F2 Giant Yellow Koi

Goals of the Spawn

Yellow base colors with fun tiger stripes on top.  I am hoping to get a few that are more yellow with less black to continue the next generation.  My end goal is to create nice yellow black and blue bettas that don't turn black/blue over time.  I would like to keep their size and improve on their fins/body shape.  Waterlilly has a nice body shape while Dottie's head could use some work.  I am also hoping for long ventral fins and star tails. 

The Spawn

Hatched : 4-13-2023

Amount : 30ish bettas 

Deformities :  A few had ok body shapes

Colors : Blue, Yellow, Cello, Solids and Koi

Goals : Goals were slightly met with this spawn.  I had some brilliant yellows and large females, the males did not grow as well.  Their forms were wonderful though.  By 9 months of age, the yellow females I kept had turned fully blue. 

Continue : I did not continue this line. 

4 month old Update

Males have been Jarred, Females are in the sorority, everyone is growing well and really starting to get their yellow on :D 

I've been surprised at some of the colors, particularly a cool Black Pineapple Female and some new tail patterns that didn't appear in the father's spawn.

15 week old Update

12 week old Update

FINALLY THEY ARE STARTING TO MARBLE!!!!

I was getting worried I would only have solid blue fry from this spawn.  Previous fry from this line start turning cello around 6-8 weeks old, but these guys waited until 12 weeks!  It's been pretty nerve wracking thinking I may end up with only blue bettas.  While they are gorgeous, and I have loved some of my previous solid blue bettas from this line, I was really hoping for 50% yellow Koi.  Their development will continue to be a mystery to me, but I am just happy to see their colors changing.

This week I separated out the males into their own 5gs, though I am not completely confident on how well I've gendered them.  So far I have 12 females, 8 males, and 3 tinies that I moved into my dumbo spawn to grow out with.  

Overall I am still super hopeful for this spawn.  I am seeing some great potential for clean toplines and good finnage.  I just need their yellow to come in! :P 

9 week old Update

They've been getting some excellent growth!  The biggest fry are all between 1 to 1.5 inches long.  The smaller are between .75 and 1 inch. And the last, tiniest fry is about .5 inches long.  I've got him separated from the rest of the spawn in the pond and am feeding him separately.  Hopefully he catches up!  I may end up moving him to a dumbo growout tank if they catch up in size. 

Overall this has been a really great spawn so far and I am so happy I finally got them to spawn ^_^ 

6 week old Update

I moved 36 fry outside into a 50g growout tank!  Most are showing good growth, though there are a few tinies.   They are eating baby grindal worms and I just introduced frozen foods like Daphnia and Tubifex worms. 

First Two Weeks

The first two weeks have been pretty uneventful.  I removed the father on day 11.  The tank is heavily planted so I am unsure how many are in there.  I've started catching fry to move to their next tank so hopefully I'll have a count soon! 

Spawning

3rd time's a charm?  

I don't know why I had such bad luck pairing these two. 

Their first attempt at spawning started off really strong.  Dottie must have produced over 1000 eggs easily, and they both worked so tirelessly to put them all in the nest together.  It ended up being too many eggs for Waterlily to fertilize and the unfertilized ones began to rot.  When he saw that happening, Waterlily began to eat all of the bad eggs.  When I woke up the next morning he was swollen and bloated, but still trying to remove the bad eggs to save the spawn.  I removed him from the spawn tank immediately and fasted him for 3 days.  A few of the fry hatched.  I made the decision to remove them from their tank as I was struggling to remove all of the bad eggs and put them into the Group Spawn Four tank since they were around the same age.  I don't think any made it. 

Their second attempt completely failed with no fry hatching.  I learned from my last attempt and didn't condition Dottie as long so she wasn't as eggy.  They spawned within hours and I was able to remove her the same day.  Unfortunately the leaf that the nest was under fell, scattering the eggs throughout the tank.  Waterlily tried so hard to build a new nest and move them over, but it was futile.  He ended up eating his eggs.  

I was worried with this last attempt.  Once again I learned from my mistakes, Dottie wasn't too eggy, I used bubble wrap instead of a leaf, I kept a light on all night, and so far it's appeared to pay off!  

I currently have fry hatching as I write this.  He is attentive and caring for his fry and putting in the work.  I am still so nervous that something will go wrong, so fingers crossed it goes well <3