07/14/2016[/B
Today has been stressful. But the good kind of stressful. I started the day off slow, not wanting to do anything. I dreaded waking up and seeing my precious Koda dead, floating on the surface. Once I finally got out of bed, though, I was pleasantly surprised. Koda was still there, and still alive. He looked less shocked, but still beat up none-the-less. During the night I tested and and started to see if an older aquarium tank that I had could still hold water. Thankfully, it still did. Even though it didn't have a lid, I had an idea to fix that.
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After moving the ~1/5 full 10 gallon tank into my room, I decided it was time. I had been rescuing an adult Green Anole for the past 9 months now, and I was 6 months past his release date. He could still hunt, he was still feisty, and not at all tame, so I released him. And he was happy crawling up that birch tree.
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After I released Toby, the lizard, me and my mother went shopping around for some stuff that would help Koda. No blackwater extract, no Indian almond leaves, no Melafix. No nothing. I did get Koda a new decoration for his new tank though. It is really pretty, a fake log with large holes so he cant get stuck and silk, smooth leaves so it won't tear his fins. When I started cleaning it though, it started to smell like burning plastic, chemicals, or spray paint, I couldn't put my finger on it. So, I'm returning it. Hopefully I'll be able to just get some tiny plants.
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While I was shopping though, I was letting some of Toby's leaves sit in some soap/water/vinegar mix. Tomorrow I'll be rinsing it more to get the soap out. I'm going to either float that in Koda's new tank or bury a little bit of the stem on each side so it rainbows across his tank. I don't know yet.
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Charlie, my brother, got poor O.P a 1.5 gallon tank. No decorations, and I don't have any to spare. Poor O.P... he's lived in a 5 gallon his whole life. Or, for three years anyways. 1.5 gallons is the extreme minimum for a betta fish but my little brother wouldn't hear any of it. I would try to put him in the 12gal herp tank I have, but that comes with many dangers and my parents are already pissed with the idea of a 5 gallon and a ten gallon in my room. (they don't know that in the future I'll be getting another 5 gallon and separating my new bettas~) so I didn't push it. If Ocean Pony dies because of how small his tank is, that'll be on Charlie's hands. All I'm here for now is to make sure that O.P doesn't die just yet. (But, I will be trying to find my 2.5 gallon if I still have it...)
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So I put O.P in that stupid tiny little tank. As he was accumulating, I went outside and got my old tank that I had been cleaning and cycling and put my divider in there and let my two TT's start to accumulate too. After about, oh 35 minutes or so I let all my fishies swim in their new tanks. The two TT's are loving it. They keep poking and prodding at everything and this is probably the biggest tank they've been in their entire lives. it's so cute.
O.P though, just looks depressed. I have to keep him in my room till tomorrow, and I can barely look at him. I may dislike him, but he does deserve a bigger tank. I found my 2.5 gallon but it's been keeping soap inside of it. Im going to have to clean it big time....
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I'm stupid and I can't wait. I had put Koda's quarantine tank inside of the 10 gallon so that the quarantine tank could warm up the ten gallon and vise versa but that was yesterday. And today is today. And I need to stop doing things on an impulse. I tipped over the quarantine tank inside of the 10 gallon (the 10 gallon had everything inside of it that the quarantine tank had) and I tried to see if Koda would start swimming around more. Usually, he'd be curious and making bubble nests and doing little twirls but lately, he's just been there. He's just been floating. He's just been swimming. He's just been by the divider or under the plant. Doing nothing. At first, he really didn't think of it. He just thought probably like 'oh, that's more water. i don't care.' and that concerned me. And I really know you are not supposed to use heat lamps and I'm probably the worse betta owner on the planet but I ran and got mine and placed it on top of the tank.
I had put Toby's old lid on the tank (because the tanks are both the same length just Toby's tank was taller) and I plugged in that sucker and sat back and waited to see what it would do. The tank didn't have any light before, and as soon as that bright thing came on Koda perked up like there was no tomorrow. I started holding my breath. He started moving. It was also then that I noticed that adding to his skinned scales, slash on his 'neck', and his torn fins, his poor pectoral fin was... how to explain it... you know in Finding Nemo how Nemo has his special fin and can't use it as well? Well, my poor baby was barely using his fin, and I could see that where it connects it was ripped, and his whole fin is practically totaled. Like I said though, he can still use it, but it probably hurts.
Anyways, at this point, with the heat lamp on I was sitting on pins and needles. Koda swam around a little bit then ate his first bite of food in two days. I was so happy! I couldn't believe it! It was only one pellet, but that's better than nothing! It took him five minutes or so, but then he eventually adventured out of the little tank into the big tank! For a while he was acting like himself, nipping at the new things, exploring, and I can see him from my bed now and so when he saw me, he did a semi-twirl (he knows how to get my attention/a way to get food) then slowly swam away. It was about 10 minutes later when he started to get tired. Right now, he is just leaning up against the heater and the glass cup I put in there as a see-through cave. I don't have anything else in the tank right now besides gravel in the corners for extra support for the tank. I'm going to slowly turn off the heat lamp... and I'll slowly turn it back on tomorrow. It's not the ideal situation, but it seems like it is helping, so I'm just going to have to try.
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