# Trilobites little projects



## trilobite (May 18, 2011)

I decided to make a journal so I can keep track of my breeding goals. Ive already started losing track of my spawn dates and who went with who so before I completely forget I think I'll put them here

First project = copper melano hmpk 
This fish is my absolute goal! 


This is starting to turn into a melano hm goal aswell, cant decide which way I want to go with them...but they are my main project at the moment and Ive got 3 spawns for this goal going at the moment

Grandparents, 
royal blue marble hmpk (marbled out to solid) x metallic blue melano hm by king betta


Spawned 26/03/2015
results =
steel, royal, turquoise in both metallic and non metallic
marble everywhere
few black lace
lots of multis
lots of fin curling

Kept 4 males and 5 females. 
2 males are last resorts due to fin curling. Used one in outside experiment but other hasnt/probably wont get a turn



F2 spawns are

Male from this spawn gave me some real crap fish when paired to the royalblue/redwash girl so I culled them.. Im trying again with a different sister so hopefully she can help him make something decent


Only about like 5 from this spawn so barely even worth mentioning but Ive copper :-D


Outside experiment, no idea where the female came from, shes just appeared in the box when I got my fish shipped back up to me... these two I dont really have strong feelings/hopes for, just wanted to see if they can survive outside (turns out they can...) Female has the thing I hate most in all bettas, no idea what its called but I just call it ugly face and I have a theory that its environmental. So we shall see what happens


I also bought a melano hm male from Adithira to help out with melano aswell, he has a nice full mask like my goal fish
so Ive got a spawn from them too


These ones might be the rought I go if I choose to stay with hm (which is likely)

So thats my main project, will take me a while to get to my goal, especially formwise, but thats half the fun! :-D


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## trilobite (May 18, 2011)

Second project is marble hmpk (Dude line...because my partner decided the original father was his all time fave fish and named him Dude)
These used to be my #1 project but have taken a back seat

Originally I used this pair (both Nanabetta fish)


100% marble
metallic and non metallic royal blue based

Kept 2 boys and 3 girls...somehow the blue male dissapered when they all got shipped up to me...maybe he died or maybe he got forgotten... but Ive only got 1 male left from this line, dont want it to die out but Ive got no room for any more spawns at the moment so they can be priority #1 when I have space for spawns again


Ive also got these guys going who threw a lot of marbles
Parents


Keepers


Ive got f2 cooking in the oven at the moment


Dont know if I should mix them into dude line or go solid... Ahh I dont want too many things, but Ive always loved solids and it would be useful to cross into melano hmpk line to improve finnage...but =more projects... so I dunno, will see how these fry turn out before I decide what to do with them, will proably end up discontinuing them...


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

Following. I'm interested in seeing exactly how much work to your dream fish, and of course I like to see all the pictures of the parent fish.


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## trilobite (May 18, 2011)

The other thing I really want to do is eevt. I found a vt with big long pectorals having a fight in the sump at work so I bought him. I think eevt will be fun to play with. This guy is a bit of a dick, he loves to keep his tail nice and short and has the most arrogant personality you can find in a fish... He still has no name though :-( so any suggestions are welcome! 

Thats for a distant future goal but Ive already started looking at girls that could go with him. Koi eevt would be quite awesome. But I think I'll most likely use an ee girl and breed back to dad to reduce the pectoral rays again to get them long instead of round




aaaand then lastly I have my little black dragons who arent doing much because they gave me horrible fry... dunno if I will try again or not, male died but I still have mother and 2 sons, but if I was going to do black dragons Id probably find an unrelated fish...so she can just relax and look pretty.... for now...

...or she could go to my red dragon then back cross a female to her son... The bonus of the red dragon is his scales are quite light, ive found a lot of black dragons to be too heavy in the scales which I dont like. The female is quite heavy so if she gets bred its going to need to be someone who has much lighter scales
Downside is the male has good colour separtion and crossing him to black drag who has a lot of bleeding, will most likely screw that up


So my projects are definitely at least melano
but eevt, black dragons, solids or marbles... thats the hard part that I cant decide

eevt would be the most fun I think especially if I went koi, but I hear ee is a pain to work with, and it will be useless in shows

If I go marble I will want to cross to a red or orange dragon because I love high contrast fins vs body and my guys just arent doing for me

If I go black dragon I will either need to buy a nice male or female or cross to red dragon and backcross to purify the black again.

Ooor find a nice female to compliment the red dragon male, I dont like red dragons much but love orange dragons...so could go tat route....but black dragon is my fave dragon colour so dont want to leave that colour behind....

I havent played with the potential solids properly yet but thats why Ive got their spawn going so I can see where I want to go from there...but if I want to do well in shows then solids are where its at... 

My brain is cruel and keeps thinking of new things I want to do :evil:
but no more spawns for me until Ive moved my current ones on. But for now I can at least decide what I want to work with. Ideally 2 I reckon, 3 if I have to


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## trilobite (May 18, 2011)

Sadist said:


> Following. I'm interested in seeing exactly how much work to your dream fish, and of course I like to see all the pictures of the parent fish.


Haha I get the feeling it will take longer than I had originally planned, but oh well, at least I can just fine tune them with each generation. Oh there will be way too many photos lol!! I like to physically compare each gen next to each other and see where Im heading


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## LittleBettaFish (Oct 2, 2010)

This is definitely a journal I will be following along with. 

You got some really nice fish out of that marble HMPK 'Dude Line' pairing. What a shame the blue male vanished during the move.


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## trilobite (May 18, 2011)

Thanks, yeah dude fry did pretty well in one of the recent shows too, the red/blue dorsal girl got reserve junior of show, and the others got 1st, 2nd & 3rd oz bred junior female so quite pleased with them and dont want the line to die out. Gutted about blueson though, he was my fave out of all the babies...and I never even got a decent photo of him.

Ive recently saw this vid of a clicker trained fish and have become really motivated to clicker train Freddy :-D (Parachromis friedrichsthalii)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vv7G_EuY7zc

Ive just started getting him to associate the light flash with food, hes not very smart about it and hasnt caught on that when the light flashes food will come...but to be fair Ive only started with him 2 days ago... Hes my first "cool" cichlid, Ive had angels and rams but they dont really count haha. Freddy is a bit of a creep, everytime I go to look at him hes just there...staring at me...
Anyway heres Freddy, his main job is a little more sinister..but he wont be having any clients for a few more months, so for now it will be fun to see if he has brains as well as brawn


his sharp little needle teeth (excuse the algae, I had just come back from a holiday and the tank was covered in it)






Him and sharky love to try and scare away their reflections... just like the bettas (dont worry, when freddy gets bigger sharky will leave that tank and live in my pond/tub/whatever you want to call it)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwLIXT2iuOc


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## Fenghuang (Dec 28, 2012)

Yep. This journal is definitely on my list of "Journals to Stalk." 

Freddy's a very striking cichlid. I never heard of clicker training cichlids.


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

I saw a video of a betta that was clicker trained. He had this awesome custom waterfall fountain type tank, and he was trained to jump over the waterfalls.


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## trilobite (May 18, 2011)

Feng, yeah me either I knew people trained goldfish to do cue tricks but never even crossed my mind about cichlids

Sadist, thats awesome! maybe I should train my bettas as well I feel like they would pick up things much faster

Update on Freds training = still hasnt associated light with food...I think its because hes quite shy, I had him eating out of my hand before I went on holiday but now hes back to worrying about what I might do to him... 
Plus hes a real creep, yesterday I turned around and saw this thing just watching me from the other side of the room... 



Not much to say about the projects really except the melano project fry are starting to colour up so we shall soon know if theres any melano lurking among them :-D

Now to try and stop my barracks from leaking so it can be ready for them... I dont like my chances..Ive patched it up twice, still leaked, drowned it in silicon about 3 times, still leaked, this is my last try using the excessive silicon method and then I will try and shove the bloody thing into a massive tub and that can be the new sump...

of all the things that had to break during the move it had to be the barracks :-(

Luckily I dont need heaters up here so if worse comes to worse I can just cover the garage in jars...


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

Haha, your Fred is just like my Mrs. Fish! She's shy of my daughter but will stare at her when she's at the computer. Just sit in the corner and stare.

I'm sure you'll get your guy tame again. Being away always messes up pets.


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## trilobite (May 18, 2011)

Lol fish are weird creatures arent they?!

Freddy is starting to get the drift, when the light shines sometimes he starts looking for food, other times hes still staring blankly at me.. so he cant start cute tricks yet but at least hes making progress :-D

I made some steamed egg mixed with spirulina for my bettas the other day, looks disgusting but they loved it. I gave some to my babies but they thought I was stupid for even considering it... so they miss out on eggs from now on
Naturally I accidentally overdosed my melanos tank with it...he didnt seem to mind though 




and heres a baby shot because they are so cute


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## trilobite (May 18, 2011)

Aw man guys, Freddy has learnt his first trick! "Touch the dot" I'll try and get a vid of him doing it, you can see the cogs turning in his head as he tries and figures it out


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## Fenghuang (Dec 28, 2012)

Aw, yes! Yay for Freddy! :-D


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## trilobite (May 18, 2011)

Hes pretty proud of himself! He never gets free food anymore, he must always do a trick for it so hes learning quickly
I caught him practicing one of his tricks lol



Anyway heres him doing his dot trick :-D he was a bit concerned with the camera so he wasnt doing it to his best abilities 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSX-wd3CIEs&feature=youtu.be

Next trick will be "do anything with the hoop"
Hes quite suspicious of anything that hes not used to and prefers to just watch them from behind a rock, but hopefully he will learn that his hoop isnt anything to be nervous of

Also Im looking after my friends cockatiels at the moment and I love them. I never thought birds could be such fun!


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## trilobite (May 18, 2011)

Im going to be heading back to new zealand for 3 weeks in Feb :-D so breeding will will have to be even further postponed :-( so Im rearranging my fish to make them less maintenance since I always get paranoid about my fish when Im away

Luckily we managed to stop the barracks from leaking so thats another good reason to get it set back up and get it cycled before we go. I definitely dont want to leave my bettas in their uncycled, unheated jars for 3 weeks with no water changes and dont trust anyone to do 100% water changes on them all. This way they will at least be getting water circulation in a cycled tank and I can chuck in a heater in case theres a cold snap when Im not there

Im going to set up another other grow out tub today aswell so I can get my blue marble spawn into that. Currently they are divided into 3 tanks and each one is needing 90% wc every day


On project related news I found a sad sight ...The little copper boy has messy scales which sucks since he was the one I could have had the most use for


I also found a sibling with yellow fins, doesnt look like its got much hope finnagewise though but we will see




I only got 5 from this spawn so I might respawn the parents... I might even get copper melano from them if I get a big enough spawn


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## BettaLover1313 (Apr 15, 2013)

Subscribing! Enjoying reading about Fred and his training along with seeing how your breeding is coming along.


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## trilobite (May 18, 2011)

Thanks  I just wish I could update more with the bettas but they are just pottering along and not doing much except growing painfully slowly

Fred isnt very creative with his tricks...hes decided "do something with the hoop" = "bite it" exactly like his "bite the dot trick"...hopefully we can evolve it further though. Im happy that hes picking things up faster and not as shy as he used to be, he still freaks out if my partner walks past his tank too fast though....
Ive also learnt that he doesnt like birds, I showed him my mates cockatiels and he flared at them and tried to scare them off

Sharky is the smart one in the tank, he investigates anything new in the tank while freddy just sits back and watches from behind a rock..



I also transferred some of my babies into a bigger tub yesterday, they seem pretty pleased about it...but now it means I cant see them from the side which is half the fun




I also found this guy chewing on a runt sibling today...so hes off to the "big kid tank" Ive been meaning to do it earlier but kept putting it off 


And my barracks is alive!! Its a hideous old thing but it was pretty much free so how could I say no! Im currently cycling it and then my bettas can go back into it


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## LittleBettaFish (Oct 2, 2010)

I love the lighter bodied fry in your above photos. 

I'm not sure if already mentioned it, but is that barracks a sort of DIY job or is it something like the AquaOne barracks they use in stores to display bettas?


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## trilobite (May 18, 2011)

Thanks, me too  Im quite excited to see what shades they all turn into since I have no clue about what the parents blues were

Yeah its an aquaone barracks 64 bay (96 if I get desperate lol), it used to be the display for City Farmers but when they turned into Petbarn they had to get rid of it and replace it with the 24 bay. They were going to literally just throw it in the trash... so naturally I snapped it up lol all I had to do was put $10 towards the end of year christmas party. 

I do want to make a diy one oneday though, the aquaone one has quite a few things Id change, especially the sump, its really ineffective and also the arrangement of the jars, its so annoying having to pull off the first layer of jars if you want to do anything with the back layer...
Plus it cracked on the move to the new place and we did a dodgy job trying to stop it from leaking...so it doesnt have my full trust anymore


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

I see one of your babies is trying to flare at you, so cute! Good luck with your barracks!


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## trilobite (May 18, 2011)

Thanks :-D Im really hoping it stays water tight on me
Haha yeah they are starting to get a bit full of themselves at the moment


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## trilobite (May 18, 2011)

I visited my mate in Mackay a few days ago and we went to Eungella and saw some actual wild platypus! They are way smaller than I imagined them to be! and they swim very fast

Now all I need to do is see a wild snake and my australian dream will be complete! Apparently they are everywhere where I live but I havent seen one :-(

Our New Zealand flights are all booked in so Im pretty excited! I really miss NZ and my family

Heres my Gem, I taught her to walk in harness but she would only tolerate it in our backyard, apparently shes gotten really fussy recently...The Gem I remember would eat anything you give her, peas were her all time fave... so cant wait to see her again! Shes the worst cat if you have cat allergies (which I do lol) she sheds so much hair and dander constantly but I love her.

Embarrassing her in silly outfits is fun too, good old Harajuku had a whole shop dedicated to pet clothes so naturally I had to bring a sweet outfit home lol... I dont think she was impressed by my decision though



Heres Louie :-D Were gonna go for a road trip and lucky Lou gets to come camping. I miss him so much, so will be great to get to see him again. Hes the goobiest dog youll ever meet, but for a border collie hes not the smartest... But hes so happy go lucky, Im really excited to see him again!




And old 17 year old Toffee who recently passed :-( a wandering dog found her RIP
She never took any nonsense from dogs and was very quick to put them in her place and I think that was her down fall. I'll miss her :-( I still havent accepted that shes gone, I literally grew up with her, she used to follow me to school


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

RIP, Toffee. I know what you mean. It broke my heart when my Mitten died of old age at 19. My dad didn't even call to let me know she was on her last legs, though I knew she wasn't doing well. I would have come visit her. Now, I'm all teary. I'm sorry for your loss, I know how it is, too.


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## trilobite (May 18, 2011)

Thank you so much, it will be very different coming home and not seeing her sitting by the gate waiting for everyone like she always did.
Aw RIP Mitten, Im so sorry! Sounds like she lived a good long life 
I wish pets could live longer :-(

To brighten things up heres a cute cockatiel that Im looking after for my mate. Hes so chilled out


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## LittleBettaFish (Oct 2, 2010)

Having lost an elderly cat to a wandering dog (she ended up paralysed in her hind end after it shook her), you really have my deepest sympathies in regards to Toffee. It's not the end those grand old ladies deserved. 

Also don't show me photos of cockatiels!! I badly want a cockatiel or a rosella, but I just don't have the space or money. 

One day. One day.


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

Oo, is it trained to eat from hands? I've always wanted one like that. Alas, I also don't have the room or money. If I did, I'd probably have an oscar


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## trilobite (May 18, 2011)

Aw sorry to hear about your girl LBF  its a not a nice ending for them at all

Sadist, he does and its really cute! Nothing scares him at all. He wears little nappies to stop him pooing everywhere so hes only in his cage at night. He just sits on my shoulder and asks for heat scratches, if you put him on the floor he will sprint after you and stand on your feet. He even gets to come to the supermarket lol. Never thought birds could be so much fun!

I really want one too! My friend reckons I should but my bf isnt too keen...
Lol LBF seems like we have the same mantra... one day...one day...

Sadist, oscars are so awesome ae! and so interactive. Have you seen the long finned ones? Yeah money and space are a fish keepers worst enemies lol. 

A friendly, interactive pet fish was meant to be Freddies role but I think hed rather make his own plans... hes now decided that jumping and hitting the lid is a pretty cool thing to do, freaks me out every time though


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## trilobite (May 18, 2011)

Im definitely not going to continue with black dragon project. Especially not my ones, of the 2 males I kept 1 has developed tumors and the mum has irid over her eyes so they are now a deleted line. I love black dragon though so might try again with some different lines one day... Its probably a sign that I need to focus on melanos 

I jarred a boy from my melano x royal blue. Not impressed with his topline, so hopefully theres some nicer looking creatures in the growout. But I'll let him develop a bit more before I decide what to do with him, hopefully his caudal will catch up to his anal at least




And Freddy has a found a place to spy on us, hes convinced that he cant be seen :roll:


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## trilobite (May 18, 2011)

Second line to be deleted is these guys


Theyve thrown a lot of xfactors and a large number of them have inherited mums ugly face. 


Its a shame because I really liked these fish individually, but combined they dont work at all. I have a really nice royal blue brother of theirs that I was going to put to the girl too, but not anymore... If I do use him it will be to an unrelated female

Heres him when he was younger, cant find any recent pics of him at the moment



Freddy is very overjoyed about my findings though


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## LittleBettaFish (Oct 2, 2010)

Oh no, what a shame. But x-factor fish are definitely not something you want consistently cropping up in your spawns. 

I was going to suggest going the unrelated female route, but I see you've already had that idea.


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## trilobite (May 18, 2011)

Its such a let down, so far I havent seen anything I like from that spawn at all. colours of some are nice but nothing else is

Yeah I def need to keep a hmpk line going so might look into new girls when I get back. I just cant believe how all of a sudden Ive got all these hm spawns and my hmpk lines are being deleted lol. Never thought the day would come since Im a hmpk fan through and through. Hopefully I get some hmpk from my f2 pk geno cos that was the whole point of adding hm in the first place...


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## trilobite (May 18, 2011)

Uggh Freddy is going through a fussy loser stage because hes had a few culls he now thinks hes too good for his pellets.
Hes decided that other than culls, he only wants to eat the cheapest, nastiest brand of tropical fish flake I own (I tried him with a good brand but no, those arent to his standards apparently)

And to make things worse, the pellets he spits out he will guard and not let sharky clean them up. Hes just a jerk


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