001 – Copper/Orange CTPK (male) x Royal Blue Dumbo HMPK (female)
Male is a dark body CTPK with non-spread copper iridescence and orange fins. He is short bodied and very aggressive. Fin rays could be stronger and thicker, but otherwise are well-formed.
Female is a royal blue HMPK. At the time of spawning, red had not appeared under her blue layer, although post spawning it has, revealing that she is a butterfly, which explains the marbling in the offspring. She was not listed as an HMPK, but all the offspring are short-finned, so she must be a plakat. She is a dumbo, so all offspring are heterozygous for the dumbo gene, which will hopefully be brought out in future generations. She is also a very aggressive fish, and a good match for the
male.
May 10, 2020: Pair spawned and eggs laid.
May 11, 2020: Fry hatched.
May 13, 2020: Fry are free swimming.
June 26, 2020: Fry are moved to growout tank.
July 29, 2020: First fry are jarred out.
Some of the best offspring from this cross are below:
002 – Spawn is between a dark-body Nemo crowntail male with royal blue iridescence and a light-body marble crowntail plakat female with royal blue iridescence.
Multiple phenotypes have emerged from this spawn. It would appear the female carries the marble gene in all color layers. Most of the offspring are either dark or light-bodied, but some also exhibit marbling in the black layer. All colors of blue have appeared, as expected, and many of the offspring have heavy red pigmentation. The butterfly gene has appeared in some fish, as well as typical Cambodian red coloration. The mask gene has appeared in some fish but not others. Typically the phenotypes fall into one of four groups: black with heavy blue iridescence; dark-bodied reds with heavy blue iridescence; orange and blues, some butterflies; and galaxy koi, with some Nemo coloration appearing.
August 27, 2022: Pair spawned and eggs laid.
August 28, 2022: Fry hatched.
September 3, 2022: Fry are free swimming.
October 18, 2022: Fry are moved to growout tank.
November 20, 2022: First fry are jarred out.
Some of the best offspring from this cross are below:
003 – Spawn is a sibling cross between two fish from spawn 002. Male is an orange base multicolor CT (plakat heterozygous) with steel blue iridescence. He has caudal fin rays that branch twice (four rays at the tips), which is not ideal (two is ideal), but has the best body shape of all the orange males from this spawn and nice coloration in his marbling. I’m hoping that the opaque white color indicates the heterozygous presence of the metallic gene. The female is an orange base CT (plakat heterozygous) with only the black and blue layers appearing otherwise. Minimal steel blue iridescence is visible on the caudal fin, and she is vigorous, well shaped, and has only one branch in her caudal rays. She is the best of the orange base females with steel blue iridescence. She was also a great spawning partner, helping the male place the fertilized eggs in the nest.
Hoping for orange base CTPKs with minimal expression of the other color layers, although I expect we’ll see some nice multicolor fish appear too.
July 16, 2023: Pair spawned and eggs laid.
July 18, 2023: Fry hatched.
July 21, 2023: Fry are free swimming.
Interestingly, only 12 fry hatched from this spawn; it may be that the parents weren’t effective in spawning or that the genes didn’t line up well. If the offspring turn out well, I will probably make this spawn again.
Greg Griffis 