I just got some fish from Sieg... and I LOVE THEM!!!!
The male... Not even fully flared. I love him

The clean pastel female. Sorry about the bad pictures, she was pretty nervous in front of the camera:


The Green sibling female (possible Pastel geno, according to Sieg) I got as an extra:

nice fishes mumu :congratulationtoyou :T

Thanks! :flower

Okay, I'm totally in love! And that last girl is HAWT! :WOU

I put the green female and the male in the spawn tank last night. During the night, the female jumped out of the guppy trap. I woke up and the male had a tear in his anal(not worried about it). He is building a bubblenest now, although he keeps getting distracted and swimming around the tank. I hope that they get their act together while I'm at church...

OMG OMG Im in love with that guy!!! And the sibling female looks just like my Green HM Female. I hope they hurry up and spawn!!

You have gotten your hands on some beautiful bettas there! I'm even a little envious! :P

I am extremely interested in a pair of babies, once they get that far. I know - don't count your fish before they hatch! Sieg has great fish and green is my color of choice in bettas. Besides, you did so awesome with Rockie's that I have complete confidence you are very capable of doing it again.

Those are some nice fish, they are all good fish with great genetics.

Look at the anals on those pastel females, nice even anals, I love it. And that dark girl, she has some nice finnage too.
I know you are going to do a bang up job with these guys, congrats on them.

Thanks everyone! Yeah, I am holding off on taking any reservations, but as soon as they are up for sale, let me know that you want some.

Well, the male's dorsal is really torn and there are still no eggs. <_< I put the female back in the guppy trap to give him some more time to build a bigger bubblenest... which he has been doing. I am going to release her later today, or she can jump out herself and start, for all I care.

BTW, does anyone know how to make IAL extract/tea? Aiwen once told me and she put IAL and water in a container and microwaved it. I would prefer to do this over a pot, just because I don't want to ruin any of our cookingware (parents would FREAK!)

I think I may post this in another section...

Ahh!!! I have an estimated 450 eggs (I had to count them for my science fair project... UGH.). I know my counting is wrong, but I have about 150 each in Salted water, IAL water, and my Control water. Let's see how well I do trying to artificially hatch them. Remember, these aren't the fry I am most excited about. I will for SURE not try and attempt to artificially hatch the pastel female's eggs. ;)

O___O This is Interesting!!! Keep me posted I would like to see what happens:)

dito

They have started hatching! At 3:15 I noticed some had hatched. So I counted them.

Remember there is an average of 140 eggs in each water.

3:15 PM
Control - about 23
IAL- about 5
Salt- about 22

Then I checked again at 4:40 PM
Control - about 25
IAL- about 8
Salt- about 40

I am hoping that these guys are just the early hatchers... hopefully I will have more by tonight. If not, it was to be expected, because I was artificially hatching them.

The results are interesting. I am wondering why salt was so high. When I noticed that IAL was low(this was the one I hypothesised would be the most successful) compared to the control, I thought maybe if you try and hatch the eggs in a different water than the water they are laid in, the hatch rate would go down... but then I though, "Well, the salt water is even higher than the control!".
So then I have to think, "Hmm... maybe a change in salinity in the water that the eggs are hatched in is okay, but a change in pH(caused by the IAL) is not okay". I wonder if it is this higher salinity that is making the hatch rate so high. I mean, the only thing that salt changes when it comes to water chemistry is salinity, right?

Any comments?

That's interesting. I would have thought that the IAL would have a higher hatch rate and the salt would be lower. :blink:

Electrolights with the added salt. I would also be interested in male vs. female ratios by doing this:)

I agree with you Greentetra.

And how would Electrolytes affect the hatch rate in eggs, Leafgirl? These are things we need to look at. Also, I have no plans on keeping them seperated... that is too much work for me. I am just going to release them in the 10 when they are old enough, grow them up a little, move them to the 20 gallon and then spawn the Pastel male and female.

Oh yeah, final count as of 9:30

Control- 29
IAL- 9
Salt- 43

So, I guess that leaves me with....81 fry! My dad is hoping some of them die. Mean huh? :taunt

:OO He's probably just teasing.

I wonder if the salt makes hatching easier? It would be interesting to know if these results are duplicative.

Also, what are your starting water chemistry parameters?

Um... That's a good question. Ha ha ha I may need to break out the water testing kit and give you some numbers. I will get back to you on this.. and if I don't, virtually slap me across the head to remind me, because I probably forgot.

Well im going to add a little salt to my tank as im hoping to spawn on Monday. How much did you put in?

And my sister told me that my 30 ish fry from last time were 2 much! Can you believe it? (well they were in her room lol)

I added about a teaspoon to, oh, probably around 8 cups of water. I am guessing though, as the water was put in a large deep Gladware container and it had a few inches of water in it.

Well, I am starting them out on BBS, so some will probably die. :( But I guess the ones wth a strong will to live will stay. ;) And those are the fish that are most definitely worth keeping.

I'm excited about this spawn. The variations make it even more interesting!

WOW beautiful fish!!! i love your male for sure, and the smallest of the females!!!

They are actually about the same size... well, maybe the green female is a LITTLE bigger.

::smack Here's your virtual slap! :coverlaugh

SHOOT! See, I told you I would forget.

I'll go bust out the test kits right now... PROMISE!

:OO

another virtual slap :LOL: :T :T :T

You're laughing at me for the reason. I did the test, wrote down the result... but then got distracted. :rolleyes:

My pH is 7.6-7.8
I know I have Hard water, but don't have a measurement of that.

And I can also do ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate of water from my tap if you would like.

I've heard it said that fertilization is higher in soft water. The osmotic pressure difference pulls the sperm into the egg easier I guess. I wonder if the added salt is what allows for that? You could talk to the biology teacher at school about that. He/she may have a better understanding of it then me.

So how are the different sets doing?

Well, my water is far from soft. And the eggs were moved into the salted water after they had been in the nest for a while.

The fry are getting bigger. I think I may have some that will die off because they refuse to eat BBS. I don't have very many observations because I can only see them from the top because they are in Gladware. When I move them out into the spawn tank, I will be able to see better how they are doing.

I think I will ask my teacher to see what he thinks.

That would lead me to think that the salt is helping in the hatching process vs fertilization. It would be interesting to see what would happen if the salt addition was reversed. Salt added for the spawning, then moving the eggs to unsalted water for hatching. The more results you get the more questions I come up with. Sorry. Science rocks!

Maybe I just found the "sweet spot" of salt to help osmosis for hatching and proper egg health....
Thanks for your ideas. I will bring them up with my science teacher. He is pretty much a genious!

I did a portrait of your male ^__^. its in the art part ^__^

I'd love to hear any updates on these guys! Did you get a a chance to talk to your teacher?

sorry but i just gotta say too, that those are some beautiful colors...i love pastels! the male is AWESOME, they are all so cute! :wub: looking forward to hear more about these =] :pop

I just realized I never posted the better pictures I got of the pair:



I have some older pictures of the fry (about a week old.... so they are obviously bigger now and have more color):
Here is one of the two doubletails in this spawn:


(and his CUTE little face....)


And a singletail that came and said hello:

That's a neat surprise that you ended up with a couple DT in the fry.

I so love this pair!

Yes, it is a great surprise!
This pair was the star of my science fair today. I presented to 3 judges and they were very impressed by my knowledge of bettas. I find out how well I did tomorrow after school.

Awsome post interesting the whole salt thing, and woooooooooooooooott woooooooooooooooooooooooooooot got ya some dt's wow what a bonus :T :T :T