That one "special" little fish...

[BettaMomma]

Of all the fish I have - the crowntail, the one that had his tail cut off, the blind one, etc. etc. I have to say I realized this morning that I have a favorite - and it's no one that anyone would expect.

It's my little Jasper.

The condition that fish was in when I got him - I NEVER expected him to live. He was so near death I basically got him to give him a good place to die.

I brought him back here to the office and put him into his tank.
He took one lap around the tank

and then landed here...

if he wasn't laying there, he would squeeze himself here and stay:

For a week he laid around, colorless, motionless except for the slow spirals he made while swimming up for air, then the rapid darting around the tank started. He smashed his face into his arch, the side of the tank, bounced off plants and nose dived into the rocks. Several times I thought he would knock himself out. He was on a round of Tetracycline, which I was beginning to think was not working at all, or making him worse. After a LOT of help diagnosing the problem from people on this forum, it was decided he had a pretty nasty case of hemoraghic septicemia.

All the while he was sort of resting (as comfortably as a fish that sick can be) in some hornwort that 3fsh lovingly rushed to us as an emergency way for him to stay near the top w/out having to struggle up for air.

I had to go home for the weekend, and so on Friday afternoon, I decided to (even tho I knew it would be immensesly stressful for him) give him a 100% water change. I acclimated him back into the tank and stressbars and all, he slowly plunked down to the bottom of the tank. I was pretty sure the stress from that, in his weakened condition was going to kill him.

Suddenly he came up off the bottom, looked around, colored up to a nice charcoal grey with red and blue in his fins, and he took his first lap around his tank. He took another, and another. Then he was going back and forth, looking out at me, going through his rock arch, wiggling thru the hornwort, and was a completely changed fish. To this day, he's not by any means the prettiest fish I have at all. But I think he really knows I saved his life and he loves me as much as I do him. He rushes over to see me, and he loves to play - his favorite thing is to chase a pencil eraser back and forth across the front of the tank.

Here's the Jasper I know today - the happy, healthy and very vibrant one.

too!!

I'd love to hear stories like this from you guys, too.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Not yet, no. I'm currently awaiting the outcome of Pets At Home's latest delivery. Most get badly nipped, there was one that had hardly any fins left a few weeks back but I didn't have a spare tank.

 

[Whiskerz]

What a lovely story BM! Jasper is a beautiful boy

When I first got Scruffy he had clamped fins extremely bad! and he also wasn't able to swim. He was looking pretty rough! I thought his color was actually this color...

So after treating him with salt and giving him a couple peas....he turned out to be a great little swimmer and turned this beautiful blue...with a little tiny bit of red

My story is a short story

 

[MAM]

Mine isnt a story of nursing back to health, but I have a little orange plakat that I adopted from Wuv. He's was "Adopt-a-Betta #2", so I call him #2 (currently the only betta with a name). His swim bladder didn't fully develop, so he spends much of his time at a 45 degree angle, and since he has trouble in deeper waters, he lives in a shallower amount. But he has such spunk you 'd never know he had a fishy disability. He eats like a pig, he flairs (to the best of his ability), and he's always active. He sees me come up to the betta shelves and he goes right to the surface to beg for food. He'll even try to be all tough in front of the other boys when I have all the tanks on the kitchen counter for water changes. He has such personality. He has to be one of my favorite fish.

 

[BettaMomma]

Wow, scruffy looks wonderful!
I remember when you brought him home - he was looking pretty rough.
He looks fabulous now!

And #2. That's hilarious that's his name. Sorta like in Austin Powers.

I love little fish that have no idea that they're "different" than other fish - "special" ones. They make me smile.

 

[50000_tears]

i think little buddy is my special baby..hes blind ,everyone on the other fourms think hes albino (he doesnt respond to anything besides noises)..betta momma knows what hes like

 

[BettaMomma]

Yep, he's a special little one too

 

[mybabieshavefins]

Awww, what a happy story! I'm so glad Jasper made it through. And his colors turned out GORGEOUS! It's amazing what some TLC can do for these little guys... Mine were already pretty when I got them but their colors have perked up beautifully in the last couple of weeks!

 

[Jessica13]

I have two favourite's and they both died in December within a few days of each other

Arnie was my purple VT. I'd had him just over a year, i got him from a not very nice pet shop.. He got really sick before he died but i couldn't work out what it was

And Dennis was my Green and White BF SD. He was beautiful! I had hoped to breed him but he somehow managed to get himself stuck behind the filter in his tank and died. Since then i've not had filters in my betta tanks, only airstones!

If i had to pick my favourite of the ones i have now i'd have to go for Roland my Plakat as he's SO cute!

 

[50000_tears]

buddy bitt me once but i still love him...(should reconsider naming him Demon!) he left a mark once LOL

 

[Kiarra]

Well, it's a pretty hard tie for the boys...and all three of them are rescues.

First, we have Narcissus. After losing the second of the two Bettas I rescued from the same cup at Petsmart to severe nasty infections, I was fit to murder when I went into Petsmart on a SICK DAY (I was so sick I didn't even make it to school that day). It was raining, traffic was terrible, and I was in the mood to slaughter anyone in the fish department. I brought in the dead body of my poor failed rescue and stalked over to the fish department. Well, the cups were somewhat nasty, but everyone was in good health. I picked through all the cups, getting grossed out by the nastiness, and fetched an employee. I stood there and watched her clean out and change the water in each and every single cup there (about 30 Bettas). THEN I picked out this little peach-colored boy with white fins that were covered in splotches of red and blue. But his fins (especially his anal fin) looked like someone had taken a small hole punch to it half a dozen times, and he had some pretty nasty finrot going on at the ends of his fins and on the holes. I was in love with this little fish instantly. I told the employee to bag him up in a good deal of water...the boy was going home with me.

I had to stop at the library on my home, which meant leaving him in the car. I was only gone about five minutes, and I left him on my passenger seat (no fear of sun...it was raining so hard that there was no sun at all to be seen). When I got back and sat down in the driver's seat, he looked up at me from his bag and perked up those tattered fins and wiggled his cute little butt at me.

I got him home and set him up in his new home, then rested my flashlight next to his tank. He'd swim around for a while, and then he'd stop near the flashlight, rest on the bottom of the tank, and just...stare. He'd be there for 3 minutes or so, and then he'd get up and swim off. What was he staring at? His reflection, which he never once flared at (and still doesn't). Hence the name Narcissus.

Then there's Lazarus. When I found him, it was at a usually very good pet store that I drive about 45 minutes to get to, because they are the best locally. He was this little blue-black Crowntail with fins clamped so tight I could barely see that he was a Crowntail. He was floating at the top, completely unresponsive to ANYTHING. I thought he was on his way out of the world shortly, and went to the owner with fish in hand. Turned out, the boy's 6 ounces of water hadn't been changed in the last 10-14 days. I bought him and took him home. It was rough going. He was unresponsive to anything I did. He wouldn't eat pellets. He wouldn't eat flakes. He hung out next to Narcissus on the desk next to mine, always staying near the side of the tank where Narcissus was. He didn't unclamp his fins for a very long time, and I thought for sure he would be dead soon. He was so thin that I could see the bones beneath his scales.

Gradually, he gained some bulk, let go of those clamped fins, and gained a very incredible royal blue color. He is in fact one very lovely fish for one who was SO close to dying. His ventrals, even many weeks later, are still held funny to his body, but his tail, which he originally had the most trouble letting go of, is now held out from his body, displayed, and very, very beautiful.

And then there's my Flop. I found him at Walmart after spending 7 tedious and downright painful hours getting my hair done at the salon. He had JUST come in off the new shipment, and his water was fresh and clean. I had gone back to get a Betta other than him, and I ended up walking out with both of them (the other one, another rescue, sadly didn't make it). I thought for sure Flop was going to die. He was laying on his side on the bottom of the cup, his nose inclined towards the surface. He couldn't swim. He could barely make it to the top. I dumped out some of his water before I left the store, and then I drove home with both of the boys on my lap.

Flop still hasn't recovered completely, but he can swim now. For a while, he didn't even rest on his side, but I was gone for all intents and purposes for a week, and he relapsed. He lays on his side now, but he's a perfectly normal Betta otherwise. He can swim, and he flares and flirts like the best of them.

This is my Flop.

It is the successes and the enjoyment of these little boys and a few others that makes it worth it to adopt the other rescues, even if I can't save them.