Marble-based Black that Breeds True?

Since I have laid low on betta breeding over the past year, I lost most of my breeders and grow outs. However, I was left with three fish - one female and her two sons (one long-finned and a plakat/PK). The female is black. I only have a vague idea of what color the father is - a green marble HMPK. I'm not certain about that though. Because the female was able to breed successfully, then I assume she is not a Melano-based black. Eggs of Melano females do not successfully hatch - so they are effectively "infertile" in a sense (see the article The Different Types of Black for more information).

One shot of the female after spawning. Her color here suggests that it's a "Black Lace".

What's common to all three fish is that they are black. Of course, there is a fault of iridescence on the body and fins. The long-finned male started of as a black/red bicolor then changed to a butterfly pattern on the fins and marbling (white area) on the head, with no sign of red. The PK male, on the other hand, started as cellophane when it was juvenile but grew up to be solid black with no red as well. The color changes that these two fish underwent affirms that the black color is Marble-based (check this article to see how the Marble gene can change the fish's appearance). Since these fish don't show any red, they might also be carrying the Red Loss gene.

The long-finned son when he was a juvy. This fish looks like it will turn out to be a Bicolor.

The long-finned son now that he is older and has been bred.

When I crossed the Black PK male back to his mother, I wanted to get some doubletails (DT) back - whether as a DTPK or long-finned carrying PK. Given the broad dorsals of the male and his mother, there was a good chance. I did get one DT from the cross. It is black as well and still with iridescence like his father. Some siblings showed the same black color. Surprisingly, one sibling remained a Green/Red Bicolor. The number of blacks from this cross (backcross) gives a hint that the heredity of the color may be predicted accurately.

 

The Black DT.

Black siblings of the Black DT in the grow-out pond.

The Green/Red Bicolor sibling of the Black DT.

The black female was also crossed to a Copper HMPK and two Royal Blue SDs (there was a time I assumed that she is a PK). Due to the small spawn sizes, I decided to put the spawns together for efficiency. An unrelated spawn was also added to the grow out. From the mixed grow-out, I can see there are a few black fish. This hints that the black, like marble, can act in a semi-dominant manner. Most are iridescent colors and a few Marbles. (See here for more information on breeding marbles).

Black half-sibling. I think from the cross with the Royal Blue SD.

Non-Black half-sibling. Presumably from the cross with the Copper HMPK.

The next steps to check if the color does breed true is to do F2 crosses and also half-sibling crosses. The resulting offspring will provide more insight on this color. Will it breed true for another generation? Will it behave like marble - always changing color? Hopefully, I can get my hands on a Melano HMPK male and cross it to these Black fish. It will be interesting to see how this color interacts with the Melano gene. I wish that all goes well and I can write a sequel to this article.

UPDATE (Feb. 19, 2017): Pictures of other Blacks from the Black Marble SD x Black Marble SD (son x mother backcross) and Royal Blue SD x Black Marble SD (outcross).

Building a Betta Sorority Tank

It's been a long time (very, very, very long time) since I last posted. Only recently, I had the time again to get back into fish keeping. 99% of us don't have the whole day to spend for fish keeping. Time-saving, effort-reducing and productivity-increasing have become the rules of the game. Keeping in line with that, I decided to set up a betta sorority tank again. This was how I have always done it until I became very busy and had very few fish left.

So, what is a betta sorority tank? It is a tank of female bettas. Just google "betta sorority tank", "female betta community tank" and other similar keywords. You'll find article after article about setting one up. For this article, I just want something free-flowing. I'll simply list down my experiences and some points on how I do things.

Tank.
1. I don't use tall aquariums and I always choose horizontally-shaped tanks.
2. Gravel or no gravel, it doesn't really matter.
3. I make sure that there are many different hiding places for the females. These are places where they can retreat and rest between fights. Hiding places I've used are coconut shells, driftwood, pots, clay tiles and live plants. There are other things you can use.
4. I don't use any aeration or filtration for any of my tanks.

Number.
1. For me, the minimum number of females for a sorority is five (5). If it's less than that, keeping them separate is manageable too.
2. I allot 1-2 gallons per female.
3. I haven't read an article yet that says it's alright to add new females to the sorority but I have done so in the past. Yes, there is the fighting but I've seen it mellow down in a few days.

Tankmates. I've had placed different tankmates for my female bettas. These include corydoras, rainbow sharks, guppies, angelfish and even goldfish. The females get out of the way of the bigger fish and ignore the bottom feeders. They do show some aggression to the guppies. The long fins and colorful patterns remind them of other bettas. In my experience, this does some good - the female bettas get distracted and show less aggression to others of its kind.

On breeding. I have taken females out of the sorority to breed them and then put them back afterwards. There is not much fuss with the females. They do remember tankmates but there might be some nipping as a reminder. It is as long as the returning female is in good shape. If not, then she might not be fit enough for the tank.

Feeding. I feed my sorority tank as I would any other tank. I drop the food in two or three places (only one if I'm rushing). Leftovers are cleaned up by the bottom feeders and the snails in the tanks.

That's about it. I just wanted to share. I hope you can find this useful in addition to whatever else you've read in your research.

Happy Fish Keeping!