My new betta - what am I and whats my name???

[kerryve]

HI Everyone,

This is my new little one - his home is a 15 gallon planted tank with black sand. He a friend with him - a Cory cat named Watson... please let me know if this little one is a half moon or delta and I haven't thought of a name for him. Can you help me out???

I really tried to get a good picture of his tail, when he flares it opens up exactly like a half circle.

thanks!
Kerry

 

[poefox]

Very nice pictures and nice colours. chickadee (Rose) can tell you a lot more than I about his type. What kind of personality does he have, or do you know yet?

 

[kerryve]

He seems very laid back, in the store he was in big tank with about 20 mollies and 10 zebra danios. he just swam around chilling 8) even now in his 15 he hardly looks at Watson.

 

[nmwierman1977]

He is a very good looking Betta. Natalie

 

[chickadee]

He looks like a Halfmoon SuperDelta geno to me. They are just regular Halmoons with a bit more hype to it. Most real Halfmoons will be just as you said, a perfect half circle. I think he looks almost like Alexander did when I first got him. He has more finnage to develop yet..he is spectacular .

He needs a good name and since you have WATSON in there with him, how about HOLMES or SHERLOCK? I am trying to come up with a name for one too and my family is pushing for me to name it JT..family member . Then I have one that will be acquired for Marty's tank but I am not up to that at the moment. Maybe later.

He is a gorgeous fish, it is too bad that he will not play with your other two.

You can be very proud of him. Welcome, little man, you be sure to let us welcome you properly when you are named too.

Rose

 

[AesSedai]

He's wonderful kerryve !  I love the green. GREAT tank for him...lucky dog...erm, I mean Betta

I liked Rose's name suggestion.  He looks like a snooping Holmes or Sherlock, heh.

 

[BettaBuddy ~ Miley]

he is a really nice looking betta!( cute danio too lol) Congrats! Sorry but I can't really help on the name thing ... Congrats though! Miley

 

[0morrokh]

Gorgeous fishy!! Is it just me or does he have some lighter bands on his body? It looks really cool.

 

[kerryve]

Thanks I had really hoped he was a halfmoon even better to hear hes a halfmoon superdelta! I like the name Sherlock!!! I named the cory watson, cos of his little wiskers he really reminded me of sherlocks partner - why I never thought of sherlock I have no idea!!!

His body is also very bright, and he has a black patch on his head, its actually really cute!!! hes so gorgeous, sorry but I'm such a proud little betta mommy!!!

 

[divakeeks]

No apology necessary ... with a beauty like that, it's perfectly understandable to be proud!!


WELCOME SHERLOCK!!!

 

[kerryve]

Thank you divakeeks! Sherlock says thank you!!! hehe!

 

[chickadee]

I just cannot believe it!! Alexander has a black head too! It must be a particular trait for that type or thread of their evolution. They are practically twins. I can certainly understand the temptation to be proud, I find myself slipping into the same thing.

He is one gorgeous betta and would make wonderful babies. It has me really excited that you are going to try to breed him, I sure wish I could afford the set-up and had the space and ability to handle it. I am just afraid my energy level is not good enough to do it.

Rose

 

[cherryrose]

Sherlock is absolutely gorgeous!  He posed nicely for you too.  A warm welcome to both of you!!!  (((((Kerry and Sherlock!!!)))))

CherryRose   ;D

 

[kerryve]

Breeding Bettas really does take it out of ya! They must be twins!!! hehe Imagine if I had called him Alexander? I was contemplating it and decided to name my other cory Alex. 

Luckily for me lots of friends donate their tanks once the novelty wares off, sad but nice for me.  so I'm fully prepared, I'm just really scared of losing him in the process but ill make sure I'm there the whole time so I can watch them closely.  Just waiting to get a female HM, the store here says theyre in contact with a breeder who imports different strains.  So Lets keep our fingers crossed. I think theyre under new management cos  a few months ago they wouldnt have known anything about the strains of Bettas or even what a Betta Splendens is.  They refer to them as Siamese Fighters here.  But I don't really like that name cos there's a lot more to them than their fighting capabilities.

Sherlock seems so happy in his new home and I tried him with some Long finned Zebra Danios, (I knew he might not get along with them) But He seemes so comfortable in his home, hes nosey too, hes always inspecting the filter and heater and he tells me when the temp isn't set to his specifications.  Hes actually quite bossy, you can almost see him telling Watson to clean that little bit of shrimp on the sand, immediately Watson rushes up to the shrimp and gulps it down.

Cute heh?

 

[Peter243243]

It is an AWESOME betta.

And your question, you are a human and your name is kerryve.  ;D ;D

 

[kerryve]

Hehe, Yip I'm Human, unfortunatly... Id love to be one of my fish!!! and my name is Kerry, Yip!

 

[chickadee]

Alex sleeps under the airstone with the Otos. He loves them literally. It is so cute it is almost shocking. Blaze is not to be bothered. I can hardly wait for JT and Andrew to get here and last night I gave in and bought 2 more Botia sidthimunkI Loaches. Another tank...but I have to get ready for another betta as I am GOING to have a betta like the one I looked at that was like Marty Jr. if I have to go find one myself.

Rose

 

[kerryve]

Its really contageous!!!

If you keep your eyes open I'm sure you will get your hands on another Marty Jr.

Its funny how these little things make the stranges friends!!! BTW I'm not being mean by not having posted pics of piggy and fasto yet, all the pics ive taken of them really don't do them justice, they always on opposite sides of the tank or they squabbling at feeding times. I want a nice one of them together, I tried to get one yesterday evening, they looked like they were kissing but I was too slow. But I promise you ill make it worth the wait! hehe I think they are enjoying all the space in their new tank.

 

[chickadee]

That is okay. The picture of 2 males getting along is worth the wait...I can hardly imagine after seeing Alex throw a hissy fit over just seeing Blaze in the next tank. Well he better get used to it because he is going to have more company on his other side with Marty Jr (if I find one) or Andy (if I cannot).

Rose

 

[LZ Floyd]

Welcome Sherlock!  I really like his color, Kerry.

Mike

 

[kerryve]

Chickadee,

Weve had such terrible power outages, for days at a time now! and its been quite cold too, around 19 celcius, my little ones have really been suffering, I don't have a generater and they are so expensive here, no hot water either. so the temp in sherlocks tank dropped to 21 degrees, my 300 gallon temp didnt drop too much over the 5 days but my nitrites escalated because the filters were off!!! especially in my oscar tank cos they really are so messy!

sherlock hovered around the top of the tank and seemed ok though, but I think until they manage to sort the electricity out I won't be able to start breeding with sherlock. I don't want to risk my grow up tanks temp dropping and the tanks ammonia and nitrite rising! I really don't know what to do! I don't want to risk my babys fishs' lives but at the same time I am so excited to breed with sherlock.

What should I do?

Kerry

 

[AesSedai]

I feel for you (and for your lil ones) trying to deal with the loss of electricity like that.  Man o man.  I was trying to think of what could be used.  Here in Tampa, dealing with hurricane season and wanting/needing my coffee, I stock up on cans of Sterno.  Can cook food on it too..and in your case, water can be boiled/warmed for the lil ones.

There's things you can do when you loose electricity like that to help your lil ones get through it (of course, when electricity's out for days and days, you kinda have another whole beast there).  Wrapping towels/blankets around the tanks slows the temperarture loss in the tanks.  You could stop or dramatically slow the feeding.  If they aren't being fed so much, they don't make waste and thus ammonia so much.  Water changes would be the only way to heat your tanks and clear out the ammonia and nitrite so the Sterno cans would work wonders for that.  Also, there are battery operated gizmos that let you run your air stones...they are plugged in and when power is lost, they kick on.  You'd need to find out if you can change the batteries in them on the fly w/out electricity.

You got me thinking.  We'll be moving to Tennessee in a couple years, way up in the mountains in the middle of the woods.  I wondered how I'd handle/care for our tanks should we loose electricity.

I think you're right worrying about the grow up tank not getting warm enough.  Keeping the breeders alive seems like a daunting task for you right now I'm sure. 

Good luck getting through this!  How are you staying warm btw? 

((Kerry))

 

[chickadee]

Of course you cannot think of breeding right now. The fry would never make it through the unfiltered tanks. The water temperatures will be too unstable too.

For right now, do you have any access to any battery powered air pumps? If you can run an airstone even with battery powered pumps (they are not expensive for the small ones) you can run the stone at the top of the tank just to add air to the tank.

Your betta will be okay as long as your home is warm enough. He is not going to like 21 degrees but he can live. You will have to watch for Ich and Velvet and finrot when you feed him though. (but that will be with all the fish unfortunately) Ray of sunshine, aren't I?? I am sorry but I always feel it is better to be honest and not gloss over things.

I really worry more about you and your family, and how you are doing.

Please let me know how you are doing and if there is anything else I can help with. I really think that Sherlock will be okay just cold. When you think that they live in conditions that are terrible at the stores, he should be able to take some adversity since he at least has nice clean water to be in. Do you have a way to heat water at all so you are not having to use straight cold water? Otherwise my only suggestion would be to move the tank where it is in the sun during the day if possible to help give it some heat part of the day anyway. A south window perhaps. If you wrapped the tank in a blanket at night the heat from the day would be held in for a longer time and since there is nothing electric working under the blanket you do not need to worry about overheating. I hope this is a little helpful.

Rose

 

[kerryve]

Ok so as long as hes ok, ive been watching for ich no sign of it yet. I tested the parameters in sherlocks tank and everythings ok there, so I think their immune systems are still strong. I can't afford to breed now not with all this and winter strong on its way, weve been having loads of lightning storms (South Africa has the most strikes every year because of the iron in the soil) Trees have fallen over and that's why electricity is always out. The weather has been very rainy too. Weve been fine, We don't have gas stoves here everything is electric so weve been braaing (bbq) every evening otherwise its Macdonalds. No hot water at all, because as a country we really aren't prepared for this type of thing, its not an everyday occurance. the elec comes on for about an hour in the evenings sometimes and its off as soon as it starts to rain.

Its now that I really need the sludge remover for my oscars! they still on their way here. ohhhhh, It drives me crazy!

and all I'm worried about is my little fish. Ill put sherlocks tank in the sun, but again without filtration algae is likely to build up not so? my oscar tank temp is hovering around 24 degrees, that's ok right? Ill put a blanky around sherlocks tank at night but there isn't too much difference between day and night temp here.

 

[AesSedai]

((kerryve))

I almost envy you your life in South Africa (hm, ok I do envy you, heh). The storms you're dealing with now are no fun but when that all clears up, you're in one of the most natural and beautiful spots on earth (australia is another). What a life!

I'd love to ask you if you like being there, what you're doing there and how long you get to stay there but don't wish to stray from the topic. Of course, if you went here and talked about it, I'd love it!!

I'm in Tampa, Florida and I'm pretty sure that we are the thunder and lightning capital of the northern hemisphere so we may be your twin in lightning storms. Rainy season here doesn't start for a few more months but when it kicks up, I must drive with earplugs soo loud are the BOOMS associated with the lightning. I'm almost a hazard on the road, jumping when startled by such noise, so wear the earplugs. And, it doesn't just rain here, it POURS so you can't see a bumper of a car 5 feet in front of your own.

Oops, see that, how I got off topic anyway... If you post about what it's like being in South Africa at the thread above, would you let us know?

How are all of your living ones this morning/evening?

 

[chickadee]

I am glad that you all are okay. You know as much as I love the fish, people come first and as long as you all are okay things will work out.

The blanky is to keep the suns heat in at night while it is under the earth. It may only make a degree difference but with the way things are a degree is a degree right? I am sorry but I do not know much about Oscars, Gunnie is our expert there or Dino; but the temperature specified in all the good fish books I have here say Oscars do the best at 26 Celsius so that sounds great. The temperature you mentioned is not that far off (2 degrees C or 3.6 degrees F) and they should have a little greater range than that. If your betta can live in the temperatures like he is, I think the Oscar will be fine.

Let us hear how you all are doing and take care please. We will be praying for you all.

Rose

 

[kerryve]

Progress today. Electricity has been put back on, we had a power plant failure in Cape town, about 1200km away from JHB. So the bad storms have stopped but its still raining in the evening but lukily last night there werent any big storms in my area. They are however controlling power usage in our area because we have a big city. the problem there is that traffic lights were out and caused huge problems on our motorways and highways. I usually leave work at about 16:00 and get home at about 16:35. Yesterday when I left I got home at 18:40 and its a total of 25km to drive. traffic was terrible!!!

anyway, getting back to the fish, my oscar tank temp raised to 26 again now the heaters were working but nitrites were at .50ppm. did a 100 gallon water change last night. fish seem to be hanging in there although my silver dollars seem to be battling they really don't like nitrites!

Serlocks tank is still fine! only nitrates at .25ppm. they still good.

My biggest problem is that because the electricity was off for so long all my food has spoilt in my fridge. that's R100s! They doing controlled cut offs, to conserve. Its very irritating and I wish they would find a better time to do it rather than rush hour but that's ESKOMS choice. they only cutting for 2 hours in the evenings.

AesSedai,

Ive posted a thread in Non fish category - other called "Where do you live???" We can chat there about South Africa!