CTDT 102012

Foundation CT mal by Siambellis. His very broad dorsal hinted at the possibility of DT carrier.

No picture of the dam. Dam was bred by Sieg Illig, and was a turquoise blue female DT. She had a bumpy topline, but full and even lobes with a slight bump on the peduncle. She carried grizzle.

---

I attributed her greatly unbalanced body and finnage to her terrible rearing, and decided to give the backcross a shot.

I wasn't sure what to expect with this backcross. I definitely expected both STs and DTs to pop up, since the foundation male obviously carried DT. I was hoping that the impressive qualities of the male would override the qualities of the female, and be doubled up in the offspring. I crossed my fingers and gave it a shot...

I ended up with about 1/4 of the spawn with extremely uneven DT lobes. However, their bodies were straight and had smooth toplines. I was VERY happy with this outcome!

My very first male bred and raised by me! What a relief! I was starting to think I could only raise females! His rounded fin edges are a bother, but his extremely full dorsal is a definite plus. I really love the STs in this line.

This female, although beautiful, has a terrible time deporting properly. She also has a very straight and unattractive topline.

My favorite betta bred to date!

The tribanded CT female on the left was a complete and wonderful surprise! I did not anticipate the nearly perfect division of the colors on the unpaired fins, or the beautifully smooth topline, or the full ventrals, even anal, and full dorsal! Points of improvement are to thicken up the caudal peduncle (hopefully with the help of more DT) and to straighten the outer rays on the caudal. 

This female later on gained more male-length finnage that I would have liked. I have seen a lot of older CT females gain male-like finnage, and also be prone to egg-binding. Fortunately for me, my females seem to know what to do if they are becoming egg-bound...they build their own nests and lay their eggs in it!!

This female became my next "foundation" female, as I found that she had many qualities that I would like to promote. She is the mother of both spawn 021413 and spawn 050313.