# Kisiel's Journal



## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

I'm officially back to the forum so I thought I'd start a journal to keep track of my tanks and fish. And dump my photos here while I'm at it :wink3:


A little about myself: I've been keeping bettas since I was sixteen, and it all started with the little guy here on the left <----- (my avatar). His name was Lucifer and he was a stunning bicolour delta tail with super bad aggression issues - I couldn't even keep snails with him! Lucifer was my companion for quite some time and when he was about two years old he started developing tumours on his organs. He was a fighter though and didn't give up despite being in obvious pain: eventually I made the decision to euthanize him which broke my heart, but he went peacefully with the help of clove oil. We buried him by a tree in a field where I frequently walk my dog. 

Outside the fish keeping hobby I am a student, currently working towards my degree in Animal Science. Afterwards I'd probably like to go into research but I haven't really made up my mind yet. I live with my partner in a nice old house which we are renting out, with two fairly large gardens so I can have lots of nice plants: I love herbs and I am currently growing thyme, parsley, dill, chives and mint. I also have strawberries, lavender and sweet peas! In my spare time I enjoy Netflix, art and crafts (especially cross stitching), photography and reading - I actually have so many books that we needed an extra room just for them! I've managed to squeeze in a desk in there so officially it's a "study room" haha. 

Anyway, feel free to follow my journal and comment / ask questions. It would be nice to get to know you all too!

I'll introduce the fish in the next post :smile2:


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## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

My current fish collection consists of five betta males, a pair of _b.channoides_ and their offspring, a pair of dwarf puffers, fifteen endler's livebearers, two pygmy corydoras, four red cherry shrimp and twenty red ramshorn snails. 

I'll introduce the bettas first. 


*Buttons*

Buttons is a bicolour (purple and red) unmasked HMPK male, heterozygous for the dumbo gene. He was actually born here at my house as part of my dumbo koi line back when I was still able to breed bettas. Buttons is quite small and fairly shy but he does enjoy nesting and is pretty good at what he does! He does not appreciate intruders, however, and has bitten my fingers multiple times - it seems to be the only thing that makes him tick. Despite being a territorial little guy, he will not flare at a mirror or a neighbouring male: the only way to get him to do it is to float another male in his tank, but even then he sometimes can't be bothered! My sister has his brother, Max.


*Marzipan*

Marzipan is a fancy halfmoon with some really funky colouring. When I first got him his base colour was turquoise green with a white face and dorsal and yellow anal fin. Over the past few months he decided to opt for a new look and lost the white face, turned his dorsal yellow and blue and developed a more prominent black "skunk stripe" on his forehead. Marzipan is a very passive male and would much rather make friends than flare. He likes to pig out on algae wafers and hides them under the driftwood so I can't take them off him :-/

The conditions which brought Marzipan into our family are probably the saddest out of all my current bettas. He is a Pets at Home "rescue" but I use that word loosely as I still had to pay £18 for him which brought more fish into his place. He was very sickly when my boyfriend spotted him, laid on the floor breathing heavily and was pretty much half dead. At first I didn't really want to get him as I knew the risks but my boyfriend convinced me. The first few weeks were difficult and I honestly didn't think he would make it. Lots of TLC and patience brought this boy around though 


*Ember*

Ember is a fancy HMPK male. He has an orange and black head and the rest of his body is royal blue. When I first got him he had some white patches but those marbled out. His dorsal and caudal fins are blue and white and his anal fin is orange with a blue band - there are also three little red dots which may indicate that he has some armageddon in his bloodlines! Ember is a highly aggressive fish and cannot have any tank mates whatsoever. He bites the net and mirror and would flare all day long if I allowed him to! He is a Thai import and came at the same time as the next fish which I'll introduce. 


*Nameless*

His name isn't actually Nameless, he just genuinely still doesn't have a name and I'm a little ashamed to admit it - I just haven't found anything that would fit this majestic beast! The fish in question is a black orchid double tail male, so_ stunning_. He's a true eye catcher especially when he flares and he likes showing off for the mirror. He's gone through a fin biting episode a while back but it's all healing nicely now. 


*Thorn*

Thorn is the newest addition to my collection - he was an early birthday present from a friend/transhipper/breeder. He's been with us just over a week as of today. Thorn is a giant bicolour HMPK and although he's not the biggest and fattest giant I've seen, he's still _much_ bigger than a regular sized betta. He also has stunning form and great colour and an attitude to match. His favourite past time is tail slapping the snails off the glass - he does it so hard I can sometimes hear it from my bedroom haha.


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## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

Now for the non-betta fish :smile2:

*Dwarf Puffers*

The dwarf puffers were a birthday present from my boyfriend last year. I originally had three, a male and two females but one of the girls passed away a few months ago. The pair are called Potato (male) and Kiwi (female). They're the cutest little things ever! The male can be quite mean sometimes, particularly during dinner when the female snatches up a piece of food that he had his eye on: he'll chase and nip her bit she doesn't take him very seriously.


*Betta Channoides*

I acquired my pair of betta channoides quite some time ago - they are F1 brother and sister. Their parents were wild caught, originally imported by the same person who gave me Thorn. Those fish were sold to someone who bred them and that's how my pair came to be. They're pretty old now and the female in particular shows signs of old age, but she's still feeding regularly and generally acting okay. The male is more shy and I rarely see him, especially now as he's holding eggs again. There are also about fifteen juveniles in the tank which will be ready to go to their new homes soon. 


*Endler's Livebearers*

I won a group of sixteen endler's at an auction for £3 which was absolutely ridiculous haha. The bag had ten "females" and six males in it, but as it turned out one of the smaller females was actually a juvenile male and I think another one may be male too. One female passed away the first night, I guess she just was weaker than the others. So the current ratio is pretty messed up, with eight males and seven females - these are split between two tanks, one group with Marzipan and another with the DT. Two of the females are heavily pregnant so I'm expecting fry in the upcoming week or so. I plan on keeping some virgin females in a separate tank and breeding them to my favourite males instead of just leaving it to chance. But we'll see. 


*Pygmy Corydoras*

I have two of these little guys, _corydoras pygmaeus_, and I won them at the same auction as the endlers. I honestly thought there would be more but nope, there was just the two. So I'm currently on a quest to find more since, just like other cory cats, pygmies are schooling fish and need to live in groups. I've not had much luck though, but I'm not giving up. They're too adorable to pass up!


*Shrimp and Snails*

There's not much to say about these, the RCS are all female and live with my puffers who, to my surprise, leave them alone. Probably because the shrimp are the same size as them, if not bigger. The snails are red ramshorns, all twenty of them live with Thorn. I got so many so they lay eggs and I can feed the babies to the puffers since buying small snails gets pretty inconvenient. 



I'll try to post some pictures later today :smile2:


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## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

Marzipan's curiosity just would not allow him to leave his tank mates alone when I dropped a piece of an algae wafer into their tank. At first he just watched from a distance but his lack of self control led to indulging in the feeding frenzy at the bottom of the tank, and ultimately, a huge belly during the subsequent hours. I don't know why he joined the endlers and cories for dinner, but it was quite funny to watch - he'd take a bite, spit it out and turn to me as if to say "ma this isn't bloodworms!" I think he started actually eating it after I'd left and he realised there was nothing else for him haha :grin2:


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## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

Yesterday was my birthday! I was surprised in the morning by a huuuge parcel which contained a bouquet of gorgeous flowers - those were from my grandparents who live on the other side of the world. Such a sweet gesture, I've put them on my dining table so I can look at them whenever I pass  Later on I shared some cake with my dog, although she only got the spongy inside as the rest was super sugary and sweet. It was really nice though. 

Fish wise, everyone got some live daphnia for dinner which they all hunted down eagerly. One of my endler females looks like she's about to explode, I've been checking up on her every few hours in case she _finally_ goes into labour. Hurry up girl! Another one of the juveniles also turned out to be male, messing up my ratio even more - looks like I'll have to get rid of some of the boys soon! 

I posted on another thread about "dream bettas" about a crowntail we once had - a black butterfly boy. His name was Vladimir and we imported him from Thailand early this year (January) but he had passed away two months later when I went on holiday and my boyfriend looked after the fish for three weeks. It was very unexpected and there was nothing my boyfriend could have done, I absolutely do not blame him for what happened - he felt awfully guilty though. Well, yesterday a friend of mine messaged me saying she found another black butterfly CT, a stunning show grade male with a price tag of $80. While I couldn't afford him at this time, someone we know bought him and if everything goes to plan will breed him so maybe in a few months time I'll be able to get a baby! Here's some pictures of Vladimir and the last one is of the other guy


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## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

I've not really been active in the fish community this past week due to some tragedies that have struck my tanks. To put it shortly, I have lost both Marzipan and my _b.channoides_ male. The latter passed away due to old age most likely, but Marzipan's death was very sudden and unexpected. I'm absolutely heartbroken to have lost him.


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## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

To follow up on my last post, it wasn't the _b.channoides_ male that passed - it was the female. The male, however, will most likely soon follow as they were the same age and he's showing the same signs of old age as she did. 

On a happier note, I am now a proud parent of (almost) two week old Endler's! I have about ten floating in a box inside the girls' tank and there's some more hiding in the riccia. There are a few newborns which I think were born sometime yesterday, but I've been so busy with work that I've not been paying that much attention. There are three more girls which look like they may drop a litter this month so I'm super excited about that! I'll take some pictures on my next day off  

All the bettas are doing good, although I've had to move Buttons and Tar (my DT finally gained a name!) around as Tar was getting too stressed out by the water flow and was biting his fins pretty bad. Buttons, being a plakat, doesn't mind as much as it's easier for him to handle - so he now has the Endler boys as his tank mates and he's been doing really well with them. He does get a little annoyed when they get in his face and I've seen him discipline the boys, but overall I think he's quite happy in there. Thorn and Ember are also good, they're getting on with their daily business as usual. 

I'm still looking after my little sister's betta Max (Buttons' brother) even though she's been back from her holiday for over a week now. Hopefully she'll take him back next week, not that I mind looking after him but he's clearly missing her!


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