# Iridescence's Journey



## DrizzlingSkies (11 mo ago)

I've had my betta, Iridescence, for about two years. I've owned bettas since I was very young. Here is mine and his story.


My first betta was Blueberry, a veiltail if I remember correctly. I may have been like 10 when I first had him. Not a good idea at all to give a betta to a 10 year old and expect them to properly care for them, but I remember trying my very best (which obviouslty wasn't good even then). He lived in a bowl around 2 gallons. I did water changes as often as I could being a 10 year old and fed him properly. He lived quite a while. Swim in peace, Blueberry. My second betta was Flame. Same situation with him. I was still very young and uneducated on the topic of bettas, although he, also, lived quite a while. Swim in peace, Flame.


Around two years ago I had begged to get another betta. Me and my dad went to our local petstore and looked through all the bettas in their tiny cups. I wanted to rescue all of them. I was stuck deciding between two: A light pale purple male veiltail and a dark blue/black male crowntail. My dad said I could get both of them and I was so excited and happy. At the time I didn't realize it, but the veiltail had mild fin nipping/tearing while the crowntail was developing dropsy. I set them up in a divided 2.5 gallon tank with a heater. I had still not done ANY research on tank size and had always relied on my mom in regards to tank size. Of course, she had believed they could live in tiny bowls at the time (Since then I have changed her mind! ). The tank was faulty because of the divider and the two got to eachother. Luckily I don't recall either of them hurting eachother as I caught it quickly and replaced the divider.


I was so happy. I had two beautiful betta buddies. I decided to name the dark blue crowntail Abyss. It took me a while to figure out a name for my small light purple boy. I finally decided to name him Iridescence, Iri for short.
(Picture of Iridescence shortly after I got him)










Unfortunately, shortly after, Abyss passed away from dropsy. I did a water change and removed the divider. Iri was so happy to have the space, even if it wasn't much more. He lived like that for a while. After Abyss had died, I decided to dedicate myself into research about bettas. I looked into both sides of the argument regarding tank size and necessities for bettas. I realized I wanted the very best for my betta and would do anything to make him happy. I started making a list of everything I needed and quickly realized a problem. I had no money to do any of this!


Around the same time, my cat had gotten sick. It was a disease that could potentially kill him if he didn't have the correct diet. And, of course, his special food cost money, which I had to pay for. I found myself completely stuck, not knowing what to do. I almost gave up. I didn't want to lose my cat AND my fish. Around this time, my brother was looking for a job, but I also realized that he probably wouldn't give me any money, even if he did get a job. I took it into my own hands to start looking for a job (at 15). With some unknown luck, I got a job on my very first interview. I got my job in August of 2021. After a while, I saved up some money.


I created a shopping list for Iri’s new tank in early January and soon, I went and got all the stuff I needed for Iri’s tank. New gravel, a mix of artificial and live plants, and other decor. The tank was a 10 gallon. It included a filter and a heater. Soon enough, I was building his new tank! When I was figuring out the filter, I looked at it skeptically. Once I built the filter, I plugged it in (even AFTER reading the specific instructions to NOT plug it in outside of water.) It made a weird noise and I thought it was broken, so I almost tossed it aside. I literally facepalmed at how fast I was giving up on it. After I set up the tank, I hesitantly positioned the filter and plugged it in. It worked perfectly, with little to no noise. I was so happy. His new tank was nearly finished. Everything was done. After the tank cycled, I finally acclimated Iri to the tank and soon plopped him in.


He seemed very surprised. He sat still in the middle of the tank, glancing around at his new surroundings. Soon enough, he was exploring it. He swam fast and spread (or, how I like to say it, fluffed) his fins, happy with all the space he had. It was then that I realized that my pale, light purple boy had turned into a gorgeous purple-magenta color over the time that I had owned him. His personality turned from scared and inactive to feisty, outspoken, and stubborn. He was so happy in his new tank and it really showed. He's been living in it for about a month now.


His tank in total cost around $350 in total. And you know what?


It was worth every single penny.


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## betta4ever! (Oct 5, 2021)

Lovely story! I'm glad you dcided to research on betta care! I'm sure finding the money to get him a bigger tank wasn't easy! Just keep up like that!!  It's obvious that you really love your betta! How's your cat doing?


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## DrizzlingSkies (11 mo ago)

I really do love him <3

My cat is doing good! His food is really helping him alot.


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## DrizzlingSkies (11 mo ago)

New entry:

I had been doing some research on what could live happily with my betta. I decided to get him a snail buddy!
Before getting any snails, I had to decide on what type of snail. I decided on the very popular Mystery snail. Although at the time I had no idea they came in so many different colors!
For about a week I forgot about the snail as I was focused on different things. But a couple days ago I was on my way home from work with my dad and I remembered. I was just like "Hey dad? Can I go get a snail?"
Obviously he was very confused at first but I explained and he agreed. We went over to the petstore to look at our options.

There were a few different types of Mystery snails but I absolutely love gold so I picked out 1 gold mystery snail! (Little side note, I only got one because teeny tiny little baby snails all over the tank might get a bit hard to manage  ) We brought him (Or her? Honestly dont know) home. This was on Saturday so it was time for my weekly water change. I went ahead and did the water change, waited around an hour, then set the snail's bag into the water to acclimate for about 15 minutes.

Iri approached the bag on guard, although not flaring. He glared at the snail with the clear expression of "You're fine, just don't TOUCH my bubble nest or you'll be sorry."
He didn't flare at him though which completely surprised me!
Once I let the snail into the tank, he stayed in the same spot for a while. Being a first time snail owner, I was absolutely terrified that I had killed my snail before even putting him into the tank. With some frantic google-searching, I just realized he was probably a bit overwhelmed by the move. I also learned that they're more active at night, so I waited. When I turned on the tank light to feed Iri dinner, the snail was on the tank wall! It made me very happy to see him up and about. Iri was swimming around him, but he wasn't flaring. The snail was very chill and unfazed by Iri 🤣
I've decided to name my little gold snail Star.

I dropped an algae wafer into the water for Star. Iri immediately chased after it. Greedy boy tried stuffing the giant wafer into his mouth but quickly realized that it probably wasn't for him (MUCH to his disappointment) and settled for his own pellets.

I think they'll be good friends!


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## DrizzlingSkies (11 mo ago)

So. uh

I got home from school like 30 minutes ago and went to go feed Iri. But I can't find Star. Literally anywhere. He's just completely gone. I can't find him anywhere in the tank. He didnt get out of the tank either. 

This is sad. I don't know what happened to him.


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## betta4ever! (Oct 5, 2021)

Star is under the gravel! Snails have a habit of disapearing for days, but they eventually show up.


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## DrizzlingSkies (11 mo ago)

WHAT

literally my immediate reaction
I was panicking so much

Thank you for the information
That is. really interesting


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## DrizzlingSkies (11 mo ago)

I got home from work last night and I was extremely happy to see Star up and about! Not sure where he burrowed, but I can assume he wants to keep that a secret. 

It was the first time I saw him moving around, actually. Iri was very curious and was swimming beside him. Eventually Star went to sit under an almond leaf.

Speaking of Star, I had the weirdest dream last night. In the dream, Iri "Opened" a slab of gravel and Star was under it. Star went out of the "slab of gravel" and Iri closed it.
So weird it was funny.

Perhaps Iri secretly has thumbs


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## DrizzlingSkies (11 mo ago)

Star has burrowed somewhere again and Iri is not willing to share his secret. 

Speaking of Iri, his healed transparent fins are developing some color! Under the light the ends of his fins look like a very pale/light blue.


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## DrizzlingSkies (11 mo ago)

(Some of you may have seen my panicked post on this already) Recently I had a huge nitrite spike in my tank (Around 1 ppm), and with having my tank already cycled, I was very confused. I got some advice from some people here, did a 20% water change, checked parameters, nitrite levels had only gone down a little bit. Still had 0.5 ppm. I performed a 50% water change later that day and it fixed it! I was very happy.

I just had something scary happen literally a few minutes ago. Was feeding Iri and touched the water then quickly realized it was cold! I panicked then quickly looked at the temperature reader. It had dropped below 70 degrees! No wonder Iri had started acting more sleepy  At first I thought the heater had broken but then once I went to check if it was even plugged in, it wasn't! I share a room with 2 sisters and I know I never touch those cords so they may have accidentally unplugged it and forgot to plug it back in. I'm not sure how long it was unplugged but I fixed it immediately.

Once I plugged it in, I smelled something burning. Even MORE scared now, I unplugged everything connected to the tank electrically because I thought the burning was coming from the outlet. I went downstairs and it turns out my sister just burnt her toast :/ I could finally breathe a sigh of relief and plugged my tank stuff back in.

Well, that was pretty interesting and uh.. scary. But all is well now


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