Hi guys
I don't have any pictures yet (no camera) but hopefully soon! On Saturday I was in town and made the mistake of going into Pets Paradise (similar to Petco or Petsmart in the USA). The one in the centre city had improved greatly the last few times I was there and I wanted to see if this one had.
Sadly, it hadn't. The bettas were in teeny tiny bowls with no lids. The caresheet said not to keep them below 18C, ignoring the fact that anything below 25C is actually too cold. They had five tiny females in a 4 litre tank. One was hiding on top of the filter, lying down, with clamped fins. I called one of the staff members over because it looked like she had fin rot. The staff member took her out and carried her across the room in a net and dumped her in a new bowl of water, not bothering to acclimatise her. I pointed out that she wouldn't recover without a heater, and the girl refused to put one in. She kept telling me "We'll see how she does in 24 hours, then maybe we'll add a heater". I couldn't see the point on not adding a heater straight off.
Anyway, I couldn't leave all those girls there, but I don't have room for more tanks and I didn't know how the sorority girls would take to too many new additions, so I just bought one. She is maybe an inch long, if that, deathly pale, stripy like you wouldn't believe and was being chased by the remaining three girls, all of whom looked bigger and healthier (and prettier, so I suspect they will get rehomed easily enough). This girl needed to be rescued, though, so I bought her from another staff member, having expressed my displeasure to the know-nothing shopgirl.
She settled into a 3 gallon quarantine tank with a 25 watt heater, a sponge filter, IAL, a couple of caves and some live plants very happily. She is so tiny that she looked like she has more room in that than Odysseus has in his 5 gallon. She's eating well and is very active, but her colour remains very poor. I've named her Circe. I'll be doing 50% water changes twice weekly.
I left her floating in the sorority tank for a while whilst I was setting up her tank, and she's less than half the size of my other girls. I do want to add her to the sorority eventually, but I'm not sure how much I should let her grow before I do. I'm quarantining her until Christmas because I do not even slightly trust the shop I bought her from, but I doubt she'll double in size by that time. I suspect putting her in whilst she is so small may even be a good thing - it's possible the big girls will mistake little Circe for one of the tetras and just leave her be. Plus I know she is quick enough to get out of the way and hide in the extremely dense foliage if they bother her. I might put some of her caves in (if I have room) so she can hide.
So, that's the story of Circe so far.
I don't have any pictures yet (no camera) but hopefully soon! On Saturday I was in town and made the mistake of going into Pets Paradise (similar to Petco or Petsmart in the USA). The one in the centre city had improved greatly the last few times I was there and I wanted to see if this one had.
Sadly, it hadn't. The bettas were in teeny tiny bowls with no lids. The caresheet said not to keep them below 18C, ignoring the fact that anything below 25C is actually too cold. They had five tiny females in a 4 litre tank. One was hiding on top of the filter, lying down, with clamped fins. I called one of the staff members over because it looked like she had fin rot. The staff member took her out and carried her across the room in a net and dumped her in a new bowl of water, not bothering to acclimatise her. I pointed out that she wouldn't recover without a heater, and the girl refused to put one in. She kept telling me "We'll see how she does in 24 hours, then maybe we'll add a heater". I couldn't see the point on not adding a heater straight off.
Anyway, I couldn't leave all those girls there, but I don't have room for more tanks and I didn't know how the sorority girls would take to too many new additions, so I just bought one. She is maybe an inch long, if that, deathly pale, stripy like you wouldn't believe and was being chased by the remaining three girls, all of whom looked bigger and healthier (and prettier, so I suspect they will get rehomed easily enough). This girl needed to be rescued, though, so I bought her from another staff member, having expressed my displeasure to the know-nothing shopgirl.
She settled into a 3 gallon quarantine tank with a 25 watt heater, a sponge filter, IAL, a couple of caves and some live plants very happily. She is so tiny that she looked like she has more room in that than Odysseus has in his 5 gallon. She's eating well and is very active, but her colour remains very poor. I've named her Circe. I'll be doing 50% water changes twice weekly.
I left her floating in the sorority tank for a while whilst I was setting up her tank, and she's less than half the size of my other girls. I do want to add her to the sorority eventually, but I'm not sure how much I should let her grow before I do. I'm quarantining her until Christmas because I do not even slightly trust the shop I bought her from, but I doubt she'll double in size by that time. I suspect putting her in whilst she is so small may even be a good thing - it's possible the big girls will mistake little Circe for one of the tetras and just leave her be. Plus I know she is quick enough to get out of the way and hide in the extremely dense foliage if they bother her. I might put some of her caves in (if I have room) so she can hide.
So, that's the story of Circe so far.