I realised that I've never seen a crowntail doubletail plakat. (Edit: Well ok, thanks to the Betta Forum, now I have.) I've seen a crowntail plakat (no, the pic isn't a good example but it's the best I could find,) and a doubletail plakat, and the nice people on the Betta Forum found a picture of a crowntail doubletail for me, but I've never seen all three traits combined in one betta before.... Can you tell where I'm going with this? That's right; I'm inspired.
The way I figure it, I can breed a doubletail plakat with a crowntail, then breed two siblings from the resulting spawn together to get... well... every tail type under the rainbow! Like the above edit says, I now know that doubletail crowntails have been produced before, but the tail type apparently hasn't caught on yet, so it's still very appealing. Besides that, I'd love to have a pair that threw random combinations of tail types! How awesome would that be??

Anyway, being that I am obsessed with genetics, I spent several hours mapping out a trihybrid punnett spare representing a cross of the sibling bettas from the CT x DT plakat spawn. I then made a couple of tables to organize the genotypic and phenotypic data, and voila! A complicated document that only biology nerds would be interested in.
I really, really want to try this spawn since I love crowntails and plakats... and I really love crowntail plakats! It would be awesome to get so many different tail types out of just one spawn. As soon as the babies from the Mini spawn (Mini being the name and size of their mother, not a description of the spawn size) are grown, I'm going to try to breed Lil again, since his rightful owner wants fry from him, then maybe jump right into this project. I also need to breed the pairs I bought at the betta show though.

*Over-dramatic sigh* So many bettas, so little time.

I went to a betta show in Dallas this weekend, presented by the Texas Betta Society. I wrote quite a bit about it on Arsenic Tea, so all I'll say here is that it was the most fun I've had in a long time. There were tons of gorgeous fish for me to drool over, and I think Megan liked it a lot better than she thought she would. The bad news is that two of my bettas, A'albiel and Asmoday, died while I was gone. Their bowls sit close together on either side of Mini's 5 gallon, and since they were perfectly healthy when I left Friday, the absolute only thing that could have happened is that our cleaning lady came by that Friday and cleaned the glass desk they sit on with Windex. It doesn't take much of a foreign chemical to kill a fish, and both A'albiel and Asmoday showed signs of chemical burn, including red and inflamed gills. The only possible explanation is that some Windex made its way into their water and poisoned them. They will be missed.

There is good news too, though. My fry are 5 days old now, and free-swimming! I can see their little speck-like bodies moving about the water. Everything looks good, and I don't see any dead fry on the bottom (though admittedly, it would be hard to tell).
Also, I made out like a bandit at the show, so now I present to you pics and a little info about my new babies. I'm planning on using all of them as breeding stock in the future. Some of their tanks are pretty bare because I was just trying to get them out of their bags as soon as possible; I'll finish decorating and making them beautiful homes in a few days.

Copper/black/red male. He looks like a red butterfly with a copper overlay. Just look at those rays on his tail! I think he got 2nd in his division, but I don't really remember how they placed. He has a wild personality and flares at everything. Starting bid of $20. No one bid against me on this one.

Turquoise male. Again, just look at those rays! I wanted these males for the rose-ish look of their fins. This one is much more docile as compared to the other. 3rd in his division, if I remember correctly. Bidding started at $6, but I had to fight for it so I got him at a very reasonable $25. Both males are either halfmoon or very close; I haven't made them flare to check yet.

This female is a strange colour, and looked even stranger while at the show. No one really knew what to call her. She was kind of drab at the show, but if everyone could have seen her under the light, they'd be shocked at what they missed!! She's gorgeous, and a steal at $5.
Steel blue beauty I got for $3. An 8 ray female for $3, can you believe it?? She looks very clean, too; no redwash on the anal fin, but there is a little on her ventrals.

Another steel blue female, but this time a doubletail. Very cute little girly, and only $6.

Last but not least, the wild-caught pair of Betta imbellis. I was planning on a pair of Betta smaragdina, but I saw these two and just fell in love! They're so docile as compared to Betta splendens it's unbelieveable. I got the pair for the $20 starting bid. They're MUCH more beautiful when they're not stressed and have their colour, so I'll try to upload a pic of that when they settle down in a couple of days.

I decided to try breeding Mini with my new boy, Ipos, before trying her with Lil again because I'm just too darn afraid he's going to eat the eggs. I will try breeding him again, but I want to have one successful spawn under my belt beforehand. Anyway, the point is that Mini and Ipos spawned tonight and there are roughly 75 eggs sitting in their little (BIG) bubblenest! Ipos build one huge nest, then found a better location and built another equally huge nest. That boy is one nest building maniac! I think 75 is about the maximum number of eggs Mini is ever going to put out at one time, being that she's half the size of a normal female and can't carry all that many at one time. I really, really hope I get fry this time... oh please God, let the eggs hatch and not be eaten. My live food cultures are ready and waiting for babies; the stage is set. Let's get on with the show!