Yellow Koi Spawn 03

F3 : 4-17-23

Goals of the Spawn

• Perfect topline that isn't too strong or soft, Perfect Traditional Plakat Finnage in line with the IBC Standards, and Healthy Bettas that live long lives free of genetic disease.

• Strong Yellow Base

• Isolated Koi Spots

• Doesn't marble to blue/black over time 

The Spawn

Hatched : 4-17-2023

Amount : 150 made it to 2 months, they naturally culled themselves down to about 100, which went through a second culling, ending with a total of 93 taken to adulthood. 

Deformities :  A few of the 150 had spine issues and were culled, there is also some mild dwarfism with a few. 

Colors : Red, Pink, White, Copper, Blue, Cello, Black, with Star Tails, Grizzle, Marble, Koi, and Solid Colors 

Goals Met :

• Form - About 25% have perfect form, 50% have good form, 20% are ok, and 5% have mild dwarfism

• Health - Of the nearly 100 fry, 95% were strong and healthy by 4 months old, displaying spicy and typical betta personalities, strong bodies, and seem to have a good constitution.  Some have mild dwarfism which may affect their overall health, but were really spicy and vibrant.  

• Yellow Base -  The main goal of this spawn was to produce gorgeous yellow based bettas.  I got a total of 0 from this spawn. :,D  After doing more research and asking around, it appears that the red gene from both parents was dominant over the yellow, and the next generation will produce yellow bettas.

• Isolated Koi Spots - Slight success, there are a few with koi spots similar to their dad, but a majority have come out as a muddied marble color.  

• Doesn't marble to blue/black over time - Not successful so far.

Continue :   Absolutely!  I am so excited for the next generation of this spawn.  I am still debating between crossing siblings, a female back to Mango, or a male to a really nice non-related yellow plakat I have.  I'll decide after doing more research and once I know who my keepers are. 

4 month old Update 

I am just loving this spawn, so many colors, so many types, the disappointment from not having any yellow bettas is completely overtaken by how gorgeous these guys are.  

I've made a large effort to rehome these guys early since I had so many, but also to get to a reasonable amount before my wedding at the end of September.  I am down to 15 males and about 25 females, which I find to be more manageable then the previous 55 males and 40ish females.  The remaining males are ones I'm keeping an eye on for future spawns.  I'm really not sure about which direction to take the next generation.   

3 Month old Update: 

Holy Growth Batman!  I don't know what's going on in the water, but these guys are exploding in size!!  Over the past few weeks I've started removing some of the aggressive males into buckets to help with fin growth.  I'm trying to keep them in the pond longer, but there is a lot of fin nipping and chasing.  

I moved the females back into the 40g so they could get a break.  

There is still a ton of diversity in this spawn.  Most common colors so far are Red Koi types, Cellos, Blue & Red Bi colors, Coppers, and mystery shiny ones who keep changing colors!  I am growing impatient waiting for them to finish coloring up ^_^ 

2.5 Months old Update: 

At 1 month old I moved 150 fry to my 40g pond to give them more space.  (Previously they were in a 6g cube)  The space helped jumpstart extra growth, though because of the size of the spawn, some fry struggled to compete for food.  Around 1.5 months old there were two clear size differences, so I moved the largest 50 into a 100g pond with some of my adult females.  As the smaller ones would grow, I'd add them to the bigger pond.  This helped a lot.  At 2 months old I made the choice to cull down a lot of the smallest ones who weren't growing.  They were 1/3 the size of their siblings and would be stunted.  Some I gave to another breeder who enjoys growing fry out for me, the others were culled.  Culling can be tough to talk about, but as a breeder I find that it is my responsibility to make the choice to only bring healthy, viable bettas to adulthood.  

Now at 2.5 months old, I have between 75 and 100 bettas.  The males are starting to show long anal fins, the females are getting plump with egg spots, the remaining bettas look healthy and great.  This spawn has some of the best growth I've seen (and some of the worst due to the smaller fry struggling to compete for food).  In the future I'll probably separate larger spawns like these into multiple containers by size to help with that. 

These guys have been a completely unexpected spawn in terms of color.  If you look at previous yellow koi spawns of mine, you'll notice none of them carry any red!  Almost all of the fry have some sort of red on them, and some brilliant metallic colors.  Some of them are starting to marble and have yellow undertones.  I am excited to see what they look like in a month!