I will be moving the new girl (can you believe I still can't come up with a name?) to Karma's tank tomorrow. Karma really misses Whisper and will love having a new neighbour.
I found a gorgeous Veiltail male and have put him on hold. I'll be picking him up friday morning. His body is pinkish/lavender (like Lava) and his fins are a dark maroon and white marbled pattern. He's 3 months old and very healthy and feisty. He was flaring up a storm and demanding to be let out of that cup! One more night and he'll have a nice warm tank to explore and a mommy to spoil him.
Good Morning, Phlox....I am so happy to hear you also have fallen for and chosen a new betta to add to your family. He sounds beautiful..I have never seen those kinds of colours at Walmart - not that their colours would show properly anyway in those dirty little cups. I can hardly wait to see pics. Neptune waves a rambunctious short fin hello and Storm manages a weak flutter from the corner of his tank!!!!
I showed him to Lava and Lava flared at him and ran off and hid behind his floating hornwort. He's not liking the idea of not being the only boy anymore. I had to give him some extra attention and spoiling. He's being very clingy right now.
I put the cup next to my new female's tank while I prepared Karma's tank for her. She fell MADLY in love with him! She stared at him for a long time and turned a deep green, gold and red. I've never seen her colors that intense! She fanned out her tail as far as it could go to impress him. He showed his beard but didn't flare his gills. He flared out his fins and pranced around flirting with her. It was SO cute to see them like that. How I wish you could keep males and females together without them hurting each other. These two are such a cute couple! I decided they should have "couple" names so they are "Niles and Daphne" (from Frasier)
Here's a darling picture of the two of them together. They posed and even smiled for the camera.
Also one of Daphne because I wanted to show her beautiful colors. Unfortunately the camera does not do her justice.
I'll get some better pics of Niles when he's in the tank and not all distorted by the cup and blue water in the cup.
He has a beautiful lavender color body with lavender, maroon, white and cellophane fins. He has a sweet and gentle baby face.
He's amazing, Plox...and so is Daphne. Congratulations! I noted the water in Niles cup - it is blue, there isn't much, but it looks relatively CLEAN! A small thing. the water poor Storm was in was as putrid as you can imagine -- so sad -- no wonder he doesn't want to join life just yet! ( Oh ya, love the names) Val
Yeah, his water is clean because he just arrived at the store yesterday. He's only been in there a day. It's blue because they treat all new Bettas with Fungus Clear for a few days just to make sure they stay well, but some still continue to have fin rot or die of other things if they stay at the store and in the cups too long. The girl told me they use Amquel+ as water conditioner to keep ammonia level from killing the Bettas. I wondered how they could survive for so long in a cup. Without Amquel+ or Prime even a 1 gallon tank has ammonia levels of 1.0 in just 24 hours!
Petsmart is having a sale on Bettas (at least my location) and selling them for 30% off. They have a large number of them that just came in and need to sell them soon as the longer they stay in the cups the less chance they have of surviving. I hope they all find good homes soon. They had so many beautiful ones I felt bad choosing just one!
Storm will come around. He just needs a clean warm tank and lots of spoiling.
Okay, he's in the tank and I've been watching him for 2 hours exploring. He is so amazed at every little thing. He's lived in a jar or cup all his life. The sight and feeling of plants and gravel and bubbles are like a miracle to him. He's all wide eyed and frisky. He stops and touches plants and things with his mouth and then backs up a little and just stares in amazement. This is really the most fun part of bringing home a new Betta, releasing them into a tank for the first time in their lives! He still hasn't slowed down and is exploring everything.
Here's a decent picture of him. He seems to love posing for pics. He has eaten and is not afraid of taking food from my hand. My other Bettas all took a while to warm up to me but he just acts like he's known me all his life!
Phlox I absolutely love his amazing colours!!! All we see here are blue, red and every so often one with a little turquoise, but none that are marbled ( for want of another word) like that. And never any females. Niles is a fortunate boy.
Ok, I also don't have to feel so dahhhhhhh for sitting and watching Storm basically do nothing, well up for air, around the top of the tank and back down ....LOL .. all the while encouraging him as though he understands everything I say.....as least you get to see exploring!! If people only knew about all of us.....
They are both absolutely gorgeous. Cangratulations and best wishes for all of you. Maybe you couldn't come up with a name because you were meant to get a male too. LOL
A lovely family there, Phlox. Congratulations. Niles and Daphne you two are like the cute new teenagers that have the nicest little crush on each other. Just darling. Keep us up to date on them OK?
It was hard to get him to settle down last night. He was exhausted but didn't want to sleep. He is still dancing and swirling around like a ballerina. He's just loving the freedom of being able to swim. I have to try to get some video of him today. It's not a huge tank (about 4.5 gallons) but it's cozy and he feels secure. That look of wonder on his face is so cute! I still need to fix up the tank for him with a few small plants. He's a happy boy that's for sure! I love watching him. It just makes me sad that Lava can't swim around like that anymore. I hope he will regain his swimming ability but he's just not getting any better. He spends about 90% of his day sleeping.
Daphne loves her new bachelorette pad and having a neighbor. She's still looking for any hole she can squeeze through to visit Karma.
I made this little artwork of Niles last night (I have too much time on my hands)
Phlox, that picture is so cool...is that a photo manipulated with software or painted? You could have a business - immortalizing our fish -- it's lovely. And again, I love the colours of your new fish.........amazing! ( & a wave hello across the prov frm NW Ont.)
Thanks, it's a photo manipulated in Photoshop and it's still a work in progress. I'm trying to design a collage of all my fish that I can print out and hang on the wall. If I come out with something nice I'll post it here for everyone to see.
I've uploaded a video of Niles dancing for the camera in his tank. It's here if you want to see it:
Sorry the quality is so bad. I have only a still camera with a bit of short video function.
I've decided that I'm going to switch Lava to this Kritter Keeper and put Niles in the Hex tank. Lava is disabled and needs special care. It is easier for me to design a tank equiped for his special needs in the smaller Kritter Keeper. Lava can't swim much and needs something to wedge himself into to sleep so he doesn't float sideways. He is able to swim to the bottom but only with a great deal of effort and then he floats right back up anyways. A shallower tank would make it easier for him. I have some ideas of things I can build so support him in an upright position when he sleeps (he is able to maintain a somewhat upright position while awake) near the front of the tank. Right now he wedges himself behind the filter in the back of the tank and that's where he spends most of his day, staring at a blank wall behind his tank. It's so sad! I want him to be out front and part of the family again so he won't feel so isolated. In the Kritter Keeper he'll be able to see the couch and TV and maybe he'll feel less depressed.
Niles has plenty of energy and will put the Hex tank to good use.
Great job in photoshop. Love that program. I'm glad Niles is having such a great time & enjoyed his 1st vid. Sounds like a good plan for little Lava, i bet he'll be happier when you get that setup.
Poor Storm... He's such a sad looking little guy. It breaks my heart. I so hope he gets better.
Everyone got their pea treats today and Niles got his first (probably) ever pea treat. He ate right from my finger and loved the pea. He's the first Betta I've ever had that bonded with me instantly. All the others took a few days and Lava wouldn't eat a thing for the first 10 days he was here! Niles is the first Veiltail male I've had and he does seem gentler and less aggressive than the crowntails. He's so sweet he almost seems like he'd get along with ANY fish, even another Betta male, though I don't plan to test that.
Maybe when he moves into the Hex tank I could get him some gentle roomates. He seems like he'd love someone to dance and play with.
Here's a reworked version of the Niles art I did above:
He is good natured but also quite a rascal and very smart! He has decided it's fun to lie directly under the filter intake tube and allow his tail to get sucked up the tube. I've chased him away from that spot so many times but he keeps going back. I tried blocking that spot with a plant and small rock but he squishes himself in there anyways and sticks his tail in the tube. He's very bendy, like a snake.
I was sitting on the couch watching TV and see him doing that and yell, "Niles, get out of that corner!" and he looks at me and swims away from the corner. Don't ask me how, but he knows I'm talking to him and what I want him to do. Of course as soon as I take my eyes off him he's in the corner again with his tail swirling up the tube.
LOL, that's great I think they do know when they're being scolded somehow. Aslan would pick at the betta bulbs when we tried those and whenever one of us would tell him to stop, he'd look at us all innocent & swim away. When he didn't think we were watching him, he'd look over towards where we were and then start playing with them, but if we let him know we were watching, he'd just swim right by them.
You might try what we did with the platy fry.. rubber banding some netting over the intake.. at least it would keep his tail from going in.
I agree with FLBettaCouplle. I would be afraid he would get a tear in his tail if he keeps up with that behavior. I think he would be much safer if you put netting over the intake tube.
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I hope he will regain his swimming ability but he's just not getting any better. He spends about 90% of his day sleeping. 