Hahaha! It's a good one I hope that I tell it well enough to make it interesting.
~*~
This is a true story, it didn't happen to a friend of a friend of mine, it happened to me, and it all started with an empty tank.
A few weeks ago I moved my baby red tail over from a 2.5 gal tank to his current abode that he's still growing into. I put all of his old gravel into a piece of panty hose and used it to speed cycle his tank. Now his tank is finished cycling and is up and running well. So I turned back to this cycled, mature gravel, still in it's pantyhose sack and the empty 2.5 gal. Perfect for a
betta.
Later that day my room-mate says she's headed to wally world. I needed a few things so I tagged along as well. Now it took me all of 10 minuets to get the stuff I needed and she wasn't going anywhere for a while yet so I wandered over to the fish section. (Anyone see where this is going yet?).
I spent a little bit of time oggling the splendid rainbows that they've got in that I'm in love with and checking out the other tanks for interests sake. Then I happend to notice the betta's, all sitting nicely spread out before me on a cart waiting for their water to be changed (the empolyee having wandered off to who knows where). Now remeber that empty tank, and all that bacteria rich, tank ready gravel?. I did so I strolled over just to see what they had. Unfortunatly they had solid colored lids which meant that I had to pick up each cup to see who was who. (You feel so guilty decideing which one is "worthy" of coming home with you, even if it's only hypothetical at this stage.)
So there I am picking up and putting down these poor boys and girls when I pick up this gorgeous specime. He had a light body and colored fins, a personal weakness, Coolie looked like that when I first got him. (I was a little sad when he turned out solid colored.) However I put him down and keep going then walk away and look at more fish stuff.
However the bug has bit. Finally about a half hour later I have to come back. I'm helpless to leave that boy there. Only I can't remeber which cup was his. So I pick up a few random ones and stumble upon his larger identical twin... minus a large part of his tail. Now I'm really hooked, the poor boy just looks so miserable he has to go in the cart to come home with me. Now the fish employee shows up and tells me that he was just about to change the water and offers to put him in fresh water for me to take hime home. How can I resist that. Then he casually mentions that he's supposed to raise the price but he'll do it after I'm gone (yay! Discount!!! <insert> Manical grin and laughter) He asks if that's all and I say I'm not sure (i never am i have no control.) So he leaves and I take one last look and see... her. Now I've been toying with getting a female for awhile now b/c they sound really interesting. (note she is also 3 dollars cheaper, just to be practical) So I soop at the others but I can't do it. She's just so tiny and little, heck you can see through her! So she gets clean water and goes in the cart to, once I find the guy again. Now I've got a ten and five gal at home, empty. However they don't have any kind of filter or anything to go in them. It's labour day and my
LFS is closed and I don't like any of the extra's that wal-mart have.
But, a glowing light! A sale on 3 gal tetra aquarium kits... a mite more expensive then I would like but cheaper then trying to get the five up and running (shh! don't tell me it's not! Leave me my weak logic.) So I spend another 30 min going over various options in my mind and finally it goes in my cart as well.
Do I feel guilty? Yes, I'm bringing home two impulse buys with no truly cycled tank for them to go into and I've also got a tight budget to begin with. Was it worth it? Looking at my new babies and my old that have over taken my room, Yes. Will I do it again? ... I hope not, but I'm gonna by some extra sponges, ect. to have waiting just in case.
The end
Epilogue: (b/c otherwise I might be lynched)
I knew I had too much gravel in the 2.5 orginally, I also had a few things the the cycled 10 gal that I could easily remove as well (ie fake plants).
The little girl is in the 2.5 with approx. 75% of the used gravel. (not extra in there this time and bio load wise she's a cm long and maybe a quarter of that high. I doubt she has much bioload to count at this point. I have a hard time finding her in the tank.
The new boy is quite happy in his new 3 gal home. (Much to coolie's dismay.) He got the remaing cycled gravel and also pirated fake plants. However since I'm not much of an expert I can't tell if he's got fin rot or what actually happened to his tail. In this I'm coming to you, oh betta masters of fish lore, his tail donsn't look inflamed and he's active and flaring.
I'll do a water test tonight (a little over 24 hours after fish put in). And will do partial water changes and baby them both very much until the tank cycles. (yes yes I'm cruel, <dodges flaming rotten vegetables>) Hopefully it won't take long.
I'm getting a laptop tomorrow so will try to get photo's posted for you. I hope your half as enchanted as I was.
Thank you all in advance and I hope that you like the story.
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Can't wait to see pic's !!!
! But i tryed new fish and i love all fish now!
so pretty!