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.
Tuesday, 26 February 2008
Thursday, 21 February 2008
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 :)
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 :)
Sunday, 17 February 2008
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....
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).
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).
Tuesday, 12 February 2008
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.
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.
Friday, 1 February 2008
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
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
Tuesday, 29 January 2008
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.
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 :)
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.
Friday, 26 October 2007
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
Thursday, 11 October 2007
Green mask x cambo red giants
Long time not updating, been busy these days.
anyway, the green giant hmpk spawned with red cambo giant hmpk female twice. the combination should produce huge giants, but colour wise may not be ideal...male is 8 rays and female is 4 rays (from 8 rays spawn). should have plenty of 8 rays on next generation.
tried to spawn the male to the green female but he managed to kill her (again!). Sometimes I wonder why this male always manage to kill good females.
will see how the fry turn out, but so far they've covered 2 full tanks, should be about 300 or so of them...
anyway, the green giant hmpk spawned with red cambo giant hmpk female twice. the combination should produce huge giants, but colour wise may not be ideal...male is 8 rays and female is 4 rays (from 8 rays spawn). should have plenty of 8 rays on next generation.
tried to spawn the male to the green female but he managed to kill her (again!). Sometimes I wonder why this male always manage to kill good females.
will see how the fry turn out, but so far they've covered 2 full tanks, should be about 300 or so of them...
Monday, 17 September 2007
giant exchange meeting
yesterday was quite exciting for us. a bunch of us finally has time to meet and bring the biggest giants from our spawn. i was presenting my green mask with length of about 9cm (3.5" or 3.6") and red giant of 3.5". This is not so bad considering their young age and their parents were about that size (with exception of the red that was about 4.2"). I would expect them to further grow but I'm not sure if I can keep up with them. The amount of food they eat and the aggressiveness in the tank sometimes is a bit worrying to me.
others come with average of 3.3" to 3.7" and we were quite happy knowing our giants get to that length.....considering they are all just 4-5 months old.
That's all for males....for females, i showed case my 3" red female but this was beaten by a 3.2" blue female from NG. Somehow, he always managed to get the biggest ones. This blue is awesome, very nice bright colouration and vibrant. He's having the same problem as I am, having to beef up his males so they can spawn with the huge females :)
anyway, i've got a donation of green mask as well yesteday. i only had 1 pair left of the giant green, the rest went to our charity-sale, and from this 1 pair i failed to get them spawn. The male managed to kill the female :( .... anyway, now that I get a not-too-distant cousin of his on the tank, i can try it again. if this still fails, i just have to spawn him with my red (somewhat having a mood for multicolours these days)
i contributed back to the group half of my red giant spawn, the ones left behind after charity-sale. there are only about 10 males left there and 4 female, all of them the biggest of the spawns. i figured, i better keep some of them for stock, in case the current red breeder decided to kill his partner :)
oh, another thing....if all goes well, i've been promised to get very nice melano giant pair ;) i will have the chance to select a very best of the pair as i like :D :D
others come with average of 3.3" to 3.7" and we were quite happy knowing our giants get to that length.....considering they are all just 4-5 months old.
That's all for males....for females, i showed case my 3" red female but this was beaten by a 3.2" blue female from NG. Somehow, he always managed to get the biggest ones. This blue is awesome, very nice bright colouration and vibrant. He's having the same problem as I am, having to beef up his males so they can spawn with the huge females :)
anyway, i've got a donation of green mask as well yesteday. i only had 1 pair left of the giant green, the rest went to our charity-sale, and from this 1 pair i failed to get them spawn. The male managed to kill the female :( .... anyway, now that I get a not-too-distant cousin of his on the tank, i can try it again. if this still fails, i just have to spawn him with my red (somewhat having a mood for multicolours these days)
i contributed back to the group half of my red giant spawn, the ones left behind after charity-sale. there are only about 10 males left there and 4 female, all of them the biggest of the spawns. i figured, i better keep some of them for stock, in case the current red breeder decided to kill his partner :)
oh, another thing....if all goes well, i've been promised to get very nice melano giant pair ;) i will have the chance to select a very best of the pair as i like :D :D
giant size
some people still wondering how big a giant looks like.
here are some pictures, on left you can see a standard size HMPK being compared to some giant HMPK. As you can see, even the female giant is at least double to triple the size of the standard betta.
The female in the picture is about 2.7 inch in length while the males are averaging between 2.9" to 3". Large females are not in the tank as they're currently spawning, so you can't see their size, but they're reaching 3+ inches very easily.
here are some pictures, on left you can see a standard size HMPK being compared to some giant HMPK. As you can see, even the female giant is at least double to triple the size of the standard betta.
The female in the picture is about 2.7 inch in length while the males are averaging between 2.9" to 3". Large females are not in the tank as they're currently spawning, so you can't see their size, but they're reaching 3+ inches very easily.
Tuesday, 11 September 2007
giant trend
i quickly browse some sites selling bettas and notice that they've gone to fancy giants now. The price is ridiculous though. they're trying to sell $100 usd for a giant male that may not even get to 3 inches yet. I wonder if I should have made my money by selling all of my giants, considering they are about 3 inches now.
some fish sold are either barely HMPK or if they're nice 3 inches would cost about $150 usd....even so, many sellers won't even sell females, at least not a very large one :)
some fish sold are either barely HMPK or if they're nice 3 inches would cost about $150 usd....even so, many sellers won't even sell females, at least not a very large one :)
how big the giant can get
i've got a number of conflicting info about the size of giants. some said that they can get up to 7 inches for full giant, but many have said that they never seen such size. the ones that are quite rare already are the 5 inches giant, and even that i've never seen it.
my giant only get up to 4.3 to 4.4 inches. that's courtesy of heavy eating habit. the problem is, i dont even know how old they are when they reach that size. so far, a lot of my giants are about 3 inches, and they're 4.5 to 6 months old at the moment. It seems, the 6 months old ones are not growing any longer, but rather getting their size thicker and bulkier.
anyway, if anyone can tell me how big they can get their giants, that would be awesome! no, i don't mean the hearsay on sizes. i mean if you really see it or somebody can vouch for what they say on the size!
i'm going to keep a couple pairs of my giants till they are about 2 years old and i'll see if they can get any bigger. hopefully they're not giving up on me yet when they get about 1+ years :) somehow i manage to shorten their lifespan cause i have tendency to keep spawning them....hence exposure to tiredness, diseases, etc.
my giant only get up to 4.3 to 4.4 inches. that's courtesy of heavy eating habit. the problem is, i dont even know how old they are when they reach that size. so far, a lot of my giants are about 3 inches, and they're 4.5 to 6 months old at the moment. It seems, the 6 months old ones are not growing any longer, but rather getting their size thicker and bulkier.
anyway, if anyone can tell me how big they can get their giants, that would be awesome! no, i don't mean the hearsay on sizes. i mean if you really see it or somebody can vouch for what they say on the size!
i'm going to keep a couple pairs of my giants till they are about 2 years old and i'll see if they can get any bigger. hopefully they're not giving up on me yet when they get about 1+ years :) somehow i manage to shorten their lifespan cause i have tendency to keep spawning them....hence exposure to tiredness, diseases, etc.
getting the mood on spawning
weird sometimes that fish also has mood on spawning. 1 pair of black didn't have much mood previously, despite the male always eager to spawn. It yields to a number unsuccessful spawns. this is because the female is way larger than the male, pretty understandable....
but these couple of days, i noticed that they spawned a number of times with lots of fry in the tank. it seems, once the "cycle" begins, they just keep doing it....just like a number of giant spawns
at the moment, 3 pairs are having the continuous spawnings and i just dont bother to stop them. another 1 pair is getting to know each other and may spawn tomorrow, otherwise the female just gonna burst with eggs :)
could it be that the female is getting horny when she sees how capable the male was (proven by a bunch of fry around him), or is it just the weather and mood affecting this spawning experience?
no doubt, the experienced breeders would just spawn right away. that's pretty much given, but the newbie seems to have their own ups and downs so frequently, i started to think that it's the combination of weather and experience....
but these couple of days, i noticed that they spawned a number of times with lots of fry in the tank. it seems, once the "cycle" begins, they just keep doing it....just like a number of giant spawns
at the moment, 3 pairs are having the continuous spawnings and i just dont bother to stop them. another 1 pair is getting to know each other and may spawn tomorrow, otherwise the female just gonna burst with eggs :)
could it be that the female is getting horny when she sees how capable the male was (proven by a bunch of fry around him), or is it just the weather and mood affecting this spawning experience?
no doubt, the experienced breeders would just spawn right away. that's pretty much given, but the newbie seems to have their own ups and downs so frequently, i started to think that it's the combination of weather and experience....
Monday, 10 September 2007
black marble
Quite excited these couple of days knowing that I've got another extremely black fish in the crowd. He is a very young 1.3 months old youngster that started to chase every other fish around. Seems to be a combination of long and short fin though as the parents carry long fin. Just have to wait for another month or so to confirm it.
Also, there are some portion of the fish that are marbling. The marble is not the typically no-colour marble. It's the chocolate colour marble. Just awesome...
Lots of sibling sisters are either melano-based or black charcoal. I'll wait for another month before trying him up with his sister. Want to see if the melano female throws fertile ones. At least the black charcoal is going to be fertile definitely.
Also, there are some portion of the fish that are marbling. The marble is not the typically no-colour marble. It's the chocolate colour marble. Just awesome...
Lots of sibling sisters are either melano-based or black charcoal. I'll wait for another month before trying him up with his sister. Want to see if the melano female throws fertile ones. At least the black charcoal is going to be fertile definitely.
Wednesday, 5 September 2007
giant difficulty spawnings
Giants, just as any other bettas, sometimes get very difficult to spawn.
I've lost a number of females during spawning....they're dead....attacked by the males
But if they survive the males and happen to fall in love with them, they spawn quite fast and quick.
The challenges are the ones with "imbalance" male vs female. I've got some huge females on stock for example. Their body alone is bigger than any males that I've got. Typically, this type of female is very pricey on the market (if happens to have someone trying to sell them to you). Now that I have them, I don't even know what to do with them since none of the males can handle these females...
These females dont seem to pay much attention to smaller males. They're not afraid of the males. In fact, I dont think they respect the males at all :)
Oh well, I'll try them on some of the largish males and we'll see how it goes :)
I've lost a number of females during spawning....they're dead....attacked by the males
But if they survive the males and happen to fall in love with them, they spawn quite fast and quick.
The challenges are the ones with "imbalance" male vs female. I've got some huge females on stock for example. Their body alone is bigger than any males that I've got. Typically, this type of female is very pricey on the market (if happens to have someone trying to sell them to you). Now that I have them, I don't even know what to do with them since none of the males can handle these females...
These females dont seem to pay much attention to smaller males. They're not afraid of the males. In fact, I dont think they respect the males at all :)
Oh well, I'll try them on some of the largish males and we'll see how it goes :)
giants and bubbles
I've been busy lately but still have the joyful of watching some of my giants making bubbles.
What is it with giants and big bubbles? I've got 3 pairs of them in the tank, they make huge and high bubbles. Typical bettas would just make large bubbles, i.e. large surface. Some of these giants, at least the ones I'm check out, have very high mountainous bubbles.
Just for the sake of curiosity, I destroyed the bubbles this morning to see if he's going to build another one. I bet he would :)
What is it with giants and big bubbles? I've got 3 pairs of them in the tank, they make huge and high bubbles. Typical bettas would just make large bubbles, i.e. large surface. Some of these giants, at least the ones I'm check out, have very high mountainous bubbles.
Just for the sake of curiosity, I destroyed the bubbles this morning to see if he's going to build another one. I bet he would :)
Friday, 17 August 2007
how much water would you like with it?
nice sometimes to heard people complement about the way we ship fish. i particularly ship fish with just sufficient space and water for the fish, that's it. some other members of the group would like to ship with with tons of water.
i think, as long as the fish is comfy in there and they are not lack of water/oxygen, then that's good enough. one time, due to shipping mishap (which happened very frequently with some courier btw), my fish was held for more than 3 days. the shipping was meant to be a 1 day trip for the fish, arriving on tuesday, but our dearest courier decided to keep the fish longer and they arrived on friday instead. well, the minimal water/oxygen that i had been provided for the fish was more than sufficient for the fish to last a couple of days trip, that was proven when the new owner happily (but very nervous) opened the bags and found they're alive and well.
on the plus side, of course there is no problem shipping more water with the fish, but i just couldn't see the point. it's not as if the fish will be happier with more water. to the contrary, more water will mean the water is going to be colder (so I believe) when they arrived, no matter how many heatpacks you ship it with....
i think, as long as the fish is comfy in there and they are not lack of water/oxygen, then that's good enough. one time, due to shipping mishap (which happened very frequently with some courier btw), my fish was held for more than 3 days. the shipping was meant to be a 1 day trip for the fish, arriving on tuesday, but our dearest courier decided to keep the fish longer and they arrived on friday instead. well, the minimal water/oxygen that i had been provided for the fish was more than sufficient for the fish to last a couple of days trip, that was proven when the new owner happily (but very nervous) opened the bags and found they're alive and well.
on the plus side, of course there is no problem shipping more water with the fish, but i just couldn't see the point. it's not as if the fish will be happier with more water. to the contrary, more water will mean the water is going to be colder (so I believe) when they arrived, no matter how many heatpacks you ship it with....
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