Surprise Babies

I've been pairing off and on for a few years but after 3 of my girls slugged out nearly requiring surgery on 2 (long story about why I think they had issues), I decided to take a break from breeding. A friend of mine gave me a lesser pos het clown/pied and asked me to make a clown baby. I had 2 young het clown girls and 2 years ago, I started pairing them with the lesser boy and a het clown boy I had picked up. Saw locks on both girls but they were just 3 years old so I didn't think anything about it when they didn't ovulate or lay. Fast forward, didn't breed this past season but when I went to clean tubs, on September 30, Cara, one of the het clown girls, was curled around 5 eggs. 3 were viable and 2 were slugs. Never saw her ovulate and she hadn't been paired for a little over 2 years by that point. Since I didn't have my incubator going, I opted to let her maternally incubate. Yesterday, we had a pip and since I didn't see movement in the other 2 eggs, I opted to cut them. 1 was a very undersized dead clown baby. 1 was a large and very lazy normal. And the one who pipped was a big clown. Today the two survivors are out and while the normal still has some yolk to absorb, it's doing fantastic. I'm beyond thrilled that the first bp baby born here was a gorgeous little clown girl though.
http://i970.photobucket.com/albums/a...pspspy88xo.jpg
http://i970.photobucket.com/albums/a...psymy4njmd.jpg
http://i970.photobucket.com/albums/a...psxhgqfefh.jpg

2 years? That's amazing. Makes me rethink the whole het thing. If you pair up with a recessive followed by a different recessive the following year I suppose you have a chance at sperm retention and odds on either recessive... Which means that if you keep switching males every year you don't really know for sure what you will get. This changes everything.

Grats! Best of luck with both babies. What a story.

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Originally Posted by cchardwick

2 years? That's amazing. Makes me rethink the whole het thing. If you pair up with a recessive followed by a different recessive the following year I suppose you have a chance at sperm retention and odds on either recessive... Which means that if you keep switching males every year you don't really know for sure what you will get. This changes everything.

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Yeah, and while I've known it's possible, didn't think it would happen to me. I'm pretty sure the daddy to these was the normal het clown but it is also possible it was the lesser and just didn't hit the codom. This season, each one is going to a different female to see if I can prove my lesser boy out. The mother to these ate consistently while incubating so she'll be ready to go soon.

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crazy story and congratulations! that's a gorgeous 0.1 Clown. i also hope the lil Normal one makes it ok.

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Originally Posted by Ax01

crazy story and congratulations! that's a gorgeous 0.1 Clown. i also hope the lil Normal one makes it ok.

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Thank you and she'll be fine. Already absorbed pretty much everything and is closing up quickly. She's been perky and I moved her in with her sister this afternoon now that she's not at risk moving around.

http://i970.photobucket.com/albums/a...psqujnc7wj.jpg

What precious baby noodles congratulations hope they thrive under your watchful loving eyes :)