01/11/2024
Last week I made the difficult decision to help my boy, Mango, peacefully swim across the rainbow bridge. He has been my pride and joy, and most everyone who's been to my home to get a fish has had him shoved in their face lol. I've been crying a lot over the past few days, and wanted to do an appreciation post for this wonderful betta.
Mango's father was from my very first spawn. I paired him with a lovely rose gold female in his personal tank - a heavily planted 20 gallon. I never saw fry but fed the tank for the first few weeks, but stopped after it seemed that the spawn failed. A month later I was cleaning out the tank when I found 3 little fry! I moved them to a tank with some dumbo fry and eventually lovely Mango developed.
Mango is exactly the betta I set out to create 3 years ago. I wanted a strong yellow base with blue and white over top, with minimal/no black spots. The full white mask was a bonus. Over his two and a half years with me he never marbled to blue or black.
Mango produced 6 healthy and amazing spawns for me. He was the most gentle partner with his ladies, never hurting them or tearing fins. His fry all are beautiful and with wonderful finnage and form. If you've been to a fish store in Austin, you've probably seen his fry!
Mango gave me one last spawn before he left me. They are 2 months old and are already turning into little Mangos. While I am incredibly sad that he is gone, I am so thankful he swam into my fish room and gave me so many fry. I look forward to this spring where the next generation will begin.