SD X HM hatched 9/2/11*updated pics*

Im so excited although this is only the early stages but as i type this my Grey SD male and my Copper HM female are spawning...finally...its took a lot of patience on my half (which i just dont have usually!)

Male has been in tank by himself for 3 days, on 4th day i added female in chinmey a lot of interest shown and fast nest building took place. Today i let her out with him for an hour but put her back as he ripped her up a little and vise versa...still showing all the signs i decided to let her out again tonight, after a bit of tail battering from his behalf they simply got it together straight away and within minutes of being out together they successfully wrapped...i was a little shocked as he's a first timer and all my first timers (males) have shocked themselves before actually getting it right!

Just watching them from the beginning i think he's eaten some of the eggs as he looks a bit plump! But i have seen him spit eggs in the nest since, i think the female had to show him what to do!!

They are still going for it and wrapping and dropping eggs frequently.

Iv got photos that i will up load tomorrow and a video also.

Males bubble nest


The pair wrapping








Female dropping eggs




Picking up eggs






Eggs in the nest


Dad looking a bit fat...just look at that tummy!!

Hope all goes well with the eggs Nat! It's good when they pack in the fighting and start wrapping LOL.

jessie1602 wrote:Hope all goes well with the eggs Nat! It's good when they pack in the fighting and start wrapping LOL.

She's quite torn up on her taill but yep im glad they got down to the nitty gritty...

BUT, i paniced again this morning as dad still had fat tummy and no eggs to be seen...so huffing and puffing this morning on way to work thinking "im gonna kill that fish!" (not literally)

AND as i look in now i see what he's done...he's pushed the eggs right into the bubbles as its quite thick...so all is forgiven Earl!

duno how many times i've done that!

poor guys get accused of egg munching all the time only for me to spot eggs have been moved or tucked into the bubbles too well!

hope everything goes to plan hun... it really is hit or miss...

sometimes you will get a run of perfect spawnings (like chards current lot) and others you can try 20 different spawns and be lucky to get 10 fry from the end of it!

You are due a few good spawns now I think!

This is also the perfect time to concentrate on breeding.. babies ready to go june-august time, it's the easiest time of year to sell in the uk and as the temps hit summer the fry growth seems to increase (can't say it's tank temperature so I blame it on air pressure!)

Thanks kel, i really wanted to spawn the HM female i bought from she was pretty eggy by the time she spawned yesterday and it didnt take her long before she was dropping eggs, a few wraps and she dropped loadsa eggs at a time!

The male didnt really know what to do other than munch the first few wraps but the female showed him what to do.

His nest is fairly thick so pushed them right up he keeps moving them around too, trying to worry me i think,lol!

they're really good at that!

that's the one thing i miss with having the fishroom compared to having them in the house, so much harder to keep an eye on them! lol

Glad he got there in the end though!

I was told by the seller that the male is a grey SD butterfly, what colours will i get from the fry and tail types?

I'd expect delta to hm tails, maybe a few ohm if lucky

colours.. all your favourites.. mettalics.. gold, silver, copper and possibly a few white pastel/cambo

kel wrote:I'd expect delta to hm tails, maybe a few ohm if lucky

colours.. all your favourites.. mettalics.. gold, silver, copper and possibly a few white pastel/cambo

Thank you so much.

Dads looking a little distant like not sitting under the nest looking for falling eggs...he's looking quite wishy washy grey not his usual dark metallic grey, im a little concerned about his health but not worried.

He's only got a little longer to stay in there and then im going to pamper him back to normal...the female his herself bossy girl back at the top of the ranks in the sorority im hoping her tatty tail/fins grow back soon though she's looking a little scruffy

Sounds like a good and diverse mix coming up!

How they going then Nat

Eggs still visable in the top of the nest where he's pushed them right in, female is doing fine but male still pale and kinda just in a daze! Occasionally looking after the nest, but eggs are that pushed up in the bubbles doubt they would fall out anyway.

They've hatched and i can see loadsa little tails hanging down...wow they are really tiny compared to my 2 month old fry!

You forgot already? lol! Are there lots of tails?

I always forgot how small newborn betta fry are..but they grow up really quickly! Congrats on the babies.

2tall wrote:You forgot already? lol! Are there lots of tails?

no but its amazing to see just how small they start off once hatched, theres loads of little tails dangling down dads got his hands ful now he's busy stopping them falling from the nest,lol!!

I hope he keeps up!

2tall wrote:I hope he keeps up!

Haha, funny you should say that he's not have keeping busy looking after the little un's i think he's biten off more than he can chew, lol!

Babies keep falling as soon as he puts them back!

This is the only photo i can get of the fry:


Doesnt even look like a betta!

Looks like a good pic to me!

Looks to me! lol!!

Dad was taken out yesterday and there's loadsa tiny babies hanging onto the moss balls and darting about, they are so small its hard for my camera to pick them up, il try to get photos soon.

Managed it!!!

Tried getting photos of the babies, so this morning when 'the baby' was asleep finally!! I attemped to take some pics of the 'little un's'

This is what i managed to get, hope you like they are tiny still:

My fry at 6 days old:

How about a guess as to how many?