Hello All,
I've been thinking about starting a journal for a while now, but today was the tipping point when I went to Walmart for rice and came home with not one but two sick bettas.
Before I didnt think I would have much to write about. My red VT male Fawkes and blue HM female Luna (yes both Harry Potter references) live in their divided tank with a moss ball each and besides occasionally catching a glimpse of each other in the reflections of the tank by the divider, live relatively uneventful lives. They'll each get a post devoted probably tomorrow or the next day depending how much time I have. I'm kind of obsessed with both of them to be honest! They really aren't anything special in the betta world, but they're mine.
Now my new rescues, and I can proudly call them rescues because I talked the Walmart manager into giving them to me for half price. $3 and change was well worth saving them from their filthy cups. I haven't decided if I'm going to end up keeping one, both, or neither of these boys, and for now they remain nameless, but I'm waiting to make those decisions once they're a bit more stable than they are currently.
The first is a cello male VT with some reds in his fins, that had such bad bloating that he was floating high enough in his cup that his left eye was exposed. I've started his epsom salt treatment and he perked up almost immediately. However he has yet to have a bowel movement and his default is still floating high enough that his back/dorsal fin are slightly out of the water. Hopefully that continues to resolve itself, but if not I'll have to explore other options of treatment like daphnia etc. At least now he is upright.
My second intake of the day is another male VT. I'm not sure what his coloring is since he is more yellow-grayish right now than anything else. Maybe leaning a little toward green? Well, his lack of coloration and generally dismal and sickly appearance wasn't what caught my eye. It was his lack of tail. Judging from the fish I see at that store and I assume he is related to, Id say a good 80% of his tail is missing and what he has left doesn't look to be in very good shape either. It doesnt look like rot and the edges are too clean cut to be biting... I'm not sure what happened to the poor little guy, but it was serious. He also seems rather small... He could just be younger or malnourished or both. He's getting AQ salt treatment at the moment but shoutout to Seren27 for volunteering to send me IAL for the little guy.
Today's new additions make 4 bettas and 3 tanks in the bedroom of my college apartment. If I told you guys that my friends, roommates, and boyfriend all think I am certifiably insane it would be a monumental understatement. My mom gets it but she's a couple states away and can't back me up too much. I guess my friends are supportive but none of them have ever really bonded to a fish as a pet the way that I have in the past and am currently.
My love for bettas started a long time ago when I was a kid. Over my life I've had probably about 10 bettas. My first was a dark blue VT named Ron that my mom brought home from her office because he'd been bought to replace a friend that retired. Then came Carolina, my only female I had previous to the one I have now. Her mate's name was Red (we briefly attempted to breed them when I was a kid because my parents kept aquariums), and then I had Swish. After them we took a break from betta keeping while I had young turtles. I still have three Red eared sliders and an eastern spiny softshell turtle, but they are a lot bigger now! Maybe I'll post a few pictures of them at some point as well.
A few other bettas intermittently lived on my kitchen table over the years before I went to college. I had two previous fish at school over the last few years, Gil and Holmes. Gil was one of the most beautiful fish I'd ever seen but I lost him to shock when my roommate tried to take him home with her to care for over a break. I didnt try again until this year with Holmes.
When I lost Holmes to a bacterial infection that I was ill prepared to dealing with at school, I went to Walmart to save one of the bettas there. That's how I got my boy Fawkes who, despite an unfortunate encounter with my boyfriend's (he was fish sitting while I'm home for winter break this year) sink drain/garbage disposal that messed up his fins, he's been doing great. I tried to then save my office betta, Pudge... Even brought him all the way home to my mom 2 states away, but he never fully recovered from the conditions he'd been kept in before I took him in. We were both very upset about losing him and I felt pretty bad about giving her the hope of a new betta friend after she'd just lost hers. So of course I made an excuse to go to a PetCo because I knew she would fall in love with one and that would be the end of it. So she has a baby betta now named Quinn that she sends me pictures of all the time. Im still not positive if its a male or female but Quinn is pretty neutral so I guess the name stays regardless!
I also recently got my best friend (I may also refer to her as my little sister) back in to the betta world by adopting a fish for her named Marble from Seren27's foster house.
So that's a bit about me and about my fish and experience to this point. If you read all of that then I appreciate it! In the next couple of days I'll post some updates on my rescues and my other two including pictures, but for now...
Until next time!
