acara Posted April 29, 2013 Report Share Posted April 29, 2013 Typed out a nice long post, then lost it. I have offloaded most of my fish in the last year, nearly giving up the hobby, mainly due to lack of time and horrific heating bills. However, the local shops are getting in some nice stuff which has got the juices stirring agin. Here's this weeks buys, the bettas were special order, the peppermint pikeheads were an impulse buy in a cheap chainstore (Maxizoo). Sorry for lack of quality, only had the point and shoot cam with me. Colours aren't what you'd expect, but fish were only minutes in the tank. The pikeheads came straight out of the bag and milled a few guppy fry. Aim is to not feed as much live food as poss, but to get onto frozen and dry. The bettas had guppies cycling tank, and to stock with live food, but the bettas landed late at night, so were put in tank and not checked for 24hrs, so we hadn't time to get guppies out, 24hr later bettas were fat, and there was a few guppy heads on bottom of tank! Female macrostoma Big daddy(hopefully!!) Chris Lukhaup, a true gent, dropped by to show us how it's done Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livebearer_breeder Posted May 2, 2013 Report Share Posted May 2, 2013 oh man, i really like those! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trilobite Posted May 2, 2013 Report Share Posted May 2, 2013 !drool: Macrostoma is one of my favourite bettas! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acara Posted May 5, 2013 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2013 Thanks guys. The betta are actually a mates, I offered to go halves, but he wanted them. I do sort of consider them mine though, as I'm always over there, and have a few fish in the place :bggrn: I'll be supplying him with live foods all summer, and hope to try and keep that going over the winter too. Currently I do gammarus, dapnia, bloodworm, mossie larvae, earthworms, etc, he does micro, white, black, earthworms. Guppy fry are used initially. We both do red cherry shrimp too. According to chats I've had with others that keep macrostoma, they are reasonably hard to keep, spawning is not difficult, but raising the fry is the problem. One guy lost his pair recently and it was enough to make him give up fish keeping. This pair are like any other betta I've had, walk into the shed and they're straight up to the glass, following you around, and like angels, are the pigs of the aquatic world, they will eat everything, and can't get enough food. The other day the male displayed to the female, so fingers crossed. If anybody can breed something, this guy can, his list of current and recent species bred is impressive. He only does Sth Americans, mainly wild caught, but I chipped away at him to get these beauts. His shed cost €30k and we had great fun designing it. He then went to SA with Heiko Bleher for a 2wk trip into a couple of un-explored spots(by white man anyways), and bought back 10 boxes of fish, a few of which I still have here. As previously mentioned, bettas are not hard to breed, most mouthbrooders I've kept only require a pair and some water. Biggest issue is shifting the fry. They are pigs, and will eat anything, good laugh watching them chasing mossie larvae, dapnia, etc around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calculator Posted May 5, 2013 Report Share Posted May 5, 2013 Those look awesome, I am fully jealous of you right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acara Posted May 5, 2013 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2013 Yeah, they're cool fish, but I too am jealous of some of what you guys get down there, that are unavailable here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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