A Good Catch

The feeling of getting a good catch for a good price is simply marvelous. I got this salamendar plakat few weeks back in a local LFS. It was frail and sick, left in a corner where nobody bothers to check it up.

I decided to pick it up because it has very good banding and there seem quite a decent number of caudal rays, though its finnage were clamped up due to the sickness. The caudal edges still recovering from the minor fin rot cannot hide the true beauty of this piece.

This fish will definitely affect my salamender breeding plan :))

Project Updates

Its been a long time since I updated my Betta blog. I am just distracted by my other fishes - either goldfish or guppy. Of course, I have not neglected my bettas - I merely spawn lesser in the midst of the Ranchu breeding season and to ease on maintenance, I culled even stricter.

Here is about the only blackhead royal blue I keep for propagating:

... and I am also trying to reboot my old sala line, so far only the pineapple variants has better finnage:

Activating the Salamendar...

one of the 2 males I keep in spawn #5
5 weeks old at just below 1.5 inches

The Salamender Plakat line is one of the lines that I seriously track besides the red line. I've been trying to rejuvenate my sala line since the last major accidental wipe out leaving only a few less-than-optimal fishes as breeders. I had done a total of 5 test spawns this year and only keep a few from each to selective breed for features. Spawn #5 this year has a few with acceptable bandings and features.

the other side of the same male

This line looks like a symmetrical plakat when young, but the finnages will usually grow longer as it ages. It is very challenging to maintain a thicker banding which is balance throughout the finnages. When one parameter is tracked too closely, the other parameters tend to go haywire :(

Over the Moon...

My Sala spawn has been quite encouraging...

There are two morphs, the normal pectoral sala and the big pectoral (dumbo) sala. Hope I can maintain this line strong...

Some of the Boys   

& The Girls