Candy Dumbos
F1 : 10-03-21
Elrand - Copper Nemo Dumbo HMPK
Elrand is from Space City Fish and Coral. He has amazing orange and copper colors and a nice form. He is vigorous and ready to go!
Galadriel - Lavender Dumbo Halfmoon
Galadriel was picked out for me by the awesome folks at King Koi Goldfish. She has a lovely personality to go with her lovely purple colors! During spawning she was a great participant and would help put eggs into the nest.
Goals of the Spawn
I love beautiful long finned dumbo bettas, as well as colorful candy and copper dumbos. Unfortunately those two traits do not exist together quite yet. My goals are to breed long finned copper and candy dumbo halfmoon bettas.
The Spawn
Hatched : 10-03-2021
Amount : 10
Deformities :
Colors :
Goals :
Spawning
I put Elrand in his spawn tank about a week ago to get used to his surroundings. During this time I would put Galadriel's jar next to the tank and let them flare at each other a few times a day. Elrand made a pretty ugly bubble at this time, and didn't work on it too much. On the 29th I placed her jar in the tank to sit over night, then released her into the spawn tank on the 30th. Galadriel inspected his nest and tried to interact with Elrand at this time, but he chased her away. She then hid while Elrand built his nest. On the second day free in the tank they finally began wrapping.
They only wrapped for about two or three hours, but both worked tirelessly to get all their eggs into the nest. Elrand was a little bit smaller then her and struggled to wrap around her, but she was patient and would maneuver herself into his embrace. When successful she would release a large amount of eggs at a time.
Hatching - First few days
Once again, Elrand was a great dad caring for his eggs. He would watch them intently, never taking his eyes off of them! The fry successfully hatched and he made sure they stayed in the nest. He continued to build more bubbles the entire time.
As the fry began to free swim he would pick up any that strayed and bring them back to the nest. I decided to remove him at 3 days since it looked like most of the fry were starting to want to swim around the tank and he wouldn't let them.
I am thinking once again that this will be a large spawn with how diligent he has been!
Week 1 Update - This. Spawn. Is. HUGE.
I am low key freaking out about how many baby bettas I have. I counted over 150 fry on day 6, but since they hide throughout the tank I am sure the actual number is a lot larger.
So far my past spawns have been pretty small, only 30-40 make it through the first few weeks. I culled heavily to keep my numbers low to be able to do my best for the healthiest fry as I learned. (culling is the process of humanely euthanizing weaker, sick, or deformed fry - I feed my culls to larger fish but other breeders may use Clove Oil or the Ice Method) The spawn and growout tanks aren't too bad, but once they get to the jarring phase the work needed to care for them skyrockets. Water changes are time consuming and made stressful by the fact that every time it rains my tap water gets super wonky with high parameters like Nitrites or Nitrates. I have been balancing that out by buying distilled water. To fix the water issue I am finally giving in and purchasing an RO machine. However, the idea of having potentially 50-100 jarred bettas sounds like a situation that I am unable to manage.
I have been researching a lot about how other breeders handle large spawns, as well as how they rehome them. I'm starting to feel a little more confident about the idea of a large spawn, but will still cull a large portion. Once they make it to two weeks I'll reassess how many I have.
Week 2 Update - Massive Die Off
Well, I no longer need to worry about having a huge spawn. Unfortunately there was a massive die off this week. I am still trying to piece together what went wrong, but I believe the spawn is down to a handful of fry. The remaining fry look healthy and lively. They swim throughout the tank and mostly hide in the Indian Almond Leaves and Moss. I feed them 2 or 3 times a day with Baby Brine Shrimp.
1 Month Update - Steady Growth!
I upgraded the fry to Grindal Worms two weeks ago and this has lead to lots of growth! One in particular (pictured on the left) is super large and looking great! I think the larger ones may have munched on a few of their smaller siblings D :
Over all they are doing well, filled with life, and love to hunt live foods!
2 Month Update - I can now get actual pictures of them
These guys are big enough now that I can get pictures of them without the need of a zoomed in video! They hungerly swim up to great me when its food time and are starting to get betta personalities. A week ago I watched them do the tiniest little flares at each other ♥ I added more moss and plants so they could take over the territory better.
These guys look healthy and beautiful! I am guessing they will mostly look like their mum - shiny purple/pink.
3 Month Update - They are starting to Marble ♥
At about 2.5 months of age the first fry began to marble! They are now pure white with huge black eyes and are just adorable! Since then, four others have followed suit. Those ones look similar to their father with darker back halves and lighter fronts. I can see at least one is turning purple like their mom, while the others appear to be going blue. I am so excited to see how they continue to change over the coming months!
These guys are also SUPER MEAN!!! I thought about jarring at 8 weeks of age because of how nippy they are. Instead I moved them to a 20g planted shrimp tank with tons of baby shrimp to harass. It's helped a bit, but there is still so much nipping chasing and flaring. I jarred the first mean baby at 10 weeks, the earliest I have ever jarred. They are super cute and will flare at the bigger bettas during exercise time. : )
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CD 05 (SBD issues)
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10 Month Update - Continuing the spawn <3
I can't believe I never updated after the 3 month old post. I didn't get good growth on the spawn and had a lot going on beyond betta breeding. I ended up giving away all but one of the fry.
There were only 3 marbles from the spawn. Celeste (pictured left), and two others who were blue and white. Celeste was the only koi while the other two were more of a muddied blue/white/grey mixture. I do wish I held onto them longer to see how they changed but I needed a downsize at the time.
Celeste is now the mother of my second generation of dumbo koi. It's so hard to capture on camera how beautiful her colors are. She has a shiny mask that makes her glow pink in the sunlight.
I stayed in contact with the one known male from the spawn (pictured right) and am amazed at how beautiful he's turned out!
CD04 - Celeste
Celeste was my single keeper from the spawn, and the only successful "koi" marble. Her form is lovely, her colors are gorgeous in proper lighting, and her pectoral fins are HUGE. She has mothered one spawn. I would like to cross her back to male from the Group Dumbo Spawn.
CD 08 - Teddy
Teddy has a big tank in his new home. When he went off I wasn't sure what gender he was since he was so peaceful at 5 months in the growout tank. In his new home he is thriving and has grown the most beautiful long fins!