Took some pics of my growing bettas tonight. Lots of exciting stuff going on!

Red and Yellow Traditional Plakats: Spawn RY Trad 040613
I'm really loving how these guys are turning out. The cross is exactly what I wanted - the entire spawn has only primary branching, while still maintaining caudal spread! Pretty excited to see these guys really mature.

Going to Fairy Lake is like going back in time. There are the old steel rimmed tanks filled with the classic aquarium fish. It is also one of the few stores to sell freshly hatched baby brineshrimp, so if I'm ever in a bind, I can run over and grab some. The resident cat is very sweet, and the elderly couple that runs the store is very conscientious  about making sure your fish make it home safely. They even re-bagged some fish with more oxygen and an outer bag once they found out that we were on a fish tour and were not likely to go home right away!

Lucky Ocean is the closest fish store to me, and it's always fun to go chat with Steve about all things fish. He's been a part of the San Francisco fish scene since he was a kid, so he's got the ins and outs on fishkeeping in the Bay Area since who knows when. His store also stocks some pretty awesome saltwater fish in addition to his planted tanks and freshwater, plus walls full of every supply you could ever need. Love this place!

My three DT boys were so cute during feeding time that I just had to take a couple of quick pics of them. Growing nicely!

In direct contrast to Aqua Forest's immaculate tanks, Justin at Ocean Aquarium (blog of incoming fish at http://oceanaquarium.blogspot.com/) has a much more low-maintenance strategy that still, somehow and magically, produces beautifully wild aquariums with stunningly healthy fish on a budget! Since my tanks more often resemble Justin's, this is one of my favorite stores in the Bay Area. The delightful chaos makes visiting this store a real adventure!

The California Betta Society went on a tour of the awesome fish stores in San Francisco this weekend! We hit almost all the major fish stores in town on our quest to find brilliant bettas and fantastic fish. It was a real blast to visit all these fishy places with fish people!

The first store we visited was Aqua Forest Aquarium, a high-end store founded by planted tank extraordinaire Takashi Amano himself (http://www.adana-usa.com/). They take aquarium keeping to a whole new level!

Watching my CTs and DTs grow is pretty exciting! I have to admit, watching the full halfmoon finnage come in is far more dramatic than the slow maturation of the shortfin PKs. The PKs gain attitude, strength in the body, cookie-cutter form with razor-like edges, while the longfin halfmoons seem to have endless fins that start to swirl and billow around when they flare. I still prefer the CTs and PKs more...but I can really see the appeal of the full halfmoons!

I was super excited to get some Betta smaragdina males from Project 30 to match with my females. I hope that they will find good homes with their new grooms. I was blown away with how beautiful these males are though...just as vivacious as Betta splendens, and they really glisten. Their reflective beauty is difficult to photograph...they seem to switch from emerald green to bright blue depending on how you look at them. Really a gorgeous wild!

I feel like I'm really starting to get a handle on my new telephoto lens. I've been able to get some good shots of the Elassoma fry as they wander about the tank. One of the juveniles is definitely male, and the rest look female. I will have to figure out how to separate them...