Betta Macrostoma

I had bought a pair of Betta Macrostoma (aka Macs) in early 2011. The color of the male is striking red with a patch of black at the mouth. The female was drab in color, not much color on her body. I fed them with Tetrabits(TM) . While the female eats it with no problem the male just munch it then spit it out. I wonder how it can live until now although sometimes it will eat insects and mosquito larvae. I saw it spawn twice now but no baby have been observe. Still hoping for an answer how to make it breed.

Betta Imbellis

Recently i got a pair of betta imbellis from the internet for RM10 (less than US$3). Anyway i place them in a 6 L aquarium. It was planted with Java ferns ( i didn't attach it to any driftwood). i added black water extract. They started to breed after two weeks of conditioning. I feed them with Tetrabit(TM) and they certainly love it like crazy. The male build a nest of bubbles with some duckweed attach to it. Now the fries start free swimming. The problem is now the micro-worm I ordered are all dead. I ordered a new one and will arrive in two days time.

Two severums made using Bryce.

Otos and Shrimps....

After a few a trial and error I finally manage to make them stay alive. Now the aquarium holds 7 otos (Otocinclus affinis) , around 11 Red Cherry Shrimp (Neocaridinia sp) , and about 9 Green Shrimp (Caridinia cf Balbauti green I think). Although i had the otos around two weeks now and the shrimps around 3 -4 months now, they are still not breeding. Aquarium are heavily planted to initiate breeding but still no sign of fry or shrimplet. Using a sponge filter as power filter can suck adult shrimp easily.

An oto cat sitting on the driftwood

An oto cat and red cherry shrimp eating together.

A green shrimp. Very hard to find in the aquarium

Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp............

My first experience with shrimps when i bought them at a local pet shop in Serdang. With RM1 I can get a handful of that almost colorless shrimp( I just do not know what kind it is). It looked almost like a ghost shrimp. Anyway its breeding like crazy now. My next goal is finally breed this 4 kind of shrimp - cherry shrimp, green shrimp, tiger shrimp and bee shrimp. After two attempts of breeding them I failed miserably. Now its time to change plan as new method must be reinforced.

Pleco... It is that hardy?

Last year I bought a total of 5 pleco. (2 were bought by my mother but influenced by me). All of them died within a month. They manage to live under me for about 2 - 3 weeks. No injuries or diseases were seen . Its tank mates were 4 firemouths (juvenile) and one adult krib.

My New Fire Mouths

I bought 4 fire mouths last year. 2 died while i am in college. Than during my break I bought 2 more. I still cannot figure out which one is male or female. The 2 survivors are a lot bigger than the newbies. The largest usually chase the others for no good reason ( dominant feeling). I am hoping it will start breeding this year.