# Saphira101's betta journal



## Saphira101 (Nov 14, 2012)

Hi guys! this is my first journal here so please pardon my newcomerness. In case you haven't already seen them, here are my wonderful bettas: 
Peach, unknown Male. I got him at Petsmart in July.







Merlin, CT Male. I got him from my LFS (Conway tropical fish & gifts) in October/November.







and, last but not least, Winter, CT female. I got her the same day as Peach at Petsmart.







I love all three of them to death. Winter currently lives in a heavily planted 10 Gal. all by herself, Peach also has his own 10 gal. with floating plants. Merlin is currently living in a (temporary) bare-bottom 1 & a 1/2 gal. Kritter keeper. :-( I would have him on the divided half of another Betta's tank, But he freaks out and gets stress marks whenever I do. so, for Christmas I'm going to ask for a gift card to petsmart so I cat get him a lighted hood & live plants. (thankfully, I already have the tank and gravel) Merlin is in the kritter keeper for two reasons: one, because he freaked out on the divided half of Peach's tank, and two because I thought he had ich and separated him from Peach and started meds. then, I found out it was just a bit of fungus + fin rot. (thankfully the kind of meds I used were multi-purpose so they work for all three.) anyway, he's all healed up now and happy, and Peach (thankfully!) is unaffected. as stated earlier, I love my Bettas to death, but I can't help wanting more. (Betta bug!) unfortunately, I am banned from getting any more animals till January because my parents think I have too much on my plate right now. I have to demonstrate that I can spoil all of my other animals too. anyway, that's pretty much all I have to say right now. Until next time, Saphira.


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## veggiegirl (Nov 20, 2012)

Hey there,

Oh you really have some beautiful bettas! I especially love winter (that name is so cool to, think I will pinch it ha ha lol) Peach is a veiltail male by the way. Yes bettas are very addictive lol. I got one as a present on my 18th and within a couple of months I had 13 males, would have got more too but I ran out of tanks and space to put them....... Keep us updated on your bettas, love to hear about them and see photos


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## Saphira101 (Nov 14, 2012)

:lol: thank you veggiegirl. I always wanted a veiltail... and I had one all along! LOL :lol:


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## veggiegirl (Nov 20, 2012)

and a gorgeous colored one too


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## Saphira101 (Nov 14, 2012)

hi guys.  
I did 50% water changes w/ vacuuming for my babies today. there's so much gunk in their gravel! but not Merlin's, cause he's in a BB. I do regular weekly water changes for them but it doesn't seem to make much difference. Peach's water was GREEN. (!) I figured something must be wrong with his filter so I got him a new one. I washed his plants too, because I thought they might be part of the problem. man, floating plants multiply like crazy! you only start out with one and then all of the sudden you have twelve. It's like the leaves start growing mini plants that break off, grow, and make more baby plants. it's cool really, until the entire surface of the water is covered in plants. then you have to either throw some away, or move them to another tank. I wish I could visit my LFS, but I'm so busy with chores and school (home school) that I don't seem to have time. oh well, sooner or later I'll be able to. then I can get Christmas presents for my fishies!! *evil cackle* :twisted::twisted::twisted: well, bye for now, ~Saphira.


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## veggiegirl (Nov 20, 2012)

Oh you get you bettas Christmas presents, that is so cool, just curious but what do you get a betta for Christmas? Mine get a tasty treat but I wouldn't know what else to buy them.


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## Saphira101 (Nov 14, 2012)

I would get them treats too! probably freeze-dried shrimp or something.


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## Saphira101 (Nov 14, 2012)

hullo guys. :-D
nothing new with my bettas here except that I cleaned the gunk off of Winter's plants and replanted them. oh, and I set up my 5 gal. tall to grow more frill & ludwigia. (it was too tall for Bettas anyway) I visited my LFS today and fell in love with two more bettas. :sarcastic: a wild-type female and a pineapple male. (<3) here are pics:














sorry they're sideways! (the female's colors can't be seen that well, she has little blue stripes on her tail and blue dots on her sides.) I would have brought them both home, but my animal-getting ban is still on so I couldn't. curse myself for not taking awesome care of my other animals!! :frustrated: on the bright side, my mom says that I am doing much better with the animals so the ban will last no longer than the end of December. still, a while to wait but it could be worse.:dunno: Peach's water is no longer green, so I guess my filter is working right. yay!! 
well, bye for now, ~Saphira


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## Saphira101 (Nov 14, 2012)

Gah! it won't let me edit my post! I had meant to say that I know the boy's a VT but I'm not sure about the girl. plakat maybe? if anyone knows, please say so! 

thank you! ~Saphira


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## veggiegirl (Nov 20, 2012)

Hey there,

Lovely bettas, the female looks to be a regular veiltail girl to me....


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## Saphira101 (Nov 14, 2012)

Hi People. :-D
today I made my own tank dividers using the wonderful link that Dragonfish sent me. ( http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/d...ividers-21866/ ) anyway, I made three of them this afternoon, and I only spent nine dollars total! plus I had leftover report binders. (enough to make three more dividers.) Here is a picture:







on the left are the ones I made myself, and on the right is a store-bought divider. the nice thing about making your own is that one, they are not as see-through as the store-bought ones, and two, you can make triple the amount for the same price! even though right now I have pretty much no use for dividers, I am scheming for when my animal-getting ban is lifted. :twisted::twisted::twisted: until next time, ~Saphira


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## Saphira101 (Nov 14, 2012)

hi guys. ;-)
this used to be my avatar:







I wanted to get in the holiday spirit so I Photoshopped it to look like this:







after Christmas I'll change it back to the original.
what do you think?


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## Saphira101 (Nov 14, 2012)

forgot to mention in my previous post, I visited petco to pick up some goldfish food and decided to look at the Bettas. Grrrrrrrrrr! I saw this marble halfmoon male sitting on the bottom of his cup, poor guy. his fins were so clamped, he looked like a VT. (but I assure you, he was an HM. when I picked up his cup, he weakly flared at me, unfolding his tail enough for me to see his true tail type.) but alas, I still have this cursed ban. :frustrated: (oh well, I didn't really have any extra space for him anyway.) :-( well, at least I might be able to get my brother into Bettas too. (he prefers chichlids & gouramis, but I caught him looking longingly at a Red CT.) he is not banned from getting more animals, but I know he wants to save his tank space for chichlids. oh well, someday.


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## Saphira101 (Nov 14, 2012)

the countdown is ON! 12 days 'till my ban is lifted!! forget Christmas! I can't wait till I can get pets again!! :lol: (just kidding, I still love Christmas. ) not much going on with the bettas, but I used up the rest of my report binders to make more tank dividers. heh heh heh...:twisted:


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## twolovers101 (Sep 17, 2012)

Lol congrats Saphira, I'm getting a new boy after Christmas break! I'm so excited xD


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## Saphira101 (Nov 14, 2012)

Hello guys 
the algae in Peach's tank is back, -?) here is a link to my thread about it, if you have any advice: http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=123167
Thank you, ~Saphira


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## Saphira101 (Nov 14, 2012)

Hello guys. 
Oh, I'm such a sucker for bettas!
I went to my LFS again today and here are all of the ones I wished that I could take home: 
VT boy with majorly nipped fins, they had him with the lemon tetras! :-(







Other VT boy with nipped fins, but this one was BLIND!! (put with angel fish)







this was a VT boy that just didn't look good. I think he had fin rot or something..







Beautiful blue VT boy, nothing seemed to be wrong, as he was with guppies. 







and last but not least, that pineapple VT I showed you a picture of last time I went to my LFS.








I'd show you a new picture of that little wild-type girl, but she wouldn't come out for a good picture. (she's camera-shy) 

GRRRRRRRR!!! I wish that I had not brought this cursed ban upon myself!!!!!!!!!!!!! :frustrated::frustrated::frustrated:

please do not blame my LFS for the conditions of those three bettas, those were the only ones that were actually in bad shape out of about 80 bettas. (plus, as you may know, I have a soft spot for sick/injured things, so of course I wanted those ones) the owner has a lot on his plate, and only one employee. he also has a LOT of fish to keep up with. those bettas with nipped fins were the only ones that were with unsuitable tank mates, and there were really no more tanks that he could put bettas in. (all of the rest had some sort of shark or chichlid)

On another subject, I shot a nice picture of little Merlin today: (sorry, it's a bit dark)







I also got a nice one of peach, he was flaring at my camera 







and just to not leave her out, here's one of Winter I took a while ago, before I had Merlin:








Until next time, ~Saphira


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## Saphira101 (Nov 14, 2012)

Hello and merry Christmas! 
My brother is so awesome!! guess what he got me for christmas? Okay I'll tell you. he got me: a 10 gallon aquarium kit, an amazon sword plant that's already sending up new shoots, two other plants that I can't remember the names of (one of them's a fern) some driftwood, two baby pygmy cory catfish, -P)and... THE LITTLE VT GIRL I'VE BEEN WANTING FOR SO LONG!!!!!!!!! he said he'd have got me the pineapple male too, but the owner had sold it after FIVE YEARS of the little guy living at the shop. wow. I love my brother!  some of the plants even had snails on them, and I've really wanted some snails for a while. the little girl is currently living in a kritter keeper for quarantine, as she has a bit of fin rot. (I knew that already, I wanted her anyway) Peach has some too, in fact. :shock: he's also in a kritter keeper. I moved merlin to a new tank of three gallons where I keep all of my plants. he won't quit flaring at his reflection, any tips on making sure he doesn't wear himself out? (he's such a little weirdo):lol:

anyway, merry Christmas to y'all! 
~Saphira
P.S. I'd post pics, but I went home with my grandma to see a nutcracker ballet, so I didn't have time.


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## Saphira101 (Nov 14, 2012)

*the long anticipated pics...*

Pics of Pi (that's what I named her)


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

Pretty fishies!


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## Saphira101 (Nov 14, 2012)

*Zeh latest news...*

Hello, and sorry I have not posted in a while...

I went back to the LFS and saw all of those bettas again (except the pineapple VT of course, as you know, he has been adopted after 5 years. )

Well, the blue VT with nipped fins has some very clear signs of regrowth. -P) as does the red VT, it turns out he was not blind; he just had Popeye or cloudy eye or something, his eyes are looking normal now -D)


Also, the one that didn't look so good was moved from his 5 gallon to a large guppy tank, and is now very active. his fins seem a lot better.

The other blue one that I was rather fond of is the same as ever, happy and active 

Sorry for lack of pics, my camera ran out of battery just as I entered the store. :/

It turns out Peach does _not_ have fin rot, he's just a minor tail-biter. I divided and re-aquascaped Winter's tank, Peach will be moving there in a few days. also, Merlin has stopped flaring at himself. (thank goodness)

My snails are good, I found out that I have one regular ramshorn, and one red ramshorn. I also found a single ramshorn baby. in addition to the ramshorns, there were two pond snails on the plants. (I've seen about six of their babies sliding around the tank)


Also, we just got two _*VERY*_ tiny comet goldfish from petco. there were originally three, but we had to feed one to our snake. (Bean has to eat too..) they are currently being quarantined in a 2 & a 1/2 gallon tank with a sponge filter and one hideous orange plastic plant. xP (it's the only one I had left) they are doing well, considering they are from petco. (my petco stinks) I'll be quarantining them until February 5th, when they'll go to live with Tiffy. (my other goldfish.) so far I have gotten both of them to eat (and poop.) yay! Anyway; their names are Hematite (after the stone) and Tiger (short for tiger-eye, also a stone.)

Until next time, ~Saphira


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## Saphira101 (Nov 14, 2012)

well, went back to the LFS again today, all is well except for the blue boy with nipped fins. he seemed to be suffering some swim bladder troubles. I told the owner and he said he'll get on it right away.

I hope the little guy pulls through.


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## Saphira101 (Nov 14, 2012)

*Woooohoooo!!!*

PEACH BLEW A BUBBLE NEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

this is his first one in about 6 months. I suppose it's because he's on the divided side of Winter's tank... I just got the tank a heater, and both Bettas are showing colors I've never seen on them before... and they both pooped!!! (they were constipated)









The tank after I redecorated it:

http://www.fishtanks.net/fishtank.php?fishtank=6453


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## Saphira101 (Nov 14, 2012)

I just got back from a 5-day trip and the house had been really cold... The tanks were 74*F! The fishies were a bit lethargic, but warmed up quickly when I cranked up the space heater. All are well now, I added a new ramshorn to Winter & Peach's tank... (much algae in that tank) It was previously in the crayfish's tank which was rather cold and algae-less. It's doing well now (; I cleaned out Tesla's old tank (I failed to post about him in this journal. Long story short, I got an unhealthy Betta from Petco and he died) and it will function as a backup hospital tank "just in case". Merlin's fins are in better shape than they used to be, and Pi's fin rot has cleared up. I also went to the LFS and the blue VT w/ nipped fins is OK.


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