December spawns

I've set up 3 spawns for December! What a huge month! (I'm hoping to stave the winter blues with lots of fish :) ) Let's see the lineup.

SCB12201101LBGB
Goal: Nice Black Green HMs. Looking to refine green into a hunter green.


Male: HM black green butterfly
Purchased from Aquabid seller Nyhm
Comments: nice all around finnage. Can use some work on his dorsal. Anal fin is a touch long. Nice even topline with a nice strong body and even scales.


Female: Black green HM
Purchased from Aquabid seller Nyhm.
Comments: Gorgeous girl. Bit of smudged scales - hopefully that doesn't translate to the fry. Great dorsal to make up for where the male lacks. I suspect she carries DT because of it.

Spawned: 12/12/2011
Free Swimming: 12/15/2011


SCB12201102LMHM
Goal: Continue this multicolor HM line to an f2!


Male: metallic royal blue HM
Bred by me!
Comments: A bit branchy in his anal fin, and his dorsal is a bit weak, but he has a great body and scales. He's very flamboyant and flares at everything. The edges of his caudal are scalloped due to his extra branching.


Female: Metallic royal blue dragon black red butterfly
Bred by me!
Comments: This girl is very dominant. She's being bred to this male in order to bring some more color to him and so that I can get some coppers out of the mix. I love coppers. I'm hoping for some nice marbles or butterflies as well.

Spawned: 12/13/2011
Free swimming: late 12/15 early 12/16/2011


SCB12201103GCT
Goal: Get that male's awesome dorsal into the start of a green black crowntail line.


Male: Turquoise Halfsun
Purchased from Petco (I know, right?)
Comments: Excellent father, amazing finnage, no real spinal issues, long body for a dt, what more can I ask for for that price?


Female: royal blue black ct
Purchased from Aquabid seller 84elmo2001
Comments: Good coloring and topline. Strong rays. Dorsal could use some work, but that's what Finnigan is for. As with most cts her peduncle is a bit weak. This is why I am crossing in a non-ct. It is very hard to find CTs with strong peduncles.

Added to spawning tank: 12/15/2011 - male already has a sizeable nest.
EDIT: Spawned 12/16/2011


SCBPLECOSURPRISE
And a completely unplanned December spawn goes to the BN Plecos! There are 6 albinos in their spawn.

Product Review: Plecocaine

I bought the product Plecocaine from aquabid seller Lohachata.

Plecocaine is a high protein slow sinking fish food. Lohachata does not publish the ingredients, but certifies that it is a high quality food that he feeds to all of his fish.

Plecocaine is available in 4 sizes. Here's the quote from the auction:

#01..............a powder for larger new fry...
#02............a granule for juveniles and smaller fish like tetras, barbs, danios and little plecos...
#03..........a small pellet 1/32" dia. for medium sized fishlike plecos,dwarf cichlids etc...
#04.........a medium pellet 1/16" dia. for larger fish...

I bought the auction for 1 lb of plecocaine and chose the 01 and 02 sizes so that I could feed it to my betta and angel fry.

When the package came, I also received a small sample of algae wafers, size 03, size 04, powdered krill, and a some candy (thanks Lohachata!). I right away fed some of the smallest size to the fry. They LOVED IT. This was the first time I've ever seen fry (who have recently eaten) eat something new without spitting it out.

Then I gave some of size 04 to my BN plecos. They also woofed it down.

Then I gave some of size 04 to my Unimaculata adults and they attacked it! I put in a bit of 02 for their baby fry in the tank and the adults were going after that too!

So in conclusion, this food is loved by the fish. And SUPER cheap! Lohachata is awesome to interact with and the transactions went very smoothly. I don't know how he is making money on these foods.

New fish!

I had my first not great experience with USPS. I had ordered a pair of fish from Aquabid seller Nyhm (Jacky), and he had sent them express on Monday. It was in the 60's on Monday, and Tuesday. The package was guaranteed to arrive by noon on Tuesday, but apparently the shipping process isn't entirely automated and someone punched in the zip code as 15601 instead of 15106. Luckily this is only on the other side of town, and was in my town the next day. Once the postman learned that there were live fish in the box, he personally delivered it. Thanks postman!

And the part you are all waiting for! Pictures! These are the auction pictures, and credit goes to the seller, Nyhm.





The male was very quick to acclimate and was flaring at everything right out the gate. The female however was pale and laid back for the first day. She has started to color up and flirt with the males around her.

What would you like an article about?

I can talk about fish for ages. This often causes problems because then I don't know where to start!

What would you like to see a post about? If I don't know, I'll be glad to research for you! Keep the posts generally fish related ;)

Fishroom changes

I've been trying to keep my betta count down to a manageable amount so that I had the space to also move around my tanks and furniture in the basement. I want to get rid of a lot of solitary tanks on stands so that I can rearrange an area to be a sitting area where I can just read a book and listen to the sound of water flowing. So far this has worked out.

I broke down the female sorority and got rid of the girls I wasn't going to be able to use. This freed up my shelf of a 20L, which then turned into 4 10 gallon tanks. Two of these tanks already have fry in them from my CT spawns and from my surprise angelfish spawn. The other two tanks need cleaned a bit but will then be used as breeding tanks. I'll have on that shelf a 20L growout and 4 breeding tanks. Above that will be adult jars. I also have two 20 gallon tanks that will eventually become growouts as well. If I have any massive spawns, I might just have to break out the 40 breeder I have in the garage. Usually my spawns stay small though.

I have purchased the majority of things needed to make a betta barracks! For those of you unfamiliar with the term, this is a system that keeps multiple betta jars on one filtration unit. Most betta barracks are drip/overflow systems. This means that the fresh water drips into the jar and the old water overlfows out an overflow hole. Often then gutter is used to transport the old water to the sump where it is filtered, heated, and pumped back up to the jars. This is the kind of system I'll be making. I've got everything but the gutter, UV filter, and air line valves. I've ordered the airline valves from Wet Pets and Friends and they should be ready for me to pick up! I plan on stopping by on Friday night to get them.

First post!

I'm going to try and keep this blog going and up to date with things like spawn information, product reviews and tips and tricks. I had a hard time keeping my website going because it wasn't entirely obvious that anyone was even reading what I was writing. With this, I'll be able to read your feedback and know what it is pehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifople want to know!

Thanks for taking a look!

You can still access the old website at www.steelcitybettas.com. I just had trouble editing the site and have a lot of pages that are invisible as they are under construction. I hope to eventually move these pages into informational pages on that site again.