Got a cute and young butterfly royal male. He still needs to do some growing, but he is on track to be a very nice fish. Not as good a butterfly pattern as would like for showing.. but form wise he is super nice and being butterfly he carries marble. He would be a nice male to bring good branching and big finnage to a marble line.

And last, but surely not least.. my metallics crossed to a royal male I got from Karen McAuley. If your into bettas you know she is one of the top US breeders right now. Her fish have great form and are sturdy.. good bodies and top lines. My metallics also have nice bodies, good overall balance and great branching. Colorwise we are all over the place. But, with the form genetics in these fish we will reel back the color to solid metallics. If your into multis or marbles these girls would be great.

The two very large spawns are out of the same female but different males. One is a sibling and the other is a very nice import I have pictured here. Love the great spread on this import and the super sharp edges and branching. I have several nice males already and plenty more coming. Most of the darker bodied ones I will be keeping for the show season but if you are interested in a red butterfly pattern I have three available as well as some lighter bodied males. Here are some of the reds I will be photographing and posting soon.

These girls are from a variety of spawns. Most of them are from my F1 cross to get blue and yellow marble or grizzles. Got some very nicely patterned bicolors or mustard gas types as well as some neat marbles. Most could be better branched but I am after a color so will work in the better form in the next generation. If interested just send me an email.. otherwise we will get them photographed and on AquaBid over the coming weekend.

Nice female from my metallic spawn that, a nicely colored royal blue and a black with red butterfly pattern.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 34,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 13 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

If you register for the site you will get access to two other areas. One area is a forum where we can have discussions and share photos. I breed to the IBC standard and find there are not many places on the web discussing things like form as it pertains to showing fish. I would like this forum will fill that need and assist those that want to breed quality fish and hopefully to show them in the IBC. There is information on the home page about the registration process.

The other members only  area is a Sneak Peek section. The Sneak Peek section is where I will post some of my nicer fish for sale before I offer them on AquaBid. That will also be where I post my breeders when I get the next generation going. I only have so much room and I would rather pass these fish onto to other serious breeders than to just let them sit. If you are interested in these fish just email me and make arrangements for payment and shipping.

Since I am still working on the site I would appreciate a note if you find any non working links. Joomla is a little different that other programming in that pages are not fixed. They are created each time you go to them and as such the actual address of the page may vary. I’m still new to this so let me know if anything does not work. I would also appreciate a note if you want to see anything I am not providing. There is a suggestion section in the forum for such ideas.

www.BasementBettas.com

Look forward to seeing ya’ll on the web site.

We have done over 50 spawns in the last 3 years and have several fish at different stages at all times. How do we know what fish is from what spawn? The answer is dry erase markers. Everything from tanks to beanies and barracks, the dry erase markers go on, stay on and rub off easily without any residue. I personally like the ones that are like a pen, they have a clicker at the top to put the marker out for writing then click.. back in it goes.

Spawns are marked on their spawn tanks with the id numbers of the fish that are being bred. I put the date I get eggs and add 4 days to that for the free swimming date I use for the spawn date. I also add the spawn number. When the breeders are returned to their cells I mark the date they were bred so I give them plenty of rest between spawns.

Once the fry are moved to the 10 gallon as well as the larger grow out tanks I transfer that information to the side of the tank. If I have small spawns and combine two, both sets of information will go on the tanks.

As the fish are pulled from the grow out they are given a number that consists of their spawn number, a dash and either a number or letter. Males get letters and the girls get numbers. They are done consecutively.. so the males in the picture come from spawn 44 and are the first three males pulled.

Keeping up with fish id’s is not they only way I use these markers. Come show time I write the entry number on the front of their cells in either red or blue. They also get a plus or minus depending on if they are coming back from the show or I am letting them go at auction. I do this when I determine who is going and create my entries. Then, when time to bag, I just go numberically down the line bagging and marking. Makes life real easy when getting ready to ship to a show. It also allows me to keep the space for those returning and I quickly fill others with upcoming fish.

I also use them to write notes about fish so I don’t get in a hurry and forget something. If I get a real pig and they get a bit bloated I write FAST on the front. When a fish is listed on AquaBid I write ‘AB’ and a big ‘L’ on the front. When the fish gets a bid that is erased and ‘SOLD’ is now written. The final bid come in and the auction closes and the winners name is added to the front. As I watch fish develop I add either a smiley face, an ’AB’ in the corner or a big ‘X’. Smiles are breeders/show fish, the AB means I need to get pics and list for auction. The big ‘X’ is my cull and they are pulled for a friend that rehomes them.

So you can see it is pretty easy to have hundreds of fish and keep everything straight. I have tried other markers but they do not mark as well and leave a little residue behind. If you get marks that won’t come off just color over them with more marker and it will dissolve and wipe off easily. I prefer the black as easier for my eyes to see.. but I also purchase a three pack with blue and red. Compared to other methods I tried for keeping everybody straight.. this is by far the easiest and the markers last even me and all my fish for months.

Spawn 43 – Metallics: This group is of age and being sold. I sent several to the fall shows and they did well. The females in this spawn are super nice.. they have great spread and good branching. Most are a light minty green of all things. Many have the nice wide dorsal bases we are breeding for but what I like most about the girls is their balance. No slanty or long anal fins! their mother took 2nd place both times she was shown. She had a slight dip in her topline or she may have placed higer. Her form and balance carried through and got stamped on each girl in this spawn. That stamp made a real impression on me. We look hard at the males for form but often times are easier on the females allowing imbalance or less than ideal branching. Many times it isn’t our fault as there are very few good ones for sale and you work with what you have. If you want to raise good bettas you have to get the best girls you can get your hands on. Any one of the girls in this spawn will be an asset to a breeding program. Look for them to be posted soon on AquaBid. The really nice ones will not be cheap.. but they will help get you producing some good females yourself.

The boys in this spawn are all over the place. Whereas the girls were minty green the boys are multi’s with some butterfly type patterns thrown in. This line has huge finnage and great branching. So I like to get some maturity on the boys before making any decisions. With the good branching comes extreme branching heading to rosetail. When you get a tail that branches like crazy it often times is short in length in relation to the other fins. So I watch out for that. I want to see the branching as well as long length. So we wait and watch. The ‘frilly’ ones will head to pet homes as they become apparent. So far I am liking a copper with a white splash on his anal, a couple of green and white marbles, and a tri banded Butterfly that is red, white and blue. Also got several nice double tails. They need maturity too as like to see how well they carry their fins. Most of the doubletails are long-bodied.. good for breeding. I try to stay away from breeding the shorter bodied ones as you lose that long torpedo look a betta is supposed to have.

Spawn 44 – metallics [8/6/11]: Yeah, I know.. more metallics. Same female as above spawn crossed with a royal and white from a fellow breeder, Karenc. The female was minty green with some red wash and we have the royal dad. I EXPECTED royal and green with red wash or marbling. What I GOT is a bunch of light bodied fish. A flash light shined on them shows very light blue and green.. pastels. Yeck! Form wise they are looking good. I was looking to cross in the good solid form Karen has in her fish with that nicely balanced female and it appears I will have sone nice look fish. I figured I would have to clean up the color a bit in the next generations but the pastels are kinda throwing me for a loop. I can cross this spawn to the other for a slight outcross but not sure what the pastel is going to do in my goal for shiny dark blue and green fish.

Spawn 45 – Grizzle [8/25/11] Dad was blue bodied with a grizzle patterned blue and yellow fins. Female was yellow bodied with blue speckles [from spawn 27] Female was colored right but could be much better in form. She was shorter bodied and not 180. She had good branching but was more a super delta spread. I may lose the  halfmoon spread in this cross but this spawn was after a color. I am trying to create blue and yellow marbles and grizzles. I love the two colors together so trying to see if I can get a yellow body with the blue marble/grizzle pattern on top. This is my F1. At about 8 weeks of age I already have some males in the barracks. One is lavender with yellow fins.. the rest are speckled. They really are too young to tell what color they will be, but so far the form on the boys does not appear half bad. They are shaped a bit different from my other fish so will see how their finnage develops out. For females I appear to have some solid blues and speckles on others. I am watching to see if their mother stamps them with the less then 180 spread.

Spawn 46 – Red and Black: Crossed a red female with one of my black males and have 2 fish. They are still small and one appears to be red. I was curious if the black would improve the red or the red might improve the black. With only 2 fish will not see much. May try again another day.

Spawn 47 – Steel x Royal [9/3/11] A royal DT daughter of this male pictured was crossed to a very nicely balanced steel male. He does have some red wash but form wise he is great. He has the same type dorsal and tail and the anal is shorter and more in balance. I should get royals and steels, hopefully with big full dorsals and nice balance. Some will probably have red wash.. but can work that out with some solid form. But, see spawn 44 about what I SHOULD get… lol. Fingers crossed no more pastels! I have my metallics I am breeding towards shiny blue and green, but I also want the traditional iridescent colors of royal and steel-blue as well as green and turquoise. These guys are the cross for that.

Spawn 48 – Blue x blue/yellow [9/7/11]: Same male I used for the grizzle spawn above crossed to a royal female with yellow fins. Don’t know what I am looking for here.. bi colors as well as a cross for the marble/grizzles above with better form. She is typier.. longer bodied, anal in proportion, good spread and branching. If I need to improve form for spawn 45 I will have some of the same genetic mater with both of them having the same dad.

Spawn 49 – Red Marble [9/14/11] OK.. I got on AquaBid and totally lost my mind the end of August. The problem is that box from the transshipper to my house. I think it is expensive so I make sure it is not empty. That means when I import I usually do it four fish at a time. This splashy pattern really caught my eye and I actually had a female colored like this I could not get rid of because I though it was too cool. So.. bought this boy and am hoping for red and white marbles. I do like the Cambodian body with the red marble pattern in the fins. He has long nice finnage so hoping for interesting fish for the marble and form and finnage classes. This is a really HUGE spawn and I am going to be in real trouble if even 1/4 are males.. gonna have to keep fish moving through the barracks.

Spawn 50 – Reds [9/14/11] This red boy started they buying binge. I sweet talked Karen McAuley into selling me a pair of her reds. The female [Chili] shredded her brother [Cowboy]. He got put in isolation to grow his fins out and to build his betta ego back up. I wanted reds so I imported one.. and he did nothing but hang out with Chili. So, I bought this guy.. and three more fish to fill that box. I crossed him to Miss Chili and got a very large spawn that are just starting to color up. I need to get some pics as they color up down the back and in their faces. This male had great form and so does Miss Chili. I have great expectations for this spawn producing some very nice reds and Cambodians. I would prefer a darker body but for my first red spawn, and my 50th spawn.. I am delighted.

Spawn 51 – Yellow x Orange [9/14/11:] I had a few yellows crop up in my breeding so decided to find a nice yellow male to breed them to. The male I wanted I got out bid at about $85.. so went and bought this one from the same breeder. Over halfmoon, good color and balance I awaited the shipment. As you can see by the spawn dated I got that shipment and all three males went into spawn tanks.. and I got spawns on the same day. My yellow females were not ready so I put him with a very nice orange female I have. She has nice form and I’m thinking orange and yellow fry. They are coloring up like the reds.. fins and along the back.. and I do appear to have some yellow and [fingers crossed] orange. The tank is a new one set up and I do not have a real light over it so I may actually have red instead of the orange. Should have better lighting soon. The female I had up for auction for a few days.. and the more I looked at her the more I decided I did not want to sell.. so I pulled her. She will be back up for auction when these guys [yet another large spawn] get a little bigger.

Spawn 52 – Steel x Royal [9/20/11] Sibling offspring of that nice steel male above. Male is like dad but has a little shorter anal giving better balance and the female is a royal double tail. She is shorter bodied than I like but it was a very small spawn ans I really wanted to keep the line going. I will have the related spawn for crossing to if needed for longer bodies. Again, hoping for royal blue and steel, this time with no red wash as both these fish have clean color. I just pulled the male whem I got home this evening.

Spawn 53 – Red [10/4/11]: Cowboy finally got his fins and attitude back so I put him back in with his sister. This time I put her in with a chimney I made from cutting the top and bottom off a 2 liter soda bottle. Last time she was flirty and in the mood and a few hours later he was a mess. This time was going to keep an eye on them and make sure he could hold his own. When she appeared agreeable [remember she has been bred before at this time] I turned her lose and he right quick put her in her place. I think I had a spawn later that evening. this is a sibling cross and I will have some reds to cross into the others.. both sharing same mother.

Spawn 54 – Steel x Metallic Green [10/3/11]: Male is sibling to the royal with great form above [spawn 47]. This boy has the same great form and balance with a bit broader and fuller dorsal. He too has a bit of red wash that will need worked out of the line. Female was a very nice metallic green from the first spawn listed. I spawned her then sent her to the Connecticut show and she placed 2nd. She too has the wider dorsal base, great branching and spread and very nice sharp edges on her tail. I am expecting some very good form on these fish. I figure I will have some patterned fish with the red wash and marble the metallics carry. All I need is a few good ones and we will improve the color in the next few generations. My metallic males have that super branching and at times do not get enough length on their tails, This male has good branching and nice long length. So I am hoping to bring that balance to my metallic males.

Spawn 55 Steel x Metallic Green [0/9/11]: more metallics. A repeat of the spawn above except with a sibling female. She is just as balanced, has the wider dorsal base and a bit longer fins. Remember I am wanting more length of the tails in my metallics. Similar breeding to allow some crossing of the best of each.

As you can see I have a LOT of fish coming. Some of them will mature up before the shows and will be offered for sale. We will pick the best for breeding and AquaBid and the rest will end up as beautiful pets. We are working on a web site that will tie into our auctions and other very nice fish offered for sale by top breeders. Look for that in the coming months as well. Hope ya’ll are needing fish.. soon!

Culture going bad.

I have had my various micro worm [ micro, banana, walter ] cultures for three years. They have come through neglect and a move to Texas during the summer. Many times I thought they were too far gone to recover yet they came back productive as ever. Even if they get funky and seem gone, they often can be brought back to producing high numbers of edible worms for your fry in a day or two. An excellent first food, keeping at least one of these cultures on hand will get your fry off to a good start. So here is what I do to maintain and revive a bad culture.

Top scraped to the side and rest removed.

Even if I do not have fry to feed I try to scrape out [harvest] the worms crawling up the sides at least every other day or so. I am not sure how long they live, but as quickly as they multiply I assume their life cycle is not long. By removing the crawling worms you are removing worms that may die off and foul the batch.. at least that is my thinking. And, when I do that the culture seems to stay good longer. On average I get a week before the culture needs to be refreshed. I have stretched it to ten days, on occasion two weeks and still have been able to keep the cultures going strong.

Oatmeal ready to be mixed with water.

Once a week I scrape the top with all the worms off to the side. All the rest is removed and disposed of. I put it into an old Wal-Mart bag and tie it off when I put it in the trash.. not for the smell but because I don’t like the goop. If the stuff is particularly dark and funky, I just find a good area and scrape it to the side and discard the rest.

Once the old stuff is removed I add some oatmeal I have run through a coffee grinder. I try to add enough to make the bedding about ½” deep. You will get a feel for it over time. If you get too much they will be fine, and not enough you can just add more. To the powdered oatmeal I add some water and stir to make a fairly firm yet slightly runny mix. I mix this off to the side away from the worms I scraped off earlier. One I get everything mixed to the right consistency I stir in the worms and shake some yeast on the top. I also take some time to rinse the lid and will take a paper towel and wipe off the rim and sides of the container. I then put the worms aside to grow.

Yeast sprinkled on top.

I have found my worms do real well on top of the strip lights I use on my 30 gal tanks. They do not seem to mind and actually like the warmth generated by the light. Within a few hours of redoing the cultures you should see lots of worms starting to climb the sides. By the next day they should once again cover the sides of your container. If you culture has been really neglected it may take a bit longer to come back, but should still produce some harvestable worms with in 24 hours.

This is what has been working for me for three years now. I have heard of using other than oatmeal for the growing medium and you are free to experiment and choose what works best for you.  As long as a few worms remain alive, these cultures can be continuously brought back to producing high numbers of edible food for your young fish.

Once you get a starter culture you need to get it going and established. I have my main culture or base in a glass honey jar.. see photo. Usually you get a few ounces of a vinegar mix with the worms in it. The worms live in an apple cider vinegar and water mixed half and half. So mix up some and put it into a good-sized container. I have used 2 liter soda bottles and a gallon pickle jar. There is no right or wrong, use what ever you have handy. Once you get your container add the vinegar mixture, your starter culture and some sugar. In my honey jar I add about a teaspoon. Again, there is no right or wrong, just dump some in. The sugar is the food for the culture. Many people use cut up apples but I found that a bit too messy, so the sugar is quick and easy and always available.

Once you get them set up put them some place and forget about them a bit. I have enough cupboard space so the base container is in one of them. Someplace out-of-the-way is fine. In time they will multiply very nicely. Depending on the size of your starter culture they should have reproduced enough to get a modest  harvest and/or get your harvesting containers going.  I use long neck bottles for harvesting. We got some flavored drinks in this type of bottle and a friend saved some wine cooler bottles. If you need to harvest worms for a spawn, pour most of your base culture into the long neck bottle. Harvesting will pretty much wipe out the cultures so you want to keep the base going. Add some more of the vinegar mix to bring the level back up, add a bit of sugar and set it aside to multiply again.

I often have several spawns at one time so I need to have several bottles to harvest from at any given time. So I maintain my base and start up several bottles to harvest from. Put some vinegar mix into the bottle and bring the level up to  below the neck. You want the level to be at the widest part to have as much surface area as possible. Add a bit of the base culture, which should have a good supply of worms by now, to each of the bottles you start and add some sugar. Set these aside and give them about a month to mature. My tanks and barracks are on shelves that are 6′ high. I put the bottles up on a top shelf, out-of-the-way, forget about them and let them grow.

To harvest the worms you want to bring the vinegar mix up into the neck of the bottle. At first I mixed the vinegar and water in a measuring cup and poured it in. Once I got an empty vinegar bottle I just mixed some up, labeled the container and stuck it under the kitchen sink. So when ready to harvest I just pour some of this into the bottle to bring the level up into the neck like in the bottle in the first picture next to the honey jar. I then take some filter floss and wrap a twisty tie around the middle and stuff it down into the neck of the bottle so it comes into contact with the vinegar mix. Curl the top of the twisty tie around and down like in the photo. This will allow you to pull up the floss when you are done harvesting. I have tried twine but it will wick the vinegar mix and it will end up all over the counter. The twisty tie works great and are easy to get.. at least around my house.

Push the floss down so there is some space between it and the top of the bottle and top it off with water. You don’t want to use tap that is untreated. Make sure you use your water conditioner on any water you put in the top or use bottled or RO water. Set the bottle aside till the next day. If you check on the bottle in a few hours you will see the worms are swimming up thru the floss and into the water. By the next day it will be hazy white and just full of worms. Take an eye dropper and suck out some worms to feed your fry. You can suck it right down to the cotton ball then top it off with fresh water. A few hours later you will again have more worms to harvest. You can harvest a couple of times a day to keep food in front of the fry. Continue to harvest the worms and replace the water. You will be able to harvest the worms for a good 3 to 4 days before they are depleted. Once the  harvest is reduced pull the floss out and pour out the vinegar mix until the level is back down to the widest part of the bottle. I usually pour this back into the base jar.

You now need to restart the culture with a start from the base. I have several eye droppers so I usually just add a few squirts of my base and some sugar and put them up on the shelf to grow up the culture again. If I feel I may need to harvest the culture again soon I add even more of the base mix to give me more worms to start out with. If you only do one spawn at a time, you only need to keep one bottle going. Because I do several spawns at a time I keep several bottles going at so there is always one or two ready to harvest.

Keeping your cultures producing a high amount of food is almost too easy. To maintain your cultures you will want to add a little sugar about once a month. That’s it. They don’t seem to get over populated and crash and can quickly reproduce a ton of worms quickly. Over time you will get some funk piling up on the bottom of your containers. I use a turkey baster to suck up the stuff in the honey jar and pour the tops of the bottles into a clean bottle and throw the rest down a drain. Even if not really maintained these worms will multiply like crazy. I have gotten busy and not had spawns for a few months and did absolutely nothing for their care. When I finally checked them the worms had produced thriving cultures with a gazillon worms.

When breeding bettas I remove the female the day I get eggs. Two days later I expect to have free swimming fry and will remove the male later that second evening. The morning of that second day after hatching I squirt a dropper full of vinegar eels into the spawn tank so there is some live food swimming for the fry to start feeding on. I continue to feed the vinegar eels for three to 4 days, untill I deplete the culture. They are fed at least twice a day, more often if I’m around the house until about the third day when I will add bbs [baby brine shrimp] as the evening meal. From that time on they are fed various micro worms in the morning then the bbs in the evening.

Getting your new-born fry off to a good start is very easy with vinegar eels. After all the work some times in getting a desired pair to breed, you want to make sure those fry make it to maturity. Of all the cultures I maintain, the vinegar eels are the easiest to grow. For less than a few minutes a month you can have plenty of tiny food to get your fry off to a good start.