I put him in here, because he was out of my HMPK spawn. Both were PKs, I know because I bred the mother myself and the father had extra short fins, even for a HMPK, he was perfect. And then I got this. wth?

But his fins aren't LONG either, though they've taken on more of a rose tail instead of a HM tail look as he's gotten older.

He lives beside Odin and never, ever flares at him. Odin does not frighten him. I would LOVE to breed hi, but alas... I have not a female. The Cursed Tank killed all my white PK ladies I bought. *sob*

First photo of him.


Startin' to become a HM and gettin' older...


Today. -ish




And if that wasn't weird enough, his father and mother were both black. Mother was a super black, father was a black lace.

ohh i believe that is the triple wth factor ya read about !! hehe that is some odd stuff that popped out on that one truly especially after i read what his parents were :OMG: like the poor lil guy is trying so hard to be HM and hmpk at the same time lol

I'll bet one of those Aliens that are always taking fish, just happened to drop a stray fry in your tank.

Yep yep.. that's it! <_<

It's a shame you can't get him to flare.
Mirrors don't work?

MObetta122, LOL That's exactly it.

wildmagiclady, knew I should have covered the tank in foil to keep the aliens out....

LaBella, yup. Nothin' works with him, it's like he sees through your plan and isn't interested.

You might have gotten funky colors because of the metalic factor. I got a black lace pair from breeding a RB metalic to a ST metalic, along with some lightbodied, a few marbles, and a couple of butterflys from solid dark bodied fish. Super black and black lace are two completely different types of black to my understanding, like there are a couple of different types of yellow out now (ones where you breed yellow to yellow and get orange, yellow, and traditional cambodian, which with traditional yellows is technecally impossible).

That, and how old is this little guy? Any betta's fins will grow longer as they get older (year or more) plakat or not. They may not get increased raying like long finned do, but they will still grow out some. I have 2 traditional plakats in my fish room that have had a bit more length grow out compaired to when I first received them, though their fins haven't grown as long in the same comparitive time as my older long finned males. You can see the same thing with female's finnage. As long as you feed your fish well, and give it cood, steady water conditions, they will continue to gain length.

So pat yourself on the back! You have made your fish very happy and healthy!

Yes, I assume that's where it came from. Indra was the only wild card, everyone else looked just like their parents.

He's about a year and a half. And yes, I was aware of that.

Well, of course I made him happy and healthy, he comes from a long line of favorites.

Yes, the metallic was certainly a factor, but I don't see anything funky about his color.
From best I understand, super back is melano copper cross, and black lace is a marble based black.
Unless one carries the other black, you are going to get exactly what he is, a metallic multi, and I don't think it has anything to do with the metallic gene alone. And if his sibs were black he was the odd man out that didn't get both copies of one or another of the black genes.
At a year and a half old, it is not surprise he has as much fin as he does. Hollywood certainly did his best to get more fin on me, he has at least an inch and 1/4th -1/2 of fin on him when he died at close to 2 years.

Even if he is an old grump, isolating him so that he can't see any other betta might encourage him to flare when confronted by another.
If you have ANY female, she might get his blood pumping enough to want to flirt.

His color is funky BECAUSE it's so different and that he was the only one like that out of the entire spawn. Everyone else was black, and I got a couple black marbles.

And I said, the mother was a super black.

It's a surprise to me. I've never had a fish out of a PK spawn with fins that long, and I have many of his siblings, and their fins aren't that long. And on top of that, I have PKs much older than him with fins HALF that length.

And that doesn't work. You think I wouldn't have tried something so completely simple? And more than once? Yeah. I have.

lol, I had to add that, because sometimes we get caught up in these elaborate ideas, we forget the simple ones.

Yeah, I know, he had to have been a stand out. This spot of light in an inky sea of siblings, lol.
Everything has to do with genetics. I even speculated at one point in time about modifiers to the genes that determine tail length. This was on Ultimate.
I had this fish that was somewhere between a PK and HM.
Unlike your guy, he decided to go completely HM.

I think your guy may have hit the tail length jackpot for PKs.

Hahah, yes. They were all bright metallic green when babies, as were 90% of the fry I ever bred (I’ve never been sure why, but all the coppers, laces, and metallics start off as a shiny green color) and then they all started to darken… but this single little fish. And I was like O_o

I agree. I'm trying to find a HMPK female he'll like. I think I'd get some really nice fish if he'd ever decided he cared...

No... I want a DTHMPK. ...DTHMPK + Indra = perfection. lmao

I think I might have one imported one of these days and break out all my best tricks I learned from all the Philippine and Thai breeders I've spoken to over the years. I’ll probably shoot for next month after I get all my reptiles moved and my cages ordered.

Better move quick, he's not getting any younger.

He sure isn’t. But I’ve successfully bred two-year-old fish before. So, if he wants to spawn, he will. If not, I’ll be sad. lol

Me too, but the older they get the more worried I get, lol.
I took my time with Manny, and said, WHOA, I need babies!!, and got three spawns off him in short order.
OK, one was a bust, the fry disappeared on me, but the others are a go, and I may try him one more time, and the retire him to most fav desk fish, even though he doesn't like me very much, lol.

Yeah, that’s what I do a lot. Just enjoy the fish and suddenly, “OMFG I NEED FRY FROM YOU!!!!!” lol

Actually, super black or double black is a cross between Melano and Black Lace which will net your fertile black females.

This I'm stating according to Wally Nida and Connie Emery who worked together to create purer blacks with fertile females.

Well, Connie called her fish double blacks, as far as I knew. All the fish I have ever seen sold by her in say the swap shops were labeled as double blacks, and not super blacks.
All the super blacks I heard were copper/melano crosses like the kind that Dong bred.

See, this is why terminology is so important, and why the IBC has asked for genetic descriptor to be used instead of strain names.
I am not wrong, neither is Sherry. We both have different meanings for the same term.

Breed that little sucker :wub: