Petco kings' feeding

[Hallyx]

Been haunting Petco for the last year hoping to get a giant Plakat. They finally got some in and two beauties caught my attention. They were so different from each other; I couldn't decide which one to get. So, I guess we all know what I did...

Question: How many Omega One pellets would they like to have each day?
They're each over three times as massive as my normal adults who I feed four to six pellets (in three meals) per day.

I'm willing to wait for them to eat, so no problem there. And plenty of variety, if they want that.

BTW, my Petco has really upgraded their quality and variety lately; good looking fish and they are so well kept. All fish stores should follow their example.

[freemike]

Wish my Petco would get the King Crowntails for my 10 gallon. :( They do have a nice selection here, just not the particular one I want.

[a123andpoof]

I have a big guy hes not king but huge I usually feed him six pellets 3 in morning and 3 at night.

[Layman]

Off topic, but still a king comment: My local PetCo has one that's so big he can hardly turn in his cup. He *almost* touches each side.

[a123andpoof]

Wow! I thought my guy was big but he sounds huge!

[Sena Hansler]

I wanna find a king :3 LOL. Been wanting to but hard when I couldn't get to edmonton. Now I might be able to....

[Hallyx]

I must retract my compliment of (my) Petco's care; the cups only look clean but, in this instance were fatally high in ammonia.

I brought the two kings (and a charismatic little HM) home through two hours of blinding snowstorm, floated them in a warm tank, covered them and went to bed. Early next morning, one of the kings was dead. His ammonia read 4.0 ppm (FOUR ppm) with a Ph of around 8. I've never seen greener or more purple water in any test.

I immediately tested the other fish. Results: Ammonia >3.0, Ph 7.4. The moderate Ph is probably why they were still alive. Changed out the water (with Prime). Left them in their cups while I prepared their tanks. That took so long I elected to transfer them next day. Changed water again that night. NH3=0.0

The halfmoon was dead the next morning. After being released into his tank, the remaining king is swimming fine, but is listless and marginally responsive.

This is the first time I've had a fish has die on me, so I'm taking it pretty hard, especially as I consider it mostly my fault. Because they looked fine in the store, I had assumed that their water had been changed that day...apparently not. I chose to leave them in their unopened cups for an additional eight hours based on that assumption. A mistake that cost me more than two beautiful fish.

My attitude toward the surviving king (if he survives) as well as my other fish has been tarnished. My confidence in my abilities as a keeper has taken a severe blow.

Lesson: never assume
Lesson: check params before leaving store

Any more you can suggest?

[freemike]

I always check the the temps of those cups, and then match their clean tank water to that. I never leave them in the cups. To acclimate them to tank water I pour them into a cup that is twice as big. They sit in a 50/50 mix of tank/cup water. Then after 30 min in the mix they go to the tank.

[MandiceP]

I've used thin airline tubing to slowly drip water into the cups over the course of 20 minutes or so. I find that this works well. I also make sure the tank and the cup temps are as close as I can get them before starting. At the very least I would recommend changing the cup water completely before leaving them if you absolutely had to. I've left bettas in cups for a few days before when they were impulse buys and I had to get supplies/set up a new tank.

Don't take it too hard tho. We all make mistakes and then all we can do is learn from them. If we didn't have failures we couldn't have successes either. So take a little time to grieve but try to keep your chin up and think of your other little ones that need your care and just keep going. Nothing to get terribly bent out of shape about. I know it hurts tho. I've lost many bettas, both to old age and disease/mistake. Hang in there!

[Sena Hansler]

I changed out my teal girl's cup, while she waited for me to find the mystriously disappearing container for her lol!! Hopefully I can add her with the sorority. Her buddy got put in the 1 gallon for ich. And the ich won't go away... I might need to do something more drastic. Anyways, the airline tube souonds like a good idea!!