals, some sort of wormy thing that sank to the bottom. Dragging the bottom of the baby fish through the gunky bottom had a chance to make ventrals not appear. Others thought that maybe those live foods bit back and injured the ventral nubs so they wouldn't grow. I'm sure the theories have changed since I read those.

Let's face it, I'd guess even with such pretty parents that the fins will be so weird that they'll be pet class, anyway. People can be less picky about ventrals on an oops spawn where the parents don't match well.


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## traceyrollin (Oct 24, 2016)

Well it was after all an oops to begin with. Hopefully some fry will live. If they do id like photos and would be interested in one male if you have any. Best wishes. 

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## Frosty Fisher (Sep 16, 2016)

Interested to see how this turns out! Subbed


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## tinybluefish (Oct 20, 2016)

Sadist said:


> Sorry about the parasites! I recall reading that there was a connection with certain foods and no ventrals, some sort of wormy thing that sank to the bottom. Dragging the bottom of the baby fish through the gunky bottom had a chance to make ventrals not appear. Others thought that maybe those live foods bit back and injured the ventral nubs so they wouldn't grow. I'm sure the theories have changed since I read those.
> 
> Let's face it, I'd guess even with such pretty parents that the fins will be so weird that they'll be pet class, anyway. People can be less picky about ventrals on an oops spawn where the parents don't match well.


It would make sense that a bacteria ridden floor would affect ventral growth, esp. with how much the fry love to sit there. I can't remember where I was reading about copper treatments and fin growth, I have that connected in my head somehow. But fry that need to be treated probably live in less then great conditions- so bacteria is (probably) the biggest culprit there too. Either way I feel bad for having to treat them with meds- they got off to less then the best start, which is sad even with oops fish! DX

And yes there are definitely going to be pets. Hopefully some interesting colors, and the girls will likely do well in sorority with how chill both parents are. RE fins, best guess from looking at the parents would be round tails. (Spoon tail? Fan tail? I can't remember what they're called) But shortish VT with more spread in between the rays. 

...That said I've been toying with the idea of keeping some back to experiment with a plakat line- but we'll have to see! I like the male's body form, and funny enough I don't think the girl's that badly off either, though it's more of a gamble since she's basically a mutt. It'll be interesting to see what the rest of their fins end up like too.


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