# Red Dragon HMPKxBlack Dragon HM Spawn!



## Panthera (Nov 2, 2010)

Well here goes yet another spawn attempt; hopefully this will be my last...and I may end up with some fry. I've tried spawning bettas since February with little to no success. The closest I got was in Mid-April, when my Black Dragon HMPK Zankou and my Black Dragon HM Sprinx actually embraced once, and there were about 30 eggs in the nest. Well needless to say he ate the 100 eggs she released onto the floor. I should have taken that as a sign, because when I woke up the next morning, all the eggs in the nest were gone  

Now that I've gotten a job, I have more money to spend on my addictio....hobby, so I've really tried to make the spawn tank the best it can be. Its a 5 gallon full to about 5" of water, an IAL, some Wisteria, and a Lava Rock in the middle with a Java Fern attached to it. The male I'm using I picked up about 2 weeks ago at Petco, (I know not the best stock, but he really is amazing, and to be honest I don't care if he's a Petco Fish.) The Female I purchased around a month and a half ago, with 2 of her sisters off of Aquabid. 

I added him to the spawn tank about 3 days ago, and he instantly started building a nest without even seeing her. Once it got huge, (Little did I know that it was going to get bigger....), I added her into the tank inside a cup. I released her last night, and things seem to be going well; he's chasing her but mostly just bubble nesting, she has no damage whatsoever though and still has her breeding bars. Anyway, enough babbling, here are some videos and some pics that I've taken. I hope you enjoy! Any insight would be appreciated 

Cerberus Bubblenesting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjPQK_aHj8E

Sprinx, meet Cerberus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKFGA4QYQrM

Pics













































Well I hope you guys liked the vids/pics, I couldn't get any good pics of Sprinx though...she hates the camera :/ Anyway I'm gonna stop typing now since I don't want to make you guys stop reading due to boredom. Still nothing going on in the spawn tank, he just chases her really fast whenever she gets near the nest, she has gone towards it a few times though, so I think thats a good sign. Bye for now


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## indjo (Jun 6, 2010)

Good luck. Hope all goes well this time.


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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

Good luck!


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## AngelicScars (May 5, 2009)

Good luck!


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## leeb62 (Oct 22, 2010)

If that male eats the egg too. You can try to articfial hatch your eggs it isn't hard and that way you know you have some fry for sure.


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## Panthera (Nov 2, 2010)

I have eggs! After chasing the female around for like 10 minutes I finally got her, and she's back i nthe divided 10 gallon. But now it LOOKS like he's eating the eggs. He kind of takes a big chunk out of teh nest and it looks like he's either chewing or choking and then spits some bubbles out every once in a while, but I cant see him really putting eggs back.

What do you think I should do? Take him out? I can't be sure if he's eating them or not though :/ Help please!


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## Panthera (Nov 2, 2010)

Anyone wanna help me count the eggs? I see a bunch of something, but I'm not sure if they're eggs or bubbles =/


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## SashimiBetta (May 7, 2011)

I read this article about Lava Rocks...they said that they aren't the best choice for tanks because if they rub against it, they can loose some scales or minor/majorly injure themselves. Not to scare you or anything..But that is what I read.

If I were you I would just stick to silk/live plants instead of fancy rocks Good luck!


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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

I can see 5 eggs in that photo. Other than that, I think that's all you might have. :/ 
Was it your fishs' first time? My first pair didn't spawn properly their first time and the male ended up eating all of the eggs because they were infertile. This might be what has happened to you- hence your male (eating?) the eggs.


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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

Oh and about artificially hatching the eggs- I feel that unless that dad is being negligent to his spawn, that you really shouldn't do it. The dad takes care of the eggs & fry that are infertile, weak, sick, deformed, malformed, or infected. IMO, I just think that if you want fry, you want them to be as healthy as possible.


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## leeb62 (Oct 22, 2010)

Well the eggs are alot whitter than the bubbles, so you shouldn't have a hard time seeing if your male is eating the eggs. If he is try artificial hatch the eggs.


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## Panthera (Nov 2, 2010)

Well I'm still not sure if he was eating them or not, but there still seem to be a good number of eggs in the nest and now he seems to be staying under it and looking up at them every so often. I think it might work this time  I'm going to keep feeding him Brine Shrimp to keep him full so he can do all his fatherly duties, without eating any of the fry.... 

Left a bright nightlight on for him tonight and he has more then enough light to watch over his eggs. Wish me luck! Can't wait for them to hatch  I'm gonna be spamming this thread with squees!


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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

aaaahhhhh....I would turn the light off. He can take care of the eggs just fine. The light might stress him out. My bf's uncle used to be a breeder back in Vietnam, and he swears by having low-lighting. He said it produced bettas with better color and strength.


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## leeb62 (Oct 22, 2010)

Well in that case good luck man.


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## Panthera (Nov 2, 2010)

Well there were no eggs last time, but Cerberus was still adding onto the bubblenest and Sprinx still seemed eager to spawn (Never lost her breeding bars), so I put them back in the spawn tank the next day  

That was two days ago, and now this morning at officially 10:30 AM we have eggs! They've probably embraced a good 10 times so far and each time the number of eggs is getting bigger! There are about 30 in the nest so far but who knows could be more, could be less. 

She got pretty torn up this time, but I guess thats because she kept ramming the nest and flaring at him.....now she's being a good girl with her fins clamped and head down xD Well I'll update with some videos and pics soon, I'm gonna go back to being a pervert and watching them do the dirty! Stay tuned!


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## Panthera (Nov 2, 2010)

Here's a video of them embracing and him picking up the eggs. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31LkCR0InvM&feature=player_detailpage

They appear to be done now, she's off in the corner and he's tending to the nest. It looked like he still could have done some more wrapping, but she wasn't having any of it. Don't know how many eggs there are, but I estimate around 50  

Here are some pics too! Crappy I know, but they move so damn fast! lol


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## sjones (Apr 28, 2010)

the expression of the female?(black one) in the first one is priceless!


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## indjo (Jun 6, 2010)

@panthera - you're risking the destruction of the first batch. But all is done. Hope all goes well.

If you're not feeding the male but he has a large belly, then he's probably eating eggs. Watch for that if you can't see the eggs (but don't disturb them).


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## Panthera (Nov 2, 2010)

There was no first batch, he ate the eggs, I checked. He's not eating them this time around, he's being very good with keeping them in the nest, even though they keep falling. I think there are about 30-50, though I can't tell for sure. We'll find out soon  They'll hatch either tonight or tomorrow morning!


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## Panthera (Nov 2, 2010)

I'm not sure but I think they may be starting to hatch. I saw a few eggs starting to fall, but without the male they zoomed back up to the bubblenest. I can't really see tails though, are they that small that I wouldn't see them? There are about 20-30 eggs on the ground that he's ignoring :/ I hope they hatch since there aren't very many that I can see in the nest. 

Any advice/info? 

Edit: I can see itty bitty tails and some are zooming to the top now  YAY *Squees*


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## indjo (Jun 6, 2010)

yeah they are very small. The so called "eggs" that you say are zooming back up are actually newly hatched fry that still has egg sacks.

If the male is neglecting the fry/eggs, it would be best to remove him. It's an early sign that there's something wrong with him - probably exhaustion. But if he's just resting from time to time and later picking up the ones that reached the floor then let him be. 

Congrats. hope they make it.


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## Panthera (Nov 2, 2010)

Well some appear to be starting to free swim now, so I think I'm just going to take Cerberus out. He's done an amazing job being a dad and I think he needs a break, the fry should be fine right? Also could anyone tell me exactly how much BBS to add for about 30-40 fry? I just got a medicine dropper  

Here's a video of the fry btw, so Cute :3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT8bduYzJkc


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## Panthera (Nov 2, 2010)

Just took daddy out since most of the fry appear to be free-swimming. I don't see that many though, could only really see maybe 10 at a time. But I guess they could be hiding in the java fern or the wisteria =/ I hope there's more! Fed them some infusoria, hopefully it had some critters that they can eat. And the BBS is currently in the progress of hatching, should be ready by tonight. 

Updates will come soon! Also I will post a video when the fry Turn a week, two weeks, three weeks, etc. They hatched on Sunday, so expect a 1 week video on Sunday  I hope I still have fry by then....Any tips/advice? I think I'm going to fill the 5 gallon up either tomorrow or the day after depending on how the fry look. Bye!


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## Panthera (Nov 2, 2010)




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## youlovegnats (Feb 23, 2011)

awwwww mine look just like that! :3


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## AngelicScars (May 5, 2009)

Awww awesome!


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