Baby Betta

No, I haven''t got any yet. I stumbled upon a guide the other day to how big you can expect your babies to be at various ages. And I thought baby Guppies were tiny...

So what I'm going to do here is two charts, the first one is the guide. The second I will fill out once my babies arrive to see how they compare.

Guide:

Age	Size
1 month	1/4" to 3/8"
6 weeks	1/2" to 5/8"+
2 months	1"+
10 weeks	1-1/4"+
3 months	1-3/4"+
14 weeks	2"+
4 months	2-1/4"+

My Babies:

Age	Size
1 month
6 weeks
2 months
10 weeks
3 months
14 weeks
4 months

Breeds of Betta

So far as I can tell, there is nowhere on the interwebs that has a comprehensive list of Betta breeds in one place, with pictures, so everyone else can work out what on earth the difference between a Halfmoon and a Crowntail is!! So I have done some plagiarising of people's photos and I have tried to put together a fairly complete list here:



Veil Tail

The most common breed, the one you usually see in the fish shops. Also one of the hardier breeds and therefor good for beginners.
Characterised by the "droopy" tail fin.

(Photo is mine, it's Bruce!)



Halfmoon

The tail fin on these is, like the name suggests, shaped like half a moon. The edges of the fins are always equal and symmetrically shaped.

(Photo pinched from here)





Delta Tail

Basically an "almost-Halfmoon" The tail does not extend up and down completely vertically into a full half circle like a Halfmoon, but almost does.

(Photo pinched from here)



Super Delta Tail

Basically halfway between a Delta Tail and a Halfmoon. The tail extends just that little bit closer to vertical than a normal Delta Tail.

(Photo pinched from here)




Plakat
This is a short-finned Betta of any sort. These are the closest to wild Betta, however wild ones don't have such bright colours. You can also get a Delta Tail-Plakat or a Halfmoon-Plakat. This means the fins will have Delta/Halfmoon shaping, but be shorter.

(Photo pinched from here)


Crowntail

Currently a very popular fish! Crowntails have a Halfmoon-shaped tail with crown-like prongs on the tips of the tail and fins.

(Photo pinched from here)




Rosetail

Basically a Halfmoon with fins which "gather", giving the effect of a Rose.

(Photo pinched from here)





Doubletail

What it says on the tin! The tail is split into two parts.

(Photo pinched from here)






And finally...


Female Betta

The ladyfish of the species! This image shows a very common colouring for females. All females have short fins, usually shorter even than a Plakat male. They also tend to be very "drab" coloured for the main part, but brighter coloured on the fins.

(Picture pinched from here)




Well, my favourite's still gotta be Veil Tail...closely followed by Halfmoon though!

Genetics

I have been doing a little research to see what kind of betta fish I'm likely to get from Jin and Xiaoyu when they're ready to go at it again.
The answer is Veil Tail, I think! (This is what Bruce is)
Xiaoyu is a half Plakat half Veil Tail female, Jin is a Crowntail male. Veil Tail is the dominant gene from that lot, followed by Crowntail and then Plakat. At least as far as I can tell anyway. So I'm hoping for a majority of Veil Tails, and if I'm lucky, something that at least looks a bit like a Crowntail too! Will have to wait and see.

Tetras

Oops.

A very, very big oops.

I currently have a black widow tetra in one of the other tanks recovering from shock and a nearly fatal little injury.
He got sucked up the filter...got to be the most traumatic thing I have ever had to deal with!! And I've crashed motorbikes!

What happened was this; when getting this new tank ready for fish we took off the little bit on the end of the filter to get the job done a bit quicker and then forgot to put it back on. So when we put the new fish in, this one poor little bugger swam a bit too close to it before we'd realised, got sucked up the tube and promptly got stuck! Turned the filter off pretty quick, but he was not coming back out... Tried blowing through it, tried gently pulling him out, nothing worked. In the end, we connected the part of the filter tube he was stuck in to the filter's outflow tube, and turned the damnded thing on. The water forced him out, but not without him getting quite badly hurt. He sank down to the bottom of the tank and sat there gasping for a good ten minutes. Just as I was thinking we were going to have to give him up for dead, he bobbed up, right as rain and started swimming around with the two other tetras!
So, 4 days later, he's still doing incredibly well, shockingly. He's very bright and alert and eating well. He just has a rather nasty red patch on his head where the filter tube did the damage. To be on the safe side, I have treated the tank with Protozin to prevent any bacterial infections taking hold.

Oh, and fitted the end of the bloody tube properly!!

My other female fighters are in there too now, and that is a tragedy I could not cope with!

Another update on Bruce

I can't be certain, but I am fairly sure those stumpy little fins of his are getting a bit longer!!

I am going to continue the treatment until I am 110% certain that there's good solid regrowth, but things are looking up! Bruce is also looking much much happier and much more active which is great news. Fortunately the finrot didn't reach his body, although it got a damn sight closer than I would have liked.

So, maybe, if I'm convinced he's in perfect health at the time, I shall still get a chance to breed with him!

...and it was all going so well!!

I made a cock up.

Not a particularly humongous one. The fish are still alive! But big enough to cock up the spawning.

In my infinite wisdom and excitement I forgot to lower the water level...
But I did get to see the bubblenest. I also saw Xiaoyu do her "come get me big boy" dance. I also saw the embrace! Several of them actually. It's beautiful to watch, and I got it on film!!
Then I saw Xiaoyu releasing her eggs, then I saw Jin completely ignoring them, then I saw Jin destroying the bubblenest, then I saw Xiaoyu hiding and showing her "fear lines", then I fished Jin out and dumped him in Xiaoyu's tank so he'd leave her alone...

Bollocks.

So I shall reattempt in a few days time. In the mean time, I shall clean out the breeding tank and LOWER THE BLOODY WATER LEVEL.

Have I got that part in my head yet?

LOWER THE BLOODY WATER LEVEL

LOWER THE BLOODY WATER LEVEL

LOWER THE BLOODY WATER LEVEL

LOWER THE BLOODY WATER LEVEL

Yep, I think we're good!