BettaMas Posted October 30, 2013 Report Share Posted October 30, 2013 (edited) Hi all. Allow me to share a recent HM male from my line that I've been working on for around 2.5 years now. Finally seeing some improvement in overall balance and anal shape, something still very rare in gold HM lines that I've seen around. Of course there are positives on this fish, but negatives are there as well. It is always challenging to juggle the development of all traits (form/finnage/balance & color/intensity), and hope that there will be further improvement in the future. Wish me luck! Edited April 28, 2021 by BettaMas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bettarazzi Posted November 9, 2013 Report Share Posted November 9, 2013 Well done! Really starting to get there. Are you mostly selecting from your own lines? Or are outcrossing to improve the form? Would love to see what you started out with and how it's changed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MelbourneGlobal Posted November 11, 2013 Report Share Posted November 11, 2013 Thats stunning, love the colour Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BettaMas Posted November 12, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 12, 2013 Thanks all. Well done! Really starting to get there. Are you mostly selecting from your own lines? Or are outcrossing to improve the form? Would love to see what you started out with and how it's changed. At this point yes, I've not gotten a halfmoon outcross for this line for quite some time now (>year). It's really rare to get "pure gold" (without dragon) halfmoons with good form around, and that is the reason I do not outcross them as I feel it would bring my work backwards instead of forward. I keep a plakat line as well and both of these lines get intercrossed every now and then. I use the plakat to improve certain things on the halfmoon line such as ray strength, body size/breadth and color. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bettarazzi Posted November 12, 2013 Report Share Posted November 12, 2013 Have you got photos of how the line started and progressed to this point? It would be very interesting to see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brenton Posted November 12, 2013 Report Share Posted November 12, 2013 Extremely interesting to see - especially for us newer to the game...to see the transition from go to woe (or at least now), would be excellent! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BettaMas Posted November 13, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 13, 2013 (edited) I have not been keeping a proper photo record of pieces from each spawn/generation. However, I spent some time looking thru some of the pictures in my archive, and found pics of some gold halfmoons that I have bred in 2011 and 2012. Unfortunately, until recently, I've not been really taking pictures of specimens from my gold halfmoon line this year (2013), so hope you guys don't mind that "gap" in this presentation.Alright, so here are some of them in rough chronological order: This is one of the earliest gold HMs that I've bred. https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/q71/945458_537549336335774_733306194_n.jpg https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/q77/480354_537549359669105_2101691466_n.jpg https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/q73/1459729_537549383002436_2037401218_n.jpg https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/q77/1463222_537549403002434_2113592755_n.jpgThis is at the early stages where the halfmoon is crossed to plakat to improve the intensity of the gold & to reduce the dual-tone "bicolor" effect. BTW, this guy's fins appear pretty scruffy because at the time he was jarred they were quite badly torn & damaged due to fighting in the growout. https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/q77/1394128_537549429669098_662508241_n.jpg https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/q82/1465187_537549453002429_1855683043_n.jpgThis female was the champion in the Halfmoon Female Class and 1st runner-up overall in the Female Division at the MAHA Competition (Malaysia) sometime end of last year.Sorry, I had to just provide the URLs of the last 6 images here. You would need to click on each of the links to see the images. For some annoying reason, the forum wouldn't let me post more than 5 pictures at one go, not even if I try to do it in two consecutive posts. Edited November 13, 2013 by BettaMas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bettarazzi Posted November 13, 2013 Report Share Posted November 13, 2013 Yeah there needs to be a 10 minute delay between posts for more pics. So were the early ones yellow dragons? Or is that just the way they appear in the photo? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BettaMas Posted November 13, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 13, 2013 (edited) Yes, the early ones had more prominent dragon on the scales. The breeders in our region typically use the name "yellow dragon" for yellow-based whitish-scaling dragons with no or minimal irids (in this case irids with metallic) on the fins, so based on this school of thought, technically, I wouldn't really call the early ones yellow dragons. I believe the line still do have a degree of "dragon" now, which is actually a trait necessary to make good solid & shiny looking golds (but not too much, of course). Thanks for the tip about waiting for 10 minutes. I didn't know that the solution was that simple since the error message I got was "Sorry, but you have posted more images than you are allowed to", and I thought it was never going to be possible for me to do that as the forum automatically combines consecutive posts by the same user. So now that I know how to get around this, I will try your tip the next time I post more than 5 pics. Edited November 13, 2013 by BettaMas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadoh Posted November 25, 2013 Report Share Posted November 25, 2013 I am looking at creating a line of HMPKs this colour. Your photos are an inspiration Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bettarazzi Posted November 26, 2013 Report Share Posted November 26, 2013 Yeah have to admit that it makes me want to work on gold as well. But I am too easily distracted away from current projects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neffy Posted November 26, 2013 Report Share Posted November 26, 2013 These are lovely! There is a much cleaner and even gold colour on your line now then when you started really cool ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BettaMas Posted November 28, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 28, 2013 I am looking at creating a line of HMPKs this colour. Your photos are an inspiration Thank you, and I wish you the very best! These are lovely! There is a much cleaner and even gold colour on your line now then when you started really cool ! Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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