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DaBaDee's journal and then some

24K views 448 replies 16 participants last post by  konstargirl 
#1 ·
So I figured I should start a thread here as I could probably write a book about my fish, as well as my other pets and past experiences and basically anything that comes to mind.

DaBaDee, my blue betta (he's blue, DaBaDee, dabadie), just got a new tank upgrade. I obviously had little knowledge about bettas before joining this site less than a week ago. I had a random urge to go buy him a new tank... 5 gallon, upgrade from a 1 gallon. The most I knew was that he doesn't like a lot of water flow (figured that out when I got him almost a year ago), so I bought a 5 gallon kit with an adjustable filter, and joined this site to find out how to properly switch him over from his old tank to his new one. I've learned so much from this site in less than a week that I spent $80 on new stuff for him just this morning. I want him to have the best life he possibly can, now that I know what he really needs.

I also am looking forward to getting another 5 gallon tank for christmas so I can purchase another betta. The only other fish I've ever had that lived for longer than a few days was a betta I had in elementary school for over a year, named Flipper. He never died from sickness... I was at camp and my parents were supposed to take care of him, but they let my cat go into my room and she knocked the lid off of his tank and he disappeared... I thought that she may have ate him. But, months later, we found him dried up stuck to the back of the bookshelf his tank was sitting on :( I still don't know if he jumped out or what. It was pretty heartbreaking. Anyways, I might name my next fish Mitsu, meaning three, because he/she will be my third betta fish ever.

Oh, yes, I also have two cats, Oreo and Ramona. Ramona was the one who killed my last betta fish. I also have a dog named Cappuccino. He goes everywhere with me, but I still think that DaBaDee gets more excited to see me than he does.



Anyways, today I got new pellets for DaBaDee. He was spitting out the last ones (crappy walmart brand), so I got him Aqueon betta pellets. He ate them right up, and they are much smaller and easier for him to eat. He's also much more active with his extra 4 gallons of room :) I don't have a heater for him yet - I ordered one online today, along with silk plants, a master test kit and aquarium salt (and maybe a Gary ornament to go with his spongebob theme...)


DaBaDee


Cappuccino


Ramona


Oreo
 
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#2 ·
I'm getting pretty excited to get the new stuff I ordered for DaBaDee online, even though I only ordered in yesterday and it doesn't ship until Monday :p

The heater, I'm afraid, is what he needs the most right now, and it is also estimated to take the longest to get here. They usually estimate it for longer than it actually takes though, so I'm hoping that's the case. Everything I ordered said it usually ships from the warehouse the next business day, but it said the heater would take 5-7 days to ship (and another 3-5 to get here). It also excludes weekends.

I'm super excited to see how much better he'll do with a heater. I've had him for almost a year and he's never had one, so at least I'm not extremely worried about anything happening to him before I get it. I'm hoping that I'll get to see his true colors after his water is warm, and also that the heater can get his tank to 78 degrees since it's only between 66-68 degrees in the basement. I've read reviews of heaters not being able to sufficiently heat tanks that are in such cold rooms, even when they're turned all the way up.

He's eating like a little piggy, now. I'm afraid that if I fed him as much as he could eat in 3 minutes, it'd probably be close to 10 pellets or more. But he is eating better and is more active, so all is good :)
 
#3 ·
DaBaDee love the name and now I have the song stuck in my head. Hehe I believe all bettas have a little piggy in their family tree. I love blue Bettas and your boy is stunning.
 
#4 ·
Haha, thanks. It was kind of my boyfriend's idea. He loves the color blue, so I bought him DaBaDee, but of course I'm the one who cares for him and is attached :p I hope he'll get even brighter after I get a heater (which I hope will be very soon!!!)
 
#5 ·
Everything I ordered for DaBaDee on Saturday except for the heater has been shipped and is not estimated to be here by Wednesday (or possibly thursday, if they get to town by Wednesday but not on my doorstep).
I'll be planning on using the test kit pretty much as soon as I get my hands on the box.
I also am visiting a college tomorrow at 8am, but since the college is two hours away I'll be leaving tonight and staying the night. :/ I'll definitely miss my little guy and my dog, but maybe it will make tomorrow go by faster and my stuff seem like it gets here quicker!

We're also starting acrylic painting in art at school (I have two art classes, haha) so I want to paint a picture of him. No promises that it will turn out to be incredibly good, but it is something I get excited about when I get to start new art projects, especially ones involving my betta :p

I'll have to post a picture of the giraffe painting I did last year.
 
#6 ·
Love the name lol I have the song stuck in my head now too! That was my favorite song when I was little! Lol

What kind of camera do you use? The quality is amazing
 
#8 ·
That explains it! Lol nikons are amazing cameras.
 
#9 ·
Yeah, I love my Nikon. I think I took all of these with my 35mm prime 1.8 lens. It's the only one I use for my fish because he's always moving around and it's the fastest :p A little green light comes on right before it takes the picture and I think he gets grumpy with me when I bring the camera near his tank.
 
#10 ·
Haha that's funny! Sounds like you know a lot about photography. I've just got my iPhone camera and a samsung dual view, nothing fancy but gets the job done
 
#11 ·
Yes, animals, photography and art are my three favorite things, in that order. :)

Good news - my brother told me that when/if his son's fish dies, I'll be inheriting his 10 gallon tank. I'm not entirely sure what he has in there right now... a few corys I think, and something else. It'll come with the filter and heater, and most likely the gravel and decor, even though I think he only has one in there because his fish like to hide. That's the great thing about bettas :) mine is definitely not shy!
 
#13 ·
Haha, thanks. A lot of it really is the camera doing the work, not me :p

I was planning on waiting til Christmas, but we were in a town 2 hours away and happened to see an Earl May so I went in because the walmart here doesn't have crap for fish supplies. So I WAS looking for fish supplies, but I saw some crowntails (they don't have them at my walmart, and they aren't as brightly colored, either) and one in particular that jumped out at me. Since I didn't have another tank (besides my old one gallon) I was about to walk out of the store but my mom asked me if I wanted it... so of course I couldn't say no and she definitely was not helping! Haha.

So on our way back we stopped to get another 5 gallon tank, some gravel and a few caves for him. My silk plants should be here tomorrow and I ordered 8 so I'd have enough for two tanks.

He did survive the 2 hour drive home but it a little scared now, which isn't surprising. I still have him in his cup because I'm sure he's already stressed from the car and I don't want to stress him out more too soon :/



I AM THINKING about naming him Mitsu (meaning three; he is my third betta, ever) but I am still not 100% sure. Feel free to give me name suggestions if you have any, I'd appreciate it ;)

Copied and pasted this from my post in the betta pictures forum so I didn't have to retype it. Isn't he precious? ^_^
 
#14 ·
I haven't moved my new betta from his cup yet but would like to do that before I go to sleep. DaBaDee almost got himself stuck under a rock earlier, and was totally checking out the thermometer I put inside his tank today.

The new betta seems pretty friendly. He's not very skittish. I've been adding water to his cup so that he can acclimate in his cup, because the cup and the tank are at the same temp- room temp. He was also checking out the thermometer I put in his cup, haha. Very cute :)
 
#16 ·
Crazy how? haha. He was flaring quite a bit when I was taking some pictures. I'm not sure if he could see his reflection in the glass or if he just hates my camera, haha.

I did get my new silk plants, my gary ornament, my test kit and some AQ salt in the mail today. So of course, I redecorated. I only put one plant and Gary into DaBaDees tank for now. Since he doesn't like his pineapples house I'd like him to get used to the new plant before I take out his plastic one.









He seems like he's doing really well! No signs of stress besides the somewhat random flaring. I sure hope he doesn't hurt himself doing it!
 
#17 ·
Aww that last pic is too cute xD

and my guy likes to flare at any black object he can see from the tank... he's starting to calm down a bit I think, he's only been in the tank since Sunday
 
#18 ·
Well, that would make sense... My camera is a giant black object, ha. For some reason my camera will sometimes have a green light come on right before I take a picture so I thought that was what was making him flare..

But after taking a test picture to see if the light was coming on... well, it wasn't. So I wasn't sure what it could be!
 
#19 ·
I have decided on the name Bahari.. I think it suits him best. :)
He's quite the aggressive little guy. He flares a lot and you should see the way he attacks his food, haha :)

He does follow my finger around. DaBaDee only follows my finger if it's in the water, otherwise he follows my entire body xD
 
#21 ·
He's blue, dabadee, dabadie, haha. It's a song by Eiffel 65 called I'm Blue (just in case you haven't heard it. It's very popular so I wouldn't be surprised if you have). I had actually gotten him last christmas for my boyfriend because his favorite color is blue, so he named him and now he has a theme song :p He's obviously more my fish than his, but my mom bought Bahari for me, so now we each kind of have our own fish. He says he doesn't like fish, but I think it's kind of a half-truth. He likes them more than he wants to admit!

I am super excited that my Hydor Theo heater shipped yesterday! It probably won't be here until next week. I also have another one ordered for the new tank, which was kind of a spur of the moment thing, but it will take even longer to get here :( :( :(

Both of my little guys seem to be doing pretty good right now, so I bet they'll do even better with their new heaters. I have obviously just recently started doing in depth research on bettas... I have learned so much from this site in a week, it's rediculous! I was the newbie last week, and now I'm one of the ones giving advice :p They are definitely an addiction, and the more you learn about them, the more addicted you get!

I have also officially decided that I cannot attend a college that doesn't allow fish in the dorms. I'm not going anywhere without them... I really don't believe that anyone around here that I know will keep them in good health, which is pretty sad.


On a side note, I went to walmart today to look for a thermometer for my new tank (and also took my friend so he could look at filters for his 60 gallon tank that he's been wanting to set up again), and all the bettas were stacked on top of each other covering the air holes for the ones on the bottom!
I immediately rearranged them in a pyramid type way so that at least the air holes weren't covered, and made sure to make a comment to an employee. His response was, "Oh, I didn't realize that they were doing that. I'll be sure to tell the pet department not to do that.."

He obviously had no idea that they shouldn't be stacked that way. There were a few not so good looking ones on the bottom, and one dead female :( At least he sounded somewhat concerned, although I'm not really sure if he's actually going to inform the pet department that I voiced my concerns. Next time I go in, I'll have to move the dead/half dead ones to the front, and re-state my concerns on their not-so-ideal conditions, and also inform them that betta fish breathe air and YOU CAN DROWN THEM. People look at me stupid when I say that, but it's true.
 
#22 ·
Bahari seems to have a pretty big belly. I wonder if he's constipated from trying to eat those floaty things that were in his cup when I got him.
Hopefully I'll get one of my heaters today, and I'm thinking I'll have to put it in Bahari's tank to speed up his metabolism, so poor little DaBaDee will have to wait a while longer for his heater :(
 
#23 ·
Haha, FedEx lied to me :p
The tracking information estimated that my heater would get here yesterday. Well, it didn't make it yesterday, so the estimated arrival date changed to Monday, making me think that they didn't deliver on weekends :(

But my heater arrived on my doorstep today! Now little Bahari is slowly acclimating to a higher temp.

I thought he was bloated, but I'm pretty sure I was wrong. He is probably skinny due to the treatment he got at the petstore, so it made the front half of his body look bigger than the back half. I noticed poo at the bottom of the tank which made me realize that he wasn't constipated..

He is doing much better than he was on Tuesday. He isn't flaring quite as much at everything, and he is starting to explore his entire tank. For a few days, he wasn't going near the bottom of his tank at all. He was pretty much staying near the surface all the time, which also contributed to my thinking he was bloated. Silly me. I fasted my already skinny fish for a day :(

I can't wait to see how much he brightens up in the proper temperature. :)
 
#24 ·
The new tanks are almost perfect :D I just have to add a few more silk plants to DaBaDee's tank and hopefully get the plastic one outta there.



Bahari survived his water change today as well, and surprisingly isn't as stressed as I thought he'd be. Water changes don't go as smoothly for me now, since the biggest tank I've had before these was a one gallon. However, I did figure out how to use the gravel vac so I siphoned water both out and into Bahari's tank because I didn't want to mess up the gravel by pouring it in. And it also maybe had a little bit to do with the fact that I was fascinated by the siphoning process xD
 
#26 ·
Thanks! I thought it was funny because it was mostly pure coincidence that the plants I ordered for Bahari's tank match him so well, since I ordered them before I even saw him xD
 
#27 ·
I got DaBaDees heater today! I put it in his tank on lunch break. I also got some stress coat and Epsom salt just in case. Hopefully I'll be getting Seachem prime soon as I just found out that my tap water has ammonia :/
 
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