I Couldn't Resist...

[ThePiggy]

So, I was doing some late-night food shopping at Wal-Mart and I happened to walk through the betta section.. There were 6 female and 2 male bettas there. Both males seemed to be dirty chocolate VT. Some of the females seemed to be in pretty sad shape. Three with cambodian coloration, a couple blue and a red..

There was one that caught my eye... I believe she's a VT (and chances are, she is) but it was her color that seemed interesting to me. She looked extremely light grey, almost white, no pink to her at all. I moved the little cups around that they were kept in and some stress stripes showed up. She flared at the female beside her and WOW... just about every color in the rainbow flashed across her entire body! She is pale, but very iridescent. If I had to name her color, I'd say silver. I'm completely gaga over her.

Now for the second one I rescued.. She's a plakat, so I say "she" reluctantly. She is wild type coloration. She has a fairly thick body structure, so I'm guessing she's on the older side. The bottom of her cup was covered in debris. She looked so sad and barely moved when I picked up the cup. I couldn't stand to leave her there... Since I put her in her quarantine tank, and fed her a little, she has perked up a LOT. She's exploring and her colors have brightened up. Her stress stripes have gone away.

Right now, both new girls are each in their own quarantine tank while I treat them for parasites. You never know what can hitch a ride on these chain store bought fish. I don't have a camera yet, but once I get one I'll post up some pictures.

 

[LauraFrog]

AAAW!!! I hate it when people mistreat flaming bettas like this. PK females are nice, and great for outcrossing HM lines to stop the fins getting too huge. And the silver girl sounds absolutely stunning. Somebody I know is breeding some HM females that look a bit like that, but their colours are in the fins, so they aren't iridescent. I bet she's lovely... pics?

 

[ThePiggy]

As soon as I get a camera, I will post pics of all my fishies.. come on payday, come on!

 

[LellowFish]

I think Scotland should have some WalMarts, I love them. It's really hard to find any Bettas here. Congrats on your rescues!

 

[little_mermaid]

Aww yay I am excited to see pics!!

I am gonna have to go check out my super Wal-Mart and see what I can find...

 

[ThePiggy]

So it turns out, the light grey female got a bit darker as she settled in. I believe she's a copper! And I think that all of her fins are too big to just be a normal VT... so what else could she be?
Her fins look kinda like this but her anal fin is longer and fuller:

P.S. This picture is NOT my betta.

 

[ThePiggy]

So................ I bought 2 more bettas at Petsmart. They were having a sale on females for $2! I just couldn't help myself.

I looked through all of them and found what I'm pretty sure is a spade tail female! The tail comes to a definite point and it's not fin damage.

I looked some more and found a MG that was marked as female.

So, my sorority tank is all set up with silk plants and tons of hiding places. I had all five of my females in plastic cups floating in the tank for a while to acclimate them to the temp and did the whole water adding thing to their cups to let them get used to the water gradually.

I released them all at the same time and for a minute they were all swimming slowing, looking around. After a few more minutes, they would encounter each other and do some mini-flares, but nothing that looked aggressive. But then... the MG started flaring at my original female and bit her! Then the MG moved on to another female and was flaring and chasing her around the tank, not letting up at all. It kept trying to bite all the others and would not relent. So I removed it. I watched the other four closely for a while after that and they were not showing any aggression towards each other. They are all swimming around happily and exploring.

Here is my question:
Do you suppose the MG is a young male? It's fins look how a female VT looks. But maybe it's a young delta?

I still don't have a camera to show you pictures, but today was payday... so hopefully I will have one soon!

 

[little_mermaid]

Aww yay I am excited to see pics!

Please take pics of both your gals and your set-up!

 

[LauraFrog]

Pics needed! If it is a male it's probably a young PK.

SD/HM female fins are getting bigger all the time. Have a look at the rays in the tail. If the tail rays do not branch, or only branch once, you have a PK male or a VT female. If they branch two or three times (4 or 8 rays at the edge of the tail for every 1 ray that leaves the body) you have a HM or similar. For $2 - OMG I'd die for one!

 

[smegforbrains]

I think Scotland should have some WalMarts, I love them. It's really hard to find any Bettas here. Congrats on your rescues!

You do realise WalMart is ASDA don't you?


I hope our local ASDA doesn't open a Tropical Fish section, the staff are next to useless as it is

 

[ThePiggy]

I'm positive it's not a PK. But I'm pretty sure it's very young. It's so tiny. The anal fin comes to a long point and the tail is very round. It doesn't have a straight edge like a HM is supposed to have.

I've been working a lot and I'm always dead tired after work. So I go home right away instead of shopping for a camera.. but, don't worry, I'll post pics as soon as I'm able to.

 

[snowflake311]

I think Scotland should have some WalMarts, I love them. It's really hard to find any Bettas here. Congrats on your rescues!

This has nothing to do with fish.

YOU DO NOT WANT A WALMART! They are evil and cause any small businesses near them to close down among other things. Yes they have cheap stuff. I admit I buy from there every now and then. But I hate them and I feel dirty when I do buy stuff from there. Oh they are like the devil tempting you with low prices. I know what they are all about. I know why they have those low prices. They have 1000 of under paid mistreated workers in Asia working LONG hours pretty much border line sweat shops. I could go on and on what I am trying to say is Keep Scotland free of walmarts.

 

[snowflake311]

So it turns out, the light grey female got a bit darker as she settled in. I believe she's a copper! And I think that all of her fins are too big to just be a normal VT... so what else could she be?
Her fins look kinda like this but her anal fin is longer and fuller:

P.S. This picture is NOT my betta.

OK I was going to say NO WAY did that fish come from walmart. I have found some Awesome looking bettas at my PetCo.

It's hard to tell what females finage is. Unless it is a crowntail that's easy. I had a red and white female that had extra long fins for a female too. But nothing special just really long fins. I am sure if I bred her to a delta tail or something they would have some really big fins.

 

[ThePiggy]

Ok, so I finally got some pics.

It turns out that iridescent one is a copper. Her colour darkened quite a bit once she settled

And here is the big plakat girl that I got

Here is the top view. You can see just how much bigger she is than the others

This is how I feed them bloodworms

This picture is just after my plakat had breached for a bloodworm. You can see the wake from her splash

Here is my first female. Her name is Darla. She had a bite taken out of her tail that is still healing up from when I spawned her with Rahziel.

This is my little spade tail girl.. Though you can't tell she's a spade anymore She is the lowest on the totem pole and when they were establishing their ranks, she was the victim of some biting. There haven't been any new bites since then, thankfully. She's a happy little girl and even in the few days since this picture was taken, her tail has healed up considerably.

And some group pics!

 

[LauraFrog]

Woah - nice fish! Now all you have to do is pack them up, really carefully, and address them to: Laura, PO Box...


JK - this is why we love rescuing, right?