Hi all!
I've been reading various posts on this forum for several days now and finally decided to join your community tonight. I know that I am among many enthusiastic betta lovers here. I really appreciate all of the helpful posts that I have found to answer some of my questions. Afterall, I didn't get my first betta until the beginning of August. However, my husband and I both used to always have aquariums, we just hadn't set one up since we'd been together.
Just before buying a beautiful blue veiltail male, I had told my daughter that "I would love to have one of those fish that lives in vases with a plant" and she said she thought that would be "pretty neat," too. Before making the purchase, we jumped on the internet and quickly discovered the awful truth of the vased plant and betta. Needless to say, we chose not to purchase a vase with a plant and fish because we didn't want to be mean fish owners. LOL
I already had a large glass vase and chose to rescue a fish from Pet Smart. I set him up with some blue glass marbles and 3 stalks of bamboo. He still had plenty of surface to get air and food, plus he seemed to enjoy swimming through the bamboo stalks.
My daughter, who is 15, enjoyed watching our new fish, Fred, and had to have one of her own. So we went back to Pet Smart and she selected a very pretty red veiltail male, then purchased him a fishbowl. She named him Ramsey, after Gordon Ramsey from Hell's Kitchen, and then my hubby started to feel left out of the fish experience.
So, we headed back to Pet Smart to have a look around. Hubby immediately spotted 2 females that he "just had to have" and so we purchased them, then went to Michael's and purchased a 1 1/2 gallon brandy snifter to give Fred a new home knowing that I would have 2 large vases that the girls could be kept in. Hubby decided that all of our female fish had to have stripper names, so the first ones were named Sapphire and Rosie. LOL
Over the course of the following week, hubby managed to bring home more glass containers for future rescues, along with more live and fake plants, gravel, and live food. All of the fish homes got redecorated. Then he headed to a LFS and purchased a male, then another store and purchased another female. Last Monday, while I was in surgery, he went to Meijer and rescued 4 doubletail females. When we left the hospital, we had to stop and buy a 5 gallon and another 10 gallon aquarium, and another male. The four girls that were purchased together live in the 10 gallon tank. All of our other fish live alone in smaller containers. (Please don't bash me! LOL)
Last weekend, we set up a breeding tank. We had done quite a bit of research on breeding, which brought us to this site several times during our searches. (Great info people!!! Thanks!!!) On Monday evening, we had Fred swimming free in the breeding tank and Cherry was vased sitting inside the tank for him to swim around. She was already swollen with eggs when we bought her and striped up immediately when she saw Fred.
When we got up Wednesday morning, Fred had built a very nice bubblenest under the styrofoam cup, and then had continued building his nest until it took up nearly 1/4 of the surface! It was HUGE and quite thick! We went ahead and released Cherry and Wednesday night, watched them flirt with each other for a while, and then went to bed. We had left the light on for them, but the next morning, it didn't appear that they had done anything but chased each other around.
Thursday was much of the same. Fred would find her but wouldn't attack her. She'd come out, pose for him, then he'd chase her for a bit. We turned out the light and went to bed, figuring they'd sleep or something. LOL
Friday night, we sat watching our pretty fishies flirt some more while hubby planned his Saturday shopping trip to the LFS for another tank, this time a 20 gallon long. He wants to divide it up and move some of the fishies from their containers into a larger tank. Anyway, nothing seemed to be happening. Cherry would go display herself under Fred's nest, and then he would chase her off. I turned off the light and was about to go to bed when I noticed that Cherry was displaying herself under the nest again. This time, with the light off, Fred appeared interested. It seems that he likes mood lighting! I should have named him Casanova! LOL
For the next hour, things were quite interesting. She would nudge him, he'd go to embrace her, end up stunning himself and floated while she just looked at him. I just know she was cracking up at his fumblings! LOL
Finally, he got it right. It took several attempts, but then I saw eggs. So did Fred. He was having an aftersex snack with every embrace! He wasn't taking any of the eggs and putting them in the nest! After watching this take place once every 4-5 minutes or so, I gave up and went to bed. Although it was awesome to watch them breed, I felt helpless because I couldn't save the eggs from Fred.
Saturday morning, Cherry was looking fairly tattered but was still striped and appeared to still have eggs. We kept an eye on them throughout the day, but nothing was happening. Fred would go find her, and try to get her to follow him back to the nest. When she would, he would chase her off. We left her in the tank again last night with the light off just in case Fred wanted a darker environment. We removed her this morning.
All day today, I noticed Fred was intently repairing his nest. He's been a nest builder since 2 days after we got him home, so his behavior didn't really seem out of the norm. We had given up hope of having any fry from our first attempt at this because I had witnessed Fred eating the eggs. But then tonight, when I was feeding all of our fishies, there they were! All hatched and free-swimming! There were fry everywhere in the tank! We had no idea because we had left the light off to let Fred rest after removing Cherry! We removed Fred immediately because I'd swear I saw him eat a few babies! Who knows how many he ate before I made the discovery!
My guess is that they spawned some on Thursday night, as well as Friday night when I was watching them. It's quite possible we had hatched fry on Saturday night and had no clue because we left the tank light off so that Fred would feel more loving towards Cherry. There appears to be several dozen fry swimming around under the nest now. Hubby is quite pleased that Fred didn't eat them all.
Needless to say, in the weeks to come, I'm expecting more fish to be rescued from the pet stores, plus we have 1 fish coming from a friend who has had a betta for a year that he didn't want. (He got it as a door prize and states that the fish is lucky if he feeds it once a week and changes the water every 3 weeks. Uggh! Poor fishy!) What started as a desire by me has turned into a major hobby for the hubby and has been a great distraction for me while I wait for my biopsy results. I hope to post some pics soon of our lovely fishies. We have collected a variety of tailtypes and colors for our own enjoyment; however, we hope to breed some of them to create more beautiful fishies to share with family and friends, and of course, add to our own collection. My daughter says we're going to be known as the "fish family." LOL
Anyway, I just wanted to say hello to everyone and share a bit of information about our new obsession. I'm sure that many of you can understand how easy it is to fall in love with bettas. I do believe that these fish need to come with a warning label.... I had no idea 1 pretty fish could turn into 16 in just a few weeks, plus a tank full of fry!
I've been reading various posts on this forum for several days now and finally decided to join your community tonight. I know that I am among many enthusiastic betta lovers here. I really appreciate all of the helpful posts that I have found to answer some of my questions. Afterall, I didn't get my first betta until the beginning of August. However, my husband and I both used to always have aquariums, we just hadn't set one up since we'd been together.
Just before buying a beautiful blue veiltail male, I had told my daughter that "I would love to have one of those fish that lives in vases with a plant" and she said she thought that would be "pretty neat," too. Before making the purchase, we jumped on the internet and quickly discovered the awful truth of the vased plant and betta. Needless to say, we chose not to purchase a vase with a plant and fish because we didn't want to be mean fish owners. LOL
I already had a large glass vase and chose to rescue a fish from Pet Smart. I set him up with some blue glass marbles and 3 stalks of bamboo. He still had plenty of surface to get air and food, plus he seemed to enjoy swimming through the bamboo stalks.
My daughter, who is 15, enjoyed watching our new fish, Fred, and had to have one of her own. So we went back to Pet Smart and she selected a very pretty red veiltail male, then purchased him a fishbowl. She named him Ramsey, after Gordon Ramsey from Hell's Kitchen, and then my hubby started to feel left out of the fish experience.
So, we headed back to Pet Smart to have a look around. Hubby immediately spotted 2 females that he "just had to have" and so we purchased them, then went to Michael's and purchased a 1 1/2 gallon brandy snifter to give Fred a new home knowing that I would have 2 large vases that the girls could be kept in. Hubby decided that all of our female fish had to have stripper names, so the first ones were named Sapphire and Rosie. LOL
Over the course of the following week, hubby managed to bring home more glass containers for future rescues, along with more live and fake plants, gravel, and live food. All of the fish homes got redecorated. Then he headed to a LFS and purchased a male, then another store and purchased another female. Last Monday, while I was in surgery, he went to Meijer and rescued 4 doubletail females. When we left the hospital, we had to stop and buy a 5 gallon and another 10 gallon aquarium, and another male. The four girls that were purchased together live in the 10 gallon tank. All of our other fish live alone in smaller containers. (Please don't bash me! LOL)
Last weekend, we set up a breeding tank. We had done quite a bit of research on breeding, which brought us to this site several times during our searches. (Great info people!!! Thanks!!!) On Monday evening, we had Fred swimming free in the breeding tank and Cherry was vased sitting inside the tank for him to swim around. She was already swollen with eggs when we bought her and striped up immediately when she saw Fred.
When we got up Wednesday morning, Fred had built a very nice bubblenest under the styrofoam cup, and then had continued building his nest until it took up nearly 1/4 of the surface! It was HUGE and quite thick! We went ahead and released Cherry and Wednesday night, watched them flirt with each other for a while, and then went to bed. We had left the light on for them, but the next morning, it didn't appear that they had done anything but chased each other around.
Thursday was much of the same. Fred would find her but wouldn't attack her. She'd come out, pose for him, then he'd chase her for a bit. We turned out the light and went to bed, figuring they'd sleep or something. LOL
Friday night, we sat watching our pretty fishies flirt some more while hubby planned his Saturday shopping trip to the LFS for another tank, this time a 20 gallon long. He wants to divide it up and move some of the fishies from their containers into a larger tank. Anyway, nothing seemed to be happening. Cherry would go display herself under Fred's nest, and then he would chase her off. I turned off the light and was about to go to bed when I noticed that Cherry was displaying herself under the nest again. This time, with the light off, Fred appeared interested. It seems that he likes mood lighting! I should have named him Casanova! LOL
For the next hour, things were quite interesting. She would nudge him, he'd go to embrace her, end up stunning himself and floated while she just looked at him. I just know she was cracking up at his fumblings! LOL
Finally, he got it right. It took several attempts, but then I saw eggs. So did Fred. He was having an aftersex snack with every embrace! He wasn't taking any of the eggs and putting them in the nest! After watching this take place once every 4-5 minutes or so, I gave up and went to bed. Although it was awesome to watch them breed, I felt helpless because I couldn't save the eggs from Fred.
Saturday morning, Cherry was looking fairly tattered but was still striped and appeared to still have eggs. We kept an eye on them throughout the day, but nothing was happening. Fred would go find her, and try to get her to follow him back to the nest. When she would, he would chase her off. We left her in the tank again last night with the light off just in case Fred wanted a darker environment. We removed her this morning.
All day today, I noticed Fred was intently repairing his nest. He's been a nest builder since 2 days after we got him home, so his behavior didn't really seem out of the norm. We had given up hope of having any fry from our first attempt at this because I had witnessed Fred eating the eggs. But then tonight, when I was feeding all of our fishies, there they were! All hatched and free-swimming! There were fry everywhere in the tank! We had no idea because we had left the light off to let Fred rest after removing Cherry! We removed Fred immediately because I'd swear I saw him eat a few babies! Who knows how many he ate before I made the discovery!
My guess is that they spawned some on Thursday night, as well as Friday night when I was watching them. It's quite possible we had hatched fry on Saturday night and had no clue because we left the tank light off so that Fred would feel more loving towards Cherry. There appears to be several dozen fry swimming around under the nest now. Hubby is quite pleased that Fred didn't eat them all.
Needless to say, in the weeks to come, I'm expecting more fish to be rescued from the pet stores, plus we have 1 fish coming from a friend who has had a betta for a year that he didn't want. (He got it as a door prize and states that the fish is lucky if he feeds it once a week and changes the water every 3 weeks. Uggh! Poor fishy!) What started as a desire by me has turned into a major hobby for the hubby and has been a great distraction for me while I wait for my biopsy results. I hope to post some pics soon of our lovely fishies. We have collected a variety of tailtypes and colors for our own enjoyment; however, we hope to breed some of them to create more beautiful fishies to share with family and friends, and of course, add to our own collection. My daughter says we're going to be known as the "fish family." LOL
Anyway, I just wanted to say hello to everyone and share a bit of information about our new obsession. I'm sure that many of you can understand how easy it is to fall in love with bettas. I do believe that these fish need to come with a warning label.... I had no idea 1 pretty fish could turn into 16 in just a few weeks, plus a tank full of fry!
