Two Fancy Female Breeders

I managed to get two good fancy female breeders, one from a Thai breeder and another from a Malaysian breeder. Eventho they are not 6-color fancies, they are the best I could find to cross with my males for my 6-color fancy project. One thing tho, due to time and space constraint, I had to sell off one of the females as I could not accomodate too many spawns...

The females:

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6 Color Fancy

Allow me to introduce a new purchase from a Thai breeder. This is the 6 color fancy with the type of color combination I'm talking about in the previous post. Here we also see the dual tone yellow-orange fins with red "armageddon"/"dalmation" speckling on top. Having parents of this color is no guarantee that you will get offsprings of the similar color. My task is made more challenging as it was difficult to get my hands on good female breeders with similar color combination.

The male is a real stunner. Besides the pretty decent finnage, as you can see it has 6 colors : Blue (turquoise), white, yellow, orange, red, and black. Some may even say it has a 7th color, green, splashed on the dorsal and caudal.

Perhaps at the end of the day, I could start producing fancies with this coloration, with even better marbling on the body compared to this male. Wish me luck in this fancy project.

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Fancy DTPK with my favourite fancy color combo

This is my new purchase (Actually, got him almost three months ago). A DTPK Fancy from a Thai breeder. I am not really a big fan of fancies, but I really love this type of color combination. So, here I decided to begin a line of fancies, hopefully even creating a line worthy for competitions. Who knows, it may become a champion line. :) As for this color, hope that I am able to produce lots and lots of fancies with this colors, with even better pattern and contrast on the body. Also aiming to get the red "armageddon" speckling on the dual-shade (yellow orange) fin surface, as this would make a super outstanding fancy with good pattern on the fins topped up with a 6 color finish (yellow, orange, red, blue, black and white).

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Grizzle Gold Asymmetrical Plakat

Sharing a Grizzle Gold OHMPK Male.

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Gold Dragon HMPKs

Here are two sibling Gold Dragon HMPK males to share. They are from one of my "secret project" lines, and they carry the grizzling trait, as you can see - some more grizzling than others. For this batch, I'm quite happy with the decent form and finnage. BTW, all these bettas are already sold to customers.

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Lovely Gold DTPK Females

Here are two Gold DTPK females from different spawns:

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Some Gold HMPK Females

Here are some selected Gold HMPK Females from 3 different spawns... :)

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Super Red OHM Male

Here's an OHM (Over Halfmoon) Super Red Male with outstanding form & finnage... Fish is from fellow Malaysian breeder and friend, Ming Yuen. Photos by me. :p

 

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A Decent Gold Halfmoon Female

This is a sibling female to the male in this post here. Her finnage is quite decent for a halfmoon female, but the color is still not there for a gold. Lacks intensity, shine and metallic spread.

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Blackhead HMPK

Allow to share my nice Turquoise Iridescent Blackhead HMPK Male...

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Full Mask Steel Blue OHMPK

Another stunning piece from Martin Wong's line that I plan to inject into my masked HMPK lines:

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Red Dragon HMPK Male breeders

As promised (in this post), here are some more Red Dragon HMPK (Halfmoon Plakat) breeders to share with you all.

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Dusty Metallic Blood Dragon Male HMPK

This is a recent piece from one of my secret projects:

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This particular spawn was quite small, and they were hit by disease in the growout tank at around jarring age. So, there are around only 5 or less pieces from this spawn that are good enough to be sold or used as breeders.

Penang Flag Fancy Halfmoon Plakat

Couple of days ago, I just got a fancy HMPK from a fellow Malaysian breeder JL Betta from Teluk Intan -- My first fancy purchase, can you believe it! Some of his attributes attracted me to use him in one of my secret projects. Hmm.. you wonder what the secret project is, don't you? Well, lets just let it remain a secret, and don't let your curiosity kill the cat AND yourself, okay? Ha Ha! :D

At the moment, this fancy has very decent color contrast. Lets hope it stays that way as he ages...

 

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We can see three main colors on this fish: blue, white and yellow. Coincidently, these are also the colors of the Penang flag, and hence the name "Penang Flag Fancy"... Oh boy, I'm really creative, aren't I?

Recent decent result: my Gold Halfmoon project

I've been working on producing quality Gold HMs for quite some time now (1.5 years). Wasn't that easy and straightforward. I couldn't get any quality gold females as I could not find a breeder who would release any, so I sorta have to start from scratch. The whole project was also quite time consuming as well, for I took time to observe from my own fishes and results to understand gold genetics better. Several lines have been created, some discontinued, and many pieces were involved as breeders.

At last I started to see some decent results in this batch (tho its still a long journey towards achieving top-class gold halfmoons). As I intend not to display nor sell any pieces from this batch, I let the fish grow in the growout tank and they were jarred pretty late. As a result of that, the males have bent rays and uneven color/metalllic shine at the fin edges. However, I'm not really too concerned about this, as it will not effect the genetic of the males if used as breeders. Been chatting with a fellow hobbyist who requested to see some of my latest results from my Gold HM line. So, I indentified a breeder piece and snapped away:

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DTHM Gold Female

This is a DTHM (Double Tail Halfmoon) female that I've produced in one of my Gold HM lines. Wasn't really expecting DTs in this spawn, as I did not expect the father to be a DT geno, like their mother. The finnage on this piece is not good for a HM, but I might just "borrow" her DT trait and decent colouration to continue the line.

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For the Gold HMs lines that I'm currently working on, I started off by using good Gold HM males and Gold plakat females. It was difficult enough to find good Gold HM males, but even harder to find Gold HM females. Surprisingly, I found out that the males that I managed to get my hands on are plakat carriers! That would explain why it is so rare to see an excellent Gold HM in terms of color intensity, metallic shine, body and finnage. But this challenge certainly makes my project even more mouth-watering. Previous spawns were still not up to expectations. It was either color or finnage that was the problem. Finally, in this batch I see a few promising females tho they are still far from being ideal females for breeding. Well, I'm in no hurry to achieve my aim of one day producing superb Gold HMs, but I'm happy that at least results show I'm in the right direction... :)

Red Dragon HMPK Breeders

Here are two pieces that I will be using as breeders to continue my Red Dragon HMPK (Halfmoon Plakad) line...

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There are other pieces that I will be using as breeders to strengthen this Red Dragon Plakad line, and I hope to show them here later... :)

Full Mask Turquoise OHMPK

Recently also helped Jit and fellow Malaysian breeder, Martin Wong, to sell one of the latter's fish. Martin, as Malaysian breeders know consistently produces world class show grade bettas.

Here's a piece that I help took pictures of and sold.

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Another recent Super Red from Jit

Here's recent update from Jit Sin's Super Red line. For a Jit Sin Super Red plakat, this fish a bit smallish, cause 'somebody' was a bit too busy to pump up this batch properly... Normally the size for this line is very good, much larger than the size of an average plakat. Many people who sees the size of plakats from this line would ask if it was a giant, or if it was a (so-called) giant geno.

I particularly like the finnage on this male, especially his big caudal. Colour is excellent with very minimal black wash and irids..

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Jit's recent Super Red and Black Dragon updates

Friend and breeder, Jit Sin have been keeping his Super Red HMPK and Black Dragon HMPK lines for several years now. And as we can all see, they have reached very high standards. Here are some photos that I took of his most recent fishes from the lines.

 

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Update: Recent Gold HMPK Results Part 3

More updates from my recent intense gold HMPK batch. These guys are also sold, and Male 5 was sold at a record price for me in an auction.

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Update: Recent Gold HMPK Results Part 2

Here are two more males from my recent gold HMPK batch. Again, these guys are sold.

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Update: Recent Gold HMPK Results Part 1

This is the first piece that I jarred from this gold plakat batch. The results from this batch are pretty decent, thus I feel it is worth sharing. The color of this batch is the best I've bred, the most intense gold I've seen. However, finnage and body will need further improvement. I'm hoping that I can improve the color even further (yes, I'm not insane yet.. haha). BTW, this fish is sold..

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Another Good Gold Halfmoon

Allow me to share with you this male Gold Halfmoon. For a gold halfmoon, this piece has good finnage shape and balance. Gold spread, shine and intensity are good too. Hope to be crossing him with one of my broad dorsal females soon. Hopefully, the results will be smashing. Wish me luck.

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Black Dragon Female HMPK

Got this black dragon halfmoon plakat female from a local Malaysian breeder and friend, Justin. This black dragon is a direct result of a sibling pair straight from Jit's line. So, one thing for sure it is from a stable black dragon line. Color separation, ventral length and caudal shape may not be as ideal as I hope for, but the black intensity is pretty impressive on this lady. And did I also mention, she is full-masked? Another thing I like about her is her dorsal: not bad for a non-DT-geno fish. Will be spawning her soon in one of my "underground" projects. Anyways, here she is:

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A pair of Gold Dragon Halfmoon Males

Here's a pair of Gold Dragon Halfmoon siblings I'll like to share. Still considering if I want to use any fish from this spawn to continue the line. Maybe will use one to outcross.

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Orange Dragon Male

I've selected this orange dragon for photoshoot. He is from quite a big spawn. The orange color is quite nice. Dragon masking needs improvement, and the banding needs to go.

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A Gold plakat from a disaster spawn

Due to a disease outbreak in the grow out tank, many of the bettas from a gold spawn of mine died after reaching adult size. I do hope that I can salvage one or two females from this line to outcross with my other gold lines. Here is an out-of-water picture of one of the females from the spawn.

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Sharing a Copper Marble HMPK

I don't really keep marble or fancy lines, but I have a spawn that is an exception. Here's a black copper marble male halfmoon plakat for show.

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The Last Copper HMPK of the batch

Here is one of the Golden Coppers from my latest golden copper plakat spawn. His growth was relatively slower than his brothers, but since now he has reached full adult size and could show his full potential, I decided to take some photographs of him showing off. His color is relatively greener than his siblings, which could be caused by him having a more intense iridescent layer rather than because of having a different iridescent hue. His form will be useful for me to develop better golds, and going foward, I need to pair him with a female with less branching and a shorter anal. Presenting my boy:

 

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Red Dragon Halfmoon Breeders

I've chosen two males to continue my Red Dragon Halfmoon project. At first glance, I'm sure many of you would think that these bettas are not impressive. However, as you may already know, I've somewhat attained my objective of this generation as I was able to stabilize the white coloration of dragon scales, achieve decent dragon spread/separation and good masking. Male B was chosen due to his excellent masking (even covers the mouth area), great color separation (notice how the dragon scaling ends neatly at the edge of the body without spilling into the fins?), and the solid intense red on the fins which spreads well without leaving any area uncovered or without any banding. But of course, the finnage of Male B is still poor and this is the case for almost all the siblings of this generation. Male C on the other hand was chosen due to his good deportment (the best of the whole spawn, I may say), fantastic masking and relatively good finnage (I did not take care of the water very well for this whole batch which affected the quality of the fins, and I think this guy may have already had torn fins when I jarred him more than a month ago). So, here are the two pieces.

 

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Golden Platinum Dragon OHMPK

Also from one of the spawns from a gold project, popped out this guy. He is a very platinum looking plakat due to the thick opaque, combined with the metallic sheen throughout his body. This combination also cost some slight "dust" or greyish grizzling at the fins and body. I have displayed this fish for some time to friends and fellow local hobbyists, and he seemed to get heaps of praises due to his finnage and form. I intend to use him as a breeder, maybe increase the opaqueness, but definitely the goal is not to develop gold. So, let another secret project begin! :)

His stout appearance is an attraction to many, but I feel that it is because he is slightly short-bodied. Will ensure that the female I use compensates this trait, and also his heavy branching. Here's my boy:

 

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Golden Coppers

I'm very happy with the results of the golden copper halfmoon plakat spawn in this generation. Tho, there is more work to be done on the line. This line is actually created to compliment my gold lines, thus is a line from one of my gold projects. I've posted two of them (copper gold gas) in this post [click]. Presenting some of these copper males:

 

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Platinum Red Dragon Halfmoon

Hmm... Just found out I have this piece today. Didn't realize I had it until today, when I was doing a photography session. Didn't expect to get any pieces with decent balanced finnage at this stage of my red dragon halfmoon project. Was focusing more on masking and the white/platinum dragon colour, which I'm grateful that I've achieved a satisfactorily high percentage of good masking and nice white dragon scales this generation. This piece however, has less superior masking compared to his siblings.

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It has been almost a year, developing this red dragon HM line from red dragon plakat. The masking is quite excellent now and the color separation (for the bicolor class) is quite good. Just need to work a bit on the dragon coverage around the peduncle. You'll see what I mean when you see the other siblings. Hope to continue the project by improving the finnage next. Wish me luck.

Golden Copper HMPK Female

Hi all. Out of my whole spawn of coppers, I've chosen the best female to show you all. Its a female with broad dorsal, short anal, nice caudal (with rather sharp edges), straight rays, moderately even branching, nice smooth topline, overlapping unpaired fins, and decent dorsal first ray length. Just jarred her about two days before taking the photos, so I expect the masking to improve further. Should be a full masked girl. And as you can see some scales were injured before, most probably due to fighting in the comm tank, and they didn't (or haven't) really heal properly. Here's the lady:

 

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