# Chocolate Yellow Vanda HMPK x Super Black HMPK (Brandy Alexander)



## Nimble (Aug 31, 2014)

Good to see you again, folks!

I'm here with another spawn, once again breeding one of my self-bred fish.

The Sire of this spawn is the best male from the F1 of my Ginger Citrus Martini spawn here:
http://www.bettafish.com/148-betta-spawn-logs/639521-yellow-vanda-hmpk-x-chocolate-orange-hmpk-ginger-citrus-martini.html#post6894169

As well, he's the Sire of the F2 spawn to his sister from the same spawn here:
http://www.bettafish.com/148-betta-spawn-logs/639521-yellow-vanda-hmpk-x-chocolate-orange-hmpk-ginger-citrus-martini-6.html#post1852353658

Here are a few pictures of his ugly mug.



























The female of this spawn is an imported Super Black HMPK female I purchased from an importer on eBay. She's been a favorite of mine since I purchased her, and has long since entranced me with her wonderful form and personality. Take a look for yourself.











I've got no idea what to expect from this pairing. 
Most likely, I'll get a bunch of Chocolate Reds and BSE Reds, but there are any number of possibilities depending on the recessive traits of the female.
Hopefully, I'll get more Chocolate Yellows and maybe even some more Blacks, but I'll be happy with whatever I get, honestly.

This spawn was massive. Probably 100+ fry upon hatching, and there's still that many in the spawn tub.
I've moved about 45 of them to a 10 gallon tank with their 2 half-siblings from the F2 sibling spawn.
I'm not sure how many I'll keep in the end, or how many I'll wind up culling for numbers.

Here's a video of them from last week:





Keep your eyes peeled, I'll be sure to update whenever I can.

_*Brandy Alexander:*

1 oz. Cognac
1 oz. Creme de Cacao
1 oz. Heavy Cream

Shake thoroughly with ice, serve in either a chilled martini glass or coup glass. Garnish with chocolate shavings.
_

Please enjoy.


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## Nimble (Aug 31, 2014)

There are only 2 remaining of the fry hatched on 29 August (F2 of the Ginger Citrus Martini spawn), so I mixed them in with the 60 largest fry from the spawn hatched on 6 September (The Brandy Alexander spawn), and placed them in a 10 gallon tank.

There are probably at least 60 left in the spawning tub from the 6 September spawn, the majority of which are half the size of their largest siblings. I'm not sure what to do with them for now, so I'll just keep my eye on them in case I see any more large fry to separate and mix in with the group in the 10 gallon.


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## AngelDemonWolf (Aug 16, 2017)

I love vanda bettas, I wish I had one for my female sorority D:, they are so pretty with their red spots.


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## Nimble (Aug 31, 2014)

60 fry in total have been moved to the 10 gallon tank, and there are still at least that many in the spawning tub.

I'm probably going to cull for size some time in the next week, but before I do that, I'm going to make sure I get a count of how many fry I have. This is just for my own personal curiosity, because there were just SO MANY.


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## Nimble (Aug 31, 2014)

So, a minor update!

Of the 100 or so rejects that were still in the spawn tub when I transferred the biggest 60 over to the 10 gallon tank, I've culled about half of them (by my best estimate) for size or deformations. Fry who were overly small or showing crooked spines or just not doing well were humanely euthanized and safely disposed of beneath a big fir tree in my backyard. It's a sad truth of the hobby, but I can't feasibly continue to take care of 120+ growing fry and expect any decent level of development from them in any decent time-frame. Wasting resources on those that are not thriving is robbing resources of those who can better benefit from them.

So far, I've noticed at least one fry in the 10-gallon tank who is completely white, lacking any dusky shading that the siblings mostly seem to have. I am assuming that this is one of the fry from the older half-siblings, as both of that spawn's parents were recessive-carriers for the Cambodian trait. The rest of the fry all seem to have some varying level of dark coloration beginning to develop. 

Hopefully, I'll begin to see development of color in the next week or two. I expect to get mostly reds, but if I get any yellows or blacks, I will be very pleased. The fry from the older half-sibling spawn should be either orange or yellow, so if I get all reds from this spawn, I'll know who belongs to which spawn.


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## Nimble (Aug 31, 2014)

It's the three-week mark for these little ones, and they're beginning to differentiate themselves by shade at the moment. There are a few fry in the tank that are becoming much darker than their siblings already, as well as a few that seem to be quite light.

Color and ventral fins are what I'm looking out for next, and the very-light fry from the half-sibling spawn in with them is already starting to show the faintest nubs of ventral fins on her(or his) tummy.

In addition to a steady diet of BBS, I've begun introducing finely-crushed flake food into their diets as well. I got a sample pack of Mysis Shrimp + SELCO flake food in my box of brine shrimp eggs from Brine Shrimp Direct, and it seems to pique the appetites of my adults, as well as the fry. I made sure to order a whole pound of the stuff, since it seems to be quite popular with my crew.


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## Nimble (Aug 31, 2014)

The fry are four weeks old tomorrow, and they're growing at a nice rate.
Ventral fins have shown up, and the fins are starting to show color. I'm quite pleased, so far.
Like I expected, it's mostly all reds from this batch, with the obvious survivor from the half-sibling spawn is starting to show hints of yellow.
I'm transitioning them from BBS to crushed pellet and flake food, as well as frozen food like frozen spirulina brine shrimp and the like.

Who wants a video?


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## Nimble (Aug 31, 2014)

Here's another video! This time, focus on an individual fry.


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## Nimble (Aug 31, 2014)

It's been a little more than a week since my last post.

The remaining fish seem to all be doing okay, as far as I can tell. I'm keeping up on water changes, and slowly transitioning them to solid foods... but they still love BBS most of all.

I had a little brush with some sort of disease in the fry tank, but I'm not sure what. I lost 10 fry in the span of a week, including the surviving half-sibling that was sharing the tank with this spawn.
I'm down to somewhere around 30 fry at this point, and most of them seem to be doing well. A couple of them are tail-draggers, but I'll see if they don't grow out of that in time.
I want to wait until they're a little bigger before I start culling for form.

I'll try to get some videos in the next few days, but school is kicking my butt!


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## Nimble (Aug 31, 2014)

So yeah.

It's been a couple of weeks, and it's been a tough few weeks.
I'm down to three surviving juveniles from this spawn, having lost the rest of the fry to some sort of disease that literally decimated (reduced to ten percent) my tank.

One of these juveniles managed to pull free from the grips of dropsy, so I'm quite pleased about that.

I bleached all of the equipment that was in that tank, and the nets I've been using with that tank.
I may or may not respawn the parents of this pair. I'm not trying for marble fish, and since the mother of this spawn has started to marble at the tips of her fins, she's a carrier.

Anyway, I'll keep you all apprised of the situation, and post pictures of the fry once they start showing better color and form.


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## Nimble (Aug 31, 2014)

Here's a video I took last week of the two surviving juveniles from this spawn.
They're 12 weeks old yesterday, and from the looks of things, I've got one BSE Red male and one Chocolate Red female.
Hopefully, this should mean a good F2 from this pair, with a few Yellow BSE and Chocolate Yellows, as well as more Reds.


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