Not Betta Related...

But I had too... I love Dogster!!

Tanks

Since I see so much talk about tank sizes lately, I figured I would post what my boys and gals currently live in for today's post. I feel comfortable with the tanks I use, considering I started out with 1g and 1.5g for all my boys.

First we have Ben, Spidey and Hughie in their divided 10g tank:

Next, we have Twitch and Freddy in their divided 5g tank. Both boys plus Nixon will share a 10g once I buy a hood for my 15g:

And Nixon, who's always had a 1.5g tank, now he has a 2.65g:

And the girls have a 15g. 6 girls, 3 Apple Snails and some Hyrbid Shrimp:

And Gadget's 1.5g:

Monkey's 1.5g:

And Jack's 1.5g:

Of course there's still Kris' little 0.5g L hospital tank... but I'll take photos when he's in his own little 1.5g :) Hope to have these boys in divided tanks and Jack and Kris into new homes. Poor Kris still isn't swimming :(

And also, while I'm here.... Meet the new boy who is staying with a member on my Betta forum until it's safe to ship :)

We are in need of a name!

What a sad little lump...

Poor Kris is still floating :( Every few days he's has a good day and is able to swim, but by nightfall... he's back to floating. I sure was calling it when I said he was another "Hughie" as I went 17 days treating Hughie before he finally kicked the Swim Bladder Disease. I am very happy I took Kris home.

Unsure if we're going to find them new homes, or keep them here. Time will tell. I have a hard time letting go of pets that I put so much hard work into! And well, Jack is still hanging around so I'm getting so used to him being my kitchen buddy. I joked and told my fiance today that Jack is blonde, I should have named him Ken! Either way, both fish are some beautiful.

Tonight I decided to build a Betta hammock for Kris so he has something to rest on. His IAL leaves have sunk.  Mind you, I used zip ties to keep it together, and twist ties to attach it to the side of the tank.

Here's Kris' :)

And for fun, here's my very large Apple Snail and my medium sized Apple Snail in the sorority tank. There's another baby Apple Snail in there too :)

I'm a Sucker...

Yes I said it, SUCKER. I may as well have it tattooed on my forehead. It would certainly save these fish the hassle of trying to figure me out when I walk into the pet stores! I don't know if it's a need to save everything I can, or a bleeding heart that wants every Betta to have what mine do, or the fact that I have 11 empty tanks and enough food to feed an army of Bettas for 10 years. There has to be a reason why I cannot, for the life of me, stop bringing home another sad little case that needs help.

Meet the two newest additions to our home. Upon watching them being scooped into their little bags, I laughed as I thought of "Thing 1 and Thing 2". Surely they would need better names than that. After struggling with the inner voice, come to think of it... arguing with the inner voice, I decided I could not leave them there. Could I make them better and find them suitable homes? I mean, I do this with other small animals and sometimes the random homeless cat or dog... I can do it with a Betta right? How about two?

Both boys are/were suffering with Swim Bladder Disease. Very common in pet store fish, as they as usually fed freeze dried blood worms. These freeze dried worms are great as snacks, but should never be fed as a main staple in a Bettas diet. It's preferred they get a variety of foods, pellet and live/frozen. But most pet stores choose to feed them these freeze dried worms, and most Bettas end up with Swim Bladder Disease. The first boy, whom we named Jack (as in Jack Frost) had a mild case. He was able to swim, but only at the top of the tank. He would be easier to treat. The second boy, named Kris (Kris Kringle) has a more severe case which has left him stuck at the top of his tank, and rolling belly up. Both fish risk starving to death, and total and utter exhaustion.

After 3 hours in Epsom Salts (1tsp per gallon of dechlorinated water changed 100% daily) Jack was swimming freely. After 3 days for Kris, he's was able to swim today, but has resorted back to floating after I gave him a single pellet. Looks like he will be on frozen foods only for a while. I suspect he'll make a 100% recovery as well.

So, that's my good deed this holiday season, taking these two boys in and  making them better. I do hope to find them homes locally, but I do expect the best for them. Should the best not be available with another home, we'll gladly keep them. In our home we celebrate Christmas... and with that...

Merry Christmas Jack and Kris.

Jack

A little update!

So I figured while I have an extra few minutes while the kids are eating supper, I would post a short update!

A wonderful couple I met this week showed up at my home with a wonderful gift. 

Monkey.

Monkey is amazing. Poor little dude could not swim when he first came here, a little Swim Bladder issue. With some clean water, warm temps, Indian Almond Leaf and frozen food... he's come around! I have a video to post as well as some photos of my newest addition. This makes 8 boys and 6 girls in Pitluvs' home. In my next post, I'll tell you a little about each one and the ones we have lost.

So, here's Monkey!

And a video:

Oh! I forgot! I made this the other day for fun, figured I would share ;)

Back to Square One...

I know it's been a while since I posted on the blog, and for that I'm sorry. It's been a wild time at home keeping up with everyone's needs! Fiance is now back to work, so I don't have nearly as much time to myself as I used to. Feeding, cleaning, chasing and raising two small toddlers as well as taking care of the dog, cat, dragon, rats and the many tanks takes up excessive time and effort! This morning alone I picked up 20lbs of Cat Food off my floors (thank you Leah), and a family sized box of froot loops off my computer chair (again, you shouldn't have!) and finally 2 gallons of treated tank water off my kitchen floor (OK Leah, I just mopped after the cat food incident!). Sigh.

But I'm back today, taking a break before I have to tear my kitchen apart!

A little update:

There's been a lot happening recently with the Bettas. First, we picked up a gorgeous Yellow and White Dragon VT at the pet store, Sheldon. Sadly, Sheldon did not make it :(

Rest Peacefully Sheldon

We took poor Sheldon back to the store for a replacement. Wonderful young man at the store was OK with me bringing Sheldon back home to be buried with the others. We picked up Gadget, a Multi (Green/Blue/Red) CT boy. He is so small, so feisty and very very affectionate. He's a great addition to our home!

Gadget

Then, we found Columnaris on our precious Yoshe. Sadly, it was quite aggressive, and although we were successful in removing it - she was unable to recover from the injury it left behind.

Rest Peacefully Yoshe

And lastly, after Yoshe's passing, we picked up two new girls who have yet to be named. For now we will call them Cello and Cambo. Both are VT girls, one being Cellophane (to my knowledge, we'll see how TLC effects her coloring) while the other is a Red Cambodian. Both are doing well, in QT and waiting to be added to our sorority.

Cello

Cambo

And our last news? We are no longer planning to breed Spidey and his sister, Tatsu/Kaida. Sadly, I have noticed Spidey has some serious vision issues and depth perception loss. His sister, Kaida, has shown some Diamond Eye (where the Dragon scaling merges down over an eye) and since this is something that most happens with a history of spawn breedings in a fish, I feel it would be irresponsible of me to continue this line. I am however open to cross breeding one of these two with another unrelated fish. At this time, this breeding is off. I am unsure where I will go from here, without my crowntail female, I cannot breed crowntails. With my Dragon pair having eye issues, I cannot breed them either. My only option is mixing, and I don't know how I quite feel about that just yet. I am sure some Halfmoon/Crowntails would be swell to have, but unsure!

So yes, this is what's been going on out our home as of late. Purchasing some Atison's Betta Pro and Fry Starter this week, got my Indian Almond Leaves in the mail last week. The Bettas will surely be some happy.

Mixed Emotions...

Well, I don't know what to say! I guess I could start out by saying everyone is doing good. Suki is coloring up, loving her 0.5g upgrade. She's such a ham, I cannot wait for her to join the sorority. The boys are doing well, Nixon got a 0.5g upgrade as well as Twitch and Greedy getting a 1g upgrade to the decided 5g tank. Spidey is coming around, eating better and trusting me more. I feel bad for him as he's the only male Betta in my bedroom so he doesn't get to see us as often as the other males do.

Now for the emotions. I have no idea if I will breed Bettas or not. Part of it is fear, I've always been the type that wants 100% control and fool proof plans laid out. There are so many what It's with breeding, I don't quite feel comfortable. I guess constant eyes watching my every move makes me very nervous t as well. Not that I am sure there is even anyone reading this, but I know I'll eventually have readers judging my every move. I hate failure, especially when its with something so important and profound as breeding. I do not want to fail. Maybe by not trying at all, I won't fail. Or maybe that's failure on its own. I don't know. And not knowing scares me. Urgh. To make matter worse, I have put some thought into 3 possible spawns. One would be a Blue/Red Dragon HM sibling match, the second a Black Lace CT female and a Red Butterfly CT male. And third would be a lovely Purple/Maroon Marble VT male and a Lavender VT female. I am unsure. The HM would sell better, the CT would be something new to the area and the VT is common but the purple/maroon/lavender combo is an unusual color. Chances are the VT spawn could produce anything as they are pet store Bettas. My heart would love to raise the HM and CT spawn, but I would love to have some of the VT as well. I cannot afford three spawns, and I cannot see myself culling fish for other than health reasons. I am just so confused. This will push my plans to spawn back a bit. I am not one to jump into things, especially with this many holes in the plans. But will I ever be satisfied enough with my knowledge, care, pairs and ability to even attempt? I'm not sure. I wish there was a answer out there for me!

I'll post some photos of the HM possibles...

Potential first pick female - Kaida

Potential second pick - Tatsu

Potential male - Spidey

On a sad note...

Little Yuki, the Red Cambo VT I took home from the petstore on Tuesday, has passed to the brook under the rainbowbridge today. I commend her for her courageous battle and her strength to hold on and also thank her for letting go when I asked her to. Rest Peacefully Baby, you were loved.

Urgh. My first lost since early June. This hurts.

You got the stuff? Yeah, I got the stuff... kinda...

So another post while my kids watch their early morning Rio movie.

Am I the only one who's noticed there is A LOT of preparing for a Betta Spawn? Like most first timers, you jump in thinking "This will be easy, right?"

WRONG.

Like most times when deciding to recreate a perfect carbon copy of your favorite pet/animal properly, there is a ton of research, time and planning that goes into going at breeding properly. Hundreds of dollars in set ups, knowledge, space, time, work... HOMES. It's quite the task! I am amazed lately, now that I think about the breeding posts that show up on the Betta forum. Now I am not someone to judge usually, but there are tons of new people on there breeding. I am not talking about the first timers who have owned and been on the forum for months but the ones who have under 200 post count posting spawn logs. How do they do it? I have planned to breed for 3.5 months now and I am close to ready both supplies wise and knowledge. I could never imagine being able to afford to upgrade my boys tanks and learn and spawn while starting out with Bettas. It's crazy, but I wish them luck, easy spawning and lots of great homes for their babies!

As for me? I'm almost there. I do need more plants, we are doing the plastic option as I cannot keep a single plant alive. I do have my 16g spawn tank which will be my grow out tank until I can find something larger. I do have IAL and fry foods. I do not need a heater as the room I plan to use has its own heat control. I have a light, which I'll be using my dragons ballast since my 16g doesn't have a canopy yet. I have medication and live/frozen foods.

The only thing I feel I am missing is jars for seclusion. I do have homes lined up, friends locally and across the country as well as local persons interested in something other than a Veiltail. I know my petstore would gladly take any males. I am hoping to rehome some females, I may end up keeping the majority of them. But that's cool. I am unsure if I'll cull any healthy fish for the sake of numbers. I have always been an animal lover at heart, and I cannot see myself killing innocent beings because I decided to create them and found out I have too many. Just doesn't seem logical to me. I guess these are things you think about with spawns. I've always been of the impression that one should never breed unless they can safely house all offspring should they never find a home. I am willing to do this. I am sure the males will go like hotcakes, I am sure some forum members in Canada would love some females too. I guess I should start looking for a bearded dragon cage so I can take my 50g long back? Haha.

So yes, I'm almost ready. I have most of the stuff. Just need to find affordable jars that are easy to buy if I end up needing more.
May look into mason jars.... But yeah, for the most part I got the stuff.

Taking a Leap!

So here we are, a new adventure.

First, I'd like to talk about my experience so far in owning Bettas. I bought my first Betta, a Royal Blue Veiltail named Venom, back in early June 2011. I joined a Betta forum like I always do with my pets to seek out informative people who could point me in the right directions with proper Betta care. See, I know there is usual care and then exceptional care with all pets. Usual comes from family and pestores. Although both mean well, usually its not the proper advice. Then there is exceptional care which is when you seek out advice from people who have kept such pet long term and see daily what works and what does not. I always seek the exceptional care, I mean wouldn't you want to give your pet the best? Usually it costs no more than the usual care. So I came across bettafish.com (no I didn't Google it, I actually typed it in and prayed) and fell upon the best Betta forum out there. Upon finding this forum, I also found Aquabid.com, a very addictive site that captures your mind, imagination and pocket book with a vengeance. I was sucked into buying Carnage, a Red Copper Butterfly Halfmoon. He was perfect, I instantly got a hold of my local breeder (crazy4bettas.can) and asked for a female to match. I was all set. Then one night about a week after Carnage arrived, horrible things started. It took 3 hours for Venom to go from perfectly healthy to black with no fins. He died the next morning. Then Carnage started acting off and developed Ich, a common fish parasite that shows itself as white speckles on a fishes fins. Carnage died a few days later. I was torn. I swore to never own Bettas again. The good people of the forum told me not to give up, keep trying. I decided to trust them and purchased Ben, a Purple Marble Veiltail. I came home with everything new and swore I would do my best to keep him alive. I felt ready to take on another boy that was suffering from severe Swim Bladder Disease. This occurs when the organ fish use to assist them in swimming to the top or diving to the bottom of a tank becomes blocked. Usually a 10day treatment of 1tsp of Epsom salt in 1gal of water does the trick. I cured Hughie, a Steel Blue Veiltail, and felt good about my fish keeping. I then took on Twitch, a Apricot Veiltail with ammonia poisoning, Freddy a Blue Mustard Gas Veiltail with moderate Swim Bladder Disease and adopted Nixon from a forum member, a Red Butterfly Crowntail. I had a housefull but was happy.

Recently I brought home a few more sweethearts, a male and 3 females from a local breeder and 3 females from the local Pets Unlimited. Sadly, one female, Yuki (a Red Cambodian Veiltail) is suffering from internal issues and has developed dropsey. We pray she pulls through. The male whom is Spidey, a Red/Blue Dragon Halfmoon and his two sister Kaida and Tatsu are doing great. Yoshe, the Black Lace Crowntail is the boss. The female veiltails Teeko (Chocolate) and Suki (Lavender) are doing great as well. Suki and Yuki are housed in 1g tanks for now while the other girls share a larger tank.

Now back to breeding. I decided when I took home Carnage, I wanted to learn and spawn him with a Orange Dragon Halfmoon from Crazy4Bettas. Sadly he passed. I planned on taking Spidey home for a few.months and finally decided he would be my first male to spawn. I asked for two sisters, in case he fancies one over the other. Now we are all set up to spawn. I planned to spawn in January, giving the fish time to reach a safe age for shipping and better weather come spring and fall. I have decided to spawn now instead. I figure it will be better since it will be done before the holidays, not after.

So that's my Betta life in a nutshell. I won't bore you with my 18h days reading all information I can find, or the many forum tiffs I have been into with others! So, here we go!