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Update on Electra and "old man"

3K views 33 replies 3 participants last post by  Sakura8 
#1 · (Edited)
After losing Coraline and dealing with that, i came across Electra, its been about a month since i got her, i kept her in a 1g, not allowing myself to become as attached, though her conditions seemed nice at Petco, i didnt want to be upset again so soon. Thats why i havent said much about her after the initial introduction. Shes doing great, her colors are so vibrant youd think she was a boy, but her obvious eggy belly says otherwise, shes feisty, not as hyper and young as Coraline was but cute in her own ways. Since she made it a month i figured it was time for an upgrade and with temps here hitting 100+ outside and 83-85 in my house with AC on, and with fall coming eventually i thought, why not split a 10 gallon so i can just buy one heater and so it takes longer for the hot days to heat the water in the summer. So i searched and searched, eventually got a 10G with filter, made my own divider, figured out water and all and put her in 4.5g of her own space.
Old man- I started out calling him fishy but ive caught myself saying oldman too many times so thats his name officially :)) Id say hes about a year old, hes just a grumpy, tired old fish. He can make out Electra through the mesh here and there on his side and he spends his day making bubblenests and longing to embrace her LOL! Its odd, hes always appeared blue with red streaks in his fins but over the last few weeks the red has taken over and most of his body is red now. Im pretty confused by this but hes very healthy and they both love their mosquito larvae daily.
Ive been staring at them alot this last couple of days in their 10g, i finally got some bulbs so i can turn the light on and view them perfectly. Oldman is so funny, hes made a huge impressive bubblenest, and then two on the other corners, when she notices him he swims up under his huge one and wiggles, she watches but then runs off to play in the filter stream some more, he then goes to his smaller bubblenest to the left, waits for her to stop playing and look over then he wiggles his butt again, and she runs off to swim against the current some more, and repeat on the third bubblenest. Its hilarious watching him wiggle, as if hes saying
"Does this suit you my love?"
-perks out butt and wiggles ss she glances at his *home*-
Electra- gets in head down position for a quick moment and suddenly gets distracted "Wee stream of WATER WEE~"
XD
He will show off all three until tired then he crawls in his cave for about 5 minutes to rest before coming back out, adding bubbles and wagging himself around all over again. He doesnt wag as enthusiastically as ive seen some males in videos on youtube, he puts half the effort in, half flares, only his fins. Thats why hes "old man" so tired. My dad says he needs Viagra LOL :))
But thats the update, both are well, active, seem to be enjoying each others distant company, and exploring their new home, and im enjoying watching them more then TV :p


 
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#2 ·
Old Man sounds hilarious! What a riot, the old geezer lusting after the pretty young thing next door. It's a fishy soap opera. :rofl: He even has a grumpy old look on his face in your picture, kind of like the old actor Walter Matthau. But I bet trying to impress his young lady will add a year onto his life. And Electra looks fabuluous, she is suiting her name perfectly. I love her spiky little crowntail, it's so cute and spunky. I think she is the perfect girl for you to have after Coraline because Electra is similar to her but not so much alike that you are constantly reminded of Coraline. She sounds like she has such an inquisitive, playful personality, like she's too full of life right now to settle down and raise a family so spawning can wait, thank you very much old man. :p If she was human, she'd be touring Europe with her college buds or something like that. They're very adorable.
 
#3 ·
LOL exactly as you said, shes similar but different. Old man is just a dirty old man :))
Its odd because she stays pretty full of eggs, egg spot poking out and all, moreso since the 10g ivided but not ONCE does she ever have breeding stripes, i assume id be able to see them if she wanted to so its as if her body is trying to do the breeding thing, swelling a bit, but in no way does she want to otherwise XD I put her on the filter side, i baffled it but theres still a slight current, she likes to take a run-a-go and see if she can touch nose to the sponge, and sometimes she chases the air bubbles around. Old man is just a creeper, peeping from his cave to get a good look at her. Its a pity they sell them so old, id have liked to have him younger but from everything ive read and his size when i purchased him, and me having him 5 months he must be a year+ already.
Everytime he sees the camera he swims up all angry-like that, puffin out like hes the man, then getting tired and resting a moment behind his plants lol. I swear bettas are a cross of a fish/dog mentally, all the begging and wagging and random naps, hilarious.
Today my dad came to viist and i had the tank light off and everytihng and he just stopped in front of it and started laughing "That purplish one wants me to feed it, look at it, its dancing heh" it was electra, shes not shy at all XD
 
#4 · (Edited)
Oh and that missing pectoral fin is SLOWELY appearing, its a short little nub that wiggles as the other does when she moves, about twice as long as it was when i got her, but when i got her it was ALMOST at body level, just a little dark spot that you could barely tell was a fin at all. I say itll take her a few months to get it back fully. I stopped the aquarium salts since its such a slow mending process, i dont want her on salt always and i like live plants with her :)) She gets around as if its not missing at all so im not worried anymore :)
 
#6 ·
:lol: Yeah, from what you've said, it sounds like she gets around just fine without, even riding the filter stream. I do hear something like Stress Coat is supposed to help with fin regeneration. And I just got this product called Vita-Chem from fostersandsmithaquatics.com that's supposed to help, too (couple of my new girls came home missing dorsals). I think it helped a little with my one girl, who got her anal fin and tail nipped during an aborted attempt at a sorority. She's all healed now, only some clear membrane here and there. It's kinda costly though, $11.
 
#5 ·
I think because bettas must be kept more or less solitary, they develop enormous bonds with their humans, far more than schooling fish who bond with each other. And that's why we can see our betta's individual personalities and quirks. You see this in other fish that generally aren't social, like big cichlid fish and some catfish.

Electra does look really eggy but like you said, she must just not be in the mood mentally. I just put one of my girls in a 10g divided tank with my denim blue Cambodian VT and she's already got breeding bars but she doesn't look eggy at all. She's very slim and very athletic and quite a pill. Twice now she's gone over the divider and both times she only went because I fed Anderson, the VT first and she wanted his bloodworms. I have to dribble them on Anderson's head or else he doesn't realize they're there and one minute I'm looking at the top of his head and the next minute there's this little crimson fireball nipping bloodworms off his noggin. I scooped her right back over the dividier (she went kicking and screaming the whole way) and immediately, she started eating her own bloodworms as if nothing had happened. :roll: I spent the rest of the night checking every two minutes to make sure she was staying put because I was worried she wanted to spawn. But nope, I guess the first and foremost thing on a betta's mind is food, food, food.

It's great Old Man puffs up so at the camera, then you can get some spectacular shots of him. I think he's turning red because he's getting his youth back or something. Like an old man dyeing the gray in his hair. Electra looks so refreshing, like a breath of fresh air, because of her coloring. No wonder Old Man's head over tail for her.
 
#7 · (Edited)
When i got her she was carded and alittle eggy but since then, well this whole month ive watched her poops, even gonig as far to write down how many were in her 1g a day. I fasted her a couple days, then took ofl advice to just feed her the larvae and cut out the pellets for a week and no change, only growing alittle larger since seeing the male. Theyve been in sight of each other for about a week now, i sat their tanks near each other as i worked on the 10g because of space issues and even being fed in a conditioning way unintentionally, and in plain sight, no stripes. Shes livin the single life and keeping old man on his toes, er fins. I have mesh over the divider in case she wanted to jump over but she doesnt even try as of yet. Your girl does sound like a huge PIGGY! hahaha! Eating off his head XDDD At worst if i feed old man first she starts bouncing out of the water alittle out of excitement but if she ever made it to his side and stole his food hed be pretty angry lol, prob just puff up at her then fall asleep :)
You should video her doing that one time, thatd be a hilarious video :))
I think you are right, it makes since that since they rely on us for company that theyd grow more attentive to us, just staring with those big eyes waiting, for a bloodworm.. XD

If she ever seems to have an issue, and i need to salt her again ill run out and pick that up also, maybe speed up the process. Now that her trial months up i dont mind papering her at all XD
Maybe your girl got breeding stripes to trick your male into thinking she wanted him but she only wanted his food lol
 
#8 · (Edited)
Glad to hear their both doing well. OldMan sounds so funny. (I love his flared up pic. He looks like he's saying: "OFF MY LAWN.") Ah boys and their bubbles. Akira was going nuts like he had to rush new bubble nest every day even now still thinking he's gonna get some. LOL Electra sounds like she's playing hard-to get.

Sakura-san your girl stealing your males food is just hilarious. He didn't even notice?
 
#11 ·
Anderson can't find his food even when it's right in front of him so while she's eating off his head, he's looking around like, "Huh, where, what? My food, where's my food?" Even though he's built a monumental bubblenest (that I partially destroyed with today's water change) he was more interested in trying to find his food than the pretty little girl right there by him. Good thing too, I'm not ready for fry, even though I'm half tempted to let them try.

And speaking of videos, Punki, I'd love one of Old Man doing his wiggles for Electra. :) If he cooperates, of course. He sounds like he might be one of those temperamental actors that storms to his trailer all the time.
 
#9 ·
lol I think she is, she glances and gets in a proper breeding position for maybe 1 second, like headdown, unflared fins, sometimes she doesnt even go that far she just wiggles her tailfins and curls to look at him, then takes off again XD
 
#10 ·
I can picture Old Man, figurative cane in hand, "Why you younggun, bring back my pellet, you! SchnorrrrZZZZZ."

I think some girls just are more eggy. And maybe Electra's the kind who won't get breeding stripes unless she actually began the whole courting process with a male. Just like some males won't build a bubblenest no matter what you do until they actually have a female in the tank with them. I've heard some males don't even build a nest until after they've spawned and then they go and pick all the eggs up and put them in the nest. Seems like kind of a careless way of going about things though. Makes you wonder how responsible of a dad that kind of betta would be. ;-)

Well, Goldi's jumped over the divider two nights in a row so I'll have someone film with my camera tomorrow night and hopefully she'll do it again. And she only goes nuts over the freeze-dried bloodworms. I fed her frozen bloodworms this morning and she waited patiently for her turn. Go figure.

I'm sure Electra can only grow prettier and happier once you really start to "pamper her." (Psst, trust me, you've been pampering her this whole time, you just won't admit it. ;-) )
 
#12 · (Edited)
LOL Shhh dont tell her that! I pampered her with my eyes closed so i didnt get too much enjoyement out of her, just a general glance, body check, new plant, new bridge *cough* lol! Still managed to stay alittle less attached though, just didnt get into the whole OM SO CUTE until i was sure she wouldnt leave me too soon. I cant wait to see a video of that, i saw a vid on youtube last week of a video fastforwarding in the breeding process, and the male was being SO NICE to the female, building his bubblenest while she swam around freely, and she swam up so he waited patiently for her reaction and she HULK SMASHED his nest and he took off after her angry. I laughed so hard! This is funny like that, id love to see it :)
I wasnt sure if females could be ready without the stripes, so many people release the female too soon irresponsibly so when i look things up out of curiosity i always see "dont release till she has STRIPES!" so i figured it must be a 100% of the time thing unless they are very pale colored. I want to get a video so bad but everytime im close hes like "HEY YOU GET OUT OF HERE!ZZZZ" and if i turn the light on he wiggles for food. Now that i have proper lighting ill just turn it on tomorrow and maybe after a few hours i can sneak in the distance and video that. Theyve pretty much gotten used to light=food so they will have to get used to that not being thecase also XD
 
#13 · (Edited)
XD At least he isn't going breeding crazy. Akira's finally decided Kai's three little bubblenests are a threat to him so he's been rebuilding his slowly. When and if I start breeding he's the first getting conditioned just for the fact he keeps thinking he's gonna find a female soon.

Edit: If betta's could talk I bet OldMan and Aki would have very interesting conversations on how to woo a female.

"Well if you get your owner to float her cup in your half start swimming around and build lots and lots of bubble nests. Worked like a charm."

"So your already a dad."

"...No actually...My owner took the pretty thing away."
 
#15 ·
XD At least he isn't going breeding crazy. Akira's finally decided Kai's three little bubblenests are a threat to him so he's been rebuilding his slowly. When and if I start breeding he's the first getting conditioned just for the fact he keeps thinking he's gonna find a female soon.
Hope springs eternal, I guess. Like the poor guy who never gets asked to the Sadie Hawkins dance. Yup, he needs a girlfriend someday. Or a pinup calendar.
 
#14 ·
:rofl: HULK SMASHED his . . . . wahahahaha! I laughed so hard I almost woke everyone up. I've got to find that video, too funny! That would be my Goldi, too. And my poor not-too-bright but very sweet Anderson would just float there like, "Uhm, should I have added an extra bathroom?" When I tried my sorority, Goldi let my two bigger girls face off flaring and she just circled around them both nipping at each one as she went. Each girl thought the other did it, neither of them suspected little Goldi swimming below them. She's super tiny and she was soo shy when I first got her and now she's a little demon queen.
 
#16 ·
The poor boy doesn't realize he isn't getting one until I get a 20 gal. For breeding, poor desperate Akira. (Or in the case of the guy who never got asked to the Sadie Hawkins dance: Poor Zombie-killing Columbus.)
 
#18 ·
*laughing* Oh god that is hilarious. RE-JECT-ED!
 
#20 ·
I know! She was just like: "Pfft. You call this a nest? HERE TAKE IT!" And he goes after her like: "Wait! I can change!'' Thank yoouu Punki.
 
#22 ·
I've only seen Futurama a few times so I wouldn't know. Sorry. ^^;

G'night, sleep tight...Don't let the betta's bite.
 
#23 ·
lol I headed off at about 5am EST like a zombie :)) So, GOOD MORNING! I will try and get a video of old man working his charms later today, i have to clean and then go to my parents for a dinner, hopefully i can catch it though :)
YES Thats the video, he was so calm! I always read that if they dont feel their bubblenest is ready they will chase her off but he let her come right up as he stil kept working but as soon as he turned away she threw herself upon it XDDD Imagine if you set up the breeding tank just right and were watching this all happen, and its just about when you think "they may embrace any second now" that she just destroys his hard work XDDDDDDD I would be a bit shocked for a few seconds if i saw that XD
 
#25 ·
lol Yeah, i have a 3 year old who doesnt comprehend that dark=sleep so i have to wait for her to sleep before i sleep, she tends to take her diaper off and pee in her bed if i dont go in and sneakily put another on her before i sleep XD
I forgot i had to change the water today so oldmans bubblenest is a mess, maybe tomorrow he will have a nice new one to show off. Hes mad at me about it :p
 
#27 ·
lol lets hope so. He keeps swimming to his bubble-less corners and flaring then swimming into his cave to pout. I understand, at that age if i spent 3 days building that many bubbles and it got wiped out id be down and out too. But i gave him extra larvae and a few fat bloodworms today to say sorry. He'll forgive me soon i hope XD
 
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