Daedalus Posted February 25, 2021 Share Posted February 25, 2021 Placeholder post for now. Will add more info later. Hi my name is Daedalus I'm breeding Copper Alien Bettas. I'm a new breeder with only 3 spawns. I breed Thai style so if you're uncomfortable with that style please proceed with caution. I write with terrible grammar and sentence structure. If you're uncomfortable with that proceed with extreme caution. Feb 2nd: Received copper pair. Begin conditioning. Feeding scuds, moina and BugBites Feb 6th: Prep spawning tank. 4.5gal tote filled to 3gal. Added loquat leaves, duckweed and pothos cuttings. Added rooibos tea for tannins. Taped a circular spawning cave to the wall. 50w heater Feb 18th: Release pair to tank. Feb 20th: Spawn. It took two days, the male had problems learning to do the wrap but he finally got it. Only one nip on the female and one on male. Very non violent, easy pairing Feb 23rd: Hatch. Can't see how many but looks to be a decent sized spawn. Feb 24: Added green water and infusoria culture to tank. Roughly half a cup. This is to cover for early hatchers/early free swimmers. Feb 25th: First feed BBS TBD March 10th: Partial water change. Remove male TBD 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceanTruth Posted February 25, 2021 Share Posted February 25, 2021 Those aliens are amazing looking. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted February 25, 2021 Share Posted February 25, 2021 Beautiful Betta 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daedalus Posted February 26, 2021 Author Share Posted February 26, 2021 (edited) Just got a good look, the spawn is maybe 50 at best, closer to 30 babies. It seems the two days the male was trying figure out how to wrap the female resulted in many unfertilized eggs. I fed more infusoria today and a little bit of brine shrimp. My homemade brine hatcheries are doing great but I'm worried about fouling the water with such a small batch of fry's. I might keep feeding infusoria until they a little bigger. Nothing ever goes according to plan... Edited February 26, 2021 by Daedalus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daedalus Posted February 28, 2021 Author Share Posted February 28, 2021 The momma is already healed up and showing breeding stripes again. She's been getting pampered with scuds, brine shrimp and moina. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceanTruth Posted February 28, 2021 Share Posted February 28, 2021 Good luck with the fry raising. These copper aliens are something special. I think I like these color variants the best out of the aliens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daedalus Posted March 6, 2021 Author Share Posted March 6, 2021 (edited) I took the male out but haven't done any water changes yet. I'll be adding fresh water today via drip to top off the bucket. My brine shrimps aren't hatching with much consistency, some batch go great then others won't hatch at all. Luckily I have lots of micro organisms in there for them to red off while I work out the kinks. Might need to buy fresh eggs Here's one of the little aliens Edited March 6, 2021 by Daedalus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daedalus Posted March 9, 2021 Author Share Posted March 9, 2021 (edited) Redid my DIY brine shrimp hatcheries. Everything is going well now☺️ The whole set up is battery powered. I also added some more scuds to my muck water dispenser jar. There's copepods, scuds and paramecium in there. I haven't changed the water in that jar for over a year. I just keep adding muck from my other tanks into it. It's my emergency food jar if the brine shrimp fails. Duckweed is amazing for raising scuds. I don't even have to feed them. The only input is a 14w LED bulb and periodic water top off. Easiest live food I've ever tried, they never crash like daphnia and adult brine shrimp tend to do if you neglect them. Edited March 9, 2021 by Daedalus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceanTruth Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 Very nice! Looks like you always have live food on hand. Do bettas eat adult scuds as well? Never tried them, but the scuds look quite large. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maggie Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 (edited) Good luck with your fry! You have really lovely bettas. @OceanTruth, check out Goliad Farms on YouTube - he's got a video, maybe about 10 minutes or so, showing how he counts and bags up scuds. I was curious as I've never seen one either! It's hard to tell how big (small) they are but he estimated a thousand in the bag (and puts in hornwort for them to chow and hang on in transit). Edited March 9, 2021 by Maggie 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceanTruth Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 @Maggie Yes I saw that! I’m so interested in them. They are like veggie piranhas. When he pulled out that hornwort and it was all chewed up by scuds my jaw dropped. They must demolish algae. I keep really small fish at the moment, so I don’t want adult scuds to wipe out a planted tank. Lol. I’m dreaming of keeping slightly larger fish now, because of that vid. I’ve been watching other vids on scuds and adults look 1/2” maybe? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maggie Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 @OceanTruthsame here - all small fish and not enough to make such a setup worth it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daedalus Posted March 9, 2021 Author Share Posted March 9, 2021 (edited) 5 hours ago, OceanTruth said: @Maggie Mine don't get much larger than 4-5mm's. The adult bettas gobble them all up. And they won't get a chance to reproduce in my betta tanks. I hav an idea for a mesh box in the aquarium with adult Scuds reproducing and then the babies could float through and then there'd be a constant supply of food for bigger fry you could feed them with live plants and then it'd be a recirculating mini ecosystem. I'm obsessed with trying to build a closed ecosystem I just watched that Goliad Farms scud vid. It's amazing Edited March 9, 2021 by Daedalus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceanTruth Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 @Daedalus That is BRILLIANT! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cmike15 Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 (edited) There are small shrimp near Hawaii I believe that can live 20-30 years that they put into closed ecosystems but I think it could be done better with more variety. I’m ok with having to intervene sometimes but following what nature does on its own is inspiring. I look forward to any further updates. Those are cool fish. Edited March 9, 2021 by Cmike15 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daedalus Posted March 10, 2021 Author Share Posted March 10, 2021 I don't know anything about video editing but I'm trying to learn so I can make youtube videos of my spawns. Here's my female. I'm gonna pull the trigger on another copper male tonight. Hope to get him by Saturday. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceanTruth Posted March 10, 2021 Share Posted March 10, 2021 (edited) Nice work on the vid. She is a beauty! Edited March 10, 2021 by OceanTruth Typo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daedalus Posted March 14, 2021 Author Share Posted March 14, 2021 Thanks, I'm starting from the bottom. I don't have any editing experience The fish I ordered hasn't even shipped yet. The company has strict procedures they do before shipping(fasting etc). Here's a vid of the fish. He should be here Tuesday, the spawn will be 3 weeks old on the same day As for the spawn, there seems to be 3 or 4 belly sliders, they're not developing their swim bladder normally. Hopefully theyll get better when they get bigger. I'm not feeding them as much to try to fix the issue and I've turned off the sponge filter. There's some runts too but that's to be expected 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daedalus Posted March 17, 2021 Author Share Posted March 17, 2021 (edited) Welp, what should have been a great day is now a terrible one. My fish is DOA, what a waste of a beautiful fish and bloodline Edit: this is my first DOA in my two years back in the hobby and its a super crappy feeling. I've ordered easily 500$ worth of bettas in that time. I need another male copper and a platinum white for the breeding project I want to do but now I'm kind of rethinking even ordering fish and having them shipped. This sucks Edited March 17, 2021 by Daedalus 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceanTruth Posted March 17, 2021 Share Posted March 17, 2021 That does suck. Shipping is still a bit weird lately. I’ve had some issues as well. I’ve held off buying some fish I want, because of it. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daedalus Posted March 20, 2021 Author Share Posted March 20, 2021 Got a few good pics ofy boy today. The babies are getting bigger and most grew out of their belly sliding but there's still 1 or 2 that are doing it. Did a partial water change last night and Tuesday will be their one month mark 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maggie Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 Wow, he is really stunning. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daedalus Posted March 26, 2021 Author Share Posted March 26, 2021 (edited) Here the babies, these are the runty sliders, the bigger ones all look female. This whole brood seems like it's 75% female. Also, they're pretty dang aggressive, I've caught some of them locking jaws Edit: I feel like they're a bit undersized but I've never bred Aliens before so I'm not sure how big they should be at this point Edited March 26, 2021 by Daedalus 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daedalus Posted March 28, 2021 Author Share Posted March 28, 2021 (edited) This post might end up long. I'll explain my plans for the alien Bettas. I will be breeding the copper pair and my royal blue female to *try* and fund my main goal. Lets talks about genetics. Copper x Copper will breed true. The spawn will be 100% Copper Alien of varying tones and iridescence. Copper x Royal Blue can go two ways depending on if the Royal Blue is heterozygous or not. Here are two charts to show what the spawn might end up as. Or as this. So if I breed the copper to the royal blue and see colors other than steel blue and royal blue I will know I know I have a heterozygous royal blue female and can make more colors. If I don't the heterozygous steel blues from the previous punnet square will produce more coppers. Edited March 28, 2021 by Daedalus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daedalus Posted March 28, 2021 Author Share Posted March 28, 2021 (edited) So I have two paths, one that results in more colors(blue, green, steel blue and copper) and another which will give me more coppers to work with. Either is not a problem for my Master Plan. What I want to end up with is a Golden Alien. From the original breeder of the first Gold plakat betta we know the recipe to make gold. Gold is basically a copper with white skin instead of black that makes copper look copper. I'm going to skip the copper red and do a copper x metallic green gold alien cross then select for the goldest of the bunch and keep them going. I have slotted 2 years to finish this plan. I fully expect to fail hahaha. The goal is to get a gold that's a little darker than the gold plakat, like a 24k gold with iridescence. Gold plakat breeders fault iridescence in their lines but I like it, it makes the fish pop I set up a new 3gal container for my second spawn of the same copper pair Edited March 28, 2021 by Daedalus 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now