[kevinbacon]

Well, while I haven't had the best luck with pet store betta's in the past (either I buy them sick or I run into freak accidents, like my dorm building being evacuated, and lose them to illness anyways), but after a few months break filled with cleaning my tank and supplies, researching, and preparing myself mentally to start anew, I purchased my new desk buddy today.

He's a beautiful red-orange (more red than orange, but my boyfriend insists on the orange) delta tail. The Petco I got him from had exceptionally good looking little guys, only a handful of the lot had bad fin rot. He has a bit, but nothing that can't be cured with a little TLC

And his fins are so long and flowy! I really think I might be able to keep this one healthy, and I'm so pumped! I've named him Owen Wilson, keeping in line with my 6-Degrees of Kevin Bacon fish naming.

I'll upload a picture for you in a bit; have him in his cup right now because he's an active little guy. I'll keep you updated.

-kevinbacon

 

[kevinbacon]

Mk, here's the pic! Meet Owen everybody!

 

[MattsBettas]

Ooh he's nice! Good solid color. Why was your dorm room evacuated?

 

[kevinbacon]

Well, a water pipe burst and flooded the basement of the building, and because that's where our heater and all the electric equipment, they deemed our building as being unsafe to live in till it was cleaned up. I think the lack of heater, proper lighting and food, coupled with poor water quality weakened his immune system and made him sick :/ It was an unfortunate turn of events. But yeah, I think he's just beautiful. Had to have him! lol

 

[kevinbacon]

Well, we had a bit of a scare with some inflamed gills, but I discovered that he's just especially sensitive to ammonia levels in his tank, so I've been monitoring that very closely and we haven't had any more issues since. Had to leave him last weekend tho, and his fin rot got a little worse, its till a very minor case tho. His dorsal is the most ragged, and is my main concern at this point, but it seems to be fairly stable so I have full confidence that with my current water changing schedule they should heal up quite beautifully.

Its funny though, because I think he goes through little fishy depression while I'm away. Whenever I come in the room, he's always in his plant sleeping, but as soon as I walk over to the desk and he either sees my movement or sees my desk lamp switch on, he gets super excited and dances at the front of the tank for about a half hour solid. Even after that, he doesn't leave the front of the tank, and he watches me work on homework and play minecraft. What an odd little fishy. Kevin would always greet me, but he was never so obsessed with my activities XP

This little dude is really growing on me, guys. Didn't think I could make another connection with a fish after Kevin passed away, but this little fellow just has such the loveable personality. Really peaceful too; never flares at anything, even when I put a mirror up in front of him. He's much more interested in exploring his abode and trying to build bubble nests (even though the filter I installed destroys all of his attempts). The only time he's been slightly aggressive is when I put the turkey baster in his tank to do 50% water changes; he chases it around the tank. It still seems more like a curiosity thing to me tho, because he doesn't flare or nip at it.

 

[kevinbacon]

Okay, so I've been planning out a fish tank that I probably won't be able to set up for a few years due to space limitations, but I'm really pumped I want to get a 40 gallon long tank eventually, and divide it into three spaces, with the end spaces on either side being smaller (not too small of course) than the middle space. The end spaces are going to be for two lucky male bettas, and the middle space I want to stock with a variety of tropical fish. Using this website (aqadvisor.com), I've created a tank to play around with how I can stock this baby, and here's what I'm thinking as of right now:

~40 gallon tank (36x15x16 in)
Fluval C4 filter (by Hagen)
150 Watt EHEIM Jager Heater

2 Male Bettas
7 Female Bettas
4 Guppies (1 m, 3 f)
3 Platies (1 m, 2 f)
3 Upside Down Catfish
1 Dalmatian Molly

If you guys have any comments or suggestions, feel free. This is in no way set in stone, I just think that it'd be an awesome tank.

The site said I should keep the temp between 75-77 deg F, so I'm thinking probably 76/77 for the bettas' sake.... pH between 6.4-7.8 and hardness between 5-15 dH. Only 30% weekly change for a cycled aquarium with this filtration power... easy enough, right?

 

[kevinbacon]

Move In Day!

Okay, so I'm getting ready to move in with my fiance, but that won't be like for another month. However, Owen is going ahead of me because next week is spring break and my fiance is the only person I trust to take care of him the way he should be cared for while I'm gone! (I would just take him home with me, but that's an hour car drive one-way and my family's tap water is really bad at supporting life; I'd have to buy an array of chemicals to fix it) And since I'm going to be moving in shortly anyways, to spare Owen the stress of being taken back and forth, he's moving in a bit early lol. So I disassembled his 5 gallon last night to make transport easier, and he's in the little one gallon until this evening when we get there. I'm not too concerned about the trip; it's only about 25 minutes by car, and I've had bettas do far longer trips in worse condition, I'm sad to say.

I thought he would be a lot more pout-y than he is, with the tank reduction, but he seems to be very optimistic about the whole situation, taking it as a chance to explore a new habitat instead of "why, why did you take away my old home?" No bubble nest though, so I don't think he's a big fan of it lol. It's okay Owen, just a few more hours little buddy!

Also, on a side note, my Top Fin 25W heater is doing a stellar job at keeping the temperature constant, which pleases me greatly