# Enkil's Journal



## Enkil (Jan 15, 2012)

This shall be my new journal.



It has been quite a long time since I've been here. So some updates are in order....
I landed on some very hard times. Not going to go into real details though. Things are still kind of hard in that area...


I am starting my hobby from scratch for the most part. New home. New plans.
I have 1 male betta at the moment. He is currently in a quarantine tank. Purchased for me by my friend's mother, Herman is a red HM. His red is _very_ vibrant. So far, he has _no_ iridescence to speak of. Beautiful 180 spread with nice sharp edges. Pretty even anal fin. Wish his anal fin curved forward a little while he flared, but can't complain really. Only thing that needs real work with him is his dorsal. Would like it to be a little wider.

My friend is letting me use his male betta as well. He has a lovely marble double tail. Yellow, white, blue, and green. No red at all. Very nicely divided tail and even lobes. Gorgeous dorsal. Anal needs a little work. His yellow color is to die for really. Very vibrant instead of the washed out color I have been seeing lately.

I also have access to a lot of tanks. Have some cleaning and arranging to do before I start anything, but getting there slowly.
This does mean that I am in the market for some new fish though. Mostly females, but need a couple males to. Hoping to get my hands on some marbles to play with. For Herman, I'm trying to find either a double tail female or a female with a very nice dorsal. Either way, she will be either red or cambodian if I can swing it.




Also here we have 2 dogs, cats, a chinchilla, a lizard, and some birds. None of which are mine. However, one of the cats seems to think I am his. I love that they are so into animals here. Makes me feel very at home. Oh, and his mom also has this beautiful blue and black CT male who has a perfect 180 spread. He's gorgeous really and I'm not a CT fan.
Things are very different for me now. Getting used to them though. I'll be able to be active here again. Will be using my friend's camera once I figure it out. I'll keep you all updated on my progress.


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## Enkil (Jan 15, 2012)

Updates....

Herman is doing well. He has some growing to do. Have him on some very small pellets since his mouth is so tiny. He sure has attitude. I flare him once a day. He seems to look forward to his flare sessions. He's rather cute and growing on me. Wasn't sure that I'd get into HMs again. I had planned on sticking to HMPKs, but I really do love all that fin.

The two tanks we have in use for the boys (each has their own tank right now) have been cleaned today. Herman is still in a small quarantine tank. Want to make absolutely sure that he is completely healthy before setting up a divided tank.

The other tanks are in the process of being cleaned since they haven't been used in a very long time. Once one of the smaller ones is nice and clean, it will be set up as a quarantine for new plants.
There is a small tank that I'm eying as another quarantine tank for new fish. That would give us 3 QTs which would make me feel much more comfortable.
I'll use a 10 gal for spawning and will only do 1 spawn at a time so that I can give the fry all my attention rather than having it divided between spawns. My friend is going to be in charge of shipping things. I'll likely put them in charge of ordering things for me as well.

Taking things one day at a time. Have a list made of things I need to get and am keeping my eye out for any females that catch my eye. Have yet to find any though. I'm in no rush to find them. I'll just keep looking.


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## Enkil (Jan 15, 2012)

Taking care of little Herman. I'm quite happy with him really. He's grown a little since I got him. Going to get him some new foods this weekend to help that along.

Debating on setting some water outside to try and get my own culture of mosquito larvae. I worry that dragon flies might lay their eggs in the water too though. That could end up being a disaster. Maybe some mesh over the water to keep them out? Really not sure yet.


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## Enkil (Jan 15, 2012)

Getting to know Herman's personality. He gets quite ferocious when I feed him. He attacks any food that gets dropped into his tank. So far, I have only given him pellets. The first ones were entirely too large for him, but he attacked the one I tried to give him anyway. After it soaked for a while, I tried again. He managed to attack it enough that it became small pieces he could eat. I am now feeding him smaller pellets several times a day. He is young and growing so I am trying to encourage health and growth. Frequent water changes. Have yet to decide what other foods I'll try him on, but I will make sure he has a nice varied diet. Taking into account the fact that he is young, his finnage is quite impressive. Even for an older betta, his amount of finnage would be impressive. His tail alone is quite amazing. It's nice and full with beautiful branching without being too much. His anal fin is also pretty nice. Even with his tail. Top line is nice. Have to work on dorsal though. A double tail female, perhaps? Or one with the DbT gene? Will take some thought.


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

Herman sounds cute and feisty, too. lol


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## Enkil (Jan 15, 2012)

I certainly think he is. XD



Today Herman flared at my Dr Pepper can. Silly little thing that he is.
Still feeding him several times a day in order to help him grow. I currently feed him 3-4 times a day. His fins look fantastic. How balanced he is still amazes me really. His ventrals are nice looking with cute little white tips.
For the last few days, Herman has been building and maintaining a very nice bubble nest. Very sturdy and large. He has it at the back of his quarantine tank. He gets upset at water changes since it destroys his bubble nest. He always rebuilds it so it is either of the same quality or better than before. He's quite fantastic.



Plans are coming along quite well for the other tanks and such. For gravel, we're going to go with a very natural look. I think I prefer the natural look to the odd colors they tend to sell. I love the black gravel, but I think natural is the way I'm going to go. Natural gravel and lots of plants.
Debating on what plants I'd like to use in my spawn tank. Last time, I used java moss, water wisteria, and an anubias. Think I might try some duckweed this time around. Will definitely use java moss again. It worked fantastically as a place for my female to get away from the male and a wonderful place for the fry to hide. That did make counting fry difficult, but completely worth it.


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## Enkil (Jan 15, 2012)

Herman is now in his half of the 10 gal tank. He's gotten bigger and is definitely showing off his own personality. He's quite feisty. Sitting here watching the two boys now. Herman has some clear edging to his fins where he's getting new growth. He has such beautiful, full fins. Now that I know he is settled in and it isn't stress or bad water... I know for sure he is a true red. No iridescence to speak of. I find that I enjoy the red coloration this way.

The double tail male is such a beauty too though. Such a nice marble. My favorite part of him is that he has no red. Love the yellow he has though.



In other news...

I have 1 female betta now. I had thought her dead. Found out she was still alive and picked her up from my old place today. Larkspur, my female mustard gas. I bought her from a member on here. She is a QT/hospital tank right now. Everyone had forgotten about her in my absence. She was in some very disgusting water. Her cadual, anal fin, and ventrals are in poor shape. She is going to be spoiled with very clean, warm water along with a very good variety of foods with an emphasis on protein. I doubt she has been fed since I moved out of there. She's been in clean water for a couple of hours now and she already looks so much better. That she has held on this long is amazing to me. She's having trouble swimming because of the condition her tail is in so she is in shallow water to make it easier for her to reach the surface. If she starts to look like she will pull through, I will take some pictures of her. She's still a very lovely fish. When I purchased her, she had only a few dragon scales. Now her entire body is dragon scales. Fins are still a lovely yellow. She has a wide dorsal base, so I think there is double tail genes in there somewhere and her anal fin shape makes me think PK. Full 180 spread when her tail isn't damaged.


The two boys have also both built bubble nests. Herman's is very tight and well organized. He anchored it to a floating fake plant in the front corner of his side. He's tending to it right now. They have a screen lid right now so the fact his nest is so nice impresses me a little.
The double tail has a very large nest. Not as tightly done or as organized as Herman's. The size of it though! About the size of the base of a 1 liter. Maybe a little larger.


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## Enkil (Jan 15, 2012)

Herman is continuing to fill out quite nicely. He's grown roughly 1 inch in the month that I've had him. His color is quite vivid and lovely. Seeing new growth in his fins all the time. At this time, he has done no tail biting or biting of any of his fins.
He has built and is maintaining quite a large bubble nest. He is tending to it as though he has young. At the widest point, the bubble nest is 5 inches across. At the narrowest point, it is 3 inches across. At the thickest point, the nest is roughly 1/2 an inch thick. The thinnest point is roughly 1/4 an inch thick. Watching him is quite fascinating. I've been taking notes on how he tends the nest. I have found that any time his "tank-mate" comes near the divider, Herman will "chase him off" and then he strengthens any weak points of his nest. If such a behavior is present in other males, taking advantage of this behavior may help breeding when using a male who otherwise does not build a sturdy nest. More observation is required, of course. I will also need to get another male or two among my numbers to even begin testing this theory. If any who read this journal care to tell me their experiences, I would love to hear them.



Larkspur (called Princess by my friend) is doing well. She eats fantastically, attacking her food quite ravenously. Seeing her moving about gives me hope even though I wish there was more that I could do for her. I have her in shallow water so that she doesn't have to struggle too much to get to the surface. The lack of clean water ate away at her tail so she has trouble swimming. She does well considering. I just feel really bad for her. Despite her condition, she looks remarkably well and isn't clamped or anything like that. Careful with how much she gets fed so that no extra strain is put on her or her swim bladder. Pretty little thing still even does a little wiggle dance to try and beg for more food.


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## Enkil (Jan 15, 2012)

Larkspur is doing well. She seems to have her buoyancy back. Before, she struggled to the surface to breathe and eat but spent most of her time at the bottom of the QT/hospital tank. Right now, she is floating easily at the surface. Watching me. When she sits still, I can see a little regrowth starting in her tail. This brings me great hope. The regrowth and how she is behaving seems to indicate that she'll pull through this. I certainly hope she does. Especially since I would like to use her in my future breeding plans.


Herman is doing lovely today. He has approximately 2mm of clear growth on all fins. He is really quite lovely. I certainly do enjoy watching him. His bubble nest now covers half of the surface of his side of the 10 gal tank. It's really quite impressive. I will try to get my good camera this week so that I can take some good pictures to share. The one I have access to right now is not a very good one. I don't like the quality of the pictures it takes and I certainly don't think its features would allow for the type of pics I would like.



Getting tanks nice and clean for setting up. My friend seems to have a knack for live plants and likes planting tanks. I'm hoping this works in my favor as I will be having them help plant tanks for the little lovelies. This should make my sorority tank look marvelous. I'll be getting my hands on plants soon. Still deciding what exactly I want in my tanks. Doing some research and such at the moment. I know I'll be using some moss for sure. I have good experience with it and have seen how much females and fry enjoy it.


Still keeping an eye out for fish that catch my fancy to add to my numbers.
Looking for a nice double tail girl or one that at least carries the gene. Preferably no red on her since the male I have is yellow based.
Debating on if I want to do HMs or not. Herman is lovely but my HMs didn't do well before. Perhaps find one or two females that are HMs with good form and color.
I do tend to like HMPKs most and would definitely like to breed some. Looking for a good male or two along with some girls.
My friend likes the look of the wilds. There is a store near us that sells several wild types. I've been researching them to see which one I'd like to work with. Really just not sure yet.


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