# Tonks' Adventures



## Anastasia3rd (Nov 27, 2020)

Hello! I started a thread to ask about heater recommendations, but I found I really love recording stuff about my new best friend, so I'm starting a Blog for her! It will primarily be for my own enjoyment.

Meet Tonks! Tonks is a Elephant Ear Female Betta, with a range of quirks.






















A little about me: I worked in an amazing pet store for two years and somehow never brought home a pet from work (extreme self control there), have always been fascinated with every animal (yes, even cockroaches, snakes, etc), and am currently pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Pre-Veterinary Medicine. I'd been thinking about and resisting getting a betta the whole time I worked at the pet store.

She was a free adoption at a local Petco (11/18/20) because of a tumor. The Employee who asked if I was interested was genuinely knowledgeable and obviously took good care of the aquatics department including little special Tonks. According to the employee, Tonks' tumor grows and shrinks randomly with medication having no apparent effect other than preventing infection. I had gone with the intention of acquiring a betta for my already set up, cycled and tested tank, and while I had a male dragon scale in mind, I'm so glad I ended up with Tonks.
(Pictured is







Tonks' Tumor when I first got her)


Current Tank Set Up
I have a 1.35 gallon Marina EZ care, which is very easy to perform water changes on. It is, however, a little small and certainly not suited for an adult male betta (so its good I ended up with a tiny female). It also doesn't have lid holes for heater, filter cords etc. A tank upgrade could be in Tonks' future.
The tank includes a live plant in a terra cotta pot (I think it's anubis?), a dragon (I'm a little obsessed with dragons), gravel, the drain system, and an adjustable Hygger mini 25 W heater. It is currently in a bathroom. When I have time, I might move her to my room.

Maintenance
I perform 1L water changes every other day (about 20%). I also perform 100% changes every other week; I take out the gravel and wash it too. Tonks spends this time in a pickle jar 😅. I use Tetra aqua safe water conditioner for bettas. I would have preferred Prime, but the pet store was out when I was setting up my tank and tetra has been fine. I like the stress coat feature.
Currently, I am only feeding her fluvial bug bites, but I'm curious about trying daphnia or other frozen or live food. I feed her once on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday until her little stomach starts to bulge. I originally planned to feed as much as she wanted in 2 minutes, but she doesn't have a full point. The first feeding resulted in a bloated and lopsided little fish who couldn't swim a straight line ... so the little pig is no longer in charge of food amount.









Tonks is very very friendly, active, and spunky. I grow increasingly in love with her every time I see her swim over to greet me. After the initial greeting, if it's not feeding time, she throws a tiny tantrum and swims away to show off her tail. I named her Tonks after Nymphadora Tonks in Harry Potter. I initially thought she was pink, which reminded me of Tonks' hairstyle, and her spunky personality fits too. When I first got Tonks, I also added a small hitchhiker snail. Tonks was extremely curious/aggressive. The snail died after a couple of days, and I'm not sure if it was Tonks' rudeness or the cold that killed it (I didn't have a heater at that point).

In addition to her tumor, Tonks has a badly damaged right pectoral swim fin, which I only noticed after bringing her home. I don't think she has fin rot or that she fin nips, because all her other fins seem beautiful and intact. Her upper dorsal is especially beautiful with it's spots. While she doesn't seem to have any trouble getting around, she swims in spurts, and I've been hesitant to upgrade her to a filtered tank in case the flow is too difficult for her. At the very least, I'll wait and see if it starts to regrow.

After about 2 weeks of having her, I noticed her tumor was pretty much completely gone. I'm hesitant to claim any credit though. As of today she has a tiny white dot in the same area, and I think it may be her ovipositor.

That's it for an introduction! If anyone else is reading this post, I welcome comments, questions and advice!


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## Anastasia3rd (Nov 27, 2020)

Original Heater Thread Heater for 1.5 Gallon 2020


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## Melogrunty (Sep 15, 2020)

Congratulations! Great to see you are so passionate about your fish! Sounds like you got a good maintenance schedule and are confident in your fish care experience to take on a fish knowing there are complications.

Edit: Where did you get your dragon decoration? I'm on the hunt for decorations currently


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## Anastasia3rd (Nov 27, 2020)

I got the dragon at Petco, the one I visited had at least 3 dragon options. You can probably get them on the website too.


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## Anastasia3rd (Nov 27, 2020)

After the loss of my first snail, and after installing a heater, I crossed my fingers and got a new snail. I waited to post in case he too bit the dust, but he seems totally fine and happy! Unlike the first snail, Tonks doesn’t seem to know he exists, possibly because she feels safe in her territory now?
He’s very adventurous and has covered pretty much every centimeter of the tank.
I
















I think Tonk’s fin is starting to regrow too!


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## Mr. B (Nov 6, 2020)

Anastasia3rd said:


> After the loss of my first snail, and after installing a heater, I crossed my fingers and got a new snail. I waited to post in case he too bit the dust, but he seems totally fine and happy! Unlike the first snail, Tonks doesn’t seem to know he exists, possibly because she feels safe in her territory now?
> He’s very adventurous and has covered pretty much every centimeter of the tank.
> I
> View attachment 1024551
> ...


Good!!!


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## Anastasia3rd (Nov 27, 2020)

I thought I’d do a quick update. 
The anubias has been looking awfull (its down to 1 leaf 😅) so I moved the tank out of the windowless bathroom and into my room where it gets some indirect light from the window and I have lights on more often anyways. 
To add some more foliage I got a “squishy plant” from Walmart (Petco didn’t have any silk ones I liked) and I’m still suspicious that it might be sticky, but so far Tonks and snail are fine. 
Her fin continues to heal and I’m optimistic that in a month or two it will be fully regrown.


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## Mr. B (Nov 6, 2020)

Anastasia3rd said:


> I thought I’d do a quick update.
> The anubias has been looking awfull (its down to 1 leaf 😅) so I moved the tank out of the windowless bathroom and into my room where it gets some indirect light from the window and I have lights on more often anyways.
> To add some more foliage I got a “squishy plant” from Walmart (Petco didn’t have any silk ones I liked) and I’m still suspicious that it might be sticky, but so far Tonks and snail are fine.
> Her fin continues to heal and I’m optimistic that in a month or two it will be fully regrown.
> View attachment 1025912


looks good! dos she like it?


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## Anastasia3rd (Nov 27, 2020)

The snail does. Tonks has swum through it before, but she doesn’t really have a hang out spot (that I’ve seen), so it’s hard to tell. I just wanted to have some plants for the habitat in general.


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## Anastasia3rd (Nov 27, 2020)

Heater on the fritz - stress led to ich/infections... quite the unfortunate heater adventure today


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## Anastasia3rd (Nov 27, 2020)

Wow, I haven't updated this in a while!

I really enjoy learning more about Bettas, and I'd say I'm still very much a novice, but I think I've learned a lot since the beginning.









The Tank has a few new additions: I have another Hygger heater (different design and it seems very durable thus far), dwarf water lettuce and another snail. I'm thinking to call the snail Seamus Finnigan to follow the HP theme.






















The lettuce and my latest batch of IAL are from Lydia aquatic on Etsy. I was very pleased with the order, highly recommend LydiaAquatics | Etsy

I am realizing I don't know much about water lettuce, and I'd like to give them a better life than my poor Anubias. Does anyone know if they have a preferred temperature? How to tell if they're healthy etc?

Similarly, does anyone know any good threads on snail care, or can you identify mine? Back when I worked at a pet store, we just called them hitchhikers, and of the 2 types, these reproduced less and have the spiral shells.

And I'm pretty sure my algae is brown, not red, but let me know if you think otherwise.


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## Dania (Feb 7, 2021)

She's gorgeous. Love her coloring.


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