Long time no talk! I think it's safe to say that this year has turned out a LOT different than we all anticipated! 

2020 was supposed to a big year for me... we planned to get married, honeymoon in Hawaii, then go on an epic trek in the Borneo rainforest searching for giant tropical pitcher plants. Needless to say all of that was cancelled. Sigh...

Being home in quarantine all the time has its upsides though. I finally had the time to raise another spawn of Betta rubra and I've been expanding my tropical pitcher plant collection! I posted several videos on Betta rubra and Nepenthes on my YouTube channel and it feels good to be back. I am finally finding that elusive balance between work and my personal life. I absolutely love teaching, but I will say that I would never wish upon ANYONE the stress of learning how to teach full-time in a public high school! The learning curve is steep and the work-life balance is almost impossible, but I LOVE my students and colleagues!

I also started a separate website on my tropical pitcher plants called the Nepenthes Diary. Nepenthes are certainly less demanding than fish - no water changes, slow growing, interesting to research and collect, and just spectacular plants overall. Check it out! I hope to expand my fish breeding again in the future... probably when I retire!

A few new videos for you below! 

Until next time
​~Gianne
​​

Update on the CTPK fry! Unfortunately starting to see more swim bladder disorder :( I thought I was over the hump! However, the Betta rubra look great!

24 hour update on the Betta rubra and checking out the CTPK and gularis fry.

My friend Joep wants to push our FaceBook group discussions towards genetics, which I am 100% all for! Since I am contemplating which pair to spawn next, I decided to turn it into an exercise :) This short video is for practicing - watch the video, decide which male you would spawn to the female, and, most importantly, WRITE DOWN WHY you would! Remember that I spawn to both the IBC and the B4A standards :)

The reason I did a video instead of photographs, and also why I was super lazy and didn't take them out of their home jars, is because you need to develop the judging eye to be fast and accurate - even while the fish is in motion, the water is stained with IAL, and the lighting is bad. Practice makes perfect!

Another easy and quick fish keeping tip! I made some new grindal and white worm cultures for a killifish friend that was visiting from SoCal this weekend. Always share your cultures! That way you can ask for them  back in case they crash :p

Wow! I've been on a roll with this short videos. YouTube Capture app is awesome because I can quickly shoot videos when I'm just hanging out in my fish room like I would normally do. It's wonderful that I get to share more of my every day activities with you guys!

Here I share the way that I hatch Baby Brine Shrimp. It takes less than 10 minutes a day. The easier it is, the more likely you are to do it :) Cheers!

Transferred some little guys into the growout, and of course they immediately started fighting. I was forced to jar several of them! As you can see, there is a pretty wide variety of forms in this spawn, which means that it is still a new line that will require more inbreeding to achieve purity of form and color. Their spawn log is Spawn CTPK form 020815.

About time I set up some spawns! I'm super pumped from convention and ready to start the next generation. Their spawn log is at Spawn RY Trad 072115.

If you've noticed, I am running two parallel lines of CTPKs now. One is focused on form - these guys have great primary branching (which in my opinion gives a much cleaner appearance than CTs with greater branching), decent webbing reduction, and carry DT which contributes to broader dorsals.  However, this line has uneven color and some have marbling and red wash. The other line is focused on color - these have beautifully clean metallic coverage, and come in metallic copper, royal blue, and turquoise (my favorite!). Both lines originate from two half brothers from Jamie, but the form line came from a brother/sister cross, and the color line came from an outcross to a female from Gastone Tomei. You can read about the beginning of the CTPK project here.  

This Spawn is at Spawn CTPK color 072115. Crossing my fingers!