My first spawn: Spike & Clover

Amazing photos, they are doing really well thanks to their fish mummy, Spike Jr is really big already...stunning

Glad they are doing so well, mine dont seem as big as that, hard to tell will try and get some pics, Love the tank

Great pics, sorry to hear about Spike, I had that with the dad of the one's Im selling now It's horrible, and you just dont know what to do for the best. But rest assured it doesn't happen every time, my Spike the dad of the latest lots was perfectly fine after being seperated from his babies

they're looking well babe

dad lives on! just make sure you keep a pair or two for yourself

Thanks for the comments you guys :-) I can't wait to see how they colour up!!! I can't wait to see pics of your lot Sarah :-D

I was worried the depression would be a continuing trait amongst my adult males, but good to know it isn't that common. I'd hate to loose any of my other boys after studding them out!! Sorry about the dad of your HM's Mandy, it's tough :-(

WOW i missed these pictures jess, great to see them coming on fast

Thanks Storm :-) Here's some pics of them at three weeks old. The biggest, Spike Jr (or SJ as we now call him), will probably be moved into his own 15L tank this weekend. He's our big baby and we hope he'll grow up quicker than the others if he has his own space!

All of these are three week pics taken between Mon - Wed this week:



Spike Jr:





The top fry is one of the white/paler fry, at the bottom of the pic you can see one of the pinky coloured ones:



Two of the larger pale fry:



Bottom of the pic if one of the pinky/red fry:

They look good jess, i will try and get some pics of mine at the weekend, we must be doing something right cant believe they will be 4 weeks old next week, thats a big mile stone for us

Thanks hun, I think you're right ^^. Once we get them to a month old I think we can breathe a bit easier, lol. I'm sure we'll get them to three months and then we can swap a pair of babies :-) That'd be so exciting!

You got yourself a deal

I love them, they're so cute!

I've told them you're going to visit them in the future now Lou

General update: the CT fry are all fine, although I did find two dead ones today which was sad, I hope there's nothing wrong in the tank. I'm always worrying I'm doing something wrong...and I hadn't had a death in about two weeks.
The other fry seem totally normal, eating and swimming fine, a tiny bit of playful chasing, they all seem to be growing well and their fins are showing nicely. I have about 30 which is great, I counted two or three more than I thought I had earlier :-)

Spike Jr has been moved to his own 15litre tank which he's exploring as I type. I'm going to take a pic of him every Wednesday as he gets a week older, to show his growth, which I hope will be quite a bit faster than his brothers and sisters in the growout tank. He's so adorable, he has these tiny little ventral fins..so grown up!

Soo exciting can't wait for updates on SJ

He's so sweet, I can't wait to see what colours he'll have. Definately some red as he's showing a bit already. It'd be amazing if he looked just like Spike!

sounds like he might! It must be great starting to see the colour developing

I might slip him some fish steroids to get him big and strong LOL!

haha

After catching a glimpse of Spike Jr in some really good lighting for once, I've noticed that he now has a gorgeous line of shimmery red right through the middle of his anal fin ^^ It's soooo pretty, I'm so excited that some of his colours are starting to come through!!!! None of his other fins have coloured up yet, but I'm keeping my eye out ^^

Must post this before my bl00dy wifi cuts out again grrr. Here's a couple of not very good piccies of SJ at 4 weeks old. The lighting is so bad in this room! Some of his siblings are also starting to show hints of fin colour, there's a few with metallic blue sheens and a few with red as the base of their caudals. I love this, it's so exciting! Will get some pics of the other CT fry at the weekend after their tanks gets a proper clean.

the colours developing is like waiting for xmas! lol

I understand it totally... its more frustrating too when pics won't pick the colours up!

as they get bigger it is worth weekly shots.. you look back and be amazed all over again at what they grew/grow into!

thats the bit that makes breeding them worthwhile in our climate anyway.

Thanks Kel! I'm definately going to try to take weekly pics, the change in them is so exciting and it'll come in handy for future spawns so I remember how they look. It was such a shock when the HM fry hatched, I really had forgotten how itty bitty they are in the beginning LOL.

Just noticed this morning that Spike Jr now has a thin line of metallic blue running underneath his spine all down his tail. There's already a pinky line of colour which started running down the middle of his tail a few weeks ago which I assumed was something internal, but now under that is the line of metallic blue. Is that more of his colour developing do you think?

There getting big now jess, cant wait for the colours

Wow, he sounds so pretty! I think the pink line sounds like that line that you see in pale bettas

Update on the CT fry: I put another fry in to live with Spike Jr, they're both as big as each other and not showing aggression (yet!), and they even greeted each other very tenderly when they were first put together (pic below)!!! I turned my Aquabox into a fry-home for them. The other fry are all getting bigger too, and most are showing some colour too! The pics seem to have lost quality going from my laptop to imageshack which is a shame :-(

SJ and his brother's new home:



This is when they first met in their old tank, they looked they were sniffing and nuzzling each other...LOL:



Both together:



SJ:



SJ's brother, who has metallic blue aswell as red in his fins:



SJ:



SJ: