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Almost quit breeding bettas


shadoh

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I came very close to pulling the pin on breeding bettas altogether tonight. I haven't had great success in months. Half of my Yellow marble HMPK spawn have SBD (the silver lining is that I have some stunners in the fish that are well), the orange marble HMPK's haven't grown in a month - they get 3 meals a day and 4 waterchanges a week. My white HMPK spawn have had numbers dwindle all week. I've gone from a full tank to finding it hard to find one fry. I dedicate 90% of my free time to my fish, so it isn't neglect. They have plenty of live varied foods and all get 50% water changes every second day (aged water with IAL and perfect water parameters.) I don't know what more I could be doing.

I think I just need to step back for a few days, breathe, and get back up on the horse and keep trying. I might even spend a day re-arranging the fish room to drive out the bad vibes :)

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Seems to be going around!

Awww, don't worry Jarrod! I'm sure everyone experiences bad patches now and then!

(god knows I have recently- had a massive fish death recently- lost both my girls from kermadum for no reason I could discern! :()

Just got to stick with it!

Take the good with the bad and all those other supposedly inspiring, trite consolations...

Hmmm....

Please don't stop breeding! Your the best source of quality PK's I have!! *sob* :((:lol:

I will buy more fish, I promise! :D

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Don't you quit Jarrod! your fish are lovely & I am stoked with the health & color of every single one in my tanks ;)

Sometimes things just go sour but you shouldn't let that get you down when you have succeeded with spawning such lovely betta's (black dragon & yellow marbled) chin up :alright:

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If it makes you feel any better...In 3 months I have gone from having 18 males to only 3 for various different reasons. My older spawn of the 2 I just did, which started with around 35 fry, now has 4 left. The last spawn I did that are ready for selling got velvet through the tank just has I got a heap of enquiries about them and then the velvet has gone and most of them have fin damage because it seems they aren't all female as I thought. About 6 of them have decided to sprout this week and they have been taking chunks out of anything that gets close enough. Also, one of my remaining 2 HM males was floating in a coke bottle in the same tank, somehow the bottle sunk and he has been ripped to shreds as well. :)

Maybe its just the colder months making them go a little funny. You'll get there :)

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Chin up Jarrod :)

Like everyone here has said, you have bred some beautiful fish, and I have some here to prove it!

Just take a breather for a couple of days and you will be right.

At least you didnt put a mystery snail in with the fry that ate most of them LOL

But I can imagine how you feel, my partner's convict pair died the other day and he was devastated, ready to give up on fish altogether, but I am getting him a new breeding pair today, I wont let him give up, and dont you give up either!

Have a good weekend, take a break and dont stress, things will get better :)

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Don't quit shadoh. I am also down especially recently because of several problems with the fish I have, sure for a moment there, I actually thought of stopping altogether, but I just took a step back and rearrange my mind again (which is why I haven't been posting at all for the past few days - because I didn't feel motivated) and I keep going now.

Because I'm still an amateur at breeding Bettas, maybe the following would seem normal, it's not as bad as BettaObsessed's experience but out of the two breeder males that I have, 1 is dying and is in bad condition. Now, I have got no choice on which male to use for breeding. The number of corpse found in fry tank increase as time goes (total for the last 2 weeks: 5 corpses). In addition to that, my shrimps are dying one by one, day by day (well, I kinda know the cause of this, so I've tried to mend it, and they are still dying) - enough to keep pressure on a newbie breeder. :P

However, fishkeeping isn't an exact science. No matter what you do, and what kind of textbooks or written texts or other people's experience that one follows, things can go wrong and sometimes fish won't spawn, fish is dead or fish got disease. All that can happen despite our best efforts. With exact science, everyone will know that if a car goes at 75 km/hr, then in an hour, it'd have travelled 75 km, but with fish, everyone's experience will be different. I guess this is what makes fishkeeping and breeding fun.

I'm glad you have decided not to stop, though. :)

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He wouldn't be game to stop. He would need to move house because I know where you live mate. Lol.

Don't be hard on yourself Jarrod. I know of your issues but you are one of the most prolific and successful breeders on here (almost forgot Adam). You have just raised and sold TWO successful spawns, website up and running, Facebook going crazy and our first "club" meet next week. Maybe you just need to stop, get a breath and look at what you have achieved in the last six months. It is amazing really. You also need to take in account that the quality of fish you are producing is far better (and harder to breed) than you average VT.

Chin up mate, we have only just started. Lol. :-)

Ps. Don't forget it's winter. We really are pushing it up hill trying to breed at this time of the year.

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and let's face it.... you really don't want an angry hoard of fish-nerds at your door chanting some cheesy slogan about "Never Saying Die" or something equally unhelpful.

for purely selfish reasons, let me remind you - we need you.

from memory i think you 'n' i had our first spawn logs at a similar time - this might be our first real uphill battle with the weather and working against the fish's natural breeding cycle.

it's not you, it's them.

i was discussing this once with some Melb breeders/keepers and we pretty much agreed that it's wise to cycle your energy - god knows I do!

my soggy horses are happy with two months off over winter, and i've realized now, this is the time the fish can have a break too (dammit)

take some time off - as with anything, it's twice as good when you go back to it!

back on your 'orse boy.

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Oh Jarrod, you can't give up - we need you, Bettas would not be the same without you. :)

When I think of Betta breeders, the name Shadoh Bettas comes to mind. You've had some of the best spawns I've seen, the fry are gorgeous, happy and healthy. On AusAqua you are supportive, kind and caring, with amazing fishy knowledge .. the forum would never be the same without you, Jarrod.

Take a deep breath, then get back to it! :lol:

I blame Winter. Silly fish, you have heaters.. not like the water is freezing.

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Thanks guys - feeling much better now I've stepped back for a couple of days and formulated a plan or two. Don't panic, I did say in the original post that I had thought about quitting, but decided to persevere.

I just checked the remaining white fry and can now only find one. If I remember correctly, the same thing happened the first time I tried spawning the Black dragons. I'm going to do some tank shuffling tomorrow (oops...today) and set up 2 spawn tanks - 1 for the white hmpks and 1 for one of the long finned beauties. Not sure which ones yet...

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Jarrod - I know exactly how you feel!

I've recently changed to a THIRD pair to see if I have better luck...I've also banned the CT's until the warmer weather lol (boy they drive me CRAZY)!!

Like everyone else has said...it's the winter blues and not many people are having luck. Don't give up on it (I should take my own advice lol). Warmer weather will hit and you will be complaining that you have too many fry but want to spawn another pair haha

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