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.