Another simple project.

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izzy_here

Fire Eel
MFK Member
May 13, 2010
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michigan
Last year I decided I liked my imported sb Green Texas soooo much that I wanted to make more...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=pZuS9gjtA2U

I'm currently raising several second generation sb Green Texas fry.

This year I've decided to do much the same thing with Vieja/Paratheraps. My inspiration....
various1024.jpg

syn X parrot female. looks like crap in this pic, I had just moved her, normally her entire body is the same color as her tail and face are in the pic. she will probably be crossed back to syn.

I have her sister as well, the sister has a parrot shaped head/face, will post pics of her later. she will be crossed to bifas.

The third female I'm working with is a very large normal parrot.
parrotmidas017.jpg

sorry about the terrible pic quality. not sure yet what her mate will be.

Male bifas from Rapps...
various1149.jpg

I may back cross to bifas again as these are exceptional bifas. In the end I'll settle on a vieja/paratheraps species (not bifas or syn) to breed my mixed females back to. I won't reveal exactly which species will be used in the making of this strain but I promise I'll do updates on all other aspects of my progress.

I'm hoping for some faders and for the non-faders to be just exceptional. From my research online what I'm creating is nothing more than a fortune fish. They might make an excellent mate for a flowerhorn but they won't be flowerhorns. They'll have pearls and possibly somewhat of a flowerline but no trimac headspot etc. Something a little like a super red syn, only with some pearls/markings and semi-short to short bodied, very KKP/Mammon in shape and size.

What I'm envisioning (have to wait & see), is something that would be an asset to a kamfa breeding program. Not sure if I'll personally take that route but they will be guaranteed fertile. If folks want to grade the fish I produce thats fine, the only grading system I'll use is how much I love that particular fish.
 
So my smallest bp type syn X parrot female laid eggs, I tried placing a male in with her but she wouldn't let him approach the eggs.

Soooo...put her and the largest bifas in the recently emptied 75 gal breeding/grow out pond. It's most recent inhabitants were several hundred sb green texas fry, they've been moved to the 90 gal tank for further grow out.

The pond is just a 100 gal plastic pond form. I can't fill it all the way because the shallow shelf sections will sag and warp the pond.

As soon as they hit the water in the pond they started showing pair bonding behaviour. Swimming together, fin flaring and shimmying just slightly, not full on yet but clearly love is in the...water?

Here's a pic of her in a tank...
various1165.jpg

i've yet to capture the true colors of these syn X parrot females in a pic...i always seem to snap them when they are stressed.

I'll try to get some pics or vids of them in the pond, having them in the pond might make pics for this thread suck, lol! Perhaps vids would be better in this case, I'll try to post a vid by tomorrow.

If she doesn't accept his advances I'll try the other two girls. I think my largest girl (reg bp) might be very receptive right now.
 
Major setback, I filled the pond way more than I usually do and the male jumped out. Luckily I found him just in the nick of time. I had to nurse him along but he finally rallied, held him near the pump outflow in my hand, moved him through the water, added salt. He's recovering in a 40 gallon atm.
 
Nice! Hope they look as nice as Mr. Chens old FF. To get that quality its going to take many generations of back crossing and line breeding.

My goal was to make a fortune fish type hybrid when I got back in the hobby lol. I have other ideas though ;)
 
I'm wishing you the best of luck Izzy! I'll keep a close eye on your progress because I recently have been been brainstorming my own projects including some cross backs to Paratheraps, vieja, and others.

I really like parrots and that first synxbp has beautiful shape! I will be working with 'king kong parrot' females but may include some blood parrot females if I can find some with a particular body shape, since that is one of my main areas of focus in my projects, since I prefer these refined looking fish, i don't like the deformed looking blood parrots.
 
oh no, i hope he recovers soon. that really sucks

You almost can't tell anything even happened, he's back with the two other males lording it over them. But trust me I had to work for that miracle, he was covered in lint, dust, dog hair....totally limp in my hand. I dipped him in the pond just hoping...when I did his gills flared slightly. That was all I needed to see, I began slowly moving him through the water, working the water through his gills...somehow I grabbed the salt and added a bunch. Then I got smart and held him gently in my hand near the flow from the powerhead...in a way that caused a steady gentle flow through his gills...toward the end I had my hand cupped just a little and he just sat there. When I finally did move my hand slowly away from the pump he didn't move...he just sat there for a moment...then...this is crazy, but I swear, he turned a little in my hand...looked directly up at my face then swam slowly off. As if he knew....

Nice! Hope they look as nice as Mr. Chens old FF. To get that quality its going to take many generations of back crossing and line breeding.

My goal was to make a fortune fish type hybrid when I got back in the hobby lol. I have other ideas though

Mr. Chens FF page is in my favorites, his fish are the bomb. :) And yeah...ff are my goal, dunno if my strains will be as good as Mr.Chens though.

Another crazy story...so when I put the male bifas and the little parrot in the pond the other two male bifas went in the parrots tank...I never touched the eggs she laid. Apparently no else did either, when I put her back in there last night she went right back to fanning. This morning and just now when I looked..only a few are white, very few. All three male bifas were in there at some point or another, all within 8 hours after she laid them. Tryin not to get my hopes up....

I'm wishing you the best of luck Izzy! I'll keep a close eye on your progress because I recently have been been brainstorming my own projects including some cross backs to Paratheraps, vieja, and others.

I really like parrots and that first synxbp has beautiful shape! I will be working with 'king kong parrot' females but may include some blood parrot females if I can find some with a particular body shape, since that is one of my main areas of focus in my projects, since I prefer these refined looking fish, i don't like the deformed looking blood parrots.


Thanks,
I too prefer the more refined look, normal head/face, normal fins...no extreme trailers, slightly longer body than most parrots..many similarities to kk.

The shape you like so much should come the first time you cross a pure fish to parrot, all the fry will be different, bp, kk, normal, nearly normal, etc, check them daily untill you recognize the fry with the desired body type. REMOVE those fish IMMEDIATELY, many times sb fish cannot compete with normal length siblings...this isn't such an issue when crossing sb to sb.

I'll be taking some video of my sb Green Texas fry tonight, look for an update post on them some time tomorrow. I think you'd find them interesting, the ones I'm holding back for the next gen in particular.
 
yeah...ff are my goal, dunno if my strains will be as good as Mr.Chens though.

There's a certain pure species...that if I could find some..lets just say I have ideas, we shall see won't we? This is gonna be so fun!
 
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