Feathertail HM spawn

Well Spike was a marble so hopefully he'll pass those genes on to the pink ones :-D They find lots of mad places to hide: I spotted one hiding right dead centre of the pot of java fern..like he'd swam right into the heart of the plant near the roots, and made a little castle out of the tall leaves surrounding him!

I hope you'll get at least a couple of DT's although I think it also depends on how much DT the parents have in their genes, I think the further back the DT gene goes, the more stronger it is in the breeding parent and therefore more likely it is you'll get DT babies. I guess that's true of most genetic things though. Or I might be totally wrong LOL. I'm trying to remember the article I read that on, think it was bettysplendens. Should get some with sexy dragon scaling too, how lush will that be!

if parents are bred far enough down the lines none of the fry will be long finned.

shouldn't get dt fry in this spawn but a lot will carry it.. look for the long dorsal as they develop

you should get a lot of the dragon scale to varying degrees

colours to expect..

copper, red copper, red dragon, copper dragon, red copper dragon, platinum dragon, platinum.

jessie1602 wrote:I spotted one hiding right dead centre of the pot of java fern..like he'd swam right into the heart of the plant near the roots, and made a little castle out of the tall leaves surrounding him!

hahahahaha that is classic! he'll be like "Gerrroff my land" to all passers-by. Thanks for the info - guess we'll soon find out hey

Thanks Kel, makes a lot of sense

Ohhh platinum dragons *drool*

Hows the spawn doing today

The wrigglers seem to be doing well, they're all there as far as I can see! From what is visible, I'd say there are about 20 - 30 of them, but numbers are pretty meaningless really until the first two scary weeks are over sigh. I really hope I don't lose any/too many!
I won't be making a few of the mistakes I made with the CT spawn this time around (although I'll prob make some new ones lol) so hopefully that will reduce the losses. I lost almost half the fry in my first 1.5week with the CT spawn :-S But thankfully since they moved to the bigger tank, I only lost one and that was nearly two weeks ago, and it was a really tiny weedy undeveloped one.

It sounds mean but I just can't wait til the fry are free swimming so I can take Mars out. It's so stressful worrying about the males eating the fry! I sound so mean..poor Mars..how stressful must it be for him with no sleep and no food, constantly picking up and spitting back out his wriggling babies?! The non-fry eating males should be given medals!

Yes totally know what you mean, as much as I love the males it's putting a strain on my relationship with them lol.

I'm sure these fry will do really well can't wait to see pics of them when they're darting around the tank

I swear I almost strangled Draco when he ate all the eggs from the nest last month, LOL!

The fry are so cute, I can't believe how tiny they are!!! They seem to be good swimmers, already had one guy do a few strokes horizontally. The only thing different about this spawn is I don't spend hours imagining what colours they'll all be..because I know they're all gonna be RED. I hope I get a good mix of metallic greens and stuff to mix it up a bit.

Haha I was like that with my CT, little devil. He'd look at you with his enormous belly and mouth full of eggs and then just "GULP" right in front of me. It really has to be the most frustrating thing.

Metallic greens would be so pretty!

If I catch Mars chomping on any fry I'll chase him around with a turkey baster Lou!! :-P

General update: everything with the HM fry is still the same except the fry are very good swimmers and some are even having a good old free swim at only 28hours old!!! They can't control themselves that well and crash into mossballs and then flop down and take a rest while Mars swims over and picks them up LOL.
I'll try to get pics once Mars is out, I daren't do it now because I spent three hours just now fiddling around with things: removing the old filter now the fry are starting to swim, replacing with sponge filters (I use two small ones at either end...and yes I know I should've put them in before the spawn and had them turned off, I am stupid..!), cleaning the odd hydra I've noticed on the tank walls, cleaning all the mossballs and the plant from any stray hydra. That might not sound like alot but when you have to be so amazingly careful not to disturb the nest and make any water currents, it was like some kind of mad Crystal Maze task. Mars didn't flip out too much although he came to inspect EVERYTHING I did in the tank so he knew what was going on. The tank actually looks pretty nice and tidy now *strut*.

Maybe by the end of tomorrow if the fry are free swimming I'll take Mars out..they'll be two days old then. But I'm worried about Mars getting depressed like Spike did, if I take him out too early. I'll try and push for day three I think ^^

LMAO even that doesn't seem to deter them!

So pleased it's going well hun x

Thank you! Let's hope I can continue Mars's good work once he vacates the premises in a day or two. Tank is looking so fresh it's like a hotel for fry!!!

Must be nice to see the tank looking all sparkly clean... mine looks like a bomb site after the filter died and leaked all the debris out lol. Daren't disturb it too much yet!

Nice fresh tank floor for them to hunt worms on

LOL, it's so hard to resist the urge to siphon during the first week or two, but take it from me...it's SOOOOOOOOOO stressful trying to do it and watch for those minute little fry. They get sucked up and more often than not you end up returning alot of the muck you just siphoned up when you return the fry to the tank. Once they hit two weeks they definately become easier to see, and then it's clean clean clean. I managed to pluck up the courage before they were free swimming to do a siphon last night, but Mars didn't like it and I got too frightened once I got into the nest area.

What are you planning on feeding your babies Lou?

Here are a few piccies of the fry I took this morning. They'll be two days old this afternoon!:







All the black dots in the middle of the frogbit are pairs of fry-eyes!

If you get some like your dad they will be stunners! I love the super red's, they are gorgeous! Keeping fingers crossed for lots of babies!

Such cute pics, I love how teeny they are

Awww i forgot how cute and tiny they are now mine are growing up, really hope you get some nice ones, with a dad like that im sure you will

Sarah

I know what you mean Sarah, I'd forgotton how tiny and delicate they are! I took Mars out an hour ago. Some of the babies were swimming about and lots of the others were horizonal at the top of the water, so I took dad out and put some banana worms in the tank. There should be some infusoria in there too as I have a live plant, mossballs, and the frogbit is really matured as I took it from my adult tanks before the spawn started a few weeks ago. I really hope the babies eat something!

Aww i'm sure they'll be feasting away

OMGess just seen this thread, good one you for starting another spawn so soon. I hope everything is going ok

Thanks Storm, it's a bit mad isn't it ^^ I have the tank space and I figured why the heck not! It's so much fun and if worse comes to the worse and I have 100 bettas I can't sell, I know some lfs's who can help me out. It's all fun and good experience and just exciting :-D

I hope the fry are eating Lou! I've seen some skittering around seemingly in hunt mode on the tank floor, so hopefully they're discovering where the food is. I also sprinkled a dash of betta starter on the surface which will eventually break down and sink, so that'll give them a bit of sustinance too. These little guys do test ya.

Bet they will be gobbling those worms up have you used Decap. brineshrimp eggs?

It's very easy to forget how small they can be! When I had my first batch and decided on the second spawn, when they were born I was like OMG they are tinsy!!!

The first few days i think are just as stressful as the spawning, worrying if they are getting any food,