# Fancy HMPK Spawn Log



## andakin (Aug 10, 2009)

After a five year absent from the betta hobby, I decided to get back in it, but at a much smaller scale. Before buying my first pair, I promised myself to never breed again. The amount of effort and dedication is just too much. Well, one thing lead to another, and here I am. I am regretting it already. I went into this without a game plan. For now, I intend to only keep the females and rehome all the males when it comes time for jarring.

I purchased my first pair of bettas and spawned them three weeks after. The seller said they are Fancy Dragon HMPKs. I personally don't think the scales are thick enough to be called dragons. Nonetheless, it's a good looking pair.

Because this was not planned, my set up is not your conventional bare bottom, half filled with water, and filtered with a sponge. Instead, this took place in the male's home, a 29 gallon, low-tech planted tank with a large canister filter.

The male built his first bubble nest one night and that triggered me to want to breed. Of course that's no reason to do it.

The female was introduced and immediately she submitted to him. But the male was aggressive and kept attacking and chasing her away. While all this was happening, he kept building his nest bigger and bigger. She kept coming back and always submitting under his nest only to be attacked. This happened for approximately 24 hours before they got it on.

The eggs did not hatch for approximately 40 hours. This is much longer than I had anticipated. It was a small batch with less than 100 hatched. I am expecting a high mortality rate because the first few days are always tough.

I don't plan on using any live food. It's just gonna be powder, flakes, and pellets.


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## trilobite (May 18, 2011)

Lol everything is beautiful in this post. The fish, the tank and the photos
Cant wait to see how the fry mature!


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## amphirion (Jan 15, 2014)

i was about to say the same thing. the female looks of exceptional quality than most found off of aquabid. excited to see how the fry turn out.

keep in mind andakin, that by using powder, flakes, and pellets, you will be effectively culling your batch up to 80%. those that survive will grow slower than the usual pace. other than that, best of luck.


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## andakin (Aug 10, 2009)

Thanks for the compliments. It would be wasteful to not attempt breeding them. I would really appreciate it if someone with some experience can verify the kind of bettas they are.

I appreciate the concern you have with using commercial food. I have raised bettas in the past with live food and just found it too troublesome. I want this experience to be as low maintenance as possible. I have had some success with using powder food with small egglayers. I can only hope this will work out well with bettas.

I will provide periodic updates if the fry survives


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

Those are Traditional Halfmoon Plakats, and quite lovely ones, to boot. In my opinion, they are dragon scale. But I don't work with dragons, so someone else might want to verify.


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## Nimble (Aug 31, 2014)

They're definitely dragonscale, to be sure.

I disagree with your sentiment on using live food to rear your fry being too troublesome. Personally, I feel that if you're not going to put in the effort to do it properly, then you shouldn't do it at all.

But that's just me. If this works out, and you get some lovely fry out of it, should the time come, and I have money, I may snag one from you. Good luck!


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## andakin (Aug 10, 2009)

Just a very small update. The fry are placed in a mesh box. They all seem to hang upwards and not really swimming yet. I hope they aren't caught. The powder food seems to just float away through the small holes. I think I will move them to a floating solid plastic box.


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## Bettas are AWESOME (Aug 14, 2014)

Beutiful fish you got there


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## andakin (Aug 10, 2009)

I modified the set up with extra stuff I had lying around at home. I replaced the mesh box with a 2.5 gallon tank and even added a ghetto homemade filter.

The only downside to this set up is that I will need to do several water changes daily. It's easy enough to swap the water from the main tank. I will be drilling it once I stop feeding powdered food.

The sponge has a few pieces of ceramic bio media inside and driven by a pump. Not sure how useful this filter will be but the goal is to produce a mild agitation and encourage movement.


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

It should do the job.


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## Mahsfish (Feb 21, 2013)

Amazing looking pair. Should get some really nice fry.


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## Schmoo (Oct 3, 2014)

subbed


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