Marko's 5 gallon Betta Barracks -- update (4/13/13)

[SpecGrrl]

Really lovely fish!

[@marko@]

Originally Posted by orchidman

that black devil look nice!!

thanks. im particularly proud of his webbing reductions. he has a pretty perfect 50% first tier, 25% second tier reduction, which many consider to be the optimal webbing reduction in DR CTs.

but im still partial to the balog CTs, namely Phantosos. im so relieved i managed to get him through a flexibacter (columnaris) infection, and a simultaneous opportunistic case of velvet. hes the guy i plan on using to sire my F2s.

Really lovely fish!

thank you.

[orchidman]

do you have any better photos so we can appreciate how great his finnage is?

i love balogs! pics of that one too

[@marko@]

here is a pic of Phantosos (the balog):


i dont have a recent one of Erebus. the older ones show him at a 40%/15% webbing reduction, but now rays have grown longer and the webbing not as much (thats the normal pattern for growth in CTs). its possible that as he ages he might even attain 60% webbing reduction between rays and 30% between ray branches, but that would take a long while, as he is now full grown.

[orchidman]

He has very even fins. Very nice indeed! I actually like the steel blue powder color on him, mine is a more saturated royal blue but i also love the royal blue! I need to find some time get some high quality photos of mine!

[@marko@]

i preffer royal blue and green to steel blue. but the blues are easy to control.
there are 2 alleles for iridescence in bettas (the blues), steel blue and green. the two exhibit classical incomplete dominance, a fish with one of each allele has royal blue iridescence.
as long as i maintain a royal blue fish in the line, i have both alleles to work with. that is why im pretty pleased that my best looking female happens to be royal blue. so if she is the dame of my F2s (which i plan for her to be), i will have 50% steel blue, and 50% royal blue (same as with this spawn, where the sire was royal blue, and the dame was steel blue).

[orchidman]

thats awesome! its cool you can have the gene but have the royal blue as well. do you have any fish exhibiting green? i love green bettas!

can we see pics of the dam?

[@marko@]

Originally Posted by orchidman

thats awesome! its cool you can have the gene but have the royal blue as well. do you have any fish exhibiting green? i love green bettas!

can we see pics of the dam?

no green from this spawn. the sire was royal blue and the dame was steel blue. here is a punnet square (GG=green, SS=steel, GS=SG=royal):
F\M | G | S |
S | SG | SS |
S | SG | SS |
so you can see the possibility in the types of iridescence in one of the offspring is limited to royal blue (SG), or steel blue (SS), with a 50% chance of each. GG (green iridescence) i not possible from a royal blue pairing. that would require a pairing of two royal blue parents (25% chance for each offspring), a royal blue and a green (50%), or 2 green parents (100%).
my F2s will thus also be only royal and steel blue. but if i choose to breed F3 (and i so far intend to), then i may very well choose to breed 2 royal blue fish, creating a spawn displaying all 3 phenotypes.

pics of the dame are in my sorority journal on page 2. she is the one i describe as the looking orchid female, and photographed extensively (compared to the rest) in my most recent update (on 9/9/12).
she has excellent coloration, and decent finnage (would prefer if her caudal ray extensions were closer to 33%, than 25%).
females always have less prominent webbing reduction than males, which is why they do not show in CT classes in competitions, but rather in color classes based on their color. in general the more webbing reduction you can get on the females the better, though, as dames with more webbing reduction will produce males with greater webbing reduction than a dame with less reduction.

[orchidman]

cool! and you r F2 generation will be steel blue x steel blue?

[@marko@]

nope, they will be steel (sire) x royal (dame).

[orchidman]

gotcha. i thought the dame was steel. sounds like a good cross!

[moosenart]

This thread makes me want another betta fish.

[@marko@]

some more pics:

FTS-


xmas moss carpet


peacock moss carpet


Phantosos's tail


Erebus's tail

[andrewss]

interesting layout, I really like the dark colors

[andrewss]

hey, I figured I would ask you about this...

So your fish Phantosos - is he a black copper crowntail king betta?

I like the look... example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20KH8...eature=related

The first betta in that vid is the same type? Either way the hues on the body and the highlights in the tail are great

I gotta figure out where the best place is to shop for these guys