Meet Harry Dean Stanton!

[Heiditron3000]

I did it. I came back for that fancy dancin’ old man. This is Harry Dean Stanton, and boy he looks like he’s seen some things.

He’s doing well so far! He sat at the bottom of the tank for ten minutes but now he’s slowly starting to explore. As for how old he is, I have no idea.

 

[Joshuaharestad]

He's a cool betta. Kudos to you for taking an older one and giving him a good home.

 

[Heiditron3000]

He's a cool betta. Kudos to you for taking an older one and giving him a good home.

He’s perked up a lot, and I got him a piece of mopanI wood that has a cool cave hollow in it, so he’s got some niiiice tannins to help him out. He doesn’t seem to be able to detect food very well, though.

 

[newbettagus]

Not able to detect food... this fish is totally unrelated to mine.

 

[Heiditron3000]

Not able to detect food... this fish is totally unrelated to mine.

He isn’t related to my other ones either. The others can pinpoint a single pellet in a forest of water wisteria

 

[Heiditron3000]

Update time! Harry is a sweet old man and loves to come up and greet me every time I come over to his tank. He does appear to have Popeye, his eyes are just so buggy. That doesn’t seem to affect how happy he is, though. I’m waiting for erythromycin to come in the mail and am starting treatment as soon as it does.

He doesn’t see very well. He sees me okay, and does seem to see his food but he can’t quite locate it, as he misses a few times when he tries to eat it. His mouth also can’t seem to open all the way, he has trouble with even the micro pellets.

He finds food better if I point to it like this. The brown water is from the mopanI wood and almond leaves he has.

 

[newbettagus]

Good to hear that he's okay. You seem to be taking such good care of him.

What you're doing reminds me of how I've trained Gus (actually, I'm not sure who has trained whom) to come to where my fingers are just above the water, and then I'll drop a food bit. He snaps it up right away and I think this keeps anything from landing on the bottom of the tank. This may be one of the reasons our nitrite levels are declining.

 

[newbettagus]

One more thought: One of the things I feed Gus is Fluval Bug Bites. You can actually cut those into tinier pieces.

They stink though.

 

[Heiditron3000]

One more thought: One of the things I feed Gus is Fluval Bug Bites. You can actually cut those into tinier pieces.

They stink though.

I’ve been wanting to get bug bites for a while, maybe I’ll finally cave and do it!

He seemed to be able to see his food a little better after a dose of erythromycin. But I don’t think his old betta teeth work well because he had a piece of food stuck in his mouth after he lunged for it. So I gotta soak it.