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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