# Bào's and Yěmǎ's Adventures



## JuneReeves (Feb 3, 2016)

Dear journal,

I recently got my first two Bettas ever. I bought Bào (pronounced bow, as in "I bow in respect to you") on the 6th of Feb 2016 from a little fish store where I live after spending roughly 10-15 minutes looking at all the beautiful Bettas that were available. I wanted one that looked healthy and had no rips in his fins. I wanted a Betta who was active and seemed alert. And I kept coming back to this one black and dark blue crowntail. He was gorgeous. Still is. So that day I went home with my little guy. He has a feisty personality. He will play follow the leader with me at one time and then the next he will hide away in his cave. 

Couple days later on the 9th of Feb I brought home Yěmǎ (yee-mah), a dark red veiltail, in a little sandwich bag that was rapidly deflating and losing water along with three other fish. I was in a panic. The tank I was going to bring along with them cracked. The weather outside was awful, snowing and the roads home made my car slip and slide all over the place. I was extremely worried for these fish but thankful (if they were to survive) that I would be rehoming them in clean tanks, because the water they were in was deplorable, full of gunk and floaters. I looked like it hadn't been cleaned in a couple months.

I rushed the fish inside my apartment and scooped some water out of my already established Betta tank into the plastic box Bào came in and put Yěmǎ in it, then set the box aside to deal with the other fish; two small cat fish and a 5" long common pleco. The cat fish bag was losing water as well so I had no choice to put them in with Bào. Thankfully he ignored them. The pleco bag was holding up so I placed it in my guppy tank to keep him warm. I hurriedly called my sister knowing she had tanks laying around she wants to get rid off.

"Hey, I need a tank NOW. Right NOW, it's an emergency!"

Off I went into the winter stormy weather to fetch a tank for my rescue mission. She gave me a 20 gal tank and I rushed home and worked on setting it up. It was a brand new set up and not cycled but it would have to do. I moved my 11 guppies to the 20 gal from their old 10 gal and put Yěmǎ in there after letting him get used to the new temperature. I put the pleco in with the guppies along with the cat fish.

Rehoming these fish seems to have been a success so far. Yěmǎ is a super active Betta compared to Bào who seems to prefer to stay in the shadows. Yěmǎ's fins are in poor condition because it seems like him and the cat fish liked to fight each other and the water conditions he used to live in were awful. But I'm hoping the clean warm water I'm providing him with will help him heal. 

The next task seems to be getting more decorations for all my tanks and better filtration for the 20 gal. And the next challenge will be finding an appropriate tank size for this common pleco. It's not ideal but it will have to work for now. At least he's no longer in the dirty 10 gal tank crowded by the cat fish and Betta anymore.

I will update my journal when something new changes or something exciting happens.

-June


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## JuneReeves (Feb 3, 2016)

Dear journal,

On the 24th of Feb 2016, I gave away my common pleco to a nice fella. I was surprised by the number of responses I got to my ad on Kijiji (The Canadian version of Craigslist, but more clean and friendly), but this guy seemed to be the only one who was truly caring and capable of taking care of this pleco.

Since he is now gone and in a good home, I plan on getting 2-4 more cory catfish for the 2 I already have because they seem to be lonely. I also want to get 5 ghost shrimp for each of my tanks, and a couple more apple snails for my Betta tanks. I want to introduce new blood into my guppy tank as one of them seems to be a runt and another has a bent spine. All these guppies are related to each other (as they were babies and parents I received from my brother) and it seems deformities are starting to happen. Wondering if I should put the bent spine guppy out of her misery, or even if she is in pain. Most of my female guppies are pregnant and looked squared off. They've been like that for a couple of days. I hope they give birth soon.

Ever since I moved the guppies to a new tank and away from the apple snail, he's been super active and looks like he's growing a lot. He does a crap job cleaning the tank though. Hence the shrimp I want to get.

Bào is becoming increasingly more social with me and swimming around his tank rather than hiding in the plants and his cave. He likes to follow my finger and watch me walk around my bedroom when I'm doing chores. He's a beauty.

Yěmǎ's fins seem to be healing up nicely. They were damaged and torn from the poor water conditions he used to live in in his old home. He doesn't have any shine yet. Are some Betta's matted looking and others shiny? Guess I'll have to do some research again. Feel free to comment, everybody. I've also discovered he likes to play in the current the filter creates. He doesn't HAVE to go through it to do anything. He will actively swim against it and be pushed back and float around. It's kind of cute.

I'll be back again if anything else exciting happens.

-June


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