Ready...Set....

Some good news! Yesterday morning when I was checking up on Casper I found that he had finally made a new bubble nest! Since his fin got damaged he had stopped making nests for a while. This was the main reason (once I figured out what was wrong) why I didn't think I could breed him this week. But now that he is back to blowing nests I am going to try breeding him first. His dorsal fin is not completely healed yet, but it looks good and I want to go for it. I really feel that Casper and Rain will produce some nice looking fry, so I was pretty excited when I saw his little bubble nest. 

 I got my betta breeding/fry rearing kit in (a shout out to Fishguy_1955 on aquabid) on MONDAY, several days before I was expecting it! Here are the goodies that came in it:

Seen here are the Indian Almond Leaves (a breeding 'inducer' if you will), a variety of fry food, a combined banana, micro, and walterworm starter culture, and a dozen pipettes. Pretty special. I put some IA leaves in all the tanks, it was like betta Christmas. Oh, here's a close up of some fancy nematodes: 

Those white/silver/stringy things you see are the worms. They're fascinating. When I first looked at them, they didn't appear to be moving and I thought, "Oh crap, they're dead!" but the longer I looked, the better I could see them and I was actually able to see them moving and squiggling around. Now I want to get a magnifying glass:) So the nematodes are all set up in 2 separate cultures (in case one crashes) and should be ready to feed in a week. The fry food is here, the pairs are conditioned, and the breeding tank is ready! 

 Finally, here is a somewhat poor quality picture of  Rain displaying some very prominent 'breeding stripes' (please excuse my scary Giant hand):

Since everything is ready to go, the first breeding attempt will be TOMORROW! Fingers crossed!!