ct spawn (sibling x)

[bkk_group]

this pair were bred originally from parents supplied by marianne. you probably already know the story of the huge spawn (600+) and have seen pics of the offspring. these two i consider some of the best and were kept specifically to continue the line. i asked marianne once about the history of parents and i found out she used a mg in her original matchup. it's obvious when you look at the girl, definately has mg in her. both these fish were chosen not so much for their colour but rather their finnage. at the time of breeding they were both about 3 1/2 to 4 months old (i'm getting forgetful in my old age it seems). while the female is larger than the male i still gave them a shot seeing as she was ripe with eggs and ready to go...

 

[bkk_group]

the breeding tank we setup is 6" wide by 16" long, the walls of tank were covered as well to give them a sense of privacy and the water was heavily treated with indian almond leaf for 4 days prior to releasing the male. a thai breeder i know suggested doing so would reduce female to male ratios in spawn as lowering ph will apparantly help in this regard. at one end of the tank we placed the floating styrofoam "cave" and at the other end we supplied java moss and some floating plants to act as refuge for the female. the middle of tank was left clear of clutter. water level is at 4 1/2" deep. the male was released first and was given time to get used to his surroundings for a day. he started building a nest under the cave almost at once.

the female was put in a mason jar filled with water to the same level as tank and placed into a corner away from the nest. we have used this method successfully everytime. the male is able to swim all the way around the jar and is unable to get at her until we say so. for the next 3 days this is the way things are. the male continues to build up his nest and flair at the girl like crazy, she in turn gets excited and wants to break free...

 

[bkk_group]

we let the female free and while we don't have pics of the two of them together as they were just too quick it only took 24 hours for them to get in the mood. during this time an aunt from thailand came to visit us and while we were sightseeing they mated, thus no mating pics..

we were glad that it didn't take too long for them to mate and the female didn't get damaged too much, the most damage actually happened about 5 minutes after they were first together and even that was only a tail tear. for the next 2 days the male did his thing and looked after the next almost all the time. rarely was he ever away from the nest. the eggs hatched two days ago and today we finally took the male out and reduced water level to around 1 1/2" to give the newborns easy access to the surface. it's too early to see how many we have but it looks like around 200 from a quick glance...

 

[bkk_group]

this pic was taken today, we have kept the cave in for now but will take it out in a few days

here's an adventurous lad deciding to do some exploring away from the spawn
thats it for this spawn, i'll keep you posted on this and the other spawn we have on the go right now - heres a pic of the girl we are using for that one

 

[purple_drazi]

that is so cool! so interesting to look at the pics and read how you did it.
thanks!

 

[JoKeR]

Great pics!

U took them without flash?

The pair looks beatiful that male is just....

Welcome to the Club of people sapwning this month....

Hope it comes out good

wow 600+ fry!

How mnay survive?

 

[GuppyDude]

whats the inmportance of indian amond leaves? im goin to use it to condition my pair but in the fry tank? i dont want them to get dependant on it or anything

 

[rain-]

This looks really fascinating Thank you for sharing this with us.

I also did it about the same way, indian almond leaves, female in a glass jar untill they both were ready. I'm not going to raise a big number of babies, maybe 50-100, but it will be interesting to see the female-male ratio

Good luck with the spawns. Those fish are awesome

 

[bkk_group]

Great pics!

U took them without flash?

The pair looks beatiful that male is just....

Welcome to the Club of people sapwning this month....

Hope it comes out good

wow 600+ fry!

How mnay survive?

thanks guys, pics were taken without flash. auto setting w/ macro. yah, it's funny, we've got alot of mg ct spawns on the go, you and rain as well
from the last spawn 600 survived, we gave away half of the "cullable" ones right away to a friend of mine, he didn't have as much luck though but did end up with some nice ones. almost half of the 300 left ended up being females (which was frustrating), ended up giving away mass amounts of girls for free. the rest of them (about 150 males) were all sold and accounted for though.

 

[Wisperian]

the babies are soooooooooooo cute!!!!! cant wait to see them when they're grown up! then maybe I can snatch one or two from you

 

[wuvmybetta]

'nuff said

 

[cutechic]

Wow. What a gorgeous pair. Thanks for sharing

 

[shrks1fan]

Oh, I just adore that red female you're using for your next spawn!! What's the male like that you are spawning her to?

Linda

 

[bkk_group]

Oh, I just adore that red female you're using for your next spawn!! What's the male like that you are spawning her to?

Linda

he is one of the offspring of our superdelta / doubletail experiment. the female is a sister of the original mom.

 

[Wisperian]

Ooooooooooo! is he the one in the big tank in rainforest spec? I'm going there tmrw cuz of no school and I'll obviously save someone so I'll see if I can save the one in the big tank