# Red VT x Red PK



## dcg

Male: VT red, age unknown, breeder unknown.









Female: PK red, age unknown, breeder unknown.









The goal: nice red betta sorority for me. No more, no less. 

Conditioning: the male was introduced directly in the spawning tank after a day worth of travel. On the bright side, the female was fed. 

Introduced: 28 January 2016.

















Spawned: 29 January 2016









Mating when ahead pretty straightforward. No dry practice, just embrace, go after eggs, repeat.









The female was eating eggs directly from the nest. After a while she was caught red handed by the male and promptly banished.

Hatched: never. Shortly after mating the male look dreadfully bloated and left the nest unattended. I waited 36 hours but no fries were observed.

Female 2: PK red, unknown age, unknown breeder.









Introduced: 31 January 2016 
Spawned: 1 February 2016

Male guarding something.









Eggs.









Hatched: 3 February 2016.









Brand new bettas.  Age: zero days.









Later into the day.


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## RNHime

I just have to say there is something very endearing about papa guarding his nest! I hope your sorority plans go well for you. Those are very red fish and they stand out so nicely in the green plants!! =)


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## hrutan

Great pictures of the bouncing babies! Good job!


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## liamthen

i just love red !!! subbed this :lol:


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## dcg

Hi friends.  Now comes the painful part. Taking picture of the minuscule fries while they are not packed together in the nest. 

Age 1 day.

4 February 2016 (morning).

Homeless fry. The douchebag let the nest fall apart.









Caring for the babies, the easy way, out in the open. 









Free swimming stage: 4 February 2016 (evening). That was fast!  

















Male (over and) out: 4 February 2016.









PS: Liam, I know you like reds.


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## trilobite

That male is very handsome! Cant wait for the fry to get older


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## dcg

Hello trilobite,

Rest assurred, the fries will be quite ugly. Something between long finned deltas and veiltails and maybe a few plakats. But my hope is that they will be the red kind of ugly.  Till now I have tried 4 red females. One of them 2 times. I've had 4 spawns. Only this one produced viable eggs. So it happened that the successful female is the palest red of them all. 

It was time for the first live artemia meal, but nothing moves there in the recipients. It seems I've run into a bad batch of artemia eggs. I am trying not to freak out. The fries are not in for a good start. It is a bummer to see my feeding schedule being moved 2 days behind.

Age 2 days.


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## dcg

Age 3 days.


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## liamthen

crystal clear pics , i need to learn to post spawn log the proper way hahaha..hope those fry get their food soon!


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## dcg

Yes, Liam, it is plain painful to focus the little bastards. 

Age 4 days.

The famine is over and the fries are eating newly hatched BS. Waiting impatiently for artemia to hatch I kind of forgot to put a new batch in. 

Full belly.


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## dcg

Age 5 days.


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## dcg

Age 6 days.


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## dcg

Age 1 week.


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## dcg

Age 8 days.









The only one I could focus has a bent spine.


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## dcg

Age 9 days (1 week + 2 days).










I can spot tinny dorsals. That's good. But they are quite low on numbers. I'm working on it.









Or he is. He did it again. Oops.


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## dcg

Age 10 days (1 week + 3 days).


























Special guest: little brothers zero days old.


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## dcg

Age 11 days (1 week + 4 days).


























Special guests: little brothers 1 day old.


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## dcg

Age 12 days (1 week + 5 days).


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## BlueInkFish

I love your spawn logs, nice and simple. With daily updates, and awesome photography 

You have beautiful fish, too!


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## dcg

Thank you, Mr. Blu. ;-)


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## dcg

When it comes to food, they are taking no prisoners. 

Age 13 days (1 week + 6 days).


































Special guest: little brother 3 days old.


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## kittenfish

Wow, they're growing fast! That sorority is going to look amazing.


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## dcg

After I'll take out the males and the girls with bent spines, there will not be much of sorority left.  It was to be expected because I used bulky short bodied females with bumpy top lines. But there is where the little brothers and sisters step in.


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## dcg

Age 2 weeks.

There are 52 fry, including the stunt and the bent spines.


















































Special guest: little brother 4 days old.


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## dcg

Age 15 days (2 weeks + 1 day).

The fry outscored my schedule of artemia cultures. They simply eat me dry. The priority is little brothers so the fry will have to do with first adult meal. Here are they eating big betta food, frozen adult artemia.


















Fry after eating live artemia.









Fry after eating frozen artemia.









Special guest: little brother 5 days old.


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## liamthen

dude, that a super growth rate, 13 days, took me 20+ days to reach that size


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## dcg

They will need 20+ days to outgrow their tortured swim bladders.


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## dcg

Age 16 days (2 weeks + 2 days).


















Special guest: little brother 6 days old.


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## dcg

PS: I miss some blues. Here is a same age (16 days) irid boy from another spawn taking to me in colors.


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## Catthebetta

What do you feed them? What temp do you keep them at? They grow so fast.. your 10 day olds are the size of MY 16 day olds. I don't get it


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## dcg

Temperature. 









Do note that is a broken heater that can do only 27-28. Ideal should be around 30C. The secret is to think about the species. Bettas are little fishes. Hobbyists keep them in jars. But their ancestry belongs to wild, were they may be preyed upon. So what is their strategy to not only survive but thrive? Be an adult really fast so you can spawn trillions fry. You are what you eat. Eat like there is no tomorrow. But wait. Again, back to their former natural environment. Can you see rain? That really rise up your appetite. So change water like raining in your growup tank and see them explode. Or that's what I'm thinking, I have no proof that I'm right/


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## liamthen

dcg said:


> Temperature.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Do note that is a broken heater that can do only 27-28. Ideal should be around 30C. The secret is to think about the species. Bettas are little fishes. Hobbyists keep them in jars. But their ancestry belongs to wild, were they may be preyed upon. So what is their strategy to not only survive but thrive? Be an adult really fast so you can spawn trillions fry. You are what you eat. Eat like there is no tomorrow. But wait. Again, back to their former natural environment. Can you see rain? That really rise up your appetite. So change water like raining in your growup tank and see them explode. Or that's what I'm thinking, I have no proof that I'm right/


hmm, yes rain, when i read the "can you see rain" question my faded brain was immediately thinking how to mimic rain in my tank lmao, i agree with your theory, mainly because i witness myself always wanting a bowl of hot instant noodle when its raining.


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## dcg

> because i witness myself always wanting a bowl of hot instant noodle when its raining


If you want to translate it to humans, it could be like that: appetite in a fresh mountain aired and clean room vs appetite in toilet with excrements all over thr place and closed windows. Hmm...  There is also the largely accepted theory of growth inhibiting hormone, unfortunately not proved.


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## dcg

Age 17 days (2 weeks + 3 days).

Nice vents. 

























Special guest: little brother 1 week old.


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## dcg

Age 18 days (2 weeks + 4 days).

Alien abduction taking place.

















Special guest: little brother 8 days old.


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## dcg

Age 19 days (2 weeks + 5 days).

They are now big enough to eat frozen food without me cuting the food in little pieces. Really good news cause it saves time.

















Special guests: little brothers 9 days old. That tinny dorsal is clearly visible by now.


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## dcg

Catthebetta said:


> And your fry grow 5x as fast as anyone I've seen!


Yesterday they ate the food you can see in the picture multiply by 5. They are 50 fry. They are also eating live artemia as extra food to help the runts. These are betta fry on full throttle. Fear them.


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## dcg

Age 20 days (2 weeks + 6 days).


















Gasping for air in bad quality water and fighting swim bladder malfunctions in the same time.









Special guests: little brothers 10 days old.


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## dcg

Age 3 weeks.

The colorless of them.









The redest.









Few random ones.

























Special guests: little brothers 11 days old (already showing some color).


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## BlueInkFish

They're all growing fast!


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## karthickdesai

*what type of feeding you gave?*

i have microworms but i couldnt see good result with them..i need to change feeding for my fry....:-D so will you suggest which will give feed my new born betta fry?


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## dcg

litelboyblu said:


> They're all growing fast!


litelboyblu, I think I have some litelboyreds in there. 

karthickdesai, define "new born betta fry". How many days since they hatched?


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## dcg

Age 22 days (3 weeks + 1 day).


























Special guests: little brothers 12 days old.


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## dcg

Age 22 days (3 weeks + 2 days).

I've always had irid fry, so I find it quite boring how slowly these reds are coloring up.

























Special guests: little brothers 13 days old.

















Bonus guest: zero days old felis catus fry.


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## kittenfish

I don't know, that last fry looks kind of weird, you should give it to me.


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## dcg

So you can live up to your nickname.  1 day old cat fry, with long dropping tail, so it is safe to call it veiltail.


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## dcg

Age 24 days (3 weeks + 3 days).









Special guest: little brother 2 weeks old.


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## dcg

Age 25 days (3 weeks + 4 days).

There are 3 stages in betta fry development in relation with me. First few days, beta fry will pretty much ignore me, provided I don't make any sudden movements. Next stage, betta fry are beginning to be aware of me, but they are cautious and run for their lives when they see me. Final stage, betta fry are getting smarter and make the connection between me and the food. Rather than flying from me, they gather at the front glass and start begging. That's the sweet point when they begin putting mass and start rushing to adulthood.









Special guests: little brothers 15 days old.

It's that me or these step brothers are a bit more reddish for their age? I used a redder female when breeding for them, but still didn't expect it.

















That's how their older brothers looked when they were same age 15 days old.









See the difference? 

Also, I cannot convince the younger fry to eat frozen food, even if their older brothers were accepting it at 15 days, as seen in that picture. I opened a new batch of artemia eggs that doesn't yield to much live BS so I'm finding it hard to keep their bellies full.


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## dcg

Age 26 days (3 weeks + 5 days).









Special guests: little brothers 16 days old. They are starting to show interest in frozen food.









Little brothers: how about that for red?  They are trumping their older siblings in this respect.


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## dcg

Age 27 days (3 weeks + 6 days).


























Special guests: little brothers 17 days old.


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## trilobite

So red! I love them! You have a magic touch with making your fry grow so fast and well


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## dcg

Thank you, Trilobite!


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## dcg

Age 4 weeks.









Special guests: little brothers 18 days old.

Size reference.









There are 45 fry.









Their fresh cleaned house. External filter too.


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## BlueInkFish

In the bucket they look like the common goldfish! Glad everyone is coloring up and growing to turn out beautiful!


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## dcg

So you call them faaaatt? )

Age 29 days (4 weeks + 1 day).


















Special guests: little (but not so little) brothers 19 days old.


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## BlueInkFish

Haha, fat, I guess so.;-)


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## liamthen

wow, really jealous of their growth rate, so the recipe is high temp, torture their swim bladder, filtered tanks and daily horrid water changes? lol


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## centaurii

I kind of want to see more of the felis catus fry. It's fun to look at how tiny the little claws and toes are compared to the mother.


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## dcg

@liamthen, precisely. 

@centaurii, let me grab one.

1 week old Felis Catus fry. He looks double the size than a week ago.


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## dcg

Age 30 days (4 weeks + 2 day).

At this age I should have had males by now. 

This is a 30 days old male from my previous spawns.









This is another 30 days old male from other parents.









So where are my red males? Ok, I'll just go ahead and introduce to you my first red male.









That black bordering of the fins should be a hint of things to come.

Size...









They also got plants upgrade to make things funnier.









Special guests: little brothers 20 days old.


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## dcg

Age 31 days (4 weeks + 3 days).

















Special guests: little brothers 3 weeks old.


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## dcg

First batch of fry, the mother.









Fry, age 32 days (4 weeks + 4 days).









Second batch of fry, the mother.









Fry, age 22 days old.

















See the difference? 

One fry that doesn't look like dark red.









The second mother was my first choice, but the egg were eaten. She came back with a vengeance after all. )


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## dcg

No flaring, no fighting, no long fins but lots of "egg spots". I think 50 fry all females and no males may be the case.

Age 33 days (4 weeks + 5 days).

























Little brothers, the ones that are blooming full red, age 23 days.


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## Shidohari

they're lovely. I love the cherry red color to the scales.

Maybe your next spawn will have the males.


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## dcg

Yes, I hope little brothers will not be little sisters instead.  Strangely, females were my primary objective for the red spawns, but the fishes from first spawn are overdoing it though... )


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## liamthen

i am still struggling for my red line...lol, its so fun to see the whole tank of reds


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## dcg

Yes, quite amazing the little brothers, they were almost born already reds.  Do you have a spawn log for your red line or it is still in the planning phase?


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## dcg

Age 34 days (4 weeks + 6 days).

She decided to stay a she. She's the most red of them all, as you can see in background. Quite sexy little girl I would say. 









Special guests: little brothers 24 days old.









Feeding frenzy (frozen artemia).


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## dcg

Age 5 weeks.

Let's measure them.

























Young girls everywhere!









































Special guests: little brothers 25 days old.

First male! 

























Red swarm.

















End of monster post.


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## kittenfish

Nice princess ruler


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## dcg

My human fry are also girls so they have a matching ruler.


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## dcg

Age 36 days (5 weeks + 1 day).

Mom comes visit the girls (center of picture).









Mom kissing with daughter.









Red girl (center down) returns visit and meets adult sorority.









She is taken back into her sister's tank to be power grown six more days.









Red girls eating.









Red girl vs thermometer.









Special guests: little brothers 26 days old.









Size vs thermometer.









A male.


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## SusieG

All the red is soooooo cute! Very nice looking fry!


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## dcg

Susie, that's why I got them better plant. So you can see the red better. 

Age 37 days (5 weeks + 2 days).

The closest I can get to parking Ferraris. 









Girls will be girls.









Feeding. 









Special guests: little brothers 27 days old.

Big red male.









New plants. They deserve it.


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## dcg

Age 38 days (5 weeks + 3 days).

























Special guests: little brothers 4 weeks old.


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## Olivia27

Nice Ferraris you got there LOL great job raising these little ones


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## dcg

Thank you, Olivia! 

The bigger fry when they were 23 days old.









"Little brothers" at 23 days age.









It will be interesting to see how red they younger ones can get. They are 10 days behind the bigger sisters.


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## dcg

Still age 38 days (side story).

They like that corner. Maybe a little too much.









Than this happens.









Or, maybe she overheard me saying I have a friend named Oscar. 









Quite useful skill set in the breeding tank. Out of sight and out of range of that pushy male. 

She is a bit of a runt though, so maybe she was trying to cull herself.


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## kittenfish

Haha how long was she up there? Is that your feeding corner?


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## dcg

I don't know how long she stayed there but being a betta she can survive a great deal of time outside. That's why a resisted the urge to kick her back in and took the time to snap a few pictures. I'm not entirely convinced she was happy when I ended her sunbath, but now I often find myself checking the glass for evaders, just in case. 

I don't know what's up with the magic corner, but I can say that it provides the best view to the TV set.  It could be it. )


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## dcg

Age 39 days (5 weeks + 4 days).

































Zero males. 









Special guests: little brothers 29 days old.

A male.









One female and two males.









Two females.









One female.









Red army.


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## dcg

Age 40 days (5 weeks + 5 days).

They are big enough to be moved to the adult sorority. From now on, they will be fed once a day and water changing will be weekly. I only moved five of them, the rest will go to the pet shop.

Let's see how they fare.

Don't mess with the spoon head. Show submission.









Gosh, trouble ahead. Beware of the marble!









Always look out for that nasty superdelta. Rolling you right eye is a good tactic.









When feeding time, stand up your ground. A girl is gotta eat. Do note that the alien blue creature is also a betta.









Also do understand that this is the biggest female. She is almost 10 months old and she is grumpy.Better stay clear.









I said STAY CLEAR. That also means no charging.









At one a clock is your mother. She is all show and no bite, so don't bother.









Stop and smell the roses, but be aware of your mom sneaking on you at 10 a clock.









Turn around and stand your ground. She will fly in terror.









Yes, biting around is allowed, so feel right at home. 









Job done, I hope congrats are in order.


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## dcg

Little brothers 30 days old.

Using no flash uncovers deep red but they are moving fast so the picture is kind of blurry.









The big red.









Another male discovered flaring.









She is posting for her facebook account without realizing the photobombing.


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## BlueInkFish

Haha! They are beautiful!


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## dcg

I also bombed this page with the last photo.  Cannot edit anymore.


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## dcg

Age 41 days (5 weeks + 6 days).

Adult sorority. First, only the young sisters.

















Left 10 months old, right 6 months old, center just shy of 6 weeks old. Nice package, nice tricolor.









Daughter and mother.









With the biggest female. Look at her face... I told you she's grumpy.









Unwanted attention from the metallic.









At least the royal blue is minding her business.









Yes, just stay frozen right there, the marble only wants to hug you.









The young red looks like having eyelashes. 









Coming up next, the retina killers, also known as "little brothers".


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## BlueInkFish

Beautiful!


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## dcg

Thank you! 

Special guests: little brothers 31 days old.

Three males torturing your retina with bloody red.In the background, lots of girls. The mother nature played that trick on me again, so I have a grand total of about five males. 









The LOL picture of the day. A smaller male delivering a bite to the unsuspecting Big Red. Up above, two siamese twin sisters smiling for the camera. 









The Big Red regaining his dignity. 









A young girl.









A failed picture but still kind of cool. No focus also means no irid showing.  By the way, nice ficus they have in there.


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## liamthen

gee, so jealous, i want a full tank of red too


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## dcg

liamthen, in less than three weeks you will be there. 

Age 6 weeks.

































With mom (left).









Feeding.

























Being attacked.









Rejecting the offender.









Next: little brothers.


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## liamthen

in my case a full tub of reds lol, i actually have 30-ish red HM growing up, will jar them early, i want no torn fin on this one


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## dcg

A tube means no spawn log I think. 

Special guests: little brothers 32 days old.










Males.

















Females.


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## liamthen

No more spawn log for a while, until i finish half of what i started, it always gut me every time remembering i haven't update my spawn logs for along time already, just feel ain't good lol


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## dcg

Yes, LOL, you started a lot of logs. 

Age 43 days (6 weeks + 1 day).










The sisters left in grow out.









Special guests: little brothers 33 days old.

Size vs thermometer.









Walking.









Flaring.

















The males practically don't meet or bother each other. They are only courting females. The females are exchanging bites. They are quite aggressive, significantly more aggressive than step sisters 10 days older. How comes, I don't know. Also, the lonely fry, their cousin, is a magnet for bites and pushovers. She keeps away not fighting back. She eats last and stays away with stress stripes on.

Females.

No flash, more respectful to real color but also a bit hazy.

















Fighting.

















Eating. Lonely fry keeps away from red sharks waiting for her turn.


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## dcg

Age 34 days (4 weeks + 6 days). A male building a nest into the grow out tank. :thumbsup:






Yes, he is the Big Red. Should I start a new spawn log? :tanshades:


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## dcg

Age 5 weeks.

That's what I can do. Haters gonna hate. 

First, the male named Big Red. Are you ready? 
















4.1 cm or 1.65 inches. Gonna put it there just in case.

Wayne Schmidt's betta fry growth chart (backed up by Victoria Stark) says he should be way smaller: http://www.waynesthisandthat.com/bettagrowth.html



> "Five weeks old: 0.6 inches long. Size ranges from .5 to .75 inches."


Again, the Big Red.
















The measurement stands.

If you think the females are shy of that you are in for a surprise.

















4 cm or 1.62 inches I would say.

The numbers.

Spawn no.1 (now age 6 weeks and 3 days): 52 fry, 50 females, 2 unsexed stunted fry.
Spawn no.2 (now age 5 weeks): 45 fry, 39 females, 2 unsexed stunted fry, 4 males.

My way of culling is the pet shop. Go!



























dcg said:
 

> The goal: nice red betta sorority for me. No more, no less.


Objective accomplished! 


















... and a short movie with the Big Red male swimming gracefully in the center. 





As of this moment the power growing comes to an end. The daily updates are maybe stopping also, but I saved some stuff for age 5 weeks + 1 day coming up next. Mainly I will focus on fins development of the single male I kept. The Big Red.


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## BlueInkFish

Wow! I am so glad I've kept up with this spawn log, it's so great to see the before and after photos


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## Olivia27

I have a foster named Big Red as well LOL he's a 1.7" adult. So it looks like yours is gonna grow way larger than mine! Great job!


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## dcg

litelboyred p), Olivia, thank you for your kind words. Specially for you, a picture of my Big Red while having the time of his life, trying to spread his genes, as close as the mother nature can be in my grow out. Kiss him. )) Tiny bubbles but serious nest, isn't it?

Age 5 weeks + 1 day.


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## trilobite

Hes worked very hard on his nest! The lady in the corner looks quite impressed with it too


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## dcg

Haha, you know, I had troubles taking pictures because there were so many females obscuring it. When the Big Red is wandering or maybe chasing sisters, other girls will come to check the nest. They will roll their eyes in admiration, you know that special look a female gives to nest when she is evaluating. Than, the females will realize they are not alone under the nest and will start fighting. They go straight for the body punch and often the female under attacked will jump through the nest destroying it. Next, the Big Red will come to break the party and resume the Sisyphus's job asking himself why his nest is broken. :mrgreen:


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## dcg

Age 5 weeks + 1 day.

Little brothers (Big Red)


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## dcg

Age 5 weeks + 6 days (Big Red). 

First bruise got him separated.


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## dcg

Age 6 weeks. 

Big Red is jarred.


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## kittenfish

Nice jar, here's mine:










How many gal/liters is yours?


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## liamthen

you two!!! those jars!!! lol


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## kittenfish

Anything smaller is inhumane!!


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## liamthen

luckiest betta males


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## dcg

kittenfish said:


> How many gal/liters is yours?


80cm long, 35cm wide. At current water level (10cm) there are about 30 liters of water (8 gallons), but I can go to 126 liters when tank is full (33 gallons).



kittenfish said:


> Anything smaller is inhumane!!


Thanks God they are fishes not humans. )



liamthen said:


> luckiest betta males


Count him in too.


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## dcg

Age 67 days (2 months and 7 days).

No red hawk but still a graceful young veiltail.


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## trilobite

Oooh hes beautiful! Any plans to make the next generation with him? :-D


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## dcg

One day or another I will introduce him to his mom. 

This will push his offspring from VT to DeT while preserving the long finned trait of his father. Also, it will intensify the ruffled fins and heavy iridescence problems of his mother, but I will worry about that later. And, after some wear in tear inflected to my growouts, red superdelta here I come. Or, at least, that's the plan. :lol:


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## liamthen

gosh so red!! 




dcg said:


> Age 67 days (2 months and 7 days).
> 
> No red hawk but still a graceful young veiltail.


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## trilobite

dcg said:


> One day or another I will introduce him to his mom.
> 
> This will push his offspring from VT to DeT while preserving the long finned trait of his father. Also, it will intensify the ruffled fins and heavy iridescence problems of his mother, but I will worry about that later. And, after some wear in tear inflected to my growouts, red superdelta here I come. Or, at least, that's the plan. :lol:


Red vt are my favorite type of vt so hes won me over completely
I love following projects like that, where you can see the finnage changing in each generation. One day his descendants will rise into the mighty hm :-D


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