Well, I think I’m almost ready for my first spawn. My breeder pair is MojoJojo and Buttercup (since Blossom was a suicide…) Both are from good HM lines – Faith at BettaTalk was their breeder. Mojo is a HM Butterfly, red and green body, red and white fins. His only real “fault” is that the BF pattern is not even on all fins – he only has white tips on his dorsal. Buttercup in one of bettatalk’s “Satin Flame” line. She’s supposedly HM, but looks more like a spade tail to me. Either way, she has good branching in her caudal, and should lend good HM genes to the spawn. She also shows an uneven butterfly pattern. She’s not a spawn sibling of Mojo, but has a light pink body and red and white fins, so they should combine nicely. My goal for the spawn is to get some Halfmoons with a butterfly pattern. It should be interesting to see what colors I get, given Mojo’s green iridescence.
I ordered my IAL and several cultures this weekend. I’ll have microworms, grindal worms and bbs in a couple days, and will begin growing the cultures while conditioning the pair. I decided to pass on the vinegar eel culture, as I’ve read that they are of dubious nutritional value – supposedly the microworms are better. I’ve also got some Hikari First Bites that I feed my guppy fry, so will be using a variety of live/processed foods for the first few weeks. I’ll be using frozen bloodworms, frozen brine shrimp and grindal worms for conditioning the pair, along with the staple Bio-Gold pellets. I plan on upping them to twice daily feedings for at least 2 weeks prior to the spawn.
As far as equipment goes, I have the following:
10-gallon tank
Lighted hood with 1 10-watt fluorescent bulb
25 watt heater for the beginning (when the tank is half full)
50 watt heater for later
Thermometers – stick-on and floating
Bubble wrap for the nest (IAL will be in there as well)
Air pump (for the sponge filter)
Airline tubing (for siphoning)
Brine shrimp hatchery
another 10-gallon tank, a 20 long and a 29-gallon for growing out the fry
These are things I’m lacking/considering getting:
Filter: I’m making a sponge filter and will run it in an existing tank until I set up the spawn tank – have all the parts, just need to assemble.
Live plants: I’m trying to find a decent deal on java moss, but will get camboba or anacharis locally if I have to
Apple snail: considering getting one for clean-up on the fry tank. Might just snag a cory or two from my main tank though.
Hurricane Lantern: for some reason I’m having a hard time finding this, may make plastic canvas tube…
IAL: on it's way
Live food cultures: on their way
Jars for when jarring becomes necessary: will probably borrow a page from Yeevia and invest in much tupperware!
As long as no-one minds, I'll be posting my spawn diary here... I'd *love* to get feedback from more experienced breeders on the lists above and as I go along. If you see anything I've missed, please let me know. I've done a *lot* of reading and research on this, but if you have any references that I absolutely shouldn't miss, please point me in the right direction!
I'm so excited!!!
Stacey
This is your post and you can post anything about your breeding in here. I am so sure everyone will be real excited to see how your babies growth up. I tells ya. :gay:
About the hurrican glass, you can always cut a 2-liter bottle (clear) on the bottom so you can just unscrew the cap for air to come in. The plastic canvas cyclinder is what I'm trying right now. We should really put this as a DIY :laugh: