The red and yellow tradidional plakats all started because red and yellow are my grandfather's favorite colors and he really liked shortfin bettas. We used to show horses when I was a kid, and this was a new way to enjoy showing animals despite the distance! I usually spawned them and then sent some of the spawn to my grandfather as juveniles, where they were spoiled senseless with white worms and lots of water changes. The bettas my grandfather cared for were easily twice the size of the ones that stayed with me! He was one of the few that I kept at home to raise by myself, and he eventually attained his large size at a much slower rate. He soon became my foundation male for this line.
Armando as a young adult ready to head to the shows!
 "The One" | Older bettas are truly a joy. Many show fish have relatively short lives because of their power-packed schedule. Lots of shipping and water changes are very stressful, which in turn can lead to shorter total life. However, you can't say that they didn't live a full one! As a breeder, I have quite a few fish. Nevertheless, I like to think that all of them are special. I keep records on their spawn dates, occasionally update their files with pictures, check them over them carefully with a bright light once every couple of days, and spend too much time doting over them at feeding time. I couldn't tell you exactly how many I have, but I could probably describe each one of them if you blindfolded me and then put my hand on their tank. I do have favorites. My favorite fish by far was my pineapple traditional plakat. He didn't really have a name...nothing seemed to really fit for very long. I think I settled on Armando for a while. But he was just "The One" and had a special place right next to my bedside. |
| Armando is one of the last bettas from my very first successful yellow x red traditional plakat spawn (RY Trad 112512 - Thanksgiving), making him almost 3 and a half years old when he passed away. Despite this, he was still as fiery as he was in his prime! He was shipped and hand-carried into a lot of shows, and had many BOV shortfins under his belt (I'm not even sure how many). He was once in heavy contention for BOS at one CBS show, but was eventually knocked out by a huge doubletail because of his odd coloration and because he had been flaring for quite a long time and got tired at the end. |  Proud boy :) |
The beginning
 Mother bred by Sieg Illig |  Sire bred by Interbettas Thailand |
His mother came from Sieg Illig, an absolutely gorgeous red show plakat with almost no iridescence on her deep red color. The sire was one of the very few bettas that I imported from Thailand - I've only imported twice - and was an intense yellow show plakat. Sieg Illig said not to expect any yellow from this spawn since there had been six generations of solid red PKs. Imagine our surprise when both dark-bodied and light-bodied bettas showed up! And not only that, but complete throwbacks to a traditional form in addition to show plakats!
 Solid yellow brother |  A pair of red brothers |
 What an adorable baby :) A few days after jarring |  Hiiii! |
A pair of sisters. Big mama in the back!
Spawning as the foundation male
He soon grew up into a magnificent betta, and was spawned several times. His very first spawn was a complete disaster. An overly anxious first-time parent, he literally mouthed the fry to death! Once the fry were essentially free-swimming, he refused to let them go and constantly brought them back to the nest. They eventually starved, and I came home to him frantically spitting dead fry back into his nest :(
His second try was far more successful, and soon followed was the beginning of the red and yellow traditional plakat line. Here is the genealogical chart so far:
To zoom on genealogical chart (so you can read it!) - Click on the picture to go to my photobucket page, where you can magnify it using the small magnifying glass in the bottom-right corner of the picture (TWICE).
 Father and son competing at a show |  Father and son |
I soon learned that a yellow x yellow cross produced bettas of inferior yellow, and that the best results came from a dark red cross to yellow. These resulted in vibrant reds and yellows, and my favorite pair from this cross:
Spawned but only a few fry survived. What is coming next?
As an older betta, he always had a lot of fire. I was careful with his water changes, and tried to keep him in conditioned water with salt and IAL. After his show prime I kept him at room temperature to slow down his metabolism. He had daily sparring bouts with his neighbors (flare training) for about 15 minutes everyday. I have found, for whatever reason, that old bettas cannot tolerate live blackworms anymore. I have lost most of his brothers and sisters to dropsy a few days after feeding blackworms. Now he is on a stable, high-quality pellet diet that I brought back from the Netherlands. I try not to overfeed, since a common cause of death of older bettas is obesity (at least, that is what anecdotal evidence from other breeders suggests). As he aged, he developed little spots of red coloration around his gills and on his fins, which I find pretty, and he had a little bit of a humpback. He was the very last of his spawn, and I am glad that he stuck around for such a long, long time, since every time I looked at him, he brought me a lot of joy.
 Fiery until the very end :) |  He kept himself in great form! |
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