Trilobite

My tank water is ph= 8.4 gh=7 kh=5 Out of the tap the water is 7-7,2. How do I stop the pH swings? would adding coral help or would that just further bump up the pH? The tank is also planted, would that have something to do with it too? Thanks

Absolutely, some of the best breeders are on here But I know theres quite a few people working on marble hmpk who arent on here so wont hurt to try facebook as well

Id ask on the Siamese fighters nz facebook page, heaps of breeders and keepers on there that might be keen

I dont think cherry shrimp will be allowed in nz anytime soon, they can survive cold water and breed like rabbits...

Tips for breeding them? Most important step is to make sure you have a breed worthy pair, otherwise you'll have a hard time getting rid of 200 multicoloured vt. And also ensure you have enough space to jar potentially 200 males. But once youve got those two things sorted then just follow this guys advice

Runts make the perfect feeders :thup: Thats what 99% of mine were used for. The odd nice one would go to a good home as a pet if I happened to have a soft spot for it lol

Copper is steel blue with 2 metallic alleles. So you would need a copper, metallic steel or metallic royal blue to get copper in the next generation. F1 will give all heterozygous metallic offspring, so choose 2 steel or royal blue babies and you should get some copper back. Easiest way to get copper back would be if you bred a steel daughter back to father you would should get copper back (50% copper, 50% met steel) Hope that made sense lol Is the "silvery" girl copper as well? Any pics of her? If she is copper I would use her, then youll get 100% copper

Black orchid/black lace are pretty easy to breed for even if you've crossed one to a non black fish. The dark body is dominant, irids are difficult to get rid of so they will almost always be present (and technically a fault for black bettas, but it gives them that nice black orchid look). The main difficulties you'll get from crossing a black lace to non black lace will be the amount of spread iridescence ( spread irids will fully cover the black layer with irids, making a blue or copper coloured fish) and also red wash will be present among the fins instead of black. Many red loss fish can gain red back when they become older which really sucks.... Also a lot of black lace carry marble which can quickly turn a promising black fish into an ugly cello. A lot of my f1 from black lace x non black gave a few blacks in the mix, f2 would def yield higher amounts of black orchid. If you can only find one black fish I recommend using a dark bodied blue red loss fish to pair it up with and hope for he best. Also there have been a few black orchid ct popping back up again in petstores so it may look like they're making a comeback :thup: They'll probably have the unnecessarily high price tags attached to them though

Do you know the ammonia, nitrite and nirtrate levels?

Could be this mystery disease that bettas sometimes get. Kills them pretty fast though like within 48 hours, so if your guy has had it for a while its probably not the mystery disease http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=90086

Yeah its always a gamble, could go both ways. How feasible do you reckon it would be to get a bunch of interested people willing to pay an importer to get some. I know its against forum rules to organize it on here but just wondering the feasibility of it all. How much is the average cost to import? Eg how much in general do the inspections/quarantine/etc cost Is it cheaper/easier quarantine-wise if they come from Australia compared to Thailand?

Yeah unfortunately thats very true. But the recent Redwoods import where they asked us which fighter colours/types we wanted in the next shipment all got snapped up within a week or so and they were priced around the normal 50-65 range youd see for the nicer types. I think theres definitely a market for them, even if not imported often, just enough to get some good blood and start up some quality lines. Then every now and again a fresh import of some more quality stock so our lines dont get too inbred. I saw some amazing guppies yesterday in Australia and I usually hate guppies but honestly, these guppies were stunning!! completely made me change my views on them. Theres so much more out there than just vt and orange guppies...its a shame nz has to miss out on them

Im curious too, are there any importers who get specifically high quality stock, instead of the mass produced stuff? Like quality fighters/guppies/whatevers from a top Thai breeder as opposed to the culls we get. It seems like most importers get their fish from wholesalers who just focus on making as many fish as poss

Haha lol :facepalm: sorry Michelle! Talking to too many people at once screws me up :oops:

Heres a few of my plakats The size difference between two brothers is pretty crazy