Let it rain!

The clouds start to roll in and my knees and ankles get achey and stiff and I know it's time to set up some more pairs for breeding. It rained like I should start building a really really big boat and my Red/Gold Dragon sibling pair got busy. I had spawned him with a Copper sister twice before but the first time he ate the eggs and the second time I took him out and I figure I put to much methylene blue in the water so none of them hatched, they just turned baby blue. This time I took no chances and put some of his eggs in two different males nests that had spawned the day before. Three nests, three chances of success. Hopefully he won't eat them and the other males won't mind that some of their eggs hatch a day after the others do. I've only found one Red Dragon HM in 3 years and only got one fry from him. I'm hoping this will give me more and better Dragon scaling so this is a fairly important spawning to me.This is the Father:F1 male I crossed the F1 male to a Copper female and got this Red/Gold male:

dragon gene is really dominant.. also have you noticed you have some dalmation/armageddon type fin spots? (top edges of caudal on the lil one)

I'm tginking the spots are as dominant as dragon... to the point that i do expect a solid coloured betta is rare

I noticed those little red freckles but didn't think anything about it. I think his eggs are in good hands though. I went to check on the Purple male that I gave the larger portion of his eggs to and not only have the Purple males eggs hatched but I got scared when I saw white spots on him. At closer inspection I realized it wasn't Ich but something I've not witnessed before. I took pictures and uploaded them and then went back and saw more of them. You'll see in the pictures that the male had hitchhikers and even though he would cruise the whole tank every once in a while he wouldn't dislodge any. I've only seen this with Oscars and Discus. Way too cute. Now watch the two on his right side as he moves around the tank. Went back in to show my two oldest sons and had to take some more. Here's Daddy giving horsey rides, Wheeee!

Now he has them all lined up and doesn't let any of them stray. I can't imagine taking care of that many kids! Help!!!

My goodness, what do you do Chard in order to achieve such large spawns....

Do u prepare the parents in a certain ways.....??

I've never seen so many fry!!!

I hope he's not trying to outdo the Gold/Red DT spawn of 619 fry. I Feed them good and change water only when needed. I think too much emphasis is put on water changes. Everybody's worried about the water parameters, oh no the ammonia is spiking and the nitrates are blah blah; ph and kh and just give them some clean water and don't let it get overly dirty and let them be for goodness sake! They originally lived in half stagnant rice fields with people stomping around stirring up mud with oxen and other animals crapping and urinating in their water but they still manage to make babies in the middle of all that. It has to do with my special spawning tea and I try not to spawn them younger than 5 or 6 months old. I've had too many problems and deaths in the past from trying to breed them at 3 or 4 months old. That's another point, don't get in a hurry.

I counted 128, but that was without my glasses! Boy, you sure are putting out the spawns
for spring Chard! There won't be a shortage this summer!

Does the transplanting work fairly often? I suppose they can't tell.

That was probably just the front row! It's very handy to have a few spawns going at the same time if you have a questionable potential egg eater. It's like the mocking bird that lays their egg in another birds nest to raise. They have no idea you've given them extra fry to tend.

Wow! that's all i can say! Wow!

143629 wrote:Wow! that's all i can say! Wow!

My sentiments exactly.................

chard! shhh.... keep some secrets!

Kel, don't think I have secrets worth keeping, I do, just don't think that!

Thats alright with me if either one of you let something slip!