Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)
Hi,
John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.
I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.
With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.
I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.
If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.
I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.
I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.
Thank you
Darragh Sherwin
1st (ever) Breed of Bettas
Male: Blue Comun CrownTail (RIP)
Female: Green Copper Plakat
The Love at first sight
and the male made the nest on the night of the 22nd to the 23rd of march.
After some hugs
came the rare thing about the breed, the female released arround 200/300 eggs, and the male insted of putting them in the nest he eat them
, after a few hours and constantly looking at the all process, i've decided to interfeer and help the eggs, i saw the female picking up one egg and put it in the nest, so after the hugs, i managed to intimidate the male, so that the female could come out of the trance and picked them up, but not to mutch intimidation so that the male would comeback to the hugs, when all its over, i took the male out and left the female to do his job...The first 24 hours are crucial for the eggs that tend to fall from the nest, and against all odds she managed to keep them in the nest and picked up all that fall down...
At this stage i dont know and cant predict whats gonna happen if they hatch, if shes gonna eat them, if not ????
So i decided to take her from the breeding tank...
After i took her out till they started hatching, arround 50/60 eggs fall from the nest
Leaving me with arround 20 fry, but beeing the first time even one would be a sucess for me...
Here are some pictures of the first days of their life
First 10 hours:
18Hours:
30Hours: (almost swimming horizontlly)
5 Days: (allready swimming freelly:D)
15 Days: (at this stage they will start to evolve the Labirynth membrane)
16 Days:
18 Days:
26 Days:
28 Days:
And tonight they are 1 Month Old, most of the fragile days are gone
they look very healthy and very active, all they do at the moment is eat shit and sleep (happy days)... so i'll be posting again with more photos when they want to give me the opurtunity to do so 
IBC (International Betta Congress) Proud Member
PBA (Portuguese Betta Association) Proud Member
BP (Betta Portugal) Proud Member
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This what the hobby is all about.
Well done and great sequence of photos.
You success will certainly encourage others to have ago with this beautiful species.
Thanks for sharing.
Greg
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ian
Irish Tropical Fish Society (ITFS) Member.
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the colour is starting to come up, their growing is out of the scale
IBC (International Betta Congress) Proud Member
PBA (Portuguese Betta Association) Proud Member
BP (Betta Portugal) Proud Member
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Melander
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. Hopefully my fry will turn out just as good 
. Have a crown Tail exact double of yours as well who is being accustomed to his lady at the min. well done on your 1st fry Please Log in to join the conversation.
great Job
fairplay
they look really well
nice to see the pix of them as progress
nice Photo's too
what temperature & PH etc. etc. did You have in the Tank ?
Des
@Bettaria.....don't tell that Des bloke your secrets of success.
Irish Tropical Fish Society (ITFS) Member.
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really nice to see the whole thing from the start! Please Log in to join the conversation.
great Job
fairplay
they look really well
nice to see the pix of them as progress
nice Photo's too
what temperature & PH etc. etc. did You have in the Tank ?
Des
@Bettaria.....don't tell that Des bloke your secrets of success.
haha
just trying to help enlighten other Fish Keepers Ian
thaught it might make interesting reading...
Des
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