Record Betta: RB.04.09.2013

FINALLY...

After quite a long time of inefficient and sloppy collection of photos and dates of my spawns I would like to inaugurate with this blog a new era. Hence its name, the efficient recording of my Betta spawns, in other words Record Betta. Well, for those of you who were hoping to find "record winning fish", this is not the right page :)

For the first post I would like to introduce a line that I have been working on for some years. I start to like the results that I am obtaining, I resume the genetic behind this spawn:

I thank the Betta Territory for giving me a very nice DT female to breed into this line. you can find details on the background of this female here: BT030112. Please note that I am not sure that the photo that I am using is the actual female that I got as a present, but unfortunately the fish died and I was not able to find a decent photo of that fish.

Two photos of the Sire:

About this guy I like the strong body, the full ventrals, the dorsal projecting toward the front and the deep red covering of the head (although is a light bodied fish). The overall balance is not bad and the line of the head is smooth. Weak points are: the length of the anal fin (that could be more compact), defects in the color (blue in the tail and little black spots). The caudal fin could be slightly longer. The finnage might look too full, but the rays are strong enough. Portament and the aggressiveness are good (see videos below).

The Dame is a spawn sister of the Sire:

In this female I like the straight first rays of the caudal and the deep red color. The anal fin is a bit long and the dorsal is not so broad but I would like to be sure that both these fish are not DT geno, to work the dorsal broadness in future generations -in a background that does not carry DT.

They have been conditioned with live food (bloodworm, grindal and white mosquito larvae), frozen artemia and "Biofish food regular L" for 2 weeks before spawning. Here two videos of the couple before putting the fish together:

I perform the breedings in a standard manner. I use a plastic tank that is easier to clean and to store. The water is kept one week before the spawn with plants and a "living" air filter (from a clean shrimp aquarium), some snails. It is illuminated 8 hours per day. During this first week the water is at room temperature (23° C), relatively light (150-200 µS/cm) and acidic (pH 6). I add 3 drops of general tonic and one almond leave before I add the fish. The fish are introduced together in the tank and the heater (set to 28-29° C) is turned on, to bring the fish from room temperature to breeding temperature in 1-3 h hours. The female is kept separated with the transparent plastic tower method (a plastic bottle cut). The fish are fed just live food in the plastic tank and usually as little as possible. The female is released just if the male has built a stable bubble nest. Before releasing the female the bottom of the tank is cleaned and some water (3-4 cm of the 15 cm of the water column) is changed with reverse osmosis water (6 µS/cm), reaching 100-150 µS/cm.

In this particular case the fish were put in the plastic tank the 04.09.2013 and the female was released the same night before the light went off. Early in the morning of the 05.09.2013 the fish spawned as the light went on. The male was gentle, the female was helping to collect the eggs and she was almost not injured:

The male is an extremely good father. This line has the drawback that the fry are usually too many, I hope this time they will not be 1000, like my previous spawn.

The male had some problem to see some of the eggs on the bottom of the tank. I introduced a blue sheet of paper and he could spot them and put them back in the nest.

The 06.09.2013 the first larvae appeared among the eggs: