New Betta: 'Pirate'

[USNavyWife]

Wow, it's been ages since I've been on here. However, I can't keep away from the fish! O_O

So just a re-cap of what happened: I had Dinq and then we moved cross-country with him and he was fine. I'm pretty sure he was just older by then and couldn't take the final move and neither could a few other fish that I had.

I had 5 bettas at the time. One was a youngster-Reagan, he was BEAUTIFUL and was from FL from Diamond Bettas. He got pretty sick with an infection and slowly declined health wise even on meds and having a full hospital set up.

Castiel had a mysterious death. He was an adoption from NY from a rescue out there. One day he was fine, the next he was dead without any warning what so ever.

Indi had a really bad battle with fin rot. No matter how clean I kept his water, his tail just would not grow back. So he was a bit nubby. He actually lasted longer than the other fish who I moved with, but he didn't want to eat any more no matter how much I tried to persuade him and he never really liked bloodworms much, so I couldn't even get him to eat at all. Eventually, he passed on.

Dinq and Enzo were definitely plagued by the move and the stress involved with that and both passed not too far from one another. I had all the parameters in his tank just fine. He was just super stressed and eventually I checked on him to feed him and he was no longer alive. Dinq was the same way :( I think it was mainly because I couldn't move them right away and they had to stay in my empty apartment till I could come back for them. They had heat, but I just think it got too crazy for them.

So then I decided to go fishless in our attempt to move to CA. However, someone posted on a page for my husband's command in the Navy wanting to re-home their fish that they can't take with them to CA. I just don't think she knew how to ship them properly. So I offered to take him since I knew he'd be coming to a good home with someone who knew how to take the fish with them.

So I adopted him. His name was "B-ray" but he doesn't look like a B-ray lol. So someone suggested Pirate and it totally works I guess :P My dog is named Pearl and she's super dark for a blue heeler (Black Pearl) LOL and my husband is a sailor, so Pirate worked :P

I've never seen a betta this huge though. I honestly don't know even what to classify him as other than a "King Veiltail" -possibly part dumbo earred? But I think it's just his sheer size that makes them look so large. The girl had him in a 1/2 gallon with no heat. I about winced and died. I could only offer him a 2.5 gallon set up at this time since we are leaving in a few months, but he seems SO much happier AND his coloring is also a lot more vibrant and varied ;)

Here he is in all of his mammoth glory:


(This was before moving into his new tank)


(He's freaking massive)


(A lot more coloring and a much happier fish now that he's got a bigger tank and regulated heat!)

[hannah16]

He is pretty big. But he's pretty.

[USNavyWife]

Yeah he's about 3 inches from his mouth to the start of his tail. It doesn't poof out since it's so long, but his tail before it dips adds at least another 1/2 inch or more. He's about 1/4-1/2 of an inch wide give or take. It's hard to measure him since he's a little shy. I can't fit him in a regular betta cup at all! He's just too large lol.

[waterdog]

Amazing how a warm comfortable home makes everything happier!