Just when I'm trying to get OUT of fish...

[RandomWiktor]

Ok. As you may have seen in my thread in Tropical Fish Chat (fed up & burned out), I've been having trouble with the financial emotional aspect of Hospice fish, to such a degree that after this batch eventually passes on, I'm selling most of my aquariums, and keeping a few of the nicer ones to make Madagascar hissing cockroach habitats. I have one very sick boy with pectoral fin tumors and a big hematoma in his fin that I know will be passing on soon, so it seemed like maybe I'd be down one aquarium this summer, which would really help since I have so many other critters to care for. Not to say I want him to die, but I wasn't counting on any MORE fish, but less.
Well.
Today, my lab partner comes up to me all excited and says she has a surprise for me back at the apartments. Turns out, she got me a female betta to thank me for my help this year; she figured I was so sad when Sealink died that I'd want another girl. Now, this was a very nice gesture, and I'm not saying I'm unappreciative, but.... DAMNIT!
I finally figured out how I was going to fit all my tanks this summer, and now I need another one. So, what I finagled instead was moving Tim into a smaller tank (something I planned to do so I could easily give him many, many water changes as the slightest bit of bacteria seems to make him ill). I'm going to use his tank for the girl, but the snail needs to go in there too to maintain a stable # of tanks. I'm very worried that she'll try to hurt the snail. I'm also concerned because its a big tank and with the snail in it producing all that fecal waste, I'm going to be cleaning it at least every other day so the filter doesn't get all gooey. This, in the middle of finals.
What's that saying about the road to hell being paved with good intentions....?

Anyways, the new girl is a nice looking purple critter. Her name is Valkyrie. Once I'm back home and reuinted with my crummy digital camera, I'll post pics.

 

[BettaMomma]

Congrats on your little girly.
Maybe this is the little gift you needed to lift your spirits.
Maybe she will be ultra healthy and give you hours of maintenance-free enjoyment and entertainment.

And how sweet of your friend to get you that gift.
If there's anything I can send you for her let me know - I'd be happy to.
I have extra rock arches, silk plants, beach pebbles, etc. although I'm sure you're well equipped to take care of her. She could consider it a little housewarming gift from her crazy betta "auntie".

 

[RandomWiktor]

I think we're good; I pooled the plants from the snail's tank and the ones I had to take away from Pulpul and Tim when they got downgraded to 2.5's when ill. I spent the whole day cleaning the heck out of Tim's tank, boiling plants and gravel, etc.
The little girl is so tiny! She is scarely an inch long, maybe less. The snail dwarfs her, so maybe I'm being silly worrying so much about it getting attacked. They're both floating in cups right now to get acclimated, and the girl is flaring at the snail, so I am a bit concerned. They're not even in the same water yet and she's already being agressive to it, lol. Thats why I planted the hell out of the tank and filled it with caves.
It would be nice to have a healthy fish for once though. Jocelyn was so cute; I helped her pick out her betta by giving her advice on picking a healthy one, so she was all proud telling me how she looked for one that wasn't striped with lots of energy, full fins, flaring at neighbors, etc. Maybe I shouldn't have told her the flaring bit; I bet this girl will be a little monster like Sealink was

 

[BettaMomma]

The funniest thing in the world to me is to see a teeny girly betta flare.
Their flares are so teeny weeny. They seem to think they're HUGE but they're miniscule. It's so funny that she's flaring at the snail. Most of my girls just looked at him with the "OoOoOoOoh - is that FOOD?!?" look, then tried to eat his feelers and then got bored and went on to do something else. Hopefully that's what she will do too.

I can't wait to see a picture of her if you can!

 

[RandomWiktor]

Well, after floating for a good hour and having water added, they're in together. The betta swam right past and ignored the snail; maybe he was only interesting when floating around in a cup next to her. I hope so.
She looks really TINY in the tank I've never had a betta this small. I hope the pellet size is manageable for her! If not, I'll chop up some blood worms into a fine mush and give her that.
She had stress stripes for about 2 seconds and now she's boppin' around with a def. sense of "OMFG SPACE!" She also just found her next door neighbor, Jeff Klee, who is alternately flaring and putting on a show for her. It looks silly since his fins aren't grown back yet from last time he decided to eat them. Why do I have the feeling that those stress stripes are going to be "horny" stripes soon enough?

Question while I'm at it... she'll drop eggs on her own right? Sealink had a goofed up oviduct which is part of what killed her; she kept getting bound up. If I need this girl to drop eggs when she's getting full, will it happen, or do I need to stimulate her by putting a male in a cup in the tank?

edit: Damnit! I need to buy a digital camera. She was sitting right next to the snail, and the thing looks almost twice as big as her. Too cute!

 

[BettaMomma]

They can drop eggs all on their own.
The only male that my girls have ever seen is Gary and, well, he probably doesn't do much in the egg department. lol

I bet she's in heaven right now.
And she has a boyfriend already.
How sweet!

Oh how exciting!!!

 

[RandomWiktor]

She seems very interested in my clock. She's just... staring. And staring. And swimming away for a sec then staring more.
Maybe she thinks its the weirdest shaped red betta she's ever seen.

I'm glad to know they drop them on their own. Sealink was never able to; she'd get to the point of bursting, get all stress-striped and pale, get constipated etc. and I'd need to have a male squeeze her out, then she'd be better. The one time she passed on her own, she bled like mad out of her oviduct. It was about a week before she died. Poor girl, probably had mixed up plumbing.

 

[BettaMomma]

Poor little thing.
I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with your new girl.

 

[RandomWiktor]

Heh, I hope so. She's so little though. I tried a pellet and she can't even get her mouth around it, and I use pretty darn small betta pellets!
Do you think she'd do OK on guppy micopellets and chopped blood worms until she's big enough for pellets? I don't really know how the betta and guppy diets compare... wouldn't want her to get malnourished feeding the wrong thing.

 

[BettaMomma]

Well - some of my girls (Daisy and Pearl) can't fit a whole hard pellet in their mouths either. They catch one and swim around with it hanging out of their mouths until it gets soft and they can suck it in. You might want to try soaking them first and/or cutting it in half? Does she get ahold of pellets and then just let them go? If she's trying, you might want to do the soaking and see how that goes. You could also crush them up a little bit.

The chopped bloodworms are a great idea, too. Unless you get so compeltely disgusted by the sight and SMELL of bloodworms - but every single one of my fish LOVE them.

 

[RandomWiktor]

Heh, blood worms don't bug me a bit; I had sugar gliders for years and they were always munching on grubs, mealworms, and crickets. Plus I think one of the best pets in the world is the Madagascar Hissing Cockroach, so creepy crawlies don't bug me one bit
I'll try pre-soaking; I can't imagine crunching the pellets up because they are VERY small allready.

 

[BettaMomma]

Those things literally make me gag. I'm not normally that squeamish of a person, but to see them or get a whiff of them and this is almost literally what I look like -->

I can't eat anything after I feed them to the fish either, because I'm certain that i have some residue from them on me somewhere so everything I touch can't be eaten.

It's just ridiculous.
If I didn't love my fish so much...

 

[RandomWiktor]

Arrrrgh! Valkyrie just ripped off one of Leanora Whitstand Merill's feelers So much for tank buddies.

Well, I do have a free fiver at home... didn't want to have another big tank sitting around, but I can't very well keep Leanora with this carnivorous little gal. I'll find room... somewhere. ::is already sleeping on a cot on the floor so the rooster fits in her room::

 

[BettaMomma]

I'm sorry, but I just laughed out loud when I read that she ripped one of his feelers off. Poor little guy!

Why not have your rooster sleep in bed with you?
I probably would.

heh heh

 

[RandomWiktor]

The snail didn't laugh. :retends to be angry::
I freaked out when it happened, because they were under a plant together and all of a sudden I see the betta spit out then gulp down this huge yellow blob. I didn't know what she had bitten off! The snail sticks out this long tube that it craps out of - god knows what would have happened if that was what got bit!
That snail was out of the tank faster than a lightening bolt.
Well, the snail is in a crappy little critter keeper overnight with every type of food she could possibly want, and tomorrow I'll have to work something out with that five gallon at home.. ungh..