# Donna's Betta Journal



## babyboybetta (Feb 28, 2016)

i decided i should start a journal to keep you guys up-to-date with my tanks, as well as let you in on some ideas and plans i might have for any future tanks! (because that's always exciting for everyone)

i took a trip to pet supermarket today to get some more supplies and i saw the cutest female betta! she was that peachy flesh color and had black marbling on her tail. she was super fat too! i wish i would have taken a picture while i was there. i would have gotten one of those 3 gallon critter keepers and just filled it to the top with plants and threw in an airstone but i was on a budget lmao. and besides, i've been sick so the last thing i wanted to do is to set up a brand new tank when i could be sleeping.

they also had another female, she was black and brown with some blue scales and red fins. my mom commented that she looked like a wild betta, and she kind of did. she was really fat, too.

so i came home, and i gotta feed the boys in a while. today is freeze dried tubifex day. they don't quite like them but you know, they can't survive on just frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp for the rest of their lives. the red scare and sodium go nuts for bloodworms, they can eat up to 5 or 6 in one sitting! i gotta stop myself from giving them more but they act like they haven't eaten in years.

i'm also in desperate need of plants. my betta windex's 2.5 looks so barren compared to my other tanks, which are completely overflowing with them. any kind of aquarium plant will do, but specifically subwassertang and brazilian pennywort, and mosses like riccia and xmas moss. if any of you have some extra you could spare, i'm willing to trade for a drawing of your betta! (i have a post in the betta art section you could check out) just send me a PM and we could work something out!

anyway, here are some pics of some of the boys from today!


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## babyboybetta (Feb 28, 2016)

did a water change yesterday, since i went out and finally got some more prime. i forgot to get more ghost shrimp while i was at the store, i originally had some in sand's 5 gallon, but i think they all died. they did last quite awhile though, they were neat. i think they might like the salvinia i have on top, too. i took that salvinia from a lake at a local park. the amount has almost tripled since then.

while i was at the store, i bought an algae sponge and let me tell ya, it was probably the best $3 i have ever spent. sand's tank was COVERED in green algae on the glass. after a scrub with the sponge, however, it looks like it wasn't even there! it did a better job than the razor blade did.



while cleaning out the tanks i switched out sodium's IAL. for some reason his deteriorated quicker than everyone else's. i need to buy more, the seller i bought them from on ebay sold me 20 for $5, which was pretty expensive. but i recently discovered Flip Aquatics, which sells 10 for 54 cents. they also sell plants and different species of crystal shrimp.

i already fed the boys for today. it was mysis day, they're windex's favorite. i had to stay home from school yesterday because i have the absolute worst cold. i went to the doctor and she said i could go back on thursday. i'm enjoying the time off though, even if we just got off of thanksgiving break.

sodium's marbling has come in quite nice, too! he never used to have the black spots in his anal and caudal fin, but they're becoming darker and darker by the day. it's pretty exciting. i only have one picture of him from today and it's from above. i've just started using photobucket because i noticed that uploading pictures as attachments kills the quality, which is a shame because the camera on my phone is so great.



i'll update later today with some more pictures!


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## babyboybetta (Feb 28, 2016)

took some more pictures!







i wanted to take some pictures of sodium and his half of the tank. im so proud of how his side of the tank looks. even if i need to get some more plants for the back, i still love the way it looks.



here's the salvinia i mentioned in my previous post. i swear i had like half of this amount and it's only been like,,, i wanna say a month? it grows so fast, i love it.


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## babyboybetta (Feb 28, 2016)

went to my LFS today with my dad and got some more plants and frozen food. i got a different variety of salvinia, this one is smaller so i think it might be minima. i also got an anubias for gubble's side of the tank to tie to his rock hide.

i also asked the owner if he ever got in wild bettas. he said that most of the fish he gets in are tank raised but that he sometimes does get wild fish. he said to call him next tuesday and he would let me know. i told him the species i was interested in and he said he would look into it. my dad said he would get them for me if they got them in, so i'm pretty excited!

i also bought some spirulina brine shrimp. i asked if the guy had daphnia and tubifex but he didn't stock those because of a disease incident.

so i'm gonna be looking into tanks soon and i'll call the LFS next week to find out about the channoides.


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## babyboybetta (Feb 28, 2016)

sorry for not posting in awhile, school has been kicking me in the butt lol

so unfortunately, last week my white crowntail sand died on wednesday. i have no idea what killed him, he was fine 2 days before, and then the next day i noticed him acting a little sluggish. i didn't think much of it, and then the next day he was dead ): s.i.p sand.

i couldn't stand to see the tank just sitting there empty so on sunday i did double water changes and deep cleaned the gravel, and went to petco and got another betta. his name is dinky.





this poor boy didn't even know what brineshrimp were. i had to wiggle them around to get his attention before he even THOUGHT of eating them. i'm trying to fatten him up with some meaty foods. he LOVES to hang out in the back of the tank where all the salvinia gathers because of the filter flow. he also flares at EVERYTHING. he's so curious.

but yeah, other than that, everything else has been the same. everyone got water changes today and tomorrow is mysis day!


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## babyboybetta (Feb 28, 2016)

here are some more pictures i got of dinky!


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## babyboybetta (Feb 28, 2016)

sorry for not posting! i got a new laptop so i've been in the process of messing around with it and transferring stuff over.

everyone got a water change on wednesday, next one is on sunday. everything seems to be going well! i'm thinking about some projects i could start in the new year. one of them is a 54 gallon container pond with either some rainbow platies or making it a betta sorority. i'm not sure which route i'll go yet but it is still something i would want to try out. the other is a shrimp bowl with 5 or so ghost shrimp and some java moss and sand. i'd probably get at least a 2 gallon bowl but i do have a 1 gallon bowl in my back room that i could use. i still gotta do more research.

i'm also waiting for a microscope to ship! it's the uhandy portable microscope that you can attach to a phone or tablet and view through your camera. i can't wait to get it! i've had an explosion of life in one of my snail jars that i keep on my window sill. TONS of ostracods and copepods and detritus worms! they're thriving in the green water, since it gets direct sunlight every day.

i'll make sure to post some pictures of the stuff i see when i get it on tuesday!


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## babyboybetta (Feb 28, 2016)

UPDATE:

turns out my microscope came early! it shipped today! i'm at my aunt's house though. my mom's going to drop off the box to me but i won't be able to see the ostracods and stuff until maybe sunday. oh well!


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## babyboybetta (Feb 28, 2016)

boys got fed jumbo bloodworms today and they LOVED them. i'm gonna feed them those again tomorrow, and i'll probably make a quick stop by pet supermarket to get some pellet food. if not i'll just order it online on amazon, since i have amazon prime, they'll deliver in like 2 days.

i got some pics with my microscope! saw some really interesting stuff!! i got a view of some ostracods, copepods, a nauplius (copepod in larval stage), detritus worms, and even rotifers! and a bunch of em!!


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## babyboybetta (Feb 28, 2016)

crawled out of the depths of hell and got back on here. i've been real busy since school started, i'm in my senior year of highschool so i gotta keep up with everything before it piles up lol but the main reason i've gotten back on here is because i've been hit with a dilemma.

so i have a 30 gallon tank that used to be my mom's, and is currently sitting in my living room with substrate and hardscape, ready to be stocked. the problem is, my uncle wanted to buy it from me for $50. me and my uncle are close so he wanted me to help him set it up. i had been planning on setting it up with some german blue rams, neons, an albino bristlenose pleco, mystery snails, and some celestial pearl danios, along with a dozen or so ghost shrimp, but i was considering maybe checking on aquabid for some wild bettas or some gardnerii killis. while my uncle on the other hand wants to do a native tank with some sunfish.

here's where my problem comes in. a friend of mine told me she has a 5 gallon hex that she's selling for $40, and knowing me, i told her i would let her know if i wanted it. i know 5 gallons is tight on space, but i was thinking i could maybe do some endlers or some pygmy sunfish of some other kind of small species of killifish. kinda want to get out of the betta realm.

so here are my options:
1) sell the 30 gallon and use that money to buy the 5 gallon from my friend
2) keep the 30 gallon and not buy the 5 gallon
3) keep the 30 gallon AND buy the 5 gallon from my friend. you know, like a savage
4) sell the 30 gallon and tell my friend im not interested and stay tankless 

so yeah i cant decide which route i want to go down. both have their perks but im still not sure. anyone have some advice?

and a small update on my current bettas, they're all perfectly fine. rearranged some plants and stuff but other than that nothing out of the ordinary has happened.


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## babyboybetta (Feb 28, 2016)

DAY 0 HURRICANE IRMA

sooo i guess i'll be using this to log my experience through hurricane irma, since i live in miami and will most likely be getting a direct hit.

today was officially the last day of school in my county, so i'll have tomorrow and friday to set everything up for the storm. i plan on doing 90% water changes so that the water will stay clean for at least a week, just in case our tap gets cut off. i'm not too worried about filters because most of my tanks run without filters anyway, and they have been for almost a year now.

what i'm most concerned about are my reptiles. my leopard gecko and bearded dragon both rely on some kind of heat source, so if my power goes out, i don't quite know what i'm gonna do. anyone have any suggestions? i have a heat pad for my leopard gecko and a heat lamp for my bearded dragon.

i'll also be going to petco tomorrow to stock up on superworms and waxworms for my reptiles, and maybe i'll buy some other supplies while i'm there.


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## ThatFishThough (Jan 15, 2016)

I believe you can get massive portable batteries. I'll go see if I can find an example. Please stay safe!

ETA: I believe something like this... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005GZRUZ...t=&hvlocphy=9020754&hvtargid=pla-319843916563


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## babyboybetta (Feb 28, 2016)

wow thank you so much for that! i'll see if i can find some in my area. if the stores start selling out i think i'm gonna buy those little disposable heat packs for muscle pain. i'd rather that than nothing, and at least it'll keep them warm.


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## babyboybetta (Feb 28, 2016)

DAY 0 HURRICANE IRMA UPDATE

the storm's path is still pretty uncertain, but the storm is expected to die down to a category 4 when it hits cuba, then curve inward towards miami. category 4 is still catastrophic, but it's better than a category 5. wilma and katrina were both 4s so i think we should be alright.

mandatory evacuations are currently underway for monroe county in the keys, but nothing has been said about miami-dade where i live. in the worst possible outcome, if we need to evacuate, i'm going to put my boys in some large pickle jars i've been saving with some plants and take them. 

for my reptiles, i'll put them in some tupperwares with some paper towels and a heat pad taped to the outside. i also have parrots and i don't have carriers for them, but my mother runs a business that requires her to have a huge stockpile of boxes, so i was thinking i could put them each in an individual box with some airholes and a perch stuck through the side.

evacuations aren't certain yet, but i'm already preparing for the worst.


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## babyboybetta (Feb 28, 2016)

DAY 0 HURRICANE IRMA UPDATE

so i'm going to be evacuating to the tampa area possibly on friday with my dad, who is gonna drive down and take me up there. he said that if i didn't feel safe down there, he didn't have a problem getting me and taking me up there. he also said that if it gets bad in tampa, we can just keep driving up. the only problem we're facing right now is gas shortages, so if we get stuck on the highway without gas, we're screwed.

i've been having major anxiety so i think evacuating might be the best option. once irma moves up to the tampa area, it will already have declined to a 3 or 2, so that isn't too bad. and from the most recent prediction, it's going to curve out into the atlantic and not into the gulf.

i've set up my jars for the boys, i just need to drill holes into the lids. i've also got to go out and buy the heat pads and the worms for my reptiles. other than that, i'm pretty ready. at least, i hope so.

i'm going to leave my birds with my parents, because they're a lot more sensitive and need that time out to interact, but i don't quite want them to go through so many changing environments and being inside the boxes the entire time. my fish and reptiles are a little more tolerant to the change and being in a small space for extended periods, so i feel more comfortable bringing them with me.

i'll update regularly while i can, if the power goes out i probably won't be updating as frequently.


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