charity sale

We're going to have another charity sale of our giant lines. The fish you're getting are all giant HMPK with age ranging from 2 - 3 months. Large and small :) Length ranges about 2-2.3 inches.

Their colour ranges from cambodian red, red loss, red gold (very limited), black/red/blue, black/red/green, melano, yellow, and green metallic (only 2??).

Note that these giants are solid King Giant Betta that can grow up to 4.5 inches (well, at least their parents were of that size). Mostly 4 or 8 rays split but there are mixtures of 2 rays here and there also. All very thick rays. Nip here and there are expected as they grow in community tank (with only selected few had the luxury of their own tanks). All nips will regrow with no problems.

Some sample pictures avail of the above, but don't expect us to take pictures of the exact fish (no time and place for picturing -- sorry).

First come first served basis.

Steps to participate:

1. send us email, telling which colour that you'd like, we'll confirm if stock still avail
2. go to any of your charity, donate directly to the value of what you think the fish are worth for (include $10 for the shipping cost here).
3. show us the proof of donation
4. send us the other half of shipping cost (i.e. $10)
   
5. we'll send you the fish agreed and we even cover the shipping charges (well...consider that we're donating half of the shipping charges to the donation in part of your money)
   

So, at the end, not only that you've donated all the money to charity, but we also have donated all the fish to you and we cover half of the shipping cost! So....please dig deep.

Also available are 2 males + 1 female (cambo red and platinum red cambo line) breeders. They are breeders, nip/tuck may be noticeable but otherwise they're perfect for breeding. Males are slightly OHMPK, 4 or 8 rays (didn't bother to do the counting these days). They are about 2.5+ inches (didn't bother to measure either), with very thick and wide body. Age about 4.5 months. These trio will be sent from AK in QLD to you (thanks AK!).

Condition of participation:

• we reserve the right not to send you fish if we consider that you haven't opened up your heart trully. for example, sending $11 ($10 shipping and $1 for fish) to charity and asking 20 fish is just not on.
• as guidance, each fish worth as much as you consider them to be, but at least ought to be more or less the price charged by your petshop (and they don't even supply giants!)
  

email mybettas at gmail dot com. TIA for those who open up their heart for this effort.

PS. only avail for Australians.

do you have gambling problem?

It just strikes me that breeding bettas are not much different from gambling :)

When you have gambling problems, it usually involves tendency where you keep loosing money and yet ignorant about it and still believed that the next bet going to win you back all the lost you've experience so far.

Well, most people who breed bettas in countries with 4 seasons know that you aint going to make money out of bettas hobby. It gets worst when you breed them!

For instance, we have been bettas for yongs now and have worked out some ways to cut our expenses but there aint a way for us to break even. We breed them and keep them like one of our own (child), hence we always make sure that they've got the "best" for everything. When it's cold, heater would be on. Food always life food (would you give your child crappy food?).

Keeping all those luxuries make a very expensive hobby. But there is more!! if you breed bettas, then it's only a matter of time before you'd like to cross your line out to improve it (otherwise you breed them just as 'normal' pets which you may not even care whatever quality that you get from your bettas). Now, that's the tricky part....there aint no one in AU can supply good/better bettas, so we have to import the "seed" from other countries. And importation aint cheap! Furthermore, this has to be done at least every so often. We at least cross out every 2 or 3 generations. This comes so quick, we pretty much has to rely on importing these guys every month or two.....

So, at the end, breeding bettas is no more different than gambling. Sure you've got the enjoyment of seeing them grow yada yada yada, but your pocket will dry very much faster too. This assumes you don't have any other problems with your current lines. What if all of a sudden your gorgeous male/female died and there wasn't another "good" replacement for it? there you go....import a new one! That's provided you can find a decent one that fits your breeding plans and should we say for "reasonable" price????

The folks in QLD or northern land are luckier. At least they dont have to worry about getting freezing cold for their bettas.

Selling last and best giant female

Sadly, I think we have to sell our best and last cambodian red giant female HMPK. We can't breed her as there are no spaces left.

Anyway, here is her detail:
length: 3 inches
spread: 175 degree
type: HMPK
colour: cambodian red
age: 5+ months (hatched early Nov)
branch: 4 (from 8 branches line)
special price: $200 ono
shipping: $25

Note that this female is best for breeder. She's 100% King Giant Betta and typically you can't get similar female from anywhere (most people will not sell you one).

Contact us on email if you're interested.

switching food: dropsy

Last 2 weeks, we ran out of black worms (supplier didn't get them) and we had no choice but to switch to frozen blood worms. Anyway, the juvies were quite puzzled to see the frozen worms not moving about, hence didn't take the food in the first feeding.

Now that they've gotten used for a whole 2 weeks with frozen worms, interesting things started to came about.

With fresh black worms, they always have huge full belly. With frozen, it never be the case. They only eat when necessary and then stop altogether, ignoring the food. Hence they never get full belly.

Well, that's not the problem. Moving onto day 4 of frozen worms, we started to notice that a few (four or so) of the juvies didn't want to eat...then they got dropsy.

Once they've got dropsy, that's it....no way to safe them if it's too late.

Food related dropsy sometimes quite easy to solve, just have to starve them a couple of days.

Anyway, the interesting part is to see switching to frozen food can cause dropsy. I think it has to do with bloating effect caused by frozen food.

Now that we've got life black worm stock, all is great. No more dropsy, all juvies had fat big belly, and they're a lot more active!

Selling giant juvies

Thanks for all the interest for our breeding stocks. However, due to space, we have no choice but to sell our giant juveniles as well. Some of their details:

type: HMPK or OHMPK.
colour: cambodian red, red loss, yellow, blue, and red/blue (while stock lasts)
age: 2 months
length: about 1.5-2 inches
price: AUD$50 per pair (random mix)
gift: a special gift is given for every order
shipping included.

They're still young and small, but guaranteed to be 100% giants. You should see their sizes grow double in 1-2 months time (provided large space and good food given).

Contact us at mybettas at gmail dot com if interested. Thanks.

Selling breeder stock

There are too many bettas at our place at the moment, so we have to sell the breeder stock to get more place (won't be able to spawn any more -- all tanks are full).

Currently on the line:
* green OHM giant pair
* red cambodian OHMPK giant pairs (3 pairs)
* young red cambodian HMPK giant pairs (10 pairs).

Male HMPK length between 2.6 (young) to 3 inches. Female HMPK length between 2.6 young to 2.8 inches. Green OHM giant is *not* PK line, not sure the length (need to measure it up)

Another giant pair avail for sale

This time, we've got blue/red pairs. Siblings. Age 3.5 month. Come from blue mask line.
Male 8 rays, female 4 getting to 8 rays.
Male is OHM. Female is full 180 degree.
Male and female length: about 2.6 inches

Both are HMPK.

Price: AUD$ 200
Contact us at mybettas at gmail dot com

Contact us direct for pictures. We're having problem uploading pictures here...

giant width vs length

We notice that a number of giants available in the market have tendencies being ok on length, i.e. they're 2.8" or so in length, but they're in fact quite 'skinny'.....

Our giants, at the age of 3.5 months, are actually very thick on the body as well as lengthy (2.6 inches). For instance, check out the 2 blurry pictures shown of our giants in previous post awhile back. One of the giant is very thick and the other one is quite skinny. The thick one becomes the majority for us these days (or maybe because we had the tendency to choose thicker ones for spawning).

The problem with the thick one is that it is very difficult for the male to wrap the female. Once the size of the female gets to 2.8 inches, the male can only try and try to wrap the female without much success. These females have tendencies of being very fat and huge as well, so their width is quite easily upto 1.5 times the width of the male (mind the eggs!). This reminds me of "bender" of Futurama when he's trying to bend thick steel. Perhaps that's the reason why we don't see much of 3+ inches females available, cause in order to wrap such female, one needs at least 3.5 or 4 inches male for ease of spawning experience ;)

green giant OHM

we've got nice green giant pair OHM long fin. Their body is not as big as standard giant, due to their long fin nature, but they're definitely from giant background as the body width is much bigger than standard long fin. We haven't measured their length yet, perhaps one of these days when we have them isolated and when we have time :)

the beauty of this pair is that the female is OHM, and the male is also OHM. The 1st batch of fry is already about 1 week old now, and to our amazement, more than half of them already have the OHM finnage! It seems parents come from at least 16 rays branching -- doesn't seem to be 32 rays, but who's counting the rays these days when they branch so heavily :)

They seemed to come from platinum or opaque line cross to mask green. So half of the fry is opaque in body (easily distinguishable even when they're just small fry!) and the other half is of darker body.

The plan is now to cross this pair to our other giant lines, hence improving their size as well as their finnage. The output colour doesn't seem to bother us for the time being. So we'll see how they cross to our melano giant line, cambo red giant, wild blue/red giant, and our own mask green giant MG. That if this pair can stay strong for all of these spawnings. By the look of it, they're very young age and very agressive, so that's the good thing about it. Also long fin makes it a snap to spawn these fish, as they don't have the problems we've been facing with HMPK line.

giant OHMPK for sale

We've got 1 of our best male OHMPK for sale. He is cambodian red OHMPK. Very thick finnage and wide body. Length 2.6-2.7 inches. Age at 3.5 months only. Never spawned. Picture to come soon.

Sibling female HMPK (full 180 degree) avail. Length 2.7 inches (slightly bigger than the male). Thick finnage.

This line comes from 8 rays line. They are very young and will grow to be much bigger and larger.

Male only cost AUD$150
Female only cost AUD$200
Pair cost AUD$250

Shipping Australia only at $25 to most places except western AU, contact us for detail.

Contact us on email at mybettas at gmail.com if you're interested. As the above female is larger than the male, you need to be knowledgeable on spawning bettas before you attempt spawning them. Alternatively, we can find smaller female if you wish.

we're moving!

we're moving yesterday to our new home. nicer and bigger than the old one but lots of things to do...

in the meantime, we're going to be very busy this week and the next, apologies for not replying to your queries in the meantime.

pictures of giants

These 2 giants need new home. We haven't been able to make use of them cause all tanks are occupied for spawning and rearing....It's so sad really, cause they looks very nice to each other (fighting that is) and their size is just amazing to see.

They're about 3x the size of normal hmpk. nice to see how they swim side by side with the others in our tank, but over the time they get to be the bully and got irritated with other fish around them.

Anyway, if you're interested, shoot us an email. We may just sell you 2 for the price of one, hopefully you can make use of them. They come from 8 rays spawn, but these 2 are only 4 rays. When they spread their caudal, they are actually ohmpk. the blurry pictures don't do them any justice at all, but then it's very hard to take pictures of moving object (plus crappy camera, but who's complaining, right?)

In the picture, you can see the front male of not spreading to its max. it's quite clear of its 4 rays (and very thick fins). Also you can see how they compare in size with other hmpk and hm in the tank :)

predatorial of bettas

watching how our giant fry grow and how the bigger ones started to chase the small ones (and sadly sometimes they managed to catch up and eat them) has made me realize the meaning "survival of the fittest".

most tanks are the result of 2 spawns in our place. we spawn them first time, once the fry hatched and free swimming (day 2 or 3), we released another sibling female in the tank, which usually resulted in another spawn the day after release. Even with only 2 spawns, it is so apparent how aggressive the first batch is....by the time the 2nd batch is free swimming, the first batch already started to eat BBS. only a matter of couple of days before they go very hungry and started to chase the 2nd batch fry. perhaps that's because giant grows very fast?

anyway, usually only half of 2nd batch fry can survive at later stage, that's discounting any other events that may happen during their growing up....

another thing that also amazes me....there are times when i saw the father chase and eat the 1st batch fry!! i think he got pissed off when the larger fry started to it its much smaller sibling, so he chased the larger fry and kill it....that's how cruel life is!!! it's just to show how the father wants to make sure that the larger fry does not pose any danger to his other fry....

giant and anal fin

lately i noticed that the bigger the giant, the thicker its anal fin is. i'm referring to giant hmpk of course. it seems, as our giants getting larger in size, i can notice the tip of its anal fin (towards the pointy end) is slightly bigger than its body width (body that holds that anal fin -- the pointy part).

i usually only noticed this effect when you get old standard hmpk fish. when they get older, their anal fin is getting longer. funny that our giants are very young, only about 2.5 to 3 months and many of them have huge, large, finnage. ok, their size is about 2.2 to 2.3 inches but it's so nice to see they grow so fast and so big in such short amount of time.

Some of them are ready to spawn already (and we've spawned them). that large anal fin and caudal fin prove to be very useful to wrap the female.

talking about female. their sibling female has nothing much special. good caudal fin spread ranging from 2, 4, and 8 rays. but otherwise, their body is very large with nothing special on finnage. it is still cute to see them dances with the male. of course they're not afraid of the mail, cause they're just as big as the male (with exception that the male has bigger fin).

fascination on long fin giant

recently, there has been some show off for long fin giants. i've never got interest in them previously (as we focus much on short fin hmpk giants). however, this time, the finnage of long fin giant seems to be just fantastic. they seem to hold their tail nicely.

ok, the dorsal and other fin form isn't really that great, but considering how huge they are, you gotta give some appreciation that a good long fin giant is finally able to be developed.

the price is just ridiculous though, so perhaps we have to wait another year to see decent priced giants. funny thing about giants, many dont know when they bought long fin giant, they actually do not breed true. otherwise we'd have lots of giants by now.

our own experimentation has shown us that it is consistently difficult to *always* get 3+ inches giant hmpk. if you're talking about standard pk, then that's no big deal. they're pretty much given already. it's quite easy to get huge giant on standard pk. but once you've put hm line in the mix, somehow F2 or F3 will be shrinking in size.

anyway, we'll see how it goes with our experimentation.

giant eggs

recently we've got a bunch of giants (HMPK) spawning. reflecting back, it's amazing that things go by without us noticing.

i just noticed, for example, on how big the giant eggs are. i got surprised not because i didn't see the eggs or their number, it's more to do with they're only very young, about 2.5 months or so, they spawned very nicely, and with their young age, i thought their eggs will be smaller. At least, with other bettas such as long fin or its short fin counterpart, their eggs are smaller, about half smaller.

their eggs are very big, twice as big as the normal bettas, and as big as an old female eggs (old female has tendency of having large eggs).

anyway, it's very nice to see the size of the eggs and their quantity, being produced from such young female

the end of black line?

the original super black hm line seems to disappear, unfortunately. the last batch was contaminated and had to be terminated -- plus we were really busy last couple of months and they got neglected :-(.

there are some new crosses from this line to standard melano, but the F1 fry seems to be carrying all melano (2 month old now). perhaps F2 and F3 sibling crosses will yield better result. there is 1 super black hm female left from the line, hopefully we can use her to cross to any of these F1 in time.

dragon giants hmpk

we're in process of developing full dragon giants. early indication has shown that the dragon scales inherited nicely and what's more, the spread is awesome! some of the fry had shown very nice shiny scales with outward branch (8 or 16 rays) of full 180 degree.

rosetail genes seems to be contributing for this branching though, but it's just awesome to see how vibrant they are and how active when they snap foods...

will keep updating when not busy :)

lost account

we lost the access account to our web for a couple of months already. we're still trying to find ways to gain access to it. in the meantime, if you'd like to buy some of our fish, email us direct at mybettas AT gmail DOT com.

update on green x cambo

good development, half fry cambo and the other half green-red. tail spread is good, length is amazing abt 2 inch. cant wait to see them grow faster. running out of food lately but will feed them up soon