Quest for plakat fry

[Demeter32]

Having a few heating problems with the older fry's tank. For whatever reason the pre-set heater will only go to about 75F so I grabbed my adjustable heater for when I have to make a makeshift quarantine tank. The light works but it doesn't seem to be heating at all. Time for a new adjustable heater of a more reliable brand. Add another heater to my growing collection of junk equipment... I'm done being a cheapskate, I'll be spending a pretty penny for a decent heater.

On the bright side, the younger fry are doing amazing. They were able to find enough micro organism (with two additional feedings of infusoria culture) during the first week and now they are slurping up micro worms like champs. I just moved Dad out yesterday and did a tiny water change today. Sucked up a few fry while trying to remove some decayed leaf gunk but they seem no worse for wear after putting them back in.Their fancy adjustable heater is keeping the tank a toasty 82F. I'll be going on vacation for a week on Sunday so let's hope my sister can keep them going till I get back.

 

[NickAu]

I'm done being a cheapskate, I'll be spending a pretty penny for a decent heater.

Or

 

[Demeter32]

Do you see what I see?

So it seems momma had a DT gene and I am very excited about that. Hypothetically, a quarter of the spawn should be double tailed.

This one was harder to get a picture of but I'm pretty sure it's got 2 lobes on it's tail. One of the largest fry so far.

 

[NickAu]

Double tails, Sweet

 

[Demeter32]

Updated fry pics of the 2ish month olds. White specs are BBS.

 

[Demeter32]

Will post more pictures shortly, for now just a wordy update. For whatever reason the numbers have dwindled from over a dozen to a mere 10 fry in the older batch. Never found dead bodies and all the other looks right as rain. I suspect amano shrimp may have picked off the weaklings. So far there's 2 white with blue, 2 blue, 1 greenish, and 5 that seem to be of no specific color. They'll likely end up like their aunts, dull natural looking bettas.

My baby double tails are growing well, I'm seeing a lot of blues and more of the white with blues like the ones uptop. Pictures to come soon.

 

[Demeter32]

I just cannot take good pictures of these fry.

Older fry, pretty sure I have 2 males so far, the largest white one and the largest normal colored fry.

Younger fry

The younger fry are showing plenty of color but of course it doesn't show well in pictures. I've been doing daily 50% water changes. Looks like its getting a little crowded so I might switch to twice daily 50% before moving them to a bigger tank.

 

[NickAu]

I love baby photos.

 

[Demeter32]

I moved the 7 remaining fry from the older batch into a different 10gal so the ragged CT can have their tank w/o fear of him eating my cherries.

One of these is more than likely a male, his fins are growing long and his beard shows ever so slightly. They've learned that shrimp pellets are tasty.

Babies in the other tank are doing well. They're started to accept crushed pellets. I'll be doing a culling soon. I've noticed a couple that look/behave odd. One seems to have a swim bladder issue, on won't grow, and then there's another with odd body shape. There's probably around 40 fry so perhaps doing some extra culling on "natural" colored fry is a good idea to keep things manageable.

Another thing to note, I don't think very many are going to have pelvic fins... https://bettaboy.wordpress.com/2017/08/01/why-my-betta-fries-got-no-ventral-fin/

The link says it all. I used micro worms for a few weeks when they were tiny and I must say I didn't clean the tank very well in fear of sucking them all up. The 3 runts from the older batch have pelvic fins but only a couple of the others have them, and one has a single pelvic fin. Should cause them any trouble though, just makes it a bit harder to sex them.

 

[Demeter32]

Finally an updated picture of the young ones. They've taken to sinking spirulina pellets. I'm working on weaning them from baby brine shrimp.

 

[Demeter32]

Fry are happy and fat. I moved the ones in the 10gal to a tote that has about 20gals of water in it. I counted around 38 fry when I moved them over. They're eating pellets and sinking shrimp wafers along with daphnia. I've skipped a couple water changes due to my work schedule but I'm still shooting for once daily 50%

The older fry are looking wonderful. The two white fry are female, I can see their ovaries inside them. The male that actually looks like a male is changing colors fast. Looks like he was hit with the marble gene, which is good news IMO. I was actually aiming for marble fry.

 

[Demeter32]

Babies are doing well, I culled a few more that were just not normal, their body shape and fins were really weird.

Now there are 3 marbled fry, one female and 2 males. Still looking for more. The female is in a few of these pictures.

 

[NickAu]

The pleco is surrounded LOL

They've taken to sinking spirulina pellets

No probs its good for them. They also like munching on water sprite roots.

 

[Demeter32]

Picture time, some random males to start.

This is the planted 10gal the 6 female double tails and the one marbled female are in. They're doing great and putting on some size. The cherry shrimp are also breeding and I constantly have to check the water change bucket for shrimplets.

An odd ball juvenile. I think he's going through the ugly duckling stage.

These two juveniles I personally do not like. Their form is poor and the darker ones fin-body ratio is terrible. They may improve with a bit more size but I wouldn't count on it.

This cutie used to be all purple/blue. The clear portion of his tail was where he was nipped as he was starting to change colors.

Similar sibling here, looking more and more white as time passes.

The prized male from the copper female. He's my favorite from that spawn. I may spawn him with this similar female when they're older. It looks like she will turn the same colors as him.

The only DT male, who had a near death experience when my rescued CT got around the tank divider. Thank goodness I found out in time. He's in a jar because I'm not taking any chances like that again. He frequently blows bubbles.

One male jumped out of his cup and into this mean female's (?) cup. She was removed from the sorority due to aggression and she definitely beat the crap out of the poor younger brother. I think he will be fine though, he's been eating these last couple days and sorta swimming ok. He only looks near death in the picture because he's picking food off the bottom. Note that she(?) is also from the copper female spawn.

 

[Demeter32]

Moved all the fry to half gallon jars and breeder baskets. I'm working on picking a good male for a white/blue grizzled line. Surprisingly difficult to do when there's half a dozen to choose from. This is one but he has a bit of a hunch back. The extended dorsal implies he has the double tail gene, as most from this spawn do.

He looks like an adult now, but still a bit on the small side for breeding I think. His half sister I plan to pair him with looks stunning too.

One of his brothers. Not an up-to-date picture actually.

Their only plakat brother from the Copper female spawn.

Lots of fry from the white/grizzled female are marbling. Including 3 of the 8 double tails. There's probably 3-5 more males that need to be jarred but they haven't really been acting aggressive.