HMPK Betta Spawns 2021

New spawns in the making! I want to continue my blue marble line that I’ve had going since 2017. Working on the 5th generation now and outcrossing with unrelated females. The male is a bi-color marbled male with possible “dragon” qualities, he is about 1.5 year old, long in the tooth but still going strong.


First spawn was to my HMPK koi female I bred from a galaxy koi pair. She’s about 9 months old. The fry were few in number so I moved them to another tank. They are 3 weeks old and doing good.




Yesterday the male spawned with a new yellow dragon female. She is all around lovely, the pictures do not do her justice. Very nice form and a good size.



Bought another from the same seller who I am thinking of crossing with a koi male.



Dad is being lazy and doing the bare minimum on his bubble nest. He’s also moved them out from under the leaf and into the back corner.





Another pairing is being planned, I paid a pretty penny for them. More details on them when they get here.

 

Eggs have hatched, lots of white fry! Dad is still doing the bare minimum for his nest, trumpet snails keep invading so he’s moved them a couple more times.


Note to self, remove snails before the next spawn! Not sure if they are able to eat eggs but I wouldn’t put it passed them.

 

Dad did a great job at caring for his brood, he is currently still in the spawn tank with the free swimming fry and has stopped trying to gather and keep them in the corner. It's a pretty good spawn! Babies are eating BBS, micro worms and vinegar eels. So far not much else to report other than a few fry that have obvious spinal deformities. They will be culled if they make it passed the first few weeks.

Just before they became free swimming I noticed a fry from the first spawn on the other side of the divider. I'm not sure how it evaded the yellow dragon female for the few days I had her on that side but it was very plump, definitely one of the largest in the small spawn. It is now with its siblings in the 5gal. They are getting their dorsal and tiny ventral fins, the largest have the juvenile markings too.

 

New bettas for breeding stock! Bought a pair if nemo tigers off coastgemusa BUT the male has a growth on his beard/chin area. The photos they listed him with did not show this growth and the youtube video they used was added a few months ago. He obviously developed this growth after the video/photos. I contacted the seller, no reply after a whole week. Not happy with them. The female is huge and looks nice but I noticed one of her pelvic fins is stuck on place. I’m assuming it’s and old injury.





Due to the not-so-great results of the very expensive pair bought from a commercial seller, I decided to buy a pair from a breeder on ebay for the price of one of the bettas above. First the female.



The two boys showing off.




I like the overall form of the light tiger male better so I will probably breed from him despite the growth. It does not seem to bother him at all. He is honestly a very nice fish.

I am currently decided who I should pair with who. Plans are to breed both tiger males and both females. The newer pair is younger and siblings, their other siblings looked great so I can say for certain they come from good stock. But it could be a good idea to outcross the sibling pair by trading females. Decision decisions.

But then there’s this chunky boy from the last galaxy koi spawn. He’s not bad looking and could make a decent breeder. His sister was paired with the marble male in the first post.

 

Decided to move ahead to the next pair so had to empty the 10gal spawning tank. There was ~200(!) fry from the yellow dragon female and marble male. I did not think there were so many! A few were culled as they had spinal deformities as shown in the first photo. I moved them to a 5gal with some rainbow/ricefish/rasbora fry around the same size. This tank will be getting daily 50% water changes.





There are still several fry in the 10gal, I have to try catching them again tonight. Whatever doesn’t get caught will face the pair of tiger kois.

The older fry from the koi female were moved from the 5gal to a 7.4gal planted tank. I only counted a dozen but they look great. So far they are green and blue/purple.

 

No new babies from the tiger koi project. Both males seem to be having problems, the darker male acts as though he is partially blind while the lighter male’s chin growth ruptured so he’s getting some TLC. The female tiger is very eager to breed, she was releasing eggs while flirting to her brother across the divider.

The 12 koi/marble cross juveniles were moved into a 29gal, some are marbling now.



Yellow dragon/marble spawn was split up between a 5 and 10gal. Fry are showing iridescence and red wash in some. Most the fry with deformities have been culled but I’ve seen one or two swimming around. I have not been doing extra water changes like I should so they are on the smaller side for their age.






I really want to get a spawn of tiger kois going, therefore I’ve purchased another male due to arrive later this week.

 

Babies from the yellow dragon female are coloring up. Many are showing the “dragon scale” characteristics. Some currently look like red cambodians, several are still cellophane and a small amount are blue. There’s a coppery/platinum male that is looking pretty cool too.




2 males from the koi/marble spawn were separated a few weeks ago. One is blowing nests, the other hasn’t started yet. No pics yet.

No tiger koi progress yet. Last time I tried the female started releasing eggs on her own again...

 

More pictures of the yellow/marble spawn. They are so stinkin cute, I’m loving the metallics showing up. Not sure about the genetics for metallic coloration so no clue where it came from. A few generations ago I did use a metallic HM female but ended up mixing them with the spawn from a marbled HM female. Not sure which fry came from which female so no idea if that metallic gene floated along to this spawn. Could be all from the yellow female too.

 

Update time! 4 males are now jarred, should jar about 6 others but I’ll wait a bit longer. One juvenile male was sent home with my sister. In the “runt” 10gal tank there are way more males than females. One male really sticks out.




I’m currently loving the silver/copper individuals, looks like many will have a red wash to them, like the biggest male who has very forward pointing pelvic fins. They got a lot of their color (metallic+red) and form from their mom, she is really a stunning fish.





Pics of their mom a few of her daughters plus a couple koi x marble females (solid blue)



I’ve been adding females in with my sorority to grow, they play nice most the time. Pretty much all the blue fish are from the koi x marble spawn.


There’re more females than males in the 29gal growout that houses the larger juveniles, and a ton of male guppies. Lots of color in that tank.





I hope to start selling some mid-January. If I can sell groups of unsexed young ones that means more room for the others to grow. I have plenty to spare and want to focus on just a couple dozen to see how they turn out as adults.

 

Little ones are doing great, here’s a few of the male I have yet to separate. The first one is super cute IMO.









Some females I selected to grow out a bit more. All of them are pretty nice looking.

 

I did a rough head count on the total young I raised up from the blue marble male’s spawn. Came out to ~130 young ones! Would be more but I culled pretty heavily when they were about a centimeter long.

A few of the better males that have been separated for a little while. The first one is my favorite, may keep him and a similar colored female, there are a few to choose from.





Also, a pic of the male koi from the galaxy spawn (brother of the koi female in the first post. Debating on getting a female for him or crossing him back to his niece.

 

Better photos of the next breeder male and possible pairs for him. His pelvic fins are just so forward facing but his color and other fins make up for it. I do think he’s a little hunch backed too but I can work with that. I don’t normally name fish anymore but I think I’ll call him Walker. He has his own 10gal now, the one his great-X4 grandpa lived in.




The 3 silver females that I really like. The most vibrant one and the darker based female are both good matches for him. Having a hard time deciding which one I want to use. There is another that has the red blotches in the fins but the form on her is not the best.






One individual in the female tank is looking more like a male but he also has the cute vibrant white pectoral fins like their dad. Also has just a few faint spots of blue on his side. Perhaps someone to keep an eye on.



Cute “red dragon” female. There were a number of these but oddly no males with this specific coloration. Would of liked a pair of them.



Bonus picture of their dad, he’s so big. I’ve noticed a little tissue growth between his pelvic fins, the ever so common kind that plagues bettas. Usually they show up sooner, he definitely didn’t have it when I bred him.


A few more, the first two are such oddballs in color. I kinda like the weird coppery marbled thing going on.

 

Some of the boys. Super cute coppery marble male who I can’t get enough of. He’s on the small side so probably won’t be good breeding quality but still adorable. Polkadot male and all blue male are both from the koi female. Tattered fins are not from fighting btw and I am working on getting them healed up.

 

shinerDryden do you see any particular males in the last post that you really like?

 

shinerDryden do you see any particular males in the last post that you really like?

of coarse!! all of them lol, again the one with the rims caught my eye 1st!!!

 

Man, those are some pretty fish
Will you have spawns ready in September by any chance?

 

im not sure how to do it, but i wanted to share a vid of one of my tank builds, its on youtube..

 

Man, those are some pretty fish
Will you have spawns ready in September by any chance?

I stop shipping in the hot weather, after the summer heat is mostly passed I will probably resume shipping in October. My current stock of fish in general is getting low (thankfully!) and I'll be raising up the next group of youngsters. I hope to get another betta spawn or two going in the next couple months so ~6-8 months form then I'll have another batch of bettas along with BN plecos, rice fish, and guppies.

im not sure how to do it, but i wanted to share a vid of one of my tank builds, its on youtube..

You'd have to copy and paste the link in a reply, works great most the time!

 

I stop shipping in the hot weather, after the summer heat is mostly passed I will probably resume shipping in October. My current stock of fish in general is getting low (thankfully!) and I'll be raising up the next group of youngsters. I hope to get another betta spawn or two going in the next couple months so ~6-8 months form then I'll have another batch of bettas along with BN plecos, rice fish, and guppies.

Awesome! Hopefully I'll be working on getting my breeding plans going by then, but I'm thinking of picking up another pair or two.

 

I stop shipping in the hot weather, after the summer heat is mostly passed I will probably resume shipping in October. My current stock of fish in general is getting low (thankfully!) and I'll be raising up the next group of youngsters. I hope to get another betta spawn or two going in the next couple months so ~6-8 months form then I'll have another batch of bettas along with BN plecos, rice fish, and guppies.


You'd have to copy and paste the link in a reply, works great most the time!

think i got it

shinerDryden do you see any particular males in the last post that you really like?

this girl with the rims spoken for?

 

think i got it

this girl with the rims spoken for?

Not entirely sure it's a female. It's one of the runts that was too pretty to cull so I held onto it to see how the colors develop. I'm thinking it's a male but time will tell (she/he can be yours once you hit 50 messages )

 

Not entirely sure it's a female. It's one of the runts that was too pretty to cull so I held onto it to see how the colors develop. I'm thinking it's a male but time will tell (she/he can be yours once you hit 50 messages )

'50 messages' < thats about the only way i know how to 'hit 50 messages'

 

Decided to keep another pair from the spawn. Pretty sure these are full siblings from the koi female. I did not expect them to be so spotted, but I do not expect them to stay like this either. That’s just how marbling goes I guess.






The male was an ugly duckling until I separated him out. He started out all blue like most of my blue marbles do.



I hope to start getting the two pairs spawning sometime in April/May. Just need to shuffle around other fish (or get more tanks).

 

Decided to keep another pair from the spawn. Pretty sure these are full siblings from the koi female. I did not expect them to be so spotted, but I do not expect them to stay like this either. That’s just how marbling goes I guess.
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The male was an ugly duckling until I separated him out. He started out all blue like most of my blue marbles do.
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I hope to start getting the two pairs spawning sometime in April/May. Just need to shuffle around other fish (or get more tanks).

Wow, beautiful pair!!

 

I moved out and jarred 11 more males the other day, I noticed a few were really getting aggressive. Better to separate them before they hurt each other. They are already blowing bubbles nests in their jars. These are the boys as I was moving them.



There are 3-4 males left with a handful of “cull” females in the 29gal growout. I’ve also sold off most the male guppies so I can finally relax on water changes.

This little guy is one left in the tank. A slow grower for sure.



This male has a lot of pastel coloring going on. He was jarred.


Then this male, he does not look very manly yet. He was also jarred.



I’ll be setting up one of the pairs in a 5gal for spawning this week. It will probably be the silver pair as that male is more mature.

 

Silver pair is spawning today! Took nearly a week of introducing and flirting before they finally got down to business. It’s almost hard to watch an inexperienced pair breed for the first time. The male has been pretty brutal, several times I found the female hiding in a very creative way... never had them do this before!



I’ll be creating a new thread for 2022 spawns once the fry are free swimming. My next few posts here will be about a recap for last year’s spawns with final head/gender counts and showing the better individuals.

 

Alrighty, so the final count for 2021 HMPK spawns

Yellow dragon X blue marble- 94
Males-26
Females-57
Unsexed sold as “culls”-11

Some of the “stand out” males






I culled heavily when these guys were itty bitty 1 month olds. Runts and misshapen fry were taken out. As a result I had very few with spinal deformities. At most I would say maybe 10 have slight tail kinks. Not bad really. Colors were interesting.
Male colors
-3 blue body red fins
-3 blue marble
-2 copper
-6 silver (2 with red fins)
-2 Cambodian
-11 cellophane based
Female colors (can’t remember them all)
~18 silver (some with red fins)
~7 redish
~7 Cambodian
~25 cellophane based

I kept this pair to breed from





Koi X blue marble- 12
Males- 3
Females- 9

This spawn was small, it was the male’s first batch so he was learning. 1 male jumped shortly after being separated out, 1 female ended up being culled due to illness. All were blue/blue marbles.
Male colors
-1 blue
-2 blue marble
Female colors
-5 blue marbles
-4 blues

I kept this pair to breed from