Snarky | Fishstick | Bubbles | Momoiro | Downey
Betta Fish: Hobby, Obsession, or both?
I love Betta fish! They’re super easy to care for, fairly hardy & extremely entertaining. Each one has its own personality, and of course they’re pretty.
I have a guild on Gaia dedicated to the caring for & talking bout bettas:
Also Check out
o O (Fishy Thoughts)
My Profile & Galleria for my boys!
.:How I came to be a Betta owner:.
Funny thing is, my Betta was a second choice. I was taking an animal behavior class & we were to do a report on a wild animal- watch it for 1/2 an hour, and record its activities. I got away with a fish since they don’t respond to people the way a dog would. I went to the pet store as soon as I found out about the project & bought a goldfish & supplies for him. (To see my late goldfish Snarky, Click Here.) Goldfish are CHEAP. I got mine for $.15. If I picked a specific fish, it would have cost me $.25 lol. The food cost more then the fish did >.> I posted this on my LJ a few days later:
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September 28th, 2005
:
Fish Tank: $5.00
Fish Food: $1.99
Fish: $0.15
Watching Snarky spaz out every few minutes: Priceless.
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I put off doing the project until 2 days before it was due, then my goldfish died! (To this day I don’t know what killed him. Probably karma for putting off my project. Procrastination at it’s finest!) Mourning the death of my goldfish, I went back to the pet store to purchase a replacement to do my project on. Unfortunately, they has sold all the goldfish. Then the Bettas caught my eye. I bought a pretty red one, and dubbed him Fishstick, after my mom’s red Betta.
Poor Fishstick survived 3 colleges, many weekend trips home, and all of this with a very green betta owner. He lived for (almost exactly!) 2 years… he passed away just before our break in October ‘07. He’d been quite lethargic the few days prior, only moving to the surface to eat, or when I poked him. (Looking back on it, it looks like he died from ammonia poisoning). I got back from my evening class to find Fishstick laying limply on the bottom of the tank. I poked around him with a pencil, and when I got no response, I burst into tears. I called my boyfriend and he came over to console me. After I had calmed down, he took me to Walmart & bought me a new Betta. I normally don’t like buying fish from Walmart, but it’s the only place open at 11pm. (Now I don’t even look at them, I just want to rescue them all.) I found a healthy looking one, fins all looking good, fairly colorful- a lovely shade of blue. I let my boyfriend name him, and he picked Bubbles. He could have been Sir Fishstick III if I had been left to my own devices. *Phew*
Bubbles is my Fishstick rebound fishy, and the most pampered so far.
Poor Fishstick had it rough in comparison, as I knew nearly nothing about proper Betta care (water temp, water conditions, etc.) Like I said, I got Bubbles in October, and he was living in a flat sided “Betta” bowl. It holds about 1/2 gallon. Not to bad, not great either. Certainly better than the cups they come in. (Poor Fishstick lived in it for 2 years.) For Christmas bubbles got a new tank:
Bubbles has lived happily in that ever since (the exceptions being when I came home from school for a weekend here or there.) So my dad bought him a present:
On 10/12/08 Bubbles passed away, and at this time the causes are unknown. The folks at UB think it was ammonia, but I don’t think so, and yet, it hasn’t been ruled out. I’ve made this video in celebration of all that was Bubbles: http://video.sanriotown.com/video/7c756c3cf92f0ce8
Strange how he was only with my for almost exactly a year. Just days over the year mark actually. Bubbles will be missed 
So I had my fun with the “Kitty” bowl, and was getting Bubbles back into his main tank. You may be able to see in the picture above that the bowl has a ridge around the opening that the decorative ring sits on around the top. I went to pour bubbles into his main tank & he got stuck on this ledge. He didn’t plop out head first like he usually does, but kind of half wiggles tail first. When I saw he was stuck, I gently scooped him out & put him in the tank. I watched him for a bit & saw he was nursing his right side, and when he swam around, It almost looked like he had popped scale on the base of his little fin, and when he flared I could see much more red than normal if he’s facing away from me.
Not knowing what to do, I posted on a few Betta forums & headed off to Petco. I’m generally hesitant about petstore chains, but I was prepared to head to a local petstore as a backup. So I get to Pecto & while I’m waiting for “the fish guy” I see a pink & purple blur in the Betta shelves. I take a closer look & see an adorable crowntail.
The text message to my boyfriend is as follows:(5/1/8)
I love him! He’s Pink!
To which he replied:
Lol. So Get him.
And I did. I couldn’t come up with any good names for him. Anything that sounded tough just didn’t fit with his springtime coloring. ;P
I decided his name should be “Pink” in a language other than English. Unfortunately most languages have pink as some form of rose/rosa. Damn roman based languages. However Japanese is always a good backup. Momoiro is actually more of a peach color, but it lends itself to be a good name, having Momo as a nickname & all. 
So now there is two.
Edit: 6/17/08
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I decided to go to petco. I wanted to buy a new tank for Momo, preferably one just like the one Bubbles has. I bring my buddy along & we head out. They have one at target for 19.99. Great deal. I leave it to see if they have them at petco. We go to petco, and what do I look fir 1st? fishies of course! Of course this time I go to the Halfmoon shelves. I got my VT, & my CT… I look up & down the line until I see this tiny, adorable teal smudge amidst the sea of red HMs. I pick up the cup to get a closer look, but only to reveal a dark betta in the cup below. I kneel down to peer inside & see a larger full-finned boy leaning to one side, presumably to allow his massive fins to float.
As there’s not much water in the cup, the poor guy is stuck floating sideways to support them. I quickly skim the other cups, but none of them seem to have as heavy finnage as this one. I look at my friend and say, “Wow, these guys are pretty! But I can’t…” She looks at me & says “Why not? You’ll be taking home another buddy, and taking good care of him. Wait was that my job, to keep you from buying another fish? Crap!”
And so it was. I sent this msg to my boyfriend, who didn’t respond in time to try & talk me out of it:
He said “Buy me!” I said “Hmm… I want to.” I bought this plant for him as well. I think it’s adorable!
So I take him home, and and put him in an old 1/2 gal tank I had while I prepared his bigger tank, and god thing I did. Just out of curiosity, I did an ammonia level check on the water from his store cup. The results were abysmal.
My water never gets worse than 1.0ppm, and that’s a bad week if it gets that high. This poor guy was living in 8 parts per million ammonia.
I rinsed out the 2.5 gal I had laying around, and set up the plants & gems. (I just hope Bubbles doesn’t get jealous :D)
And now, Downey is living large:
