So things have moved on quite a bit since the last post, which is hardly a surprise given that was 4.5 months ago!!!
Finally got rid of the Nicaraguans (took them to Maidenhead Aquatics in the end). The
Pantosctictus went in an auction (I concluded they were both male). I sold all 20 bristlenoses at the same auction.
I've had some horrible losses. I was snowboarding over Christmas and came back to find all the
synspila dead along with my remaining male
istlanum. Then I lost my male Rotkeil severum to pop-eye, closely followed by my male
cutteri (who was, quite frankly, murdered). Then a couple of days ago one of my gold marble angels jumped out of their tank and snuffed it! Talk about an unlucky few months. To cap it all I nearly lost my stunning blushing paraiba angelfish male because the female I paired him up with got seriously nasty and tried to end him. Luckily he has made a full recovery.
So, is there any good news to report? Why yes, yes there is. Most importantly:
I AM GROWING OUT MY FIRST EVER EBJDS!!!! When their parents spawned I was pretty sceptical that any of the fry would be EBJD, but lo and behold the genetics worked and I now have growouts. Unfortunately a lot of them will end up being culled as they have not developed their swim bladders properly, but I would say I have 5 that swim normally and given some more time should turn out rather well. All very exciting.
I also managed to get some amazing halfmoon bettas from a chap called Steve Bell. his website is
www.bettasplendens.co.uk and I can't recommend it enough. Truly stunning fish and if you buy his home bred stock the prices aren't too bad either. I've only had my four a short while and already I've had four spawns. I have an additional two plakat bettas I bought at PetPaks in Hardwick for peanuts - they were a lucky spot and the male is gorgeous. the difficulty now is getting any of the fry I have to adulthood - they are TINY!
In other news, I am trying to sell off a lot of my stock to make room to put more BGJD pairs together and also breed my angelfish. I finally managed to sex a pair of gold marbles, so I'm expecting to have more angelfish eggs (this time in a tank to themselves where other fish won't eat them!). I'll be putting the blushing paraiba and his violent ex back together in the next couple of week too as they were outstandig parents - the only reason I don't have growouts is that they spawned in a divided section of my BGJD growout tank and the fry sadly all became food for the ravenous horde.
Right, I am starving, so time to go find some grub.
