Albino Finally Here

Synirr

"No one is a failure unless you try"
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Ain't he handsome? :wub:
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He is very light sensitive and has to sit in the dark all the time for his own welfare; prolonged exposure to bright light, even from the normal lighthood on his tank, will make him go blind faster and can potentially cause skin cancer. The normal light in my bedroom is the most he will ever get, and it's pretty dark in there as it is, even without the tank hood to shade him. His sight isn't that great, but he knows when it's feeding time, and uses his little nose to help locate food that has fallen to the bottom (which is why I'm switching from pea gravel to bare-bottom at the next water change, to make things easier for him). He can see larger moving objects pretty easy, so spotting the female in the breeding tank shouldn't be a problem.

His four little sisters are sooo cute! All are marble CTs, I should get some coppers and other metallic marbles out of the cross even if I don't get any albinos right off the bat, which is awesome. They're all very young, probably 3 months or so, but I'm going to condition them for about 2 weeks and see if any of the females are holding eggs by then, and if they are, go ahead and try to breed. I need to breed the male ASAP, as he is very likely to go blind as he ages and breeding will then be impossible. Luckily he has already figured out how to find food with his poor eyesight, so I'm going to start tapping the tank when I feed him to let him know it is dinner time, that way if and when he does go blind we will have a system already in place :)

Here's one of the sisters
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And the bonus unrelated male... I'm really impressed with the quality of this fish, what great colour!! More pics to come. This is the one the breeder sent for me to take to the show with me, but the package didn't get here in time, obviously. I'm not really interested in breeding any long-finned fish (or reds,) so if anyone wants him I'd like to sell him. I'd like to ask $15, which is less than what the breeder would ask on Aquabid, probably, and shipping will definitely be cheaper ($18 for Express or $4 for Priority)... come on guys, I need to make up some of the cash I spent on the albino!!! :S :lol:
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I’m glad they arrived safely. You are very lucky and, I think, so are those fish.
 
awsome synirr, great betta. do you think you will get albinos of the first time? probably not and i dont know about genes to well, but woulnt the second set of siblings be more likely to get albinos?

bUcky
 
WOW Samantha, what beautiful Bettas! Your Albino boy is way too cute. It's so sad that he's losing his sight, but he is definitely in good hands. Lucky you!!!

=) That red boy is stunning! My Dad has been bugging me for the past month to find a new red boy for them, because their pretty red/green guy passed away, just of old age. He would have a sweet 5g all to himself... maybe to share with a ghost shrimp. And he would get lots of good food and love. Let me know if he's available!!
 
Gorgeous fish Synirr and glad they arrived safely :D

I like the sound of the system for your albino guy. I have a ct female that my rogue male blinded during spawning attempt and I do the same with her, she soon knows when its time to eat and finds the food fairly easily and is in a bare-bottom tank so if it drops she noses around afterwards. I don't keep any sharp objects in there with her either as she used to bump into her cave :(

Good luck with them :good:

Edited for spelling :blush:
 
awsome synirr, great betta. do you think you will get albinos of the first time? probably not and i dont know about genes to well, but woulnt the second set of siblings be more likely to get albinos?

bUcky
Well, it's likely that the line he came from carries the gene, and if so I'd expect 50% of the non-albino siblings to carry it, meaning if I can successfully breed him to one of his sisters I may have a 50% chance of getting albinos on the first try. If not, I'd definitely get 25% albinos in the F2, or 50% albino if I backcrossed to dad :)

WOW Samantha, what beautiful Bettas! Your Albino boy is way too cute. It's so sad that he's losing his sight, but he is definitely in good hands. Lucky you!!!

=) That red boy is stunning! My Dad has been bugging me for the past month to find a new red boy for them, because their pretty red/green guy passed away, just of old age. He would have a sweet 5g all to himself... maybe to share with a ghost shrimp. And he would get lots of good food and love. Let me know if he's available!!
I think I made the sight thing sound more grim than it is -- he's not necessarily losing his sight, he may never completely lose it if I keep him out of the light most of the time. Everything I've ever heard about albinos would indicate that they go blind as they age, but you've also got to take into consideration that a lot of people don't really consider how exposure to bright light effects their eyes, so it may just be prolonged exposure to light that blinds them, in actuality. They don't have any pigment in their eyes to protect them from UV, so they are at a greater risk for damage; same reason they are more likely to get skin cancer. If I ever start a big breeding program with them and have 100% albino spawns I may have a dark tinted growout tank or something, that would help a bunch.

As I said, the red guy is for sale -- I'd like to get $15 for him. I hate to ask that much, but I spent waaaay more than I should have on this bunch, really :lol:. It'd be nice to make a little of it back. $15 doesn't even cover half of what I spent on shipping :-(
 
I like the red.... I wouldn't mind owning him... mind holding him while I sleep on it?


(oh: and all the fish are grand, but you knew that. :p )
 
I'll hold him for whoever PMs me about him first, I guess... splashluff already expressed interest but I don't think she saw the price or anything.

A note on the albino -- I think it's really interesting that he still has an iridescent layer. The iridescent layer in bettas is structural; the colours are caused by iridocytes, tiny waste crystals in the cells that reflect light, rather than true pigments, so while he is technically free of pigment he still has the iridescent "colour" :)
Way cool, I was wondering about that.
 
what more could i say other than :drool: :drool:
 
Awww he's beautiful. :wub: As is the red boy.
I have a completely blind girl. She lives in a 3g tank by herself and she has a fine gravel on the base with a large aquatic plant with broad leaves in there with her. She doesn't bang into things. She did when she first lost her sight but her other senses have heightened greatly. She can hunt down live food and find food on the substrate very quickly. She uses her ventrals as feelers along the bottom and stays very still every now and then to sense for movement. She also feeds from my hand and is incredibly friendly. Although she really dislikes other bettas. The one time she had another female in with her for no more then 5 minutes she started a fight! :X Although she happily lived with a young gourami for a few days. :lol:
Will you have to suppliment his diet in any way to make up for the loss of light? Bettas generally need light to thrive in and I wonder if it will give him a vitamin D deficiency? :/
P.
 
Most pellets have vitamin D added :nod:
 
Most pellets have vitamin D added :nod:

Ahhh coolies. :good: I don't feed a lot of pellets or flake to mine y'see since they turn their proverbial noses up at it. :rolleyes: I have been known to use a vitamin suppliment that goes into their water in liquid form. Put it in at water change and they end up taking in the vitamins whether they want them or not! :lol:
Be interesting to see what babes come out of his spawnings.
P.
 

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