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MoonShadow Betta Fish Rescue Update Journal!

14K views 70 replies 18 participants last post by  sbrit94 
#1 ·
Moon Shadow Betta Fish rescue was founded in the summer of 2011. I have always been an advocate for the proper treatment of betta fish and in 2011 I decided to take the next step by physically rescuing betta fish in need. I do my best to get sick or injured fish for free or for a discounted price, but that isn't always possible and I will not leave a fish in need behind! At my old house I was able to house up to 12 rescues at any given time, unfortunately in my new apartment I can only take it 5-6 rescues at any given time.

I will take in a rescue, rehabilitate him or her, and adopt them out to a forever home! I never ask an adoption fee for my fish, though I do ask a discounted shipping fee if the adopter lives out of state and the betta needs to be shipped (Note: I will not ship all bettas, only the ones who haven't had too rough of a road)

Currently I have 4 rescues in my care:

Patrick


Oz


Boomer


Whiskey



They are all in fabulous health now! Oz and Boomer have homes lined up and will be going to those homes this week. I have decided to keep Patrick, I am just so incredibly attached to him, I don't think I would be able to part with him at this point!

I also have 3 beautiful pet boys that weren't rescues!

Lemon-Doodle


Norbert


Apollo


I have finally gotten the 30 gallon tank in my kitchen back up an running after a mass die out last month! I have recently begun restocking it slowly with female bettas, got some really really lovely ones at petsmart the other day, they had just gotten their shipment in so i had my pick of the bunch!

















I was at petsmart today to pick up bloodworms, and spotted a little green/black marble HMPK boy who was there when I got Boomer over 3 weeks ago. I almost got this little HMPK back then because he looked so clamped and sad, but boomer really looked like he needed me more, and the little HMPK was so pretty (despite being clamped) that i figured he would be picked up pretty fast! I was shocked when he was still there today! As soon as Oz or Boomer go to their new homes and I have open space, I will be heading to petsmart to get him.
 
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#6 ·
Your fish are so pretty!
I'm especially jealous of the yellow girl!!! :D

I'm planning on doing a rescue as well once I move out and get the room. If I ever rescue a fish, it'll definitely be one that I'll keep, so I'm rather picky about it :/

I'm glad everyone is getting new homes!
 
#8 ·
Oz was shipped to his new home today! She should arrive on Thursday, shipping always makes me so nervous! In 8 years of shipping I've had 2 DOA's which isn't bad at all, but I still breathe a huge sigh of relief when I get the word that they arrived at their new homes safely!!

Little Boomer will hopefully be meeting his forever mom on Thursday and going home with her!

I picked up a new rescue today, every body say hello to Charlie! He is severely emaciated and has rot on all fins! But he's already perking up!

 
#18 ·
My daughter is looking over my shoulder as I go through this thread & sees Chrlie here and says he's a dull betta, so I showed her the pic you posted of him now on FB today. Big change, he's looking great. If I wasn't beyond full I would gladly give this handsome guy a home. I'm still watching here and on FB, so when I can give one of your resuces a home I can let you know.
 
#10 ·
#13 ·
Well Oz was shipped out to his forever home on Tuesday and arrived safe and sound yesterday!! Which I am so so happy about, shipping fish always gives me a minor panic attack! In 8 years of shipping I've only had 2 DOA's but I still get nervous every single time I drop a fish off at that post office, and I swear I don't breathe right until I get word that they arrived safely!

Boomer will hopefully be going to his forever home this weekend, I have to say I'm going to miss him very much, he's made some of the fastest and most dramatic progress of any rescue I've ever had!

Here's one last before and after shot of him!


The girls tank had a minor outbreak of Ick, but they are fine now, my fault I wasn't being careful about the amount of fish I was adding and I think I added to many too fast and they all got a little bit stressed out!

We have a new addition to the rescue, an adorable little boy that I have named Charlie (after my favorite character in Lost lol) He was found at Petsmart suffering from fin rot and extreme emaciation, he was just skin and bones, the poor little man! He's already doing so so much better, he's eating, he's already put on weight, he's flaring at lemon in the tank next door and he's gained a lot of color! He's going to be one beautiful fish when he's all better!

When I got him on Tuesday (4/2)


Late last night (4/4)
 
#16 ·
Shhhh! I just started watching it on Netflix, I'm just finishing up season one! Haha!! But I already knew charlie died eventually because I looked on IMDB to see how many episodes everyone was in because I don't like surprises! Haha


What do you usually do for them? Clean water and food?
Clean, warm water (between 78 and 82 degrees F) and good high quality food (Such as Atisons or NLS) I will medicate if I need to, but I would say about 80% of the time these guys turn around once they have the clean warm water and good food
 
#19 ·
Your fish are amazing! Subscribed! I love Charlie! And would definitely take him ff we were both on the same side of the border :(
Good to know there is someone willing to do this.
 
#21 ·
I'm not sure what you are referring to? Are you referring to Charlie? If you are, he came to us severely emaciated with fin rot and a grim outlook


and this is him now
 
#22 ·
Lots has happened recently! Norbert, my lovely black copper dragon HMPK went to his forever home yesterday!!

On monday i went to petco and had it out with them, they fish were in AWFUL condition, there were at least 6 dead fish on the shelves, with quite a few more on their way out. I ended up bringing 3 home with me.

The first was an orange halfmoon with a missing tail. He's doing well and has been named Sampson!


The second was a little doubletail who is severely emaciated, and suffering from the effects of ammonia poisoning. He is slowly getting better and moving around more. He has been named Echo.


The third was a little delta tail who was suffering from severe ammonia burns and ammonia poisoning. I named him Jackson but he unfortunately didn't make it through the night.


I also took a video while I was there to show exactly how bad of shape the bettas were in!
http://youtu.be/osN4o-wK7b4

I went back to Petco yesterday to return the poor little delta and bring home a new rescue. I ended up a with little orange cambodian delta with fin rot who I have named Cheeto, and a pretty little blue veiltail female.

Cheeto


Little girl


I also snapped a couple more pictures in the store. This was a doubletail who was almost dead, I pointed him out to the (very rude) guy who was working and asked if I could adopt him since he wasn't going to make it much longer. And the said no, took the betta and walked away...


this was a king male with a huge hold in his head, you could see his bones, he was also on his way out.. poor thing.


and this was the new shipment they had just gotten in. The entire shopping cart was full of cups, all veiltail males, there were at least 100, even though the shelves were still full of bettas from the last shipment
 
#25 ·
I sure am! Just collecting as much as possible!
 
#28 ·
That would be wonderful guys! Thank you very much!
 
#29 ·
I will message you on FB after I get the pics. Probably be easier to share them with you there. Not sure exactly when, but I will be there this weekend.
 
#30 ·
I would also report the rude employees. >:/ Include names if they have a name tag, date and time of the incident.

I've been doing that with the walmart here in town. The employees aren't rude but I always inquire about better betta care (mostly when the cups are stacked and they have no access to oxygen) and tell them they breathe air, don't stack the cups, etc... And they always say, "okay i'll let everyone know," and I come back the next day to see the cups stacked like that again. I seriously unstack them every time I go in there or stack them in a pyramid way.


ANYWAYS, I love this thread. The transformations are amazing! I'll keep watching it. I'm trying to get my empty tank ready for a new inhabitant but I'm kind of set on a PK and I can't get one that can't be shipped :( But it's a good thread anyways, and I enjoy reading!
 
#31 ·
Apparently, the talk that I had with the staff the last time I was in the bad Petco had an impact!

I found one male with ammonia burns, but cups were clean, and everyone else looked okay.
My only concerns with that store now are the staff in general, but I think that's a product of the location. It took me 5 minutes to find an employee, and then, when I said, "I found a fish with ammonia burns," she said, "No, they have fin rot and they're being treated."
I held up the cup and said, "Uh, no, he has ammonia burns." (Can you hear the eye roll through the Internet?)
She was like, "Oh, you mean a betta!"

Well, yeah. Bettas were fish, last time I checked...

Long story short, no evidence for you, but for good reasons.
 
#32 ·
Well, yeah. Bettas were fish, last time I checked...
Lol I can feel the sarcasm.

They're also living, breathing, feeling, living, thinking, sleeping, swimming, living forms of LIFE. (Did I mention they are living?)

I'm not a violent person or an extremely outspoken one, either, but those kinds of remarks just make me clench my fists and give them a piece of my mind. I can be pretty persuasive, and if I can't, I'm also full of information.

If you can't beat 'em, confuse 'em. (They might not like you if you make them feel like an idiot but they do listen, because they don't want to look like an idiot twice.)
 
#33 ·
I agree. Use random words they might not know but try to stay relevant. Go into talking about about how (There are signs of trihydrogen nitride *ammonia* on the left side of the penducle near the caudal at the base of the anal fin) that way they get very confused, assume you know stuff even if you don't, and agree.
 
#34 ·
Well Charlie, Patrick and Lemon-Doodle went to their forever homes today!! I already miss them!! Especially Patrick but I know they are all going to wonderful homes! This is the hardest part about rescuing, saying goodbye to the ones that really really makes themselves a place in your heart!

I stopped at Petsmart today and had a lovely chat with one of the employees. He was changing the water when I got there. All of the bettas looked great, and he really knew what he was talking about, it was a real pleasure talking to him! Now I know why the bettas there have been looking so good lately, its because this guy has started working there! Its really really wonderful!

Of course I still ended up coming home with 3. A beautiful red marble VT, a STUNNING female CT dragon and a poor little white CT who has been there a LONG time and has Popeye, poor baby!

The Girl


Roo


SnapDragon



As some of you know I am a big fan of veiltails, I'm toying with the idea of starting up a National Veiltail Appreciation Day, would anyone be interested in celebrating something like that. They are so underrated and under appreciated, they deserve a day all to themselves! I'm thinking May 25th, thoughts?? Ideas??
 
#36 ·
What do you think? Maybe end of June?
 
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