# lilnaugrim's PetCo Babies



## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Hey all! So I wanted to start a little journal to track the progress of my two Petco Betta Babies! I found out they were only 1.99 and I had to pick up two of them! I literally sat there on the floor kneeling as I looked at all, about 20 babies. Two were dead, there was a gorgeous double tail but s/he was cambodian color and I don't really like that coloration, don't ask why because I don't really know.

There was this little blue one that kept catching my eye, it was active and kept swimming around it's little cup to stop and look at me and would swim around more, looking at it's neighbor. I picked it up and tried to determine some sort of gender and tail type. I believe my boy Captain as I am calling him, is a boy and I think he's going to grow up to be a solid Red Veiltail but that's of course just speculation.

The second I also believe is a boy, thought it was a girl at first but the ventrals seem too long and the body proportions didn't look right. But he was just hanging there, half his body sort of bent it a weird shape and I couldn't just leave him there, he looked too fragile and his big eyes just stared at me, pleading me to take him home! I believe he is a Crowntail and will probably grow up to be a black CT with red finnage, but of course still speculating!

The CT is named Tony, I think he's got some swim bladder issues but I think good water quality will take care of some of that. He swims around in his tank every now and then fine, but he does rest up top on the fake plant quite a bit as well.

So without further ado, these are my two babies when I brought them home the first day, Friday April 26th 2013. The first is Captain and the second is Tony (Yes both named for Captain America and Tony Stark, I couldn't call him Iron Man because it didn't fit. I might also call Captain, Steve sometimes ^^)


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 2*

I know I'm commented one after the other but these pictures were from Saturday, the second day after I got them. They are both in a 3 gallon which is split with plastic mesh, I made sure they couldn't get through the holes first. 

Steve is still much more active than Tony, I wasn't sure if Tony was going to make it through the night with the swim bladder issue but he seemed to have been doing better than Friday. Steve also colored up some more to be a little more blueish than his original dull color but I know that was just stress.

Steve loves to pick around in the gravel and poke at his fake plant, he also likes to taunt Tony through the plastic mesh which I'll get a picture at. He even reached his lips through the mesh to latch onto Tony's tail, Tony slapped him with his tail and swam off, it was rather amusing to see that little mouth opened so wide lol I'll be keeping an eye on him though to make sure nothing actually happens to his fins.

The filter is turned off and I'm doing a 30% change on the tank which is only filled about 2.5 gallons so Tony doesn't have to go too far up. Doing changes about every 3 days and feeding them twice daily with the same stuff I feed my platy fry. It's a mash-up of all the foods I have including Betta flakes, NLS pellets, Omega One Pellets and about three or four freeze dried bloodworms mashed up as well. They only eat a tiny pinch and I take out whatever they don't eat.

So here's some more pictures!





I really wish that Steve would be a Super Delta or even just a regular Delta but I think he's just going to be a normal Veiltail, I hope at least he grows up with good finnage.



Here's Tony kind of just floating, you can see Steve peeking through the mesh just underneath him, the cheeky baby! lol


And peeking around the corner now, he's got lipstick! I hope he keeps that at least! Tony's just like "wut?" 


There is a small possibility Tony might be a girl? Just looking at the anal fin it looked too much pointed, but he's almost got the body of a girl and a little tummy that is filling in. And the Ventrals don't seem quite as long as Steve's but I guess time will tell 

I'll try to update tomorrow when I go back to my dads. I hope I can keep this thread going, I'm pretty terrible at updates so if it happens I don't update in a while, just poke me and I'll get pictures up lol. Thanks all.


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## Corsica (Apr 1, 2013)

Aw cuties! Good luck with them!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Thank you!


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## Darkicydevil (Apr 30, 2013)

Aww!!! They are adorable! Do you know what they will grow into? Have you seen the parents?


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Nope, they're from PetCo so I've got no idea which is part of the fun but I did speculate about what they might be in my first post ^^


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## Darkicydevil (Apr 30, 2013)

lilnaugrim said:


> Nope, they're from PetCo so I've got no idea which is part of the fun but I did speculate about what they might be in my first post ^^


Can't wait to see!!!! : D


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## Destinystar (May 26, 2012)

Steve and Tony are so adorable! I sure got a kick out of how Steve likes to taunt Tony and got a hold of his tail and how Tony slapped him with his tail and swam off...lol Your doing a fine job in taking good care of them !


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Thank you Perseusmom! I was a little worried about feeding them that mixture but I do know they are old enough that they don't need all sorts of live foods and whatnot. 

(If anyone asks, I am a Stony shipper and if you don't know what that is, that's perfectly okay and you can just watch from the sidelines haha) But I had thought about reversing the names since it's usually (in the comic sense) Tony that is the instigator and stuff but the name Captain/Steve really does fit the little guy, especially if they come out to be the colors I "predicted".

I also can't wait to see their growth! I'll be taking more pictures later today when I get to my dads house!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 6*

Alrighty, as promised I have some new photos. Wow Tony is seriously being an instigator to Cap! It's hilarious to watch Captain through the mesh, glaring at Tony.

Steve is as active as ever but I worry a bit for Tony, it seems he's still got a bit of a swim bladder issue, he stays at the top most of the time but he's up right, he doesn't really go to his side too much or anything, so I'm not sure if I should be concerned with this or not.

They've been eating a mixture of Betta flakes, Tropical Flakes, few Freeze-dried blood worms, NLS pellets and Omega One Pellets with a bit of Algae/Bottom feeder wafers thrown in. It's the mixture I use for my Platy fry who are growing slowly >< It's been a month and they're still not longer than my whole finger nail...they are also in a breeder net so my girls don't pick on them.

Anywho, this journal isn't about my Platy fry lol.

Cap has some blue edges on his otherwise red fins now and his light blue irid. is getting a little brighter.

Tony still has black spots on him but he's also got a blue edging around his fins. Both are still in a shared 3 gallon that is split with plastic mesh and only filled about 2.5 gallons so Tony doesn't have to swim too far. Although I'm watching him right now and he's swimming fine through the mid and lower levels of his side.

Alright, picture time! The last few pictures I amped up the vivd-ness so you could see Steve's color which wasn't coming out great with the other flash and stuff.

Tony might end up being a girl in which case I'll call it Toni ^^ lol it's kind of got a girlish body shape with the tummy but time will tell!

Tony first:



Annnnd Steve:



That's all for today folks!


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## Darkicydevil (Apr 30, 2013)

lilnaugrim said:


> Alrighty, as promised I have some new photos. Wow Tony is seriously being an instigator to Cap! It's hilarious to watch Captain through the mesh, glaring at Tony.
> 
> Steve is as active as ever but I worry a bit for Tony, it seems he's still got a bit of a swim bladder issue, he stays at the top most of the time but he's up right, he doesn't really go to his side too much or anything, so I'm not sure if I should be concerned with this or not.
> 
> ...



They are very cute!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

So it's been an interesting week. I had taken the gravel out of their split 3 gallon and realized that was what was holding the divider up >< So I tried to cut and fashion one for that 3 gallon but it was freaking impossible because not only is it a bow front but on the back bottom edge, for some reason it's like indented like a mini shelf.....makes no sense.

So I gave Tony the entire 3 gallon, well only filled half way because he's still having some issues swimming. He doesn't exactly tip over or anything like SBD but his head is nearly always touching the surface and has a hard time swimming down and staying down although sometimes I'm wondering if he's not just lazy....

So anyway, Captain went into the 1 gallon-ish critter carrier I got from walmart with a lovely Marina heater in it. They were seperated for almost a week until today when I switched everyone around.

I split my 10 gallon where Remmy and Ditto sit to add in Aero so that freed up his old 3 gallon. I then took out all the substrate in Aero's old 3 gallon and fashioned a rough divider for the babies.

And then the 3 gallon that Tony was in I sanded that and put my new unnamed boy in there (he's a DT! I'm so excited!!)

I found something very interesting though, the entire time they were seperated, both lost almost all their color and became almost depressed. But now that they are back together they colored up beautifully and seem much happier, but who am I to be able to actually tell 

So everything was good, everyone was settled and I was watching the babies, I look away and look back to find Tony managed to get through to Steve's side!! I quickly bounced up to get a cup but I couldn't help to stall and watch what they would do.

Steve instantly had breeding/submissive stripes which I've pegged down to submissive stripes because he does not have ovaries unless they grow in more later....but so far no triangular ovaries behind his tummy.

But neither of them fought, they circled each other or more like Tony circled him and then Steve swam away. But either way I quickly tried to scoop Tony out but I got Steve instead.

I went to work with the divider, I didn't cut it right so there was a gape at the back of it. I found some old airline tubing, cut a line in it so it would sit around the edges of the mesh and finally put it back in and each of the boys on their respective sides.

Steve keeps going up to the mesh and it really looks like he's "longing" to get onto Tony's side lol and whenever he see's Tony again he gets the vertical stripes but he just stares.

I find this just so amusing and if you are a stony shipper...you will too ;D

Anyway here's some pictures I took of them today!

Sorry for the camera glare, Tony's on the left side and Steve on the right.


And here are Steve's vertical stripes, Tony flares a little but Steve just stares lol It's rather amusing.


My camera actually surprised me since it's usually no good, but here's a close-up of Steve's stripes! What a cutie, his dorsal fin is also become a nice deep blue.


Steve's just so photogenic, Tony either doesn't stay still or my camera isn't in the mood to take a good pic lol So this is why there is more Steve 


Look at that blue dorsal! And no ovaries in this picture if you look close. At least, that's what I see, perhaps you can spot some out?


A little green irid. I'm in love with his blue dorsal though! I know it's wishful thinking but I wish he could just keep the blue dorsal and then the rest of his fins be a deep red with a blue butterfly outlining but I know that's definitely not going to happen.


And last one:


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## Darkicydevil (Apr 30, 2013)

awwww!!!! love the pictures <3 they are all growing so well!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Oh my goodness, these babies are going to be the death of me!

I came home from a 15 minute exam (ugg, had to drive all the way to school and back for it which sucks but whatever, it was my last final woot woot!)

So I came home and looked into the babies split 3 gallon and Steve was on Tony's side now!! Arrrgggg

But it seemed that they were getting along enough that Steve only started to chase Tony after I sat down on my bed. As soon as the chasing started though I grabbed the cup I had sitting by and scooped Steve out. I fixed where I thought the holes might be where he got through and am watching them closely now. There was no damage done, no fin nips or anything, I'm thankful that they are either too stressed or calm enough to not bother the other too much. It's still frustrating though that I can't build a good enough divider without having substrate.

I didn't want substrate though so I could clean the bottom out easier and not have to worry so much about left over food rotting in the gravel ><

We'll see how the improvements hold up in the next few hours.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Oh my god, he did it again! Steve some how found his water over to Tony's side >< Arrrg I'm seriously going to kick something if this keeps happening (don't worry it wont be a fish or a tank lol)

Half the time I look over and expect Steve to do a Free Willy or something...I think he's just squeezing past the rubber of the airline hose. Right now Steve is in a cup and the two are trying to fight through the plastic while I figure out how to super reinforce this barrier without using duct tape ><

Steve still has super vertical lines which I've never seen a male have before, I'm just going to assume they are submission stripes since I know that can happen. One of my girls in the sorority nearly has permanent ones from being lower on the pecking order. Just interesting to see a male have them.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

And on last time >< Well I'm done with the divider. I broke out the small-ish 1 gallon critter kepper I got from walmart and Steve is now swimming in that, floating in the 3 gallon. Tony is hiding behind the filter.

I seriously have no idea how he got around it after I amped up the sides to make it so he couldn't get around but I think the bottom of the tank is bowed unfortunately so I think he slipped under the corner of the bottom. I really don't know, I just looked up and noticed Tony was swimming frantically back and forth at the front of the tank and then saw Steve come up from behind him....geez.

Steve had better not go Free Willy on me in this little tank, there's a good 2.5 inches to the lip of the container but he seems to be one determined Betta Baby! Yikes.


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## Darkicydevil (Apr 30, 2013)

yikes! thats crazy! haha well at least they get along ok and no one got hurt


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

lol yeah, thank god! I mean, they were still flaring at each other and Steve was trying to nip but for the most part it didn't seem like they wanted to inflict a lot of damage, but who am I to judge a fish's mind? lol


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## Corsica (Apr 1, 2013)

You might have to do the plastic report divider ends and silicone them in.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Yeah I saw that, but I don't want to permanently divide the tank because eventually when they're grown up I will split my 5.5, one will go there and the other will stay in the 3 gallon. But the reason I don't want to split my 5.5 gallon yet is because Lord Mercury is in there and he will throw a fit if I do it just yet since he's still healing.

I'll figure something out though, I thought this one was going to easier because it's a cube instead of a bow front >< Why do I have to have odd tank dimensions? lol


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Well I reinforced the divider once again. It's got a double layer of the plastic mesh which actually over laps the first piece so that it goes all the way to the edges so Steve can't push though the little butt haha.

And I also decided to just go ahead and put the sand in their tank. So now the bottom has a nice inch think layer of sand so Steve DEFINITELY can't get through lol

Both boys seemed to be very stressed when they couldn't see each other again, I had to put their cups side by side and they both colored up nicely again.

I don't know if they really actually do like each other because they still try to get through the barrier like they want to kill each other but when they aren't looking at each other they go back to having stress stripes. Is this a normal Betta Baby thing?

Anyway, Tony's still having trouble with his swim bladder and staying down, the poor thing. So I've posted to see if there is anything I can help with that. But so far so good!

It's been two weeks yesterday since I've had them


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## Darkicydevil (Apr 30, 2013)

lilnaugrim said:


> Well I reinforced the divider once again. It's got a double layer of the plastic mesh which actually over laps the first piece so that it goes all the way to the edges so Steve can't push though the little butt haha.
> 
> And I also decided to just go ahead and put the sand in their tank. So now the bottom has a nice inch think layer of sand so Steve DEFINITELY can't get through lol
> 
> ...



thats so strange that they get stressed when they cant see each other but act like they wanna kill each other? maybe its just stressing them cause its something they arent used to or they dont know where their "enemy" is? I have no idea 

and I hope the bladder thing goes away, poor baby : (


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Darkicydevil said:


> thats so strange that they get stressed when they cant see each other but act like they wanna kill each other? maybe its just stressing them cause its something they arent used to or they dont know where their "enemy" is? I have no idea
> 
> and I hope the bladder thing goes away, poor baby : (


Well I did some more reading lol. I knew babies went through a "stress stripe" stage but I couldn't remember why. Finally figured out that it was their camoflage while in the wild, they keep their stripes to tell other Betta's they don't want any trouble and to keep themselves hidden so it's natural.

But Steve still gets a little more stressed out and freaks out a bit when he can't see Tony, it's just his personality I guess lol.

I couldn't have named this pair more perfectly lol

I hope the swim bladder issue is solved as well, he's doing okay right now. He was just down towards the bottom a few minutes ago looking at Steve but he's back at the top struggling. I think he might have some sort of difformity as well since when he rests he kind of takes on a mild 'S' shape, not as extreme as a crooked spine but kind of like scoliosis lol So yeah, not to sure about anything right now :/


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## Darkicydevil (Apr 30, 2013)

lilnaugrim said:


> Well I did some more reading lol. I knew babies went through a "stress stripe" stage but I couldn't remember why. Finally figured out that it was their camoflage while in the wild, they keep their stripes to tell other Betta's they don't want any trouble and to keep themselves hidden so it's natural.
> 
> But Steve still gets a little more stressed out and freaks out a bit when he can't see Tony, it's just his personality I guess lol.
> 
> ...



oh wow thats very interesting! I never knew that  and aww cute personality! :3 

oh wow....poor baby... i hope hes gonna make it : ( I would be freaking out haha


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Yes, it is interesting! I learn something new everyday it seems ^^

Yeah, he's doing very well and staying down for the most part, the light is off and I think he likes that more. But occasionally he floats up to let himself get caught in the fake plants I've got in there for him. And he just lets his body just float there for a little while then goes back to swimming or goes to the top for air....I really hope he survives, both I and Steve will be devastated!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

So I finally got the divider to stay and Steve has not found a way around it yet! lol

Tony seems to be doing better with his bouyancy, he does better after he's been fed so I upped their feedings to about 4-5 times a day, only small amounts though. I did find Epsom salt though (89 Cents at Walmart!!! I didn't realize it was going to be so cheap ><) so I do have it in case it turns out to be a more severe case of Swim Bladder Disease.

They're growing up so well! Steve is super active while Tony still kind of hangs about, swimming lazily through his part of the tank. Both have kept their color wonderfully since they are constant sight of each other, or sort of a constant. It's harder for them to see through the divider since I doubled it up, but they can still sense each other.

Tony may or may not be a girl, I have to shine a light to really get a look to see if he's got ovaries or not, for now I'm sticking with boy but who knows 

Here's some well-earned pictures.

Tony:


Steve:




Sorry I don't have more pictures but my camera ultimately sucks and doesn't focus well after I dropped it in Spain ><


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 21*

Wow, crazy, I've had these little guys for three weeks!! It sure doesn't feel like it but they've definitely grown 

Tony is still up in the air on gender, I tried the light trick by between my camera not being good and Tony not being able to sit still long enough...I didn't get too many good shots. Steve is so darn cooperative it isn't even funny, I got a light picture of him too just to verify that he is a boy 

These pictures are from the *15th of May* (so just a few days ago)

Here's Steve being oh so cooperative 


And Tony's shot, at least the one I could get the clearest >< Any comments about him?


Steve:


Tony:


Steve being photogenic lol


Decent pic of Tony's irid





*And the Pictures from Today:*

Steve has darkened up quite a bit:


A little beard tucked away:


Kind of Blurry, but you can see his tail nicely:


Tony: IMHO I'm cuter than you!






Full Belly:




Oh hai:


All for today folks!


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## Destinystar (May 26, 2012)

Steve and Tony are so adorable, love reading about their adventures :-D


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Thanks Perseusmom! Yeah it certain is entertaining to watch their adventures!


Ohhh, I forgot to mention in my last post that I think I found a resolution to Tony's Swim bladder problem....I just fed him more often than twice a day >< I'm feeding about 4 times a day now and everyone is much happier and swimming everywhere!
So yeah, I hope that's it with his SB problems and that they never come back! ;-)


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 23*

Alrighty, hey all! I know I just updated but I took more pictures! So here you go! Mostly Tony because I never get good pictures of him! I still don't...but I figured you'd appreciate _some_ pictures of him instead of all Steve haha

Because Steve is a little Queen XD not really, just a Diva


Tail growth!


Lots of fin growth!


Taiiiiillll!


Tony would NOT stop moving today! Arrg, was driving me insane!!


Why are you all the way on that side of the picture?! You were just in the middle!! :-(


Ooooh pretty irid!


Wouldn't stop moving




Because Steve is pretty and he knows it


Sit down and stay down!!!


Finally! Look at that cute little golden head!


Still moving!


And that's all for today folks!


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## Darkicydevil (Apr 30, 2013)

ohhh!!! I love it! they are developing their colors nicely! <3


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Thanks! I think so too!! I can't wait to see what they will be at a month next Friday! I think they will be a month an a half then...not entirely sure since I'm only going by this chart: http://www.waynesthisandthat.com/bettagrowth.html So I think I got them just about 3 weeks old, but knowing they are probably the runts of the liter.

I think Steve is just about an inch but he won't stay still for me to measure and then Tony's not too far behind him either.


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## Manisha (May 12, 2013)

Your babies are so adorable. Many people don't like that Petco sells them. I love that I can buy a baby and watch it grow because don't think I would ever breed bettas. I have two baby fish from Petco about 1 month old. I had three but lost one though I did all I could to keep them healthy. 

You inspired me yet again. I think I will go pick up two more as my petco probably has 50+!!! and split a tank for them. Thanks for sharing. I will be watching the updates!!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Manisha said:


> Your babies are so adorable. Many people don't like that Petco sells them. I love that I can buy a baby and watch it grow because don't think I would ever breed bettas. I have two baby fish from Petco about 1 month old. I had three but lost one though I did all I could to keep them healthy.
> 
> You inspired me yet again. I think I will go pick up two more as my petco probably has 50+!!! and split a tank for them. Thanks for sharing. I will be watching the updates!!


Oooh, did I inspire you before?! :shock: That really made my day though, to hear that!

For me, the baby's being sold is a mixed feeling. I love that I can buy them and watch them grow but at the same time I feel horrible in the conditions they leave them in at the store. My Petco feeds them a whole Freeze-Dried Bloodworm!! And then let's it sit! The baby's don't eat them because they can't even take a bite out of it! I had gone back and many were dead so I felt terrible.

Once I have more room (well I _hope_ no one dies! But if they do, I can get another baby or a rescue) I'll hopefully get another to watch it grow 

Thank you for the wonderful comment and I'll try to keep fairly regular with the updates and pictures!! 

P.S. You should do a log for your babies too so I can stalk them! haha


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 26*

Not too much has changed, divider is holding nicely and Steve is growing wonderfully! I worry about Tony though, he likes to spit out his food and let it fall to the floor....

Tony also changed his tail on me....he might be going VT? Although I didn't really know that could happen! Maybe it was just a phase that he was going through as he grew and the rest of his fin grew in? Not a clue....still uncertain about his gender as well. He certainly will be a surprise! haha

Pic time!

Tony first since I always get the least amount of photos from him. He sees me and suddenly doesn't sit still! Oh my god, this fish! Such a pain in the behind! 
He's growing, just slowly, those small Ventral's say "girl" to me though.


Still a pretty pointed anal fin though!




He's got pretty blue eyes, STOP MOVING! lol


What is with that tail????!?!?


And Steve's turn! I wonder if eye color is an indication of color sometimes? My DSPK is light blue and his eyes match. The only Betta I have that the eyes don't match or is the normal "Brown" is Phoenix, she's red and has light blue eyes.


Well okay, he's got red and blue...hmm


Tail





And that's all for today  :cheers:


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## Manisha (May 12, 2013)

humm..I can't see the pictures. It says they were removed or deleted. 

My oldest baby grew overnight last night. He went from brown with a strip to completely bright blue and red in a night. I started feeding him brine shrimp and he LOVES them.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Manisha said:


> humm..I can't see the pictures. It says they were removed or deleted.
> 
> My oldest baby grew overnight last night. He went from brown with a strip to completely bright blue and red in a night. I started feeding him brine shrimp and he LOVES them.


Thanks! Oh darn, I knew moving them to a new folder was a bad idea >< Darn photobucket, I'll have to fix that somehow!

But that sounds adorable 

EDIT: I moved the pictures back to their original folder, I can see them now so maybe you can too? *crosses fingers* I hope!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 31*

Wow it's been a full month! I don't think they're getting adequate food though, Steve's grown but Tony is still kind of...small. It's hard though because I'm not there Sunday-Wendesday morning and I don't trust my brother enough to feed them during that time properly. He'd just dump the bag in there >< I mean...I'm sure he would if I actually explained it, he's lazy but he's not stupid.

Anyway, divider is still holding thank the lord! I added the Whisper 3i filter...well actually I just plugged it in, it was on Tony's side but I didn't want it to blow her around too much since she still has troubles swimming. So I moved it to Steve's side and he could care less about it haha.

I can't get near the tank without them going berserk on me! Thus making for some very bad pictures  I took 73 photos of just them and I think I got like 6 of them to be "decent". My camera didn't want to focus today though so blech >.>

Steve looking at his reflection:


Tony just popped a bubble lol


Fat and irritated lol Still turning VT on me!






Size comparison, Steve is much bigger than Tony...sigh, Tony just spits out half of what I try to give her! Spoiled brat lol


Only good picture of Steve today


This is about the distance I have to be for my camera to work well and for Tony to stop moving on me ><


Yeah and that's it for today, everything else was too darn blurry!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 33*

Oh my god, it feels like it's so hot in my room right now...I've even got the windows open....uggg

Anywho, Steve and Tony are doing great! Well....Tony hasn't grown much and I don't know why. I feed her the same I feed Steve and he's almost a whole centimeter longer than her ><

Both are super active and won't let me take decent pictures, yet again! Seriously! It's like they know!

Steve in his stripped glory...don't know why he was so stressed today but he nearly lost all his color, even after I fed him....weirdo


His anal fin is coming along nicely though


Tony still holding that slight 'S'. I never did do the Epsom salt but I almost don't want to risk it but I seriously just watched her swim down and then float helplessly up under the heater....kind of looks like she's going suicidal. Half the time she won't move unless something catches her eye like my foot moving or Steve moving.


Steve regaining some color. Oh good, Tony moved again and started to swim. I always get worried when she floats up like that :/


Eh, pictures aren't good today :/


Steve trying to be cute lol


And that's all for today, uggg I'm going to go try and cool down now.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 36*

Well Tony's got me thoroughly confused by it's gender and tail type lol. Today I'm finding more rays sticking out of the tail but....yeah I still don't know! And today the anal fin looks really pointed, looks like the ventral fins have grown in but I can't see through to see if it's got ovaries ><

So everything else seems to be going well other than Tony being picky about his food (just going to refer to it as him since at this point I don't care lol). I did a 75% water change today to prepare for me not being here till Wednesday afternoon. The whisper 3i is running to keep the water circulated at least and the tank has been at a steady 80, woot woot!

The sprig of water sprite that I've got on Steve's side is dying but it's putting off plantlets so I want it to grow enough and then get rid of the sprig when it completely dies off.

I added about a 1/8th teaspoon of epsom salt yesterday to see if it would relieve Tony a bit and good news! I haven't seen him float all day today!! I didn't add in any more epsom salt so presumably I took the majority of it out with the water change today. He's still doing great though and it's been about 6 hours since that!

So picture time!



Those Ventrals!


Steve decided he wanted to stripe all day long...


Excuse the mess of flakes, that was Tony being picky, that was all cleaned up with the water change.


Striping but he's got body growth!


Looks like Tony's taking on more of a 'male' body figure though!


I don't see any ovaries....you can sort of see the spikes on his caudal as well


Steve's tail!!! Oh and that's a bubble in front of him.


Holding a ventral up


So far Steve's kept his "lipstick" I hope he never looses it!!


Eh, camera was being lame..



I feel like, when I look at other people's Betta Baby logs, they've grown so much by a month's time!! Why aren't my baby's growing? Well...they are growing...I just got them really small and I slacked on water changes last week....and then there was the feeding issue when I first started...I guess there's a lot of factors, huh.

:cheers:


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 44*

So on Friday I decided to swap out Rembrandt in the 5.5 and split it for the two babies. I _did _have 5 Platy Fry in with Remmy, he was the only one who's got a long enough tail that he couldn't swim fast enough so he gave up trying to eat them. They were too big anyway, he was just chasing but eventually he didn't care.

But then for some reason they all died, I think it was because of a mini-cycle on the tank when the filter cartridge just died, literally and I just stuffed the filter with some AquaClear foam but I feel like there should have been enough BB in the tank and on the filter/carbon as well but it seemed to have disturbed the Platy fry.

So the last one died Friday morning and that was when I decided a switch was in order.

I took out the babies, did a 85% water change on the 3 gallon and moved over a bunch of the plants from the 5.5. Took Rembrandt out and split the 5.5 gallon and did a 75% change on that one. Trimmed and took off dead leaves from the plants and filled both back up.

I got Rembrandt situated first and he seemed so happy to be by my bedside again, the 3 gallon is sitting on my nightstand (last available surface besides the floor haha) and so he was zooming around and since his tail is a little more healed up I can start taking proper photos of him! :-D

So anyway, this is about the baby's, not Remmy haha.

So Tony went on the left side and Steve went on the right with the filter and the heater. Both loved the upgrade so much! Tony's finally growing out a little more and it's definitely a boy. His ventral fins have gotten longer and his anal fin sharper. He's still confusing me about whether he's a VT or a CT, I still see some ray's sticking out but they aren't as pronounced as they were when he was younger so he's a 'wait and see'

Steve on the other hand is growing out his fins like crazy! He's a beautiful teal blue most of the time when he's not striping, with a red wash to his anal fin.

Both are crazy hard to photograph so...sorry y'all will have to make due with what I've got here lol

Tony's red is finally coming in better:


Tail is folded but you can see he's got beautiful wild marking's on his dorsal


More markings and a cute blurry face


Here's their new digs. Tony left towards the top middle and Steve right on the bottom left, the blue blur


One of the better pictures I could get of Steve. HE DOESN'T SIT STILL! He was stripping unfortunately though, but you see how blue and red his fins are.


Tony's ventral's which are split and already dipped in white so he probably won't become a beautiful show fish (not that I had intentions lol)


Tail!!!! New growth or is he going to be a butterfly? My hopes are way too high for these two haha


Fin growth


And that's it for today folks! Join me back here in a few days when I can get proper photos of them! :-D


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 49*

You know I feel like they should be more grown up at this point. I know I was slacking on my water changes and only doing it twice a week on the 3 gallon so they're probably stunted from that and from when they were in the cups but it's so frustrating that it seems they haven't grown!

Well now they are in the 5.5 and Tony certainly has colored up more, grew out his fins a little more too and he's looking more VT these days....which I'm fine with but I really wanted a CT :-( oh well, he's beautiful anyway!

So I've been super busy with petsitting/housesitting and my day job now which is only 3 5hr days but it's still a job. And then on top we've been having Kitten Playdates for our kittens and their new owners. So that's been taking up a lot of time as well. Oy what a hectic past two weeks!

So I've dubbed Steve as Mister Zoomsalot along with Tony and Aero lol, I CAN'T GET PICTURES! oy! and it's not like I can zoom out a bit and hope to get them in the shot like I do with Aero because they aren't half his size yet lol

But here are the pictures that sort of came out......

Tony:


Excuse the dying plant, it will be taken out shortly when I pull off the babies.


And the two of them


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 56*

Wow! Day 56 already!!! I can't believe I've had them for almost two months now!

They're growing slowly but they are growing! I know I'm not able to feed them enough with my new job now and I feel absolutely terrible for it and I'm only able to get in two water changes a week but they're both at 80%. I just feel so bad that I can't give them the care that they need, of course going into this I didn't know exactly what it was I was supposed to do for them. I'm hoping I can invest in some Frozen BW's for treats for everyone, especially the babies in hopes the extra protein will help now.

Now they are eating crushed NLS pellets and NLS small fish flakes which are also high in protein thankfully. The cuties are developing well though! And I've got pictures to prove it! lol

So Tony is developing some sort of black butterfly on him, I really hope he keeps it through his development.
Uploaded with ImageShack.com
Uploaded with ImageShack.com
Uploaded with ImageShack.com

And here's one of both of them for size comparison. I'm really sorry I can't get any good pictures of Steve. He's too darn fast!!! Aero who I formally called Mister Zoomsalot has finally slowed down while Steve has seemingly sped up! So the title has thus been passed down to Steve, aka Mister Zoomsalot!
Uploaded with ImageShack.com

But every time I try to take a pic of Steve he either gets out of the picture too fast or the darn camera focuses too much on the plant behind him >.> darn camera!! I wish I had a "sports" setting so I could take action pictures!!! lol


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 59*

So Steve is growing like a weed!! He's huge now and he metabolizes his food so quickly! Tony is still on the small side and geez, he eats just a few NLS flakes and he's got like a huge baby tummy going on! I literally can only feed him twice a day because I'm afraid he's going to burst! He doesn't metabolize it as quick as Steve does, I can feed Steve the same amount about 4 or 5 times a day and he's still so skinny at the end of the day!! I literally cannot believe how appropriate their names are!

So I've gotten more pictures of Steve finally, got the camera and him to cooperate, I took over 100 pictures of just him and actually got quite a few nice ones!

So anyway, enjoy the pics!!

Look at that cute face!


Tail is growing out wonderfully! I wonder if he'll also be a butterfly!
[URL=http://imageshack.com/i/npzkwij]

Look through to his boyfriend ;-)
[URL=http://imageshack.com/i/0iht6ij]

That face! I can't get enough!
[URL=http://imageshack.com/i/0l34dmj]

Poor boy's got a crooked spine but I'm sure he'll grow up to be a real stud!
[URL=http://imageshack.com/i/jo08dzj]

Just a cool pic of his beautiful tail
[URL=http://imageshack.com/i/595co5j]

Look at those beautiful fins! He's obviously showing off for his boyfriend :-D
[URL=http://imageshack.com/i/mr2o6rj]

[URL=http://imageshack.com/i/jt87dgj]

Fins look a bit purply!
[URL=http://imageshack.com/i/nrv69gj]

Yep, crooked spine but he's going to be so beautiful and handsome! Just like the All-American boy he is! ;-)
[URL=http://imageshack.com/i/7g4qr0j]

And the only good one I got of Tony, he was being fat at the time and this was about 3-4 hours after his feeding! See?!?! But darn, look at that tail! I see two splits for sure, but it almost looks like he's splitting again, I really hope so! But I'll be happy with a beautiful VT as well :-D
[URL=http://imageshack.com/i/n1aj7yj]


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## Mar (Apr 9, 2013)

They've grown up so beautifully! Must've been such a chore to do all those water changes and feeding them so often, but I bet it's sooo worth it! The appeal about baby bettas is being able to raise them yourself and the surprise at the end, for me anyway!

Idk, I just would really like to look over at my baby betta in a couple of months and be like "I raised that"

I think the majority of babies do turn out to be VT because that seems to be the only way VTs will actually sell, they're becoming really unpopular lately :/


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Mar said:


> They've grown up so beautifully! Must've been such a chore to do all those water changes and feeding them so often, but I bet it's sooo worth it! The appeal about baby bettas is being able to raise them yourself and the surprise at the end, for me anyway!
> 
> Idk, I just would really like to look over at my baby betta in a couple of months and be like "I raised that"
> 
> I think the majority of babies do turn out to be VT because that seems to be the only way VTs will actually sell, they're becoming really unpopular lately :/


Yes! I completely agree! That's why I wanted the babies ^_^ even if they are more work, it is totally worth it and it's a bit of good practice for if I want to breed down the end of the line.

The thing with VT's is that people keep breeding the same boring colors over and over and over and over again hence they are becoming less attractive. But the IBC is actually talking about bring VT's back into showing! I find that if they have interesting patterns and bred well then they are so beautiful! I never knew what a flaring VT looked like before I came to this site and the first time I saw it I was like "What is THAT?! I want it!!!" lol and then I found out it's a VT!

I totally want a line of MG VT's or Marble VT's! That would be the best I think!


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## Mar (Apr 9, 2013)

Uuugh, so I just typed out like 2 whole paragraphs, and I'm too lazy to do all that again, so here's a quick summary!

VTs can be super pretty, and here are the ones I think are visually stimulating ;p

x
x
x
x
x


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Ugg I hate when that happens! Yes I love number 1 for sure!!! And then 4 and 5 are beautiful too, I'm a sucker for orange and then orange/blue combo (hence MG) so yes, totally smitten by them! :-D


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## Mar (Apr 9, 2013)

I know right, 4 and 5 are definitely my favourites!

I would name number 4 creamsicle. I literally want a popsicle right now lmao.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Mar said:


> I know right, 4 and 5 are definitely my favourites!
> 
> I would name number 4 creamsicle. I literally want a popsicle right now lmao.


Lol! Yes creamsicle would be the obvious choice ;-) I want a dreamsicle right now, I couldn't care less about popsicles haha, give me the chocolate ones! Fudgsicles are the best!


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## Mar (Apr 9, 2013)

mg:It was sunny out for a bit

Really craved a popsicle! But my family apparently does not
believe in junk food, or sugar at all. :BIGweepy:

(Lol just discovered these cute emoticons, so forgive the excess  }


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Lol! Np! I love them too! ;-)

Yeah we've got fruit around haha


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 61*

Can't believe it, a whole two months as of yesterday!!!!!!!!!

So they've colored up impeccably well and once this video uploads you'll see why I can't take decent pictures of them!!!

So looking back at the previous Day __ entry, you can see that Tony's rays are splitting again at the ends to make 4 rays!!!! I hope he does turn out to be a beautiful CT! I haven't had a CT since I started, poor Gallifrey, he'd be disappointed in me!

So now they've been eating crushed NLS flakes enhanced with garlic and they seem to absolutely love them! So I'm going to stick with that for a while since they're both growing fantastically well!

Here, have some photos! As I said, none of them came out good because they don't sit still! They see me and go effing crazy!

Shows Tony's colors pretty well.









He was hunching his back on purpose, he's not normally like that!









STEEBE! Look at how fantastic his tail is getting!









Can't take photos of him!









Even though it's super blurry, I'm totally convinced he's going to be a CT by this picture!









Camera, y u no take good pictures?!?!









Ha Ha! Win! sorta, it's almost clear!



























Tony with flash









Steve with flash


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## Mar (Apr 9, 2013)

Wow your baby bettas have turned out beautifully!
Keep up the good work.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Thanks Mar! They aren't even half done with their growing yet! :-D I'm excited to watch them grow up through their lives and go "I grew them! It was all me :-D and some help from bettafish.com" lol


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

They're gorgeous!


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## kvw1988 (May 13, 2013)

They are so cute! And yeah I know what you mean about having a hard time taking pics, Ash goes nuts when he sees me lol


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 63*

Okay! More Pics!

Tony was sleeping so I caught him on camera sorta XD I had to shine a light on him so it looks weird, but he was stuffed in all his Java Moss, so cute!


















Steve









The boys;









Tony actually looks a bit purpley because he's blue bodied, red fins and he's actually got black or he's getting see through at the edges or maybe he's actually becoming a CT! Soryr if I don't make sense, trying to watch TV and write at the same time haha, doesn't work well XD









Cute little flare!!









TAIL! Maybe a Combtail?



























Boys:






















































Look at that finnage!!!









I'll be back with more pictures from today when I actually used a good light XD


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 65*

Okay these pictures were from today!

They were flaring at each other, so cute!!!!


















Steve being a grump haha



























Best picture I've gotten of Steve!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 75*

Holy mackerel! How time flies!!!

So! Lots to talk about, sort of lol

Last week I ended up getting two 'Japonica' shrimp for the babies since I had stuffed a bunch of Java moss in there which I intend on actually using for something at some point :roll: lol but for now, it's just floating in their 5.5 ^_^ so I acclimated the two Amano's and released after a while, the one on Steve's side freaked out like you wouldn't believe while the one on Tony's side happily went straight for the Java moss and instantly started to clean up any debris/leftover flakes/algae which I was happy about! I also found a tiny Ramshorn snail that came with it so I acclimated him too and threw him on Tony's side!

Here's the one from Steve's side:








Unfortunately....he's dead now :-( I have no idea where he went since the tank is completely covered so I can only assume that either Steve harrassed him to death and he's in the filter now or he jumped the fence and the other shrimp ate him or something but I really don't know! There's no shell or nothing but I'm really not too worried, the one on Tony's side is still alive and well.

Tony's shrimp:









The Ramshorn:









The Ramshorn and the Shrimp:









And the Ramshorn died too >.< I found him dead or rather, completely missing from it's shell yesterday so I assume Tony ate him, the little bugger >.> So I can't have snails either, yay..../sarcasm.

So anyway, I got new lights for the 5.5!! Woohoo! Better pictures now, yay!!! I got a 10W CFL with 6,500K :-D yay plants will grow better too!!

So here's the tank with the upgrade, be jealous of my obnoxious amount of java moss hahaha









So here's a dump of Steve, look at his beautiful fins!!


















Cute little ventral's and pectorals!


















Pretty blue 









He's really such a cutie ^_^


















Look at that iridescence shine!









Tony wasn't havin' any of his bull either XD



























I'm pretty sure that Tony was PMS'ing yesterday because he would not flare and he did not want to see Steve whatsoever, he just seemed very grumpy all around and so I couldn't get many good pictures of him :-/

This one shows off his colors best:









I thought this picture was just the cutest ever! He looks like a mini Heat Miser here XD









Okay so he's not CT but he's not VT either...his ray's branch four times so far so I really have no idea, I guess then, he'd just be a DeT unless he ends up being a Combtail!


















And that's all I have for you today folks! Enjoy the day!


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## LittleDeer (May 12, 2013)

I've been reading all the posts on this and its absolutely incredible how much they've grown and changed. You've got two very handsome boys! Their colors are fantastic too. My girl Gylfie has the same colors, but a bit lighter, though she still seems to be getting brighter every day. But Tony and Steve are gorgeous~


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Thanks LittleDeer!! :-D


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## Huffle Puffles (Jul 5, 2013)

It was such a pleasure to read through your journal.  They are are growing up so well! It's so fun to see all the changes documented through the months, the growth/color changes, in the pictures. They're turning out to be very handsome little fishies!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Huffle Puffles said:


> It was such a pleasure to read through your journal.  They are are growing up so well! It's so fun to see all the changes documented through the months, the growth/color changes, in the pictures. They're turning out to be very handsome little fishies!


Thank you!! I'm glad you enjoyed our little adventure, it's far from over yet but we're well on our way at least ^_^

Steve's body is still at the .8-.9 inch mark not including tail where Tony is at around .7 inches so they still have plenty of growing to do :-D


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## LittleDeer (May 12, 2013)

They are only a fraction of an inch smaller than my girls, haha. My girls are all at about an inch not including their tails


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Our betta's are probably about the same age too LittleDeer. Unfortunately with the PetCo babies their growth is stunted too much from being in the cups in the store with not enough water changes. For the adults it's fine but for the babies it's not because they release a Growth Stunting hormone all the time as babies and it can effect their own body as well :-/

So my boy's are at least 2.5-3 months old now but because their growth is stunted, they aren't where they should be at 3 months old! :-( it's sad to think that but they're growing well now!


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## LittleDeer (May 12, 2013)

Aww, poor babies. Yeah, when I got my girls I guessed they were between 2.5 and 3 months old. Though when I got them they were all very healthy looking and their water was very clean since they were a very recent shipment. Though Sonata is still quite small compared to the other two, and she's the only one who has really had problems. She also gets stress stripes all the time, especially when I change her water. Hopefully she'll start doing better soon. I'm hoping she grows quickly, she seems a little behind. She does seem pretty healthy now, though. That's cute that your babies and my girls are about the same age, though


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 77*

So what's the chance that Steve is actually a Dragon Scale? Or does he just have heavy blue iridescence?

These next few pictures are some of the best pictures I've ever taken of these guys! Tony didn't seem to be feeling very well though today, he had stress stripes galore and hasn't had them since he was very young. I also fed them frozen BW's for the first time today and I think he was just really full. He only took one while Steve took two, normal, but I don't think he liked it much.

I also did a 50% change today.

Onto the pictures!!!










You can see Tony's growth in his tail has started to get uneven as well









Steve being bright and majestic lol









Detail of Tony's tail! He's definitely got 4 ray's so far but his spread isn't great yet, but I'm thinking Delta now!









Bonus Shrimp! lol Tony was off in the back as you see so I had to preoccupy my time with the Amano XD









lol


















You can see Steve's scaling here, I really am wondering if he's a Dragon! :shock:



























Tony! And these are the best pics I've ever taken of him!!


















My camera is weird lol nice detail of his tail though!









I love his blue irid!









All the pictures for today! Wow what an exciting journey this has been! 77 days later and what a change! It truly is amazing to watch these beautiful creatures grow up and see what they'll turn out to be!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 78*

MOAR PICS! because I can lol

I got a flare pic today!!! A good one!!!!!! I literally squealed with delight!!

I seem to like Betta's with "lipstick"









Oh my goodness, Steve looks like a real betta now! I think I have a tear in my eye!


















Steve was getting his freak on but Tony just wasn't in the mood, ;-) lol









I think some of Steve's "lipstick" rubbed off onto Tony ;-) lol I'm terrible I know









Mmmmm yes! Look at those fins!









Hmm those rays are looking pointy! Still have no idea what he'll be!









So it started with this picture and I was like DAMNIT Marimo Ball Get OUT of the way!!!!1111 gahh









Oh my god! Seriously! Now the freaking Naja Grass wants in! ><









Oh no, oh no, no no nononono he's going to flarerreeeree!!!









NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO










*AND THEN SUDDENLY!*

*a choir of angels sing a hallelujah chorus*
I literally had stars in my eyes and tears coming down when I saw this picture! 









And another one!!


















!!!! maybe he will be VT after all









And that's all the exciting news I have today!


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## ismintis (Jun 23, 2013)

Ahhhh I love all your fish! 0.0 Your babies are growing up so beautifully too, I love their lipstick


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

ismintis said:


> Ahhhh I love all your fish! 0.0 Your babies are growing up so beautifully too, I love their lipstick


Thank you! I never would have thought they'd become this beautiful either! And they have so much more growing to do as well :-D


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## Mar (Apr 9, 2013)

Of course they'd grow beautifully under your care 

But they have changed so much it's amazing to watch their progress


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Thanks Mar!

Okay more pics, these are from yesterday so I'm not dating this post.

God, Steve is really gorgeous!









Tony!









Steve!









Strutting for his boyfriend ;-)


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## LebronTheBetta (Apr 23, 2012)

They're growing into really beautiful fish, Lilnau! Time went by so fast. :'D


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## Mar (Apr 9, 2013)

Holy crap, 1st and 4th photo of Steve, AMAZING. 
Think he's going to be delta/super delta?


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Thanks ^_^

Actually no Steve is a VT. He's only got two ray's which is indicative of a VT. If he were DeT or Super DeT then he'd have more branches in his tail. Like Tony, he's got four ray splits so far so he might end up being a DeT


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## BettaNubRandyLove (Apr 8, 2013)

The orange in Tony is crazy!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

BettaNubRandyLove said:


> The orange in Tony is crazy!


I think it's more red personally ;-) but thanks!!!


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## LittleDeer (May 12, 2013)

These are such handsome boys. I can't wait to see them fully grown! The color on them is fantastic too. I wish I had the patience to raise babies, seems like it would be fun, but seems like a lot of work with daily water changes and crushing up food. Not that I have the space for any more Bettas right now, anyway xD but still, even just watching them develop from pictures is exciting and interesting.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

LittleDeer said:


> These are such handsome boys. I can't wait to see them fully grown! The color on them is fantastic too. I wish I had the patience to raise babies, seems like it would be fun, but seems like a lot of work with daily water changes and crushing up food. Not that I have the space for any more Bettas right now, anyway xD but still, even just watching them develop from pictures is exciting and interesting.


It really is fascinating and amazing to watch! I mean, just looking back at my first post I go "wow! look at them, I grew them from those tiny, poor malnourished creatures!" lol

I actually slacked on water changes a bit and did them every 3-4 days sometimes just twice a week. Right now they are at twice a week but they seem to be doing fine with it so...idk!


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## LittleDeer (May 12, 2013)

Huh, well maybe I'll try someday. Once I have more space, haha. We'll call it a learning experience instead of me just getting more Bettas xD


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## PonyJumper101 (Mar 23, 2010)

really enjoyed reading your journal! can't wait for another update!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

PonyJumper101 said:


> really enjoyed reading your journal! can't wait for another update!


Thanks! Should be another towards the end of the week or so! Whenever I decide to sit down and actually take pictures and sort through them haha


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## sushiisaboss75 (May 19, 2013)

Steve looks like he could turn out to be a half moon.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

sushiisaboss75 said:


> Steve looks like he could turn out to be a half moon.


He can't though, he's only got two ray's which means he can only be a VT, a CT or a Plakat. His fins are already too long for a PK lol and his webbing would have reduced if he were a CT so that just leaves VT left. Which I'm fine with because he's a beautiful boy either way! But thanks


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## Mar (Apr 9, 2013)

Woo another pretty fishy joins the VT club xD 
I love how you can just identify bettas like that, it's crazy.


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## LebronTheBetta (Apr 23, 2012)

I thought PKs have 4 rays? 0.o Looks like my past betta was a PK after all.


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## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Omg these pics are so cute! They really are growing up fast. Steve is so pretty. I really wished one of my babies turned out to be male so I could see the change, but they were all females. Tony is such a little cutie! I love the different colors they turned into.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Mar said:


> Woo another pretty fishy joins the VT club xD
> I love how you can just identify bettas like that, it's crazy.


Hehe, yeah, I think I've gotten pretty good at ID'ing Betta's XD



LebronTheBetta said:


> I thought PKs have 4 rays? 0.o Looks like my past betta was a PK after all.


Well it depends on the PK! HMPK, yeah they've got 4+ ray's but a regular Trad PK all have 2 ray's and some with 4 ray's. That's why it's difficult to sometimes tell female PK's from VT's because they both have 2 ray's.



Viva said:


> Omg these pics are so cute! They really are growing up fast. Steve is so pretty. I really wished one of my babies turned out to be male so I could see the change, but they were all females. Tony is such a little cutie! I love the different colors they turned into.


Thank you!!! You know, I actually only wanted 1 male and 1 female, I originally thought Tony was a female and it flip flopped for a while as well but I wanted him to be in the sorority but now I can't so they'll be staying in the split 5.5  which they seem to be fine with, they love their space so it's all good with me! ^_^ And it's funny too because to me, their colors really don't look that different. I have a problem with have lots of blue fish or fish with blue on them; Rembrandt, Aero, Jarvis, Mystique, Little Blue, Raven, Lynx, Jewel, Lady, Aurora and Stardust technically, and Shadowcat when she's not under intense lighting and is actually purple.

So since they both have blue on them, and Steve moreso, it's kind of disapointing for me but I still love them no matter what! I know they still have plenty of growing left to do and have lots to change, so I know Tony at least still has some blue wash that I think he'll get rid of, but still


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## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Yeah they do look similar but slightly different colors. I love blue bettas! I used to not like red bettas but now I am starting to love them too. I think I just love all bettas =p


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Viva said:


> Yeah they do look similar but slightly different colors. I love blue bettas! I used to not like red bettas but now I am starting to love them too. I think I just love all bettas =p


Yeah I think they're from the same spawn since they looked the exact same size and have some similar traits like the blue irid.

Lol! Yep, love 'em all! I'd love my blue betta's more if I just didn't have so many, at least the plants give a splash of a different color XD because my walls are blue, backpack is blue, most of my clothes are blue, my water bucket and garbage can are blue....I need some variation here!! lol


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 83*

Sorry for the scud on the tank, I eventually cleaned it off when I realized that it was ruining my pictures but at least it's a good detail of Steve's tail lol


















Tony strutting









Blurry but I thought it was a good pic of Steve's beard and colors 


















Tony


















Only 2 ray's, I had thought I'd seen 4 when he was younger but so far only 2 so he could very possibly be a regular VT as well.









His flare is so wimpy lol









Steve!









Look at those cute little pectorals!!! oh...yeah, like my sewing job on the mesh? lol I love the silver thread ^_^


















And that's all for today!


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## LebronTheBetta (Apr 23, 2012)

Steve and Tony are such big boys now! lol Steve has pretty colors, I like how they're patterned up. To be honest, the blurry picture is my favorite.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

LebronTheBetta said:


> Steve and Tony are such big boys now! lol Steve has pretty colors, I like how they're patterned up. To be honest, the blurry picture is my favorite.


Yeah that's why I included it because I was like, wow! That's really neat! with Steve's tattered tail and all lol but it's growing everyday! I come home and I'm like "did you grow AGAIN?!" lol and he just gives me these eyes XD haha


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## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Tony is so little and cute. I love his spots/stripes on his dorsal


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Oh yes!! I know! If I could hug a fish, he'd be it!!! such a little cutie!!!! lol


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## Mar (Apr 9, 2013)

Your fish are becoming so gorgeous! I'm comparing them to your day 1 pics xD


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Thank you!!! I know, occasionally I look back to the first page and I'm like, "wow!!" :shock: it's crazy sometimes ^_^


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## TheOnlyCanvas (Feb 28, 2013)

Wow, they really have gotten big!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

TheOnlyCanvas said:


> Wow, they really have gotten big!


Yeah!! Steve has grown the most but even Tony's growth and colors have just gotten so much better! Growing seemingly every day too!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 85*

Wow....I did it! I broke up Steve and Tony! :shock: well since I had recently got three surprises that came with plants; two Male Endler's and one female Endler's so I had them in my 10 gallon split with Aero and Mercury and the three little ones were in the middle. But I recently found out that my 10 gallon is sitting pretty at 5.5 pH :shock: I was like WAAAHHHHHTTTT??? crazy! I think it was the driftwood so I took that out. ANWYAY!

So I decided to put Steve in the split 10, take away the divider and put the Endler's in with Tony since he doesn't give a rats-ass about anything and so far the only thing he wanted to do with the Endler's was get the flake that was sitting at the bottom of their cup and hasn't touched them since they came out! He's such a good boy! Oh I also found a Ramshorn snail in there too  THEY LIVE!!! lol we'll see how long this one lasts ;-)

So I'm pretty sure I found that Steve is branching again so he could very well end up a DeT or HM! There go my skills XD And Tony definitely has four ray's as well, so if they're from the same spawn then they'll probably be the same tail type which is just so interesting!

So I didn't get many pictures of Tony today because I was too fascinated with Steve lol and then I got a video of Aero and Steve flaring to each other :-D

Pictures!!!!

Here's the beautiful boy!









I died when I saw this picture! haha









Tailzzz









Mini-flare









And my lovely baby Tony









Upgraded to the Big Boy Tank!









Checking out the gravel and eating some left over flakes lol, he's such a pig!









Checking out his new neighbor, Mercury!









He's spotted Aero!









Aero and Steve for comparison! *swoon* oh my baby has grown up!!!









Aero's lovely flare but Steve didn't seem to care (<---lol that rhymed)


















"Am I doing this right mommy?"


















And the 5.5 as it stands now. lol that ornament, I swear it's the Betta-hood of the traveling ornament XD It's literally been in every single tank that I own! Including the 1 gallon and the 2.5! The Endler's are now in the tank and doing well although the original one that I had taken out to QT, I don't think he's going to make it. He's not diseased but it looks like the change from 7.2 (store pH) down to 5.5 pH did a number on him because he was fine when I brought him home. So I don't think he'll live too much longer unfortunately.









And if you want to meet Blue Spot, Orange Spot and Baby Spot, check out my Regular Betta Log! http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=213306 I'll be updating soon with more pictures!


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## LebronTheBetta (Apr 23, 2012)

Nice! 

Aero is beautiful as ever... xD It's great all your boys are doing well, love the picture with Steve's mouth open!!


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## TheOnlyCanvas (Feb 28, 2013)

This is beyond adorable. They're all so handsome! I love Aero's colors


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Thanks! Yeah against Aero, Steve isn't so glamorous haha but I still love him!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Video mostly of Aero but I got Steve in there too! :-D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2OFSFLQkSo


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## TheOnlyCanvas (Feb 28, 2013)

Nah, Steve is super glamorous! His fins are so nice. I can't wait to see how they turn out!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

TheOnlyCanvas said:


> Nah, Steve is super glamorous! His fins are so nice. I can't wait to see how they turn out!


ME TOO!!!! Especially since I'm pretty sure I saw four rays which means not a VT! As much as I like VT's, it's exciting for him to be something else and still possibly Dragon scale although I have a feeling its just heavy iridescence but...shhhh, let me dream haha


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Okay! Sorry for those who are on my Fish Log as well because some of these pictures are reposts for those who aren't on my Fish log. So then you can just skip down to the new pictures of Tony and Steve ^_^

Okay! Introduction to White Stripe! He's the new Endler I got because Orange Spot didn't make it. So right now I've got Blue Spot, Baby Spot and White Stripe.

First brought home after being acclimated 45 minutes with drip:









Better picture, you can see his white stripe and it's outlined with two small black stripes either side.









Baby Spot is growing a bit!! Oh there's a chance that she's actually a Rice Fish, not an Endler so we'll see what happens when she's grows up!









Baby Spot introducing the two boys, Blue Spot is behind White Stripe


















The boy's displaying for Baby Spot









Sorting out a hierarchy:









I also got a snail that came with the Elodea! Once about 4-5 day's pass, he'll go into the 10 gallon to help with the algae. I didn't want him to die in the pH of 5.5 since most snails like higher pH levels >.< but the store had informed me that if I had a Half-Way tank then I could introduce them to the new lower pH in about a week's time. So that's where the snail will be going.









And this is how the 5.5 gallon looks as of right now:









And now for pictures of Tony! The butt has been pretty shy of me right now and I'm wondering if it's from being less secure without his boyfriend around :-( but so far he's fine with the Endler's and just sorts of swims around, flares at the tank wall sometimes and eats happily.
These were the best pictures I could get of him ><



























And then back into hiding he went ><









And then Steve was being a Sir Zoomsalot so I only got a few of him ><









Interesting pic I thought


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## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Awww poor Tony misses his brother  He's such a lil cutie!!!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Yeah, Steve was striping a lot too. He'll only color up if I cam around. Darn Aero keeps taunting him through the mesh and still flaring like crazy. Hopefully Steve can smarten up and flare back! But so far no flares from the baby!


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## logisticsguy (Sep 7, 2012)

Wow they all look great!! So healthy and very beautiful color just awesome. 

Fish can actually get very attached to each other.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

logisticsguy said:


> Wow they all look great!! So healthy and very beautiful color just awesome.
> 
> Fish can actually get very attached to each other.


Thank you!!! I'm just so happy they're finally growing up, still a long way to go but I count it a success, especially for these PetCo babies!

That's good to know as well. Once everything settles down and my grandfather get's the stick out of his--nvm, well Tony and Steve will be back together. I've been trying to spend some more time with them, Tony was more active today and willing to come up to eat and see me which I take as a good sign! I'll have to get them back together as soon as I can though


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## Mashiro (Dec 2, 2012)

I love this journal! Your babies are so cute!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Thanks Mashiro!!! :-D


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 90*

This post is for pictures from yesterday so I'm dating it as yesterday :-D

OMG *DAY 90!* it's been a whole three months with these boys! I can't believe it! Steve has been having major growth spurts! Tony is still on the small side but he's still growing, he's now bigger than the Endler's lol

So here's some pictures of Tony, you can see his tail is still growing out here









The little bugger wouldn't stay still! Sorry, water mark on the glass makes his eye look weird, I promise they look normal!









And then algae spots on the glass lol, I've got some glass/acrylic scrubbers on their way so I will soon have no algae spots on the glass >.>









And the only decent picture of the day  got some clear growth at the edges and still only 2 ray's. Looks like he'll be VT after all.









And after some debate and Steve's tail growing out more, he's all just a VT. Why does no one breed anything exciting around here? We're stuck with all the blue VT's....I love blue, but I'd like some variation as well!


















And cutest picture ever! I love those little ventral's and the lipstick! lol


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## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Omg that last picture is soo cute!! He's just like, "Hey, whats up?"


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

lol exactly, he's too damn cute for his own good XD haha

So I think I'm going to put Steve and Tony back together again. I think my plan will be to switch Steve to Aero's side because of the filter and then put Tony where Steve was, and then put either Aero or Mercury in the 5.5 and move White Stripe the Endler in with Tony and put Blue Spot and Baby Spot in with Rembrandt since he can't swim as fast and the two males spar wayyyy too much for either Tony's liking or my liking. I knew there would be sparing but this is just ridiculous!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Oh, I forgot to mention! I did put Tony and Steve back together as planned and both are now very happy! Tony seems a little...distracted quite a bit while Steve is like "hi! HI HI HI hI HI, guess what, guess what, guess what!!! I LIIIIIKKKKKEEEE YYYYOOOOUUUU" lol, seriously that's something I could see him saying if he were able to talk.

I put Baby Spot and Blue Spot in with Tony and put White Stripe in with Rembrandt. I'm at my mom's but tomorrow I'm going to check on everyone and do some tank cleanings and get my shrimp so hopefully I'll be able to check back with pictures and say everyone is doing well!!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 95*

Okay pictures are from yesterday and dating it again as if it were yesterday!

I've successfully moved Aero into the 5.5, Steve is now at the end of the 10 gallon and Tony is in the middle. Baby Spot and Blue Spot are in with Tony and then White Stripe went with Rembrandt.

Tony is doing much better! neither of them are striping now but Tony is being stubborn and not wanting to eat....ugg just like his namesake! And then Steve gobbles up whatever I put in there, including my finger lol Silly boy!

The two together again, Steve quite literally dwarfs Tony









Tony's got some new tail growth, still no idea what he'll be though lol


















I'm wondering if Steve will experience red-loss or not.









Fins still growing and definitely a VT now









A beautiful boy and he knows it! ;-)


















Tony can still only eat flakes, won't even take a crushed pellet the little bugger! Steve will eat everything which is good. Tony will readily eat Bloodworms but being as they aren't wholey nutritious...I can't feed him them all the time >.<









And the two again, Tony was a bit further back so their sizes aren't accurate but Tony is still so small! I'm hoping him being in the 10 gallon will help things out now so he doesn't stunt himself.









And this is how the 10 gallon looks right now, lovin my mysterious red/green plant! I had to buy two more because I couldn't wait for them to propagate lol but they're growing really well!!


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## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

That plant looks so amazing...I need to know what it is!!!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

The closest I can get is that Alternanthera Reineckii and still, mine are growing one leaf per node while that one is two leafs per node opposite sides so I really don't know! But it does seem to be some type of Hygrophila. But the reineckii is said to be the easiest to grow out of all the Alternanthera's so that's good to know at least! So far it's doing really well in my tanks!!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 97*

Posting from last night.

So for those of you who are not on my regular Betta Log or new to the journal, I ordered Red Rili Shrimp that were advertised at 1-1.5 inches big. So I was like, okay, small but still will probably be able to be quick enough for my Betta's. Plan was to put them in the sorority tank. However when I recieved them, none of them were over .7-.8 inches.....I'm like, seriously?!?!? Where the hell am I going to put them?!?! I wasn't going to float them in the sorority just to stay warm until they're bigger because that would take too long so I decided that Tony would be the best option to put them in with.

Now I knew some of them were small enough to go through the divider so I know I was going to lose some to Steve but I didn't think I was going to lose some to Tony!! The little bugger attacked one of the small red ones and kept attacking, the poor thing lived for quite a while but eventually he did die. Most of the other's have been able to ellude the two boy's so for that I'm thankful! Steve actually couldn't catch the three that got to his side! I was very surprised but he seemed more happy to just chase them and not try to eat them like Tony did.

I even fed them frozen bloodworms before this >.> ungrateful butts! lol

I'm calling this the Shrimp S/Laughter because it's both funny and not funny lol. So far only one has died out of the 10-12 I do have but we'll see what the future brings....and without further ado, here is the story!

"Where'd he go?!?! I just saw him!"









This smart one went into the gravel after being chased lol, Steve couldn't get at him!









Buuuut then he got out of the gravel...









"I SEE YOU!"









"Wait.....where'd he go?"









"I can't find him...." :-(









This one went to work right away haha









"I swore I just saw one right here!"

















"There was one over here too....where did they go?! Toooonnnny, help me find them!"

















"...hehe..."









"Honey not right now, I'm stuffin' my face with Shrimp! Fine dining tonight dear!"









This one is one of the bigger one's.....









And this is before the Shrimp S/Laughter lol somehow Steve bit his anal fin too.....I really hope this isn't becoming a trend >.>


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## BettaLover1313 (Apr 15, 2013)

Just finished reading this journal and your two boys are hilarious not to mention beautiful! It's amazing how much they've grown from the start of this journal!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Ahah, thanks BettaLover!! I'm glad you enjoyed the read!! It is crazy looking back at all the mischief they got themselves into XD crazy Betta's! haha


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## Mar (Apr 9, 2013)

Agggh They're so beautiful!
The shrimp slaughter is actually kinda funny to me, lol.


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## Huffle Puffles (Jul 5, 2013)

Yay! Storytime! That was a fun read/picture show, especially the "hehe" pic, thanks for sharing The Shrimp S/Laughter with us :lol:


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

lol, I'm glad y'all enjoyed it! Yeah, it was meant to be lighthearted and kind of funny. Good god, what would have happened if I put them into the sorority? Geeze, the girls would have gobbled them up before they even hit substrate!! yikes!

So so far I can see at least three are still hiding in the divider between Tony and Mercury. Just that snail still between Tony and Steve's divider. I had moved the terracotta piece in Tony's side down so that basically only shrimp and maybe Baby Spot can get in there so hopefully I can get some shrimp to grow! lol

At least it made for a good story! lol yeah, I do enjoy reading it again how I pieced it together XD that pretty much was how it went though, just with my added dialogue ;-)

Both babies as well though, although Steve is now refusing NLS pellets....stuck up brat! And Tony is eating neither flakes nor pellets....both will only take frozen BW's right now...sigh....idk what I'm going to do with these two lol


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## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Hehe those poor shrimps! I was actually laughing to myself last night because I had baked stuffed shrimp for dinner at the Ninety Nine and then went home to feed all the bettas some frozen brine shrimp, so we all had shrimp dinners! Looks like your guys had one too, lol! I was hesitant to put my 3 new Amano shrimp into my sorority and BB, the dominant girl, actually nipped at one of them a few times but then just stared at it after the shrimp just sat there and gave no care at all. So far the two bigger ones are definitely in there swimming about but the smaller one I haven't seen today, but he could just be hiding somewhere. I hope the rest of your shrimp survive the betta attacks  They are really pretty shrimp, I might have an all RCS tank one day.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

LOL! Oh that's so funny Viva!! I can't eat shrimp <---allergic so unfortunately I can't share in the joy my fish get when they eat shrimp haha but that's fine by me XD

I think Tony ate more because he was refusing flakes and had quite a full tummy unless that one shrimp filled him up. But I think I see part of it in the back of the tank....I'll have to clean the tank out soon, today is actually tank cleaning day anyway. I won't be moving the terracotta pot in case they are under there, don't want Tony to be getting more food >.< poor shrimps, I do feel bad though.

I would definitely love a tank of all Red Rili Shrimp, they're so beautiful! I think prettier than RCS. I love Cardinal Shrimp too but too expensive! At least for now, but I've got my whole life ahead of me ;-)


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 99*

Posting as if from Saturday, today would be Day 101! holy mackerel!

Okay so there have been three shrimp sightings!! The three of the bigger ones have survived and for that I am happy!!!

Shrimp on Steve's side.









Chillin out, munching on some tasty morsels ;-)


















And this is normally what I come home to lol. The mesh is doubled up and they aren't sewed together so he can go between them in the back and he often does to look at Tony, quite cute actually. But half the time he scares the crap out of me because I can't find them and then look into the divider and go "ooh, I see you," lol









Baby Spot! Sorry it's hard to see but it's really hard to get a picture of her, she's got a really nice spread though got to say ;-) Still thinking she's guppy but she could just be a mix of Guppy/Endler and be female so she'll lack color. But I'm pretty sure they kept their Endler's and Guppy's in separate tanks.









I get this often too lol









Steve is a little bugger! That's for sure! The stinker found a shrimp and he slllloooowwwwlly inched his way forward lol, it was rather funny.


















Mr. Shrimpy, you should swim away lol









Whew man, you're getting close!









ANNNNNND he went for him but the shrimp was too fast lol Thank the Lord!









And Mr. Shrimp on Tony's side, this one is much bigger than the one on Steve's side.









Cool pic of him swimming









And the little shrimp killer himself haha, don't know what I'll do with this one XD









And then the two were peaking at each other ;-)









This picture looks funny because Steve looks 2D lol, that's how Betta fins are supposed to be but this was just a great angle XD









And the pretty boy knows he's pretty!









And that's it for today :-D


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## Mar (Apr 9, 2013)

Super cute photos! Glad to hear some of the shrimp survived the massacre xD


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

lol yes, i was happy to see them as well!! I mean at least it was only 10 dollars for the 10+2 shrimp and then 10 for shipping so it was practically a steal of Rili, I should have known they were going to be juvie sized >.< well know I know at least


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## Mashiro (Dec 2, 2012)

The shrimp massacre was sort of morbidly funny the way you described it, lol at least Steve and Tony got some good protien!

But if you want to keep more shrimp from being eaten, I'd recommend the shrimp rocks at Pleco Caves. They're 5 bucks a piece and specialized for dwarf shrimp and juvies to hide in.










http://www.plecocaves.com/Caves.htm/specialized-caves/shrimp-rocks.html


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Thank's Mashiro! lol I tried to keep it lighthearted. I wasn't too brokenhearted over it though since I thought I was getting shrimp that were twice-three times bigger than what they came as >.< so I'm more mad if anything. But I'm going to leave the few that are left and let them grow some if they grow much more at all. I won't be trying any more shrimp with them though so it's all dandy  Thanks for the link though! Those look pretty nifty, could hide them behind some of the plants too lol


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Well I think Tony turned into quite the killer! No shrimp sightings today and his belly is still looking pretty darn full. He also killed two of the snails that were in there....geeze, this fish! I swear!

So did a water change for them today, all three (Steve, Tony and Mercury) got stripy, not out of the normal but colored up well afterwards. I don't know the next time I'll be able to get pictures since I've got a super busy rest of the week.

But in other news Baby Spot and Blue Spot seem to be doing okay but they were just chillling a lot today so...I don't know what's quite up with them yet. They eat just fine but don't seem quite colorful. Blue Spot no longer shows off for Baby Spot so I'm wondering if she is indeed a Guppy but even still, I feel like he'd take an interest since they interbreed anyway....idk man!

But when White Stripe was still in with them (oh btw, don't know if I ever said but Rembrandt tore him to pieces after the first week the little bugger >.>) but Blue Spot would really color up and the two would spar a bit. Blue Spot actually has a black tail but most of the time he's just dull in color since he apparently has no one to spar with/show off for. So again...idk!

But that's my update for now  Steve is still growing, I'm sure Tony's grown but he still doesn't look much like it. I wish he'd just get bigger already! At least try to catch up with Steve lol Steve is already half a Betta!


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## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Lol Tony you vicious little fish! How is he not growing after eating all those shrimps, lol?


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

I DON'T KNOW!!! Gah, it's rather frustrating though! Both him and Steve must have been eating the shrimp because they had full bellies all through the week and I haven't really fed them since they were so full looking! Tony looks like a gutted baby and Steve just looks like he ate too much lol.

Steve has been refusing pellets since I started them on frozen BW's, spoiled brats they are! He finally ate a small pellet this morning though after two weeks of refusing! Tony will eat a flake here and there but still won't go for the pellets. My two Endler's don't seem interested in food either, Baby Spot has been hanging at the top, she perks up when she see's me and loves to swim at me but when I sneak over she's just sitting there. And then Blue Spot doesn't seem to have eaten since I took White Stripe away....he's also extremely dull in color....not sure what to do with them!

I can't put the Endler's in with Aero since he'll just eat them, same with Rembrandt and Ditto. Maybe I should just donate them to my LFS....I don't want them to die but I feel that if they stay in the 10 gallon, it's just not good for them since the pH is so low. It would probably be just better for me to donate them, I'll do that next week then I think. That will give Tony more room technically to swim as well even though he spends most of his time down at the bottom back corner staring through the mesh at his boyfriend lol


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

So....Tony kill the Endler's too....and the snails....and the remaining shrimp....Did I not teach this boy some manners?!?!?! lol

Wow how things can turn on a dime! That's for sure. I mean, I can't really blame him and I'm not really made since all of them were free but the shrimp. Poor boy's, I was away all weekend pet-sitting for my Aunt so I lost four and a half day's with them, I'd be mad too if I had to fast Monday and Tuesday and then again from Friday afternoon to Monday night! Poor babies, at least they had food I guess!

Steve killed his snail too. You know what's funny, the one I was worried most about didn't kill his snail; Aero still has his snail and seems to enjoy it as well which I found quite interesting lol. The snail in Rembrandt's tank mysteriously died as well which is weird because Remmy is in a cup right now being treated with some sort of body slime on his head around one of his face vents so he's in AQ salt right now but I'm thinking of medicating him and Matisse with Furan-2....I think it might be columnaris which means I need to get Mattie out there right away. Something weird is going on with Mattie's fins as well, she's getting more black but only around the places she was nipped at but it's not Fin rot, it looks like her natural coloration....idk....I've had her in salt before as well with nothing and she was at 3 tsp/gal and Remmy is only at 1 tsp/gal.

Anyway, this is my PetCo BABY thread, not my Betta journal lol.

On that note, here are some pictures! Poor boy's were so stressed out when I got home and perked up through the two hours I spent with them, I wish I could just take them with me all the time! :-( Speaking of which, what do y'all think about me totting a baby betta around from my mom's to dad's? I'll be aqccuring another baby Betta from a friend who can no longer tank care of him and his growth has been stunted horribly. So I want to be able to change his water daily but in order for that to happen, he needs to be with me and I can't do that well if I'm going back and forth between my mom and dad's. I want to get a larger kritter keeper (large size) for his more permenant home and then I could get a smaller one for when I tote him around and I can bring a heater with me to work and---no that wouldn't work I guess :-/ sigh, idk!

Anyway, pictures.

Tony, still slightly stressed here









I love his colors, he's so...shiny I guess the word would be haha and still not growing, at least not that I see! >.<









Steve looks so pouty here! Poor boy's :-( I feel really bad for leaving them so long without food and someone to look at them....probably should have left instruction for my brother to feed them at least on Saturday :-/ it's in the past now though...I'll know for next time if there is one.


















Well fed after a few bloodworms ;-) he's refusing pellets right now >.> spoiled brat!









And that's all I have for this journal! Hopping over to my Betta Log to update those pics! :-D


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## Huffle Puffles (Jul 5, 2013)

Your boys are looking so handsome!! :-D Tony reminds me of when someone leaves their dog home alone and they come back to a torn couch and the trash knocked over.  lol, Fussy boy!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

lol yes!! that's exactly what he is XD oy, if I could take him with me everywhere I would! lol so no tank mates for him it seems, ah well. :roll: :-D but thank you! Yes they are quite handsome and have come a long way :-D


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 108*

Whew, I kept forgetting to date posts but today is day 108!! whew!

So Tony has been compared to the bad dog who eats the trash and the couch while I'm gone and then Steve I think is the sad puppy who whines the entire time that I'm gone lol He ate half a pellet today though! That made me happy, Tony still refuses anything but one spot of NLS Flake and his frozen bloodworms, he's such a spoiled brat! Seriously they're both exactly like they're namesake's it kills me!!!

Good God Steve! Stop moping already! I'm HOME DARN-IT!









STAAAAHHHPPPPP!









*Sigh* Steve....I can't give you Bloodworms AGAIN today, you had them yesterday! You'll get them tomorrow.....sigh









Steve, seriously buddy!









On an unrelated note, look! My DHG is thrown out a shoot already! Look you can see it at the glass! And growing another sprig! :-D I'm so excited!









Look Steve, even Tony ain't taking your crap! lol









"Steven! Don't you dare walk--swim away from me!"









"Maybe he just needs some time to himself....although he's had all darn weekend!"









"I don't know, he just doesn't respond to my iridescence the way he used to...."









"Steve? Steve I'm sorry I didn't mean--*GASP* How DARE you flip that fin at me!"









"FINE! I've HAD it with your crap! I'm going over...there...."


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## Mar (Apr 9, 2013)

xD so cute how Steve begs! <3
Love your plants btw, they look really healthy as always


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Thanks Mar! Yeah all the plants are doing like 10 million-kajillion-bajililion times better since I stopped using those stupid LED lights and went with the two clamp Fluorescent lights both at 5,000K 9 watt's each :-D I use two and forewent the clamp and so they're just resting on the glass canopy. The water sprite is actually growing!

The Alternanthera plant on Steve's side has been loosing a lot of leaves and the one in my sorority just completely died so I'm thinking that plant reeeaaallly hates currents or something....not quite sure what's up with that because the one on Tony's side is doing amazing....so yeah...


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## BettaLover1313 (Apr 15, 2013)

Love the captions for the pictures, just so adorable!


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## Mar (Apr 9, 2013)

SO LED lights aren't as good?
Good to know xD
I use pretty much the same lights you do 

Think I use 2 of these and they\re pretty much the same as yours.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Yeah no, LED's don't have a great PAR rating unless the company makes it so. Apparently the Finnex by Fugray has a really good PAR rating, enough for medium lighting for most small tanks I'm sure. But most fluorescent's are great lights for planted tanks. I get high lighting on my 10 with the 5,000K fluorescent's in the clamp lights. :-D


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## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Omg it's so cute that your little babies missed you so much! Those poor fellas! Steve is just begging you to feed him some more frozen treats...don't give in to him! Hahaha! And Tony's already had his fill on LIVE foods :roll: :twisted: lol.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Geeze I know! The little bugger! lol he's not as plump as he was before in these pictures, finally starting to slim down XD

I think he's finally growing as well, but next to Steve it's just hard to tell is all.


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## sarah13 (Aug 6, 2013)

They are so cute can't wait to see them all grown up!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 110*

Posting as if from last night as when these pics were taken.

So I took out Tony's terracotta pot side and he seems to like it without the pot there so I just threw it into the sorority and called it a day. My Alternanthera was dying on his side so I stripped the leaves and trimmed them in half and planted both halves except for like one which was completely rotted. So hopefully that will grow better soon, they're still growing roots so idk what's up with them and if it's the flow from the filters or if they're just acclimating still. The ones in my sorority completely died :-/

So Tony I'm pretty sure was eating the roots off the Frog-Bit that was floating....so I took out all his floaters as well so he isn't left with much but he seems to enjoy it more....weird boy but okay! If it makes him happy then I'm just fine with it haha I trimmed the Cabomda up and made it look nice nice. Java Ferns are doing amazing in there and putting out new leaves every week it seems!

Steve's side has yet to see a make-over yet, need to trim the Alternanthera down to see if that helps, clean out the gravel today and clean out the filter as well. But otherwise he seems to be doing better, he's still mopping about a little but he's better. I fed them Bloodworms enriched with Vita-Chem last night, both enjoyed it thoroughly!

Here's Tony enjoying his new aqua-scape









Steve still stress-striping and mopping about.


















And this is after I fed them frozen BW's, they were more happy here.









Can see his fin growth.









Cute picture of Tony...if he weren't pooping XD but as you can see, all his floaters are gone or at least most of them. It's a bit hard to get dying duckweed out of there. Yes I can kill duckweed! Only in this tank though, probably too much filter flow....oh well :sarcastic:









Fat and happy, fins are still growing!


















lol, he looks derpy here XD silly boy!



























And that's it for now! Hope you enjoy all the pictures ^_^


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## Huffle Puffles (Jul 5, 2013)

The picture of Tony hiding in the plant is so cute. And the one of Steve pooping is cute too, in it's "that is SUCH a boy thing to do!" sort of way. :lol:


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Oh you mean Tony pooping? lol yeah, both pics are adorbs XD totally such a boy thing haha


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## Huffle Puffles (Jul 5, 2013)

Oh, oops! Sorry Tony! Didn't mean to mix you up.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

lol that's okay! I get mixed up on threads all the time, half the time I can't even keep track of who's got who, which one's sick this week, what meds they've already taken, who foods and blah, blah, blah haha. So no worries ^_^ just wanted to make sure is all haah. But yes! it is a cute pic, I agree!!


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## BettaLover1313 (Apr 15, 2013)

Tony & Steve are just too cute!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

:-D!! I do love my little boys ^_^


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 115 and Day 1!*

Whew! So day 115 for Steve and Tony and Day 1 for my new boy who I'm debating between Hawkeye and Ricochet! Tell me what you think!

Sorry for those on my log, you've already seen these pics unless you looked at this one first lol. But there are new ones of Steve and Tony at the end as well!

"Hmmm, this is a weird bowl...."









"Hm, no, my bowl definitely didn't have this thing with the red light on it"









"Oooh shiny red thing! You'll be my new best friend!"









"Wait....what is that thing...outside my tank..it-it's HUGEE!!!!"









"I ain't afraid of you!"









And now for my beautiful boys, the camera didn't want to focus on Steve today so mostly of Tony!

"See mom, I'm getting bigger!"









"Of course I'm handsome, you'd offend me if stated otherwise!"









"Mhmm! That's right, this is my good side! Get it reeeaaall good ;-)"









"No, I've changed my mind; this is my sexy pose!"









Tony: What YOU lookin at big fella?
Steve: Oh not much....*snickers and runs to hide*









"Pssst, hey, hey Tony! Hey....want to come on my side tonight?" *giggles*









"Talk to the tail!"









And that's all I have for today ^_^


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## PonyJumper101 (Mar 23, 2010)

Congrats on your new boy!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Thanks Pony! I'm excited to go home today after work to see how he's colored up!


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## PonyJumper101 (Mar 23, 2010)

Definitely get pictures! Would love to see his progress!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Oh yes! I will I will!! :-D I looove pictures ^_^


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## Huffle Puffles (Jul 5, 2013)

Awww the new baby is so cuuuuute!! I really like Hawkeye, my votes for that as his name ^_^

Steve and Tony look handsome as ever!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Thanks Huffle! I'll be sure to note of that, so far I've got two votes for Hawkeye lol. Going to go post him in the PetCo baby Betta thread over there to get some more votes in ^_^

I'm thinking about just dividing the 10 gallon again to make four sections and put baby in there since they all need the water changes anyway. Or I could take Mercury out and put baby in there and put Mercury in the 3 gallon kritter keeper....that sounds more of a better idea huh?


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## Huffle Puffles (Jul 5, 2013)

So the three babies in the 10 gallon and Mercury in the 3 gallon? Sounds like a perfect idea. Since you're right, the three boys need the same care. Makes it easier!


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## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Omg the new baby is sooo cuuute! I love the name Ricochet for him! I know all the babies I raised were ricocheting around their tanks, especially at feeding time LOL.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

lol I know, that's why I like Ricochet but I also like Hawkeye and Maverick >.< I think I've been calling him Maverick in my head but I still don't know! I'll just have to try them out I guess!

Yeah, figure the 10 gallon idea would just be easier and better for him as well, he'd then get 3.3 gallons but technically the whole 10 if you think about water circulation. Besides it'd make me do more water changes for Steve and Tony >.< most of why I think Tony hasn't grown; they only get two water changes a week...sigh. But this should definitely help me and give me incentive.


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## BettaLover1313 (Apr 15, 2013)

The new boy is so cute! Of course Steve and Tony are as handsome as always ;-)


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Thanks again BL1313!!

So the little baby has hid all day yesterday and today I couldn't find her in the forest of Water Sprite so I'm hoping he/she will come out later today for food when I get home and for pictures as well. So far I have one picture of her in the 10 gallon:

Can you see her? lol She was peaking out at me and then slowly went behind the heater so I couldn't see her XD kind of funny actually.









Anyway, still no idea's if it's a girl or boy since I've never seen a baby girl in person before, only on the interwebs! Legit the only babies we have are male VT's and they're always blue! I saw a cambo once and I should have grabbed it but I never see any other colors :-/ So a female is fascinating!! Or even a PK honestly!

Steve looking drab as usual, he doesn't flare anymore :-/ oh and he got his fins in the filter again >.<









Tony's fins are growing!









Draaaaaabbbbbb









Yeah still drab!









I'm pretty sure that all my Alternanthera died too :-/ It was doing so well!! However the red Ludwigia I have now is doing amazing! I have nearly 4 new leaves on the one stem in Tony's side since putting it in there on Monday I think it was! So maybe I should just get more of that stuff and get rid of the Alter. stuff >.>


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 117 and 3*

Not much to report today except Steve's fins are healing and the new boy has come out to play a little more. Not quite to the eating point yet, although I tried one pellet and he tried to grab it but it was too big >.< And I did determine that it is indeed a boy, I see no evidence of a shape of the ovaries at least, just a stomach  In which case I feel I should name him Hawkeye since Hawk is a decent nickname; Maverick; Mav? didn't like it. And then Ricochet, Ric; don't like that either >.< lol So Hawkeye it is!

Here's Steve moping about since he knew it was water change day.









Tony zooming about!









Cool angle of him.









"I'mma sail boat!! See my sail? I can turn it too!"









"See, I turned it for you Steve!"









"Tony you know I don't like when you sailboat >.>"
"I'm only half mad at you so I'll only half flare at you"



























"Can I join the sailboat club?"









"Uhhh guys?? There's something on the otherside of this invisible wall here....he's flaring at me....grrr!! I flare back!"


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## PonyJumper101 (Mar 23, 2010)

oh so cute!! i laughed so hard at the sailboat thing!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

lol! Glad you enjoyed that! It was the first thing that came to mind when I saw that picture and I went; yes, this is perfect lol


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## BettaLover1313 (Apr 15, 2013)

Love the sailboats lol! All three are adorable!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

BettaLover1313 said:


> Love the sailboats lol! All three are adorable!


hehe :-D I'm glad that made everyone happy ^_^


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## Phantom Miria (Mar 17, 2013)

"I'm only half mad at you so I'll only half flare at you"

LOL if I was a betta that would be me on a daily basis.


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## Huffle Puffles (Jul 5, 2013)

LOL, how cute and silly are they!! I love that you got the new baby already in on the antics! :lol:


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## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Lol I swear all the babies you get turn out male and all the ones I get turn out female! So far 3/3 of mine were female! Eventually I will get a lovely male though. Just have to wait until I have room for one more =P Your new baby is so cute! I love his color! Steve and Tony look amazing as usual


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Lol thanks Viva! Yeah and I wanted a female too! We never get female babies around here!!! We should trade XD lol

All the babies are doing great though, Hawkeye is bigger than Steve now :shock: and Tony is tiny as ever but the both of them are still growing. I haven't been able to do much with them this week because it's been band camp so I'm like dead when I come home and I spent the days at my moms and not my dad's so hard to get over there. I did feed them Tuesday, but tonight I'll be going straight from Band Camp back to dad's and then back to mom's Sunday morning to get ready for our Annual Labor Day Party/My 21st Bday Party! woot woot!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 126 and 12*

So yeah, Hawkeye is bigger than Steve lol he's grown quite a bit! It's only been 12 days! haha

Alright, we're gonna do the basic steps now









To the left









Take it back now y'all









One hop this time!









Right foot let's stomp!









Left foot let's stomp!









Cha Cha real smooth now









Turn it out!

























Okay I'm done with the Cha Cha slide haha.

So Hawkeye is appropriately named, he loves his loft of water sprite, he's blue-ish purple for body then red butterfly with a black band around his fins! He's awesome lol









His favorite spot









Steve says hi!









Tony's fins are too big for his body!









He definitely has some CT gene's somewhere in his genetic makeup









Blurry but cute









Dark and mysterious









I love their cute little ventral fins!









In his favorite spot again


















Tony's eyes are HUUUGE compared to his body lol, he needs to grow!









Steve looking as pathetic as ever the poor boy....he bites his tail when I'm gone for unexpected periods of time :-/ this is going to be...fun....









By the way in one of the earlier pictures there's a white thing that looks like it's coming out of Tony's mouth...yeah that's just a young piece of Duckweed lol he was chasing it and biting it XD


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## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Hahaha I was wondering what that white stringy thing was. I can't believe Hawkeye is bigger than Tony already, Tony you little runt! Hahahaha, he's so cute!


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## Huffle Puffles (Jul 5, 2013)

LOL! And the betta dance craze is in full swing! haha! Too cutes!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Hehe thanks! I was trying to keep it interesting and was listening to that in my head so I went; why not!

Yeah, I know the piece of duckweed did look a bit questionable XD And yeah, Hawkeye came just about the size of Steve but is now bigger! He sprouted fast! Steve is tail biting whenever I'm gone >.> great...always knew he'd be a problem child! And Tony is still Tiny <.< >.> <.< sigh....

Pictures to come soon hopefully!


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## sushiisaboss75 (May 19, 2013)

Ur boys are beutiful!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Thanks Sushi ^_^ I'm just glad they're still growing at least lol


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 129 and 15*

So did a water change on the boy's today and they seemed to enjoy that. Hawkeye's tail has grown tremendously since his Day 1 here! Tony is still a runt but his tail is growing and Steve bites when I'm gone >.>

Tony being Tony









I think he might be a Comb Tail, his ray's are getting rather pronounced than before. Might just be growing though.

























Still Tiny









Uggg, look how split his ventral fins are!









At least his colors are pretty









Only two pics of Hawkeye because my camera would NOT focus on him >.> I had sooooo many pictures too!









This is a pretty neat picture though









You can see Steve's bite marks on his tail :-/









Such a cutie









An awesome picture but kind of freaky since you can see the layer over his eye turn red lol









Him and his droopy self >.<









And those are all for today!


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## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Stop being so droopy Steve! CHEER UP ALREADY!! All the pics are super cute, as always! Tiny Tony is such a cutie!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Gosh I know! It's not like I'm away that much!! Funny thing is he's usually fine when I'm gone the usual Sunday-Wednesday but when I take an unexpected trip from Friday-Saturday he freaks out and bites >.< I'd really wish that they'd flare more at each other....I'm debating switching things around to put Tony where Hawkeye is, Steve where Tony is and Hawkeye where Steve is so that Steve has stimulation from both sides.....I'll keep my dirty thoughts to myself  I can't help it, sorry, it's the natural way's of a Tenor Sax player lol

I really do love Tony though, even though he's tiny as all heck! He's getting more food now that he's decided not to be too picky so for that I am happy at least and then he's getting more water changes as well so he should be growing by now >.> at least his fins are growing....sigh....


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## Huffle Puffles (Jul 5, 2013)

Awww Tony is so cute. He always looks so happy go lucky like he's just playing in the water without a care. The pic of Hawkeye where his fins twist and you caught the light vs dark is very cool. Steve looks like Robo-fishy with his red eye!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Ahhahaha!! Robo-Fish that's awesome! Totally going to be new his nickname XD haha I'm pretty sure if I were home he'd be glaring at me for that but that's totally okay! lol

Yeah, I'm glad my camera was able to focus for that one picture of Hawkeye and him twisting! He's so beautiful! I think his fins grew again O.O Tony needs to take some lessons from him >.>

I'll be doing another 25-50% water change on the 10 today, hopefully I can boost their growth! Everyone will also be getting Bloodworms as well today, frozen of course  I need to get some frozen brine shrimp though....hmmmm maybe I'll do that after school today!! And look at the plants they have...muhahhaa lol Tony's side needs a little sprucing up after all! My old cabomda no longer wants to grow, even with the improvement of light....sigh....oh well.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 134 and 20*

I'm sorry I haven't been updating, I've been dealing with sick fish and an ungrateful grandfather >.>

These pictures are from the last three day's so pictures from Friday, Saturday and today. I'll try to label them by day but can't promise anything, I'm not really going to caption them but just copy and paste because I have too many and not enough time. Time for bed soon >.<

*Friday*














































After a while they literally have the same poses >.<









Especially Steve



























"I'm a pretty butterfly"



























*Saturday*



















Always a fan of these pictures of Tony ;-)


















I think Tony's growing?


















Hawkeye has improved so much!


















Shake ya tail fin!



























*Today*
































































"Look ma! A new pose! Well...at least a new direction!"


















So not only does he tail bite but he blew out his fins >.< 









Going down again ;-)



























Mister Grumpy face






















































OKAY! I think I'm done lol. Feel free to caption any of the photos if you want ;-)


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## BettaLover1313 (Apr 15, 2013)

So adorable!

I sympathise with you about Steve blowing out his fins, I still can't believe Merlin blew his out...


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

I know!! I'm always baffled when VT's blew out their fins! Granted it's only on his anal fin, but still! The only other fish of mine that's blown out it's fins is Rembrandt and he did it bad to himself when flaring at Ditto when they were split in the 10 gallon. Mercury can't blow out his fins thankfully and neither can Jarvis since they both have excessive amounts of finnage and no where to spread them lol so they're fine, but Steve?? Really man?


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## Huffle Puffles (Jul 5, 2013)

Awww, they're so cute! All your boys are looking so good. I really do love all the little flecks of different colors in Tony's fins. And looks like he's trying to join the junior burping contest league! ^_^


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Huffle Puffles said:


> Awww, they're so cute! All your boys are looking so good. I really do love all the little flecks of different colors in Tony's fins. And looks like he's trying to join the junior burping contest league! ^_^


Hehe! Yes! Junior Burping Contest, that's awesome! I do love his little wild type spots on his dorsal and I'm so happy his fins are super vibrant red! They're actually like that in real life! And his beautiful blue iridescence that flecks his fins is awesome, i do have to agree. He's so much more interesting than Steve, sorry buddy but you're just....blue with...some red, but mostly blue. I love his blue but he needs to stop stressing as well >.> it's stressing ME out! And Hawkeye is just Hawkeye, I'm loving the black butterfly around his fins though, it might just be new growth so it's actually just a dark cellophane but it's still wicked cool!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

And I just want to do a little comparison for Hawkeye!

First night he came home!









And from Saturday, woooohoooo Fin growth!


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## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

WOW he grew so fast! That's incredible! Cute little babies!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

I KNOW! I'm like Tony, grow, grow now! Pllleeeeasssseeee??? lol And then he just flares at me >.> snarky little butt he is!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 139 and 25*

OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG Hawkeye's tail! It's HUGGGGEEEE!!! :shock2::shock::shock2: what even! He's huge, everything about him is HUGE man! why does he grow so fast but Tony doesn't? Even Steve is being dwarfed by him!

Dating and Posting as if from last night.

Looook

























It's like I threw Miracle grow in the water or something.....which I didn't but still! lol

















And my camera apparently has a hard time focusing on him but his tail is almost always in focus >.<

























I think this is one of the best pictures I've gotten of him!









And then Steve...









Either he's been biting again or Tony's biting him through the divider which is completely possible since Aero was biting Mercury through the divider when they were together but Mercury seemed to like it....O.O masochist!


























And Tony...
I think his red is dulling a bit....

























Hiiiiii


















Even though they were being butts I love this picture just because it totally describes them and their relationship!









Hawkeye and Tony

















Steve and Tony


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## Huffle Puffles (Jul 5, 2013)

Lovely pictures! Hawkeye really HAS been growing! Wow. He's quite the handsome fella. As are Steve and Tony, still love those two lil guys ^_^


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Thansk Huffle! It's still so hard to get decent pictures of Hawkeye since he's in the hyperactive stage now >.< Tony's good at posing and Steve, well he's good too but he just looks so pathetic and droopy all the time. lol. I don't know what to do about him! But his tail is healing up again so that makes me happy. I hope he or Tony doesn't bite it while I'm at mom's this week >.> I mean this happens every week, me going to my mom's not Steve biting, so he should be used to it by now. Tony seems to be doing a pretty good job of distracting him though so that's good!


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## Blue Fish (Jun 11, 2012)

So cute!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 146 and 32*

Sooo.....Hawkeye grew AGAIN! He also made me a bubblenest on my birthday!! :-D










He looks like some of those really tiny females you can get at Petco or Petsmart >.<









This is him turning to look at me after he was flaring and was like "Wut? I wasn't flaring at Tony....he started it!"









"Did not!"









"Grrr!"









"*high pitched voice*Oh no! I've been flared at! Oh! What am I to do?! Steve, you must come save me! *back to regular voice* oh fin off Hawkeye"









"*grumbles* at least _she _likes me...." *goes to look at black copper ct girl*









LOOK AT THE DIFFERENCE! and yes I realize my water sprite is dying and needs a trim lol









"...I don't know what's going on..."


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## BettaLover1313 (Apr 15, 2013)

Hawkeye has grown so much! Love the captions for the pictures!


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## RowdyBetta (Feb 1, 2013)

They're lovely!
lol, the captions had me laughing my head off xD


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Haha!

It's so them too! Tony is definitely an instigator :-D Steve is quite aloof and Hawkeye is gullible but knows when to get down to business. Especially when working on his bubblenest ;-)


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 157 and 43*

I keep forgetting that I even have this thread with all my sick fishies around >.< Sorry about that! But the baby boy's are doing wonderful and growing! Well everyone except Tony >.< Steve's grown in both body and tail but not by much, Hawkeye on the other hand has yet to finish his growth spurt! He's huge! Almost a little over half the size of Aero is! So I tried to get comparison photos of the three with Aero in a cup floating in their sections but it was kind of hard to do. Steve didn't mind to flare at Aero but eventually succumbed to the bigger, more dominant male and retreated. Tony took one look and retreated >.< sissy pants that he is. And then Hawkeye freaked out with a flaring fest but wouldn't stay still >.<

So I've got these pictures. Oh and dated from yesterday and pics are also from yesterday.

Here's the cutie patootie wondering why the heck there is another fish in his territory.









Aero and his beautiful dragonscale self with a great flare pose while Steve starts to wonder if he should even approach the bigger male....he started to back away at this point lol









Hard to show size when Steve is against the glass and Aero isn't....so Steve isn't exactly this big but it gives you a general idea.









These are the only two pics I could get clearly of Tony....he's such a little sissy for everyone except Steve, he loves Steve and loves to flare at him.

















Hawkeye's ventral fins are starting to get some color ^_^ also, he's purple! So he's named extremely adequately 









I got a lot of photos of Hawkeye but most of them were either blurry or my white shirt was reflecting too much and ruining the photos >.< So here's a sort of good picture of his beautiful spread!









Aero was tuckered out by this point and Hawkeye wouldn't stop moving >.>
but you get the basic idea in size I think.


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## cowboy (Apr 14, 2013)

Too cute. Our petsmarts don't carry babies although I saw a girl that could have been one. Guess a trip across the border is in order. The lineups are aweful, most times hours wait


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

cowboy said:


> Too cute. Our petsmarts don't carry babies although I saw a girl that could have been one. Guess a trip across the border is in order. The lineups are aweful, most times hours wait


Hours to cross the border? Ugg, that stinks, it took use an hour or so to get over the Rainbow Bridge in Ontario to get back from the Falls so I think that's a fair amount of time, but hours? Yeah, not fun :-/ but for a baby Betta, it might be worth it ^_^


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 163 and 49*

Okay so I've got a few pictures also from Sunday but forgot to upload them as usual, that date would have been Day 161 and 47 just for reference sake. Hawkeye apparently doesn't want to stop growing! :shock: he's so big now! He's like a smaller female you'd get at PetCo or something, well a little bigger I think!










This is probably one of the best pictures I have of him, really captures his colors...well almost. He's actually purple in real life, like a legitimate violet! pictures make him look too blue :-/ but that's okay! He's still gorgeous!









This one better shows his form!









"Tony...I know you're over there...come on man, let me in! We could totally be bro's!"









"Oh! Ehhh hi mom...what's up? No I wasn't trying to get on Tony's side! Would you believe me if I said his grass is greener?"









Which it is....this is Tony's side of the divider lol ripe with algae XD I don't know what kind of algae it is though, comes off relatively easily so I'm really not worried.









*And here are the pictures from today*

I swear he seriously grew again!









































So I made Tony fat since he's obviously not eating enough! I fed frozen Brine shrimp today and I think I might just try to feed him that like 3 times a week since I says not to feed more than twice a day which means I could feed him this once a day if I really wanted to. But I think the added protein is what he needs for sure. So yeah...he's fat lol









He's so adorable when he's fat though lol, he wobbles everywhere XD









Steve too









And comparison pic, I do think Tony is growing, just very slowly....


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## BettaLover1313 (Apr 15, 2013)

Tony definitely looks bigger than from previous photos! Not to mention that Hawkeye looks gorgeous!


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## Quinn (Apr 4, 2010)

Wow, until I saw these close up, clear pics of Tony I didn't realize how shrimpy and stunted he is. And now fat :lol:
Does he always keep his stripes too? He looks so immature, aww lil bub.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Yeah he's tiny, I feel bad that I couldn't give them enough water changes :-( and I don't know how Hawkeye can grow but Tony can't. Tony had issues with his spine when he was younger though so I don't know exactly how 'healthy' he technically is as far as deformities go but he's a trooper! A little bugger too lol But yeah, looking back at last month's photo's he's definitely gotten bigger, Steve too, just not at the rate I'd like to see them at >.<

Going to do a water change tomorrow night no matter what and another one on Thursday, hopefully another on Friday and Saturday as well. I'm hoping I can reboot his growth process with the water changes! And clean up some of that algae as well >.<


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

So I did a 30% water change last night and I switched Steve and Tony around. Tony didn't like to have boy's on both sides of him and that's partly why he was always stressed out. His stress lines are still because he's immature but I know he doesn't like Hawkeye at all. So I put him on the side and moved Steve to the middle since he needed more exercise anyway.

This morning when I fed them both Steve and Hawkeye were flaring, it was cute ^_^ Hawkeye has an amazing spread while Steve really needs to work on his, he's going to end up that regular boring store VT but he'll be my regular boring store VT ^_^ they're such cuties!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 168 and 54*

Wow, these babies, just wow! Hawkeye is fully matured now and blowing bubble nests constantly for his little copper girl next to him lol Steve still has a little way's to go but his tail is growing out again after his stupid tail biting incident. But all is well. Tony is still...well he's still Tony lol

These pics are from last night though which would have been Day 167 and 53. I had added a baby albino BN pleco to the tank in hopes to get rid of the algae issue I've got going in there but Tony kept buggering the poor thing so I took the pleco out today and just acclimated him to the 33 where he immediately went to sucking on the glass and cleaning so I guess I'll just have to hope for the best with the snails I'm getting from bambijarvis and that Tony won't kill them >.>

This picture would have been great if Steve weren't pooping :roll: you can see the clear edges where his tail is growing out again ^_^ it's quite interesting, I can't tell if the red is his technically iridescence or just something he'll grow out of like Red Loss.









Tony will keep the red I'm sure of it, he's such a little cutie ^_^









Buggering the Pleco after it being introduced to the tank. You can see Tony's also had a wonderful meal of frozen brine shrimp ^_^









The baby was at my LFS where they had a few different types of the BN's both albino, orange and chocolate. I wanted to get the chocolate one that was slightly bigger than this one and had many more white spots which was absolutely adorable but since I have black substrate, I figured something albino would be a lot easier to pick out since I could never find my teenage BN Pleco I had before lol.









The pleco ended up whacking Tony a good one and Tony scampered away lol but I didn't want to risk it anyways since Tony was pecking at him real good.









*And the babies today ^_^*










Cute picture of Steve









And Hawkeye's form is just plain awesome!









I love his little splotches of blue on his anal fin there ^_^


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## BettaLover1313 (Apr 15, 2013)

They're so cute! As I said in your other journal that Pleco is so cute!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Thanks BL1313 ^_^ yeah, the pleco is definitely happier in the 33 where the fish aren't picking on him lol.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 171 and 57*

Not much to report, I think Hawkeye grew again....Tony looks a little better. I think I've been feeding more often and that's really helped, as well as taking time to feed rather than rushing and them spiting up more than half their pellets >.> the frozen foods help too since they rarely spit them up.

Hawkeye, you can see the growth on his anal fin....geeze!









I love this picture because it looks like Steve is some sort of peeping-tom and Hawkeye is the girl getting undressed or something and see's Steve through the window to faint XD lol totally not but looks funny anyway.









He was flaring at Steve, so right after the above picture, and he swam off but continued to flare to himself XD









Steve was investigating the uprooted root tab and trying to eat it....I raised an idiot....lol









Adorable little boy!


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## beautiful Betta (Sep 19, 2013)

all your boys are looking great, your hard work as really paid of.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Thank you ^_^


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## Huffle Puffles (Jul 5, 2013)

You really have an adorable bunch of boys. ^_^ I really love the purple on Hawkeye! The "undressing" picture really made me laugh.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Thanks Huffle ^_^ yeah, I laughed when I saw how the picture came out. But it looked like that in real life too, in real life Hawkeye flared originally at Steve and then "fell" backwards of which I caught mid-way in the pic. And then he fell more into the water sprite and then swam around it to get to the back where I got the second pic of him flaring. It was just really funny all around :-D


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## DerangedUnicorn (Sep 5, 2013)

Phew! I just read all 22 pages of this. I love your boys! Tony is like the youngest baby of the bunch. I think he'll always be mommy's little baby, whereas Steve & Hawkeye will grow up to be your big strong men. They'll go fight in the war or something and Tony will stay home with you. 

Okay. That was weird.....ANYWHO! I'm sorry Tony has eaten & picked on all your attempts to add a friend to his side. Guess it's not meant to be. 

Good job on the babies. I wish my baby turned out to be a boy. Oh well, I still love her. Oh! & I LOVE Steve & Tony's bromance they got going on.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Oh wow! Good for you! I occasionally look about through entries but I don't think I'd ever read all 22 pages haha.

I totally love that analogy! Not weird at all! Tony is definitely momma's little baby! And he always will be! lol

See, funny thing is that I always wanted a girl so that she could go in the sorority but turns out that apparently breeders like to keep all their girls and just give the boy's to the PetCo's lol. Oh well, love them all the same!

And yes, Steve and Tony's bromance is totally going strong! They flare occasionally but Steve likes to sleep against the divider some times and Tony will be just on the otherside of him, leaning as well and it's the most adorable thing I've ever seen!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 173 and 59*

Ugg I'm pooped. Did a water change on the tank since I seem to be experiencing a bacteria bloom. I took out the extra filter I had in there since it was just annoying and switched the HOB from Hawkeye's compartment to Steve's so it's in the middle. Seems to be working out fine but the bacteria needed a few days to catch up is all.

Look how big he looks! During the water change, hence the light isn't on him.









The clear parts at the end are his new fin growth.









He's such a big handsome boy now! He's got coloring on his pecs as well now! I kind of hope they fill in ^_^ it would be so cute!

















Steve with a full tummy









That little bit of lipstick is so cute :-D









"Look Ma, Imma sailboat again!"









Still got his stripes but he's slowly coloring up more!


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## Chachi (Sep 22, 2013)

Love the lipstick!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 184 and 70*

Holy wow, it's been a while since I've posted! Not much has changed, Steve and Tony are spoiled and don't want the pellets or flakes, all they want is the brine shrimp or bloodworms >.< Hawkeye will eat anything and everything as usual.

Oh and posting these pictures from Saturday actually.

Tony!

























Blue lips!

















You can't see me!









Steve still looks droopy but he's growing! His tail is totally growing out and healing very well which is great!









I love the red at the end of his tail though, I think it's adorable. I know it's most likely going to go away because of red-loss but I think it's still so adorable.

















Hawkeye's tail grew again....









































Steve and Tony









And the three of them/tank, actually Hawkeye is hiding but that's okay. And yeah there's a lot of algae in there.


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## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Wow Hawkeye grew FAST!! Wasn't he the third, and yet he looks bigger than the other 2? He's beautiful, I love his purple/blue and red color. Tony is so friggin cute!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Yeah, he was the third but he was given to me already partially grown. They had him for roughly 4 months so yes he is older than my other two so I did expect that. But I didn't expect him to be like a weed!!! lol

Tony IS adorable!! Parts of me wants him to stay tiny forever and the other part tells me that it's unhealthy and he needs to grow up and be mature but...but...he's my baby!! lol


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## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Ohhhhh I see. Hehehe, I would be just as conflicted about Tony. Little bitty baby bettas are the cutest things everrrr! Spark was a tiny female until she joined the sorority tank...then she grew like twice her size in just a month or two. She also eats like ridiculous amounts of food though...she's one of the only ones who would literally SCOUR the entire floor of the tank and look for any bits of food left behind. And usually she would find them even before the corydoras could sniff 'em out, haha. Bettas have such good eyesight, its crazy! A little off topic, but I noticed how good of eyesight they had the other day. I was shooting the laser pointer around, playing with my cat from across the room, and I notice all the females in the sorority tank in the bottom corner trying to swim through the glass to get to the laser! Me and my boyfriend were like..."OMG THEY CAN SEE IT!!! THAT'S INSANE!" These little creatures are so AWESOME!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

OMG yes! I point the laser in the tank sometimes, keeping care to keep it away from them and they love to chase it! Oh I haven't done that in a while! I'll have to break it out again, it's so adorable! But yes, they have amazing eyesight!


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## logisticsguy (Sep 7, 2012)

Just so cute. A laser I never thought of that! Good idea thanks gotta try this now lol.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Yeah! They're like cat's! lol it's so funny, Rembrandt used to love it and I used it as his exercise.


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## Rosencrantz32 (May 12, 2013)

So, as I'm reading this I remember that I just happen to have a laser pointer next to me in my pencil cup... I also have my boy Xerxes on my desk... 

That was probably the most adorable thing I've ever seen. HAHA!!! The poor thing kept staring at the spot where I turned the light off. That was the best thing that has happened all day!!!  Thanks for that!


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## Huffle Puffles (Jul 5, 2013)

lol, I have a feeling this is going to start a laser pointer/betta movement! *looks for hers* 

The boys are all looking so adorable, lil!


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## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Hahahaha, laser fun!!!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Hah!! I'm glad that I remembered that I used to do that! I wonder if any of the light refracts though to hurt them, might be something we could talk about on a new post though. I'll go make a new post now and see if we can get any insight about this and spread the laser love! haha.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 194, 80 and 4*

And for those who are not on my other Betta Log, Tony has passed away for unknown reasons. The best speculation is that he was simply stunted too badly and it killed him; lesson learned, you can't do twice weekly water changes for babies and expect them to grow. He'll be missed for sure.

I wasn't sure how Steve was going to take it seeing how they were best buddies and all so since I didn't want him to get depressed, I found him a new friend. Partly that and partly because I had gone to PetSmart and saw her on the shelf and she was wiggling at me and giving me those eye's; she was the most active there, quite literally. She looks like what I had projected Tony was going to look like  So I present to you Tony's Kit-Kat or simply Kit-Kat, probably going to nickname her Kit at times as well.

Keep in mind here that she's rubbed against something and partly tore a scale off, that's the thing over her eye.
"Hello!"

















She's already set to terrorizing Steve as well! lol, She is slightly bigger than Steve, mostly in her body area of course as she is older and not a baby from PetCo.









"Where'd she go?"









"I'll hide behind the grass, she can't see me then!"









Ummm Steve...I don't think that's how you're supposed to hide, besides she just wants to say hi!
"This is how I hide, leave me alone!"









"Bro, you need some help man,"









"Do you think this pose will work on her?" *wiggle wiggle*









"Hey you, lady! Where'd the little blue thing go?"









"Who you calling LITTLE?!"









"Sigh...I think she was talking about me hot shot,"









"Oh...ahem...right, I knew that...."









"Can I have my food now?"









"Seriously, can I have it now?"









"Just you wait till I'm bigger and can jump out at you into the food bowl MYSELF!" 









"Bloodworms! My favorite!"









"Hey, um...do you mind to share? I mean...you don't have to--never mind...I'll get my own."









"OMNOMNOMNOMNOM..."









"NOMNOMNOMNOM..."









"NOMNOMALGAENOMNOM!"









"Squash? No? Zucchini?"









"Do you taste yummy at least?"









"WHY YOU NO ANSWER ME?!?!"









"I wonder what this white thing does back here....CHOMP!"









"OH EWWWW! It's gross!"









"Where's Tony? I want you to take this snail back and give me Tony back!"









"Honey!!!! I'm hooome!"


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## BettaLover1313 (Apr 15, 2013)

Tony is definitely missed, but glad to see that Steve, Hawkeye, and the new girl look healthy! Love all the captions, especially the snails!


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## Huffle Puffles (Jul 5, 2013)

Omg, the captions killed me. hahaha. Kit-Kat is adorable, glad to see her jump right in and hold her own with the boys


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Thanks! Yeah, I had fun with the captions again ;-) I'm glad she immediately fit in as well, Steve sort of follows her around the tank when she's not looking and then when she does look, he runs to the other side and pretends like he was flaring at Hawkeye the entire time. It's hilarious! Can't wait to go home and see them tonight!


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## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

LOL at Steve's flirting. Kit-Kat is beautiful! Also, love the new nerites.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

lol, there's only one new nerite! Well two, but the yellow zebra one is the only one in the babies tank.

Unfortunately Steve has stopped caring about Kit-Kat and has gone depressive again and I fear for him. He won't eat any of the flake or pellet I offer. I'm getting NLS Growth in this week I believe so I'm hoping he'll take it. He east the frozen stuff but I can't feed him that all the time. I also think he's got some sort of internal parasite as well :-/ Yup, I can't win....ever.

Kit-Kat is still doing well though, she's seemingly grown already. Hawkeye is huge as always.


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## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Oh no, parasites? I hope not! It seems I can't win either. I'm now down to just 6 of the original sorority girls, and they don't seem to be improving no matter what I do. Then on top of it, I found Paradise (the boy you painted the wallpaper of for me) dead under a couple of IAL. I remember doing the weekly water change on his divided tank, which he shares with 3 other males, then I didn't see him for two days. He was always a shy betta, and the lights in that tank aren't plugged in, so I assumed he was just hiding in the back behind his plant for two days like a weirdo because it wasn't uncommon. But by the third morning of not being able to see him I started moving his decor around and found him like in between two large pieces of IAL leaves dead. It looked like he maybe got stuck in between them, possibly when the water was stirring up the leaves during the WC, and couldn't get out so he suffocated =/ I'm not entirely sure if it that's what it was, but he's gotten himself stuck in decor before (like the small, common orange cave ornament I always see) and needed my assistance to get out of it. But since he was always such a shy betta and always seemed to be blowing out his fins he may have just died from something totally different like an illness...I just hope it isn't the illness that was spreading in my sorority. Anywho, I did a 50% WC after I took out his body and the other 3 boys seem totally fine so I think they're safe.

Good luck with your fishies, I hope Steve comes around. Does his poo look normal?


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Awww, not Paradise!! He was so beautiful! Even if he was shy :-( I'm sorry.

Steve's poop alternates from white to normal, but I think it's also due to the brine shrimp and daphnia that I feed as well. But he was looking like he ate without me feeding him today so that's where I start assuming. Even if I do dose the tank with Epsom, it won't hurt the plants thankfully, it will just help haha.


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## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Thanks. I know feeding brine shrimp causes my bettas to have a whitish poop but the bloating worries me  Also, epsom salt is okay on live plants? Never knew that


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Yeah, it's actually used as a fertilizer in gardening! :-D However, I'm not sure about the snails or anything so I'll probably take them out if I do decided to do that.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 200, 86, and 10*

So I dosed the tank with Epsom salt at 1 tsp/gal and I just realized that I never added in what I took out today with the water change >.< and...wow....I need to not not take my meds.....I just realized I started to acclimate a snail to their water too.....salt still in it.....he seems fine but >.< oh geeze....

ANYWAY! Kit has grown already! Hawkeye won't stop growing lol, mostly it's his tail really and Steve has become depressed as I feared. He won't eat any pellets or flakes that I offer and hasn't shown interest in the daphnia either, he tried a few pieces but spit it out :-/ I guess he'll be living off brine shrimp and bloodworms until he get's better. I really don't know what else to do for him. he's still pooping the white strings but there was a normal bit on one of them today so that gives me some hope there.

Pictures!
Kit-Kat!









Steve









Steve to Hawkeye Ratio is 1:3 lol









Oh and I'm so pumped because today I found 6,500K mini CFL's at my wal-mart! 3 pack for 2.80!!!! I was sooooo excited! Now my plants will ACTUALLY grow! lol and here's all three of them. Excuse the algae >.<









Hawkeye's flare! He's huuuge! I love the little blue spots on his anal fin as well









Colored pectoral's!

















"How YOU Doin'?"









Tail side!









"I'm so pretty, oh so pretty!"


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## Phantom Miria (Mar 17, 2013)

Hawkeye is sooo pretty!! I also love the reddish color on Kit kat's fins =) Great looking betta's!


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## BettaLover1313 (Apr 15, 2013)

I hope Steve starts to feel better. Hawkeye WOW O.O I can't believe how big he is!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

I KNOW!!! He's huuuge! Well, he's really not that big compared to my older boy's but compared to baby size, he's ginormous!!!!!! lol I also love the red on his fins! It's so bright! And I love that it's only on the ray's and not on the membrane of the fin, it looks so cool!

Thanks guys! Kit-Kat is doing super well! She's fat and content lol


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

I hope Steve feels better soon.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Thanks DQ, doesn't seem to be so though :-(

I came home to find that half of his ventral is bitten off and his tail is bitten up pretty badly, not something that could be achieved by a fish on another side of the divider :-( I figured Kit could reach the ventral if he stuck it through the divider but the way the tail is bit up, she couldn't have possibly done it >.< I can't win with these guy's. He's still refusing to eat too and while shows interest in eating and Kit, he just doesn't want to do anything.

Hawkeye on the other hand furociously builds his bubble-nests and flares at Steve and Black CT girl quite a bit and then comes up to beg for food  Kit swims around, taunting Steve through the divider and then goes to beg for food.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 203, 89, and 13*

Steve isn't looking well :-( he's lethargic for most of the day, flat out refuses pellets and flakes and has lost a little interest in the frozen stuff. Like he's all for it when he see's it but at first it takes him a little while to get up to the tweezers, so in hopes to help him I make him chase the tweezers for his food. He still doesn't feel like doing anything though and this is how Tony acted before he lost his will to live :-(

I PROMISE though, seriously promise if he goes, I will only split the tank for Kit-Kat and Hawkeye, no more babies for a while. But I'll of course keep the log going for those two since they still have some growing up to do!

This is what Steve has been looking like, he looks fine but just doesn't want to do anything. Not even torment Kit-Kat or respond to her torments! She keeps looking through the divider at him as if trying to get him to play!









Like this









I love this picture because you can really see the color on his pectoral fins!


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## Huffle Puffles (Jul 5, 2013)

Awws  Poor Steve, perk up lil guy!


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## BettaLover1313 (Apr 15, 2013)

I really hope Steve starts to perk up


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## annyann (Oct 28, 2013)

lilnaugrim said:


> Thanks DQ, doesn't seem to be so though :-(
> 
> I came home to find that half of his ventral is bitten off and his tail is bitten up pretty badly, not something that could be achieved by a fish on another side of the divider :-( I figured Kit could reach the ventral if he stuck it through the divider but the way the tail is bit up, she couldn't have possibly done it >.< I can't win with these guy's. He's still refusing to eat too and while shows interest in eating and Kit, he just doesn't want to do anything.
> 
> Hawkeye on the other hand furociously builds his bubble-nests and flares at Steve and Black CT girl quite a bit and then comes up to beg for food  Kit swims around, taunting Steve through the divider and then goes to beg for food.


I hope Steve gets to feeling better. Your babies are all growing up to look so beautiful! Thanks for helping me figure out my new baby is a boy.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Thanks to both of you.

Steve is not doing well I'm afraid. I woke up today and I thought he was dead for a while until I poked him with some tweezer's and he moved but not much. He's barely breathing and I really don't think he's going to last long. I don't want to euthanize him because I've done that so much in the past two weeks and I'm still holding onto the hope that he can get better with a few nice Brine Shrimps in his tummy :-(


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## annyann (Oct 28, 2013)

lilnaugrim said:


> Thanks to both of you.
> 
> Steve is not doing well I'm afraid. I woke up today and I thought he was dead for a while until I poked him with some tweezer's and he moved but not much. He's barely breathing and I really don't think he's going to last long. I don't want to euthanize him because I've done that so much in the past two weeks and I'm still holding onto the hope that he can get better with a few nice Brine Shrimps in his tummy :-(


Oh no! Im sorry, maybe he will perk up for some Brine shrimps. If there is some place you could get some mosquito larva in your area, that might entice him to eat and they are so nutritious it might give him a boost to hang on. I thought the cold would get rid of all the larva here in my area, but I went out and checked and its all still there wiggling around. I been feeding it to all my fish and the new baby I got has done really well on it so far.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Yeah he didn't go for the shrimp, he's literally sitting half an inch from it on the floor and just not doing anything.

All our mosquito's have gone by now, especially after our super cold week about two weeks ago and then this past Monday was below freezing soooo yeah, no mosquito larvae for my fishies, but yes I normally go out in the summer to find some as well.

Steve is normally a picky eater but this is beyond being picky, this is him giving up his will, the same thing happened to Tony as well. I know it's because they're all severely stunted and I've done the best I can till this point and yes it's all a learning experience but at a hard cost sometimes.


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## EvaJupiterSkies (Oct 25, 2013)

I just read this entire thing (procrastination is a beautiful thing), and poor Tony and Steve! I hope Steve gets better! 

I have slight betta envy over Hawkeye though. Wow, he is a gorgeous boy! And Kit-Kat is adorable too!


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## BettaLover1313 (Apr 15, 2013)

I really hope Steve perks up! I can't imagine how hard this has all been!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Oh wow Eva! Congrats to you haha, although 26 pages shouldn't be too terrible, not like my actual log which now has 90 pages O.O

But thank you! Yeah, Hawkeye continues to grow! I swear his tail is longer today than it was last night!

Oh and something else I think I forgot to mention, I had bought NLS Growth Formula finally and the two; Kit and Hawk just gobble it right up! Well Hawkeye eat's the normal 1mm sized pellets but I figure the Grow formula is better for him anyway :-D

Steve has remained in the same position all day now, I don't know how long it will be; minutes, hours, days....I really can't tell. sigh...the upside is that Kit-Kat and Hawkeye will have more room after and I won't have a fish that's constantly producing the growth stunting hormone. Hawkeye is sexually mature now and is theoretically slowed down on his growth stunting hormone release as other hormones increase, I don't know this for certain but it's a theory. He will, at some point, stop producing the growth stunting one.

Kit-Kat is just before sexual maturity, she's almost there but just slightly too young as of right now


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## beautiful Betta (Sep 19, 2013)

Sorry to hear about poor steve, how's he doing?

I cant hep but feel when a breeder sells these fish at so young they pretty much already know they are not going to be of a show standard, plus possibly can see there might be issues with the little guys so sell them on quickly and make some money on them, its sad I know but the breeders are not stupid they know exactly what they are selling. they will keep the best and bring those on to sell at higher prices later on, even in the ones they keep they will still be selling a majority as normal adult pet stock to the chain stores. I am not trying to sound harsh but you have put these little guys into fantastic water and conditions and still they are not really thriving, I have to ask the question is it really worth buying one so young, and have all the upset and stress you are going through? I am not saying you shouldn't, just saying would you do it again knowing what you know now and the stress you are going through?


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

beautiful Betta said:


> Sorry to hear about poor steve, how's he doing?
> 
> I cant hep but feel when a breeder sells these fish at so young they pretty much already know they are not going to be of a show standard, plus possibly can see there might be issues with the little guys so sell them on quickly and make some money on them, its sad I know but the breeders are not stupid they know exactly what they are selling. they will keep the best and bring those on to sell at higher prices later on, even in the ones they keep they will still be selling a majority as normal adult pet stock to the chain stores. I am not trying to sound harsh but you have put these little guys into fantastic water and conditions and still they are not really thriving, I have to ask the question is it really worth buying one so young, and have all the upset and stress you are going through? I am not saying you shouldn't, just saying would you do it again knowing what you know now and the stress you are going through?



Thank you, I don't know about him right now since I'm not at home, currently at my mom's and he's at my dad's with my other fish. But I'll be going tomorrow to check on fish and I will update then.

Oh the breeders know exactly what they're doing, more often than not these fish are culls and I knew that. However cull fish aren't always bad, they make great pet's but of course they won't be show quality. In fact almost none of the Betta's sold in Pet shops are show quality, you would need to buy directly from the breeder for that sort of thing.

As far as getting them and knowing something like this could happen, yes I would do again because it brings immense pleasure to know that I helped that fish grow up. Steve and Tony were my first and I made many mistakes along the way, things that I learned from though. Mostly it's the water changes and I know that doing 2-3 water changes a week isn't going to cut it when it comes to these babies, especially since they have already been through a trauma of shipping and who knows how long they've spent in the back room or the cups. That already stunts them right there.

There are many cases where these babies live to grow up well if the owner knows what they are doing. I am confident in my baby care skills that I will say yes that I would get another. Not right now but in the future when I don't have as much going on.

I'm really not stressed out or saddened by their death's, yes I mean, I am sad but I'm not one to cry over something for very long. I have a very quick recovery rate and sometimes that makes me seem a little heartless but I'm really not. I know I tried my best although I could have done better for sure and I take lessons from all of this. Sure, it sucks but I'm honestly over it. <--see, sounds heartless lol.

Honestly it really wasn't Tony's death that had set me over the edge but this entire Semester since about mid-August my Sorority tank had been fighting a disease for three long months and it finally just ended with me euthanizing a few fish that were left and the remaining five decided to kill each other. So that was kind of devestating to come home to; just a bloodbath of fish, they even joined in on the Pygmy cories I had just bought. So it's kind of the cummulation of it all really, in the past three months I've had 26 fish die on me and Steve (I assume) and Tony's on top of it just sort of sucks. Not even the fact that, yes they are my baby boy's. But...yeah.

So in short, yes I would do again since I had pretty much screwed up their care and I know it. If I had done things the way I was supposed to, they would have actually lived.


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## beautiful Betta (Sep 19, 2013)

that's so sad, I am glad to hear you are quite resilient, I actually wouldn't buy so young myself because I know that if the worst happened I would think perhaps if I had of done that things would work out better, plus I only will ever have one at a time, maintenance is enough on one tank once a week for me, so I will buy what I really want and will enjoy taking care of and viewing.

I think you need to be a bit hard in the fish world, I would never buy a sickly looking one either. I know many do and I applaud them, but it's not for me I take it on myself too much if I couldn't save it. The way I look at it, all those fish in that chain store need rescuing to a good home, so buy the one that you think is special/pretty whatever calls to you, because chances are some kid will come along and buy the really nice one and kill it anyway in a bowl or betta cube that the parents have been told is sufficient. So in away a really healthy fish will die anyway because people like us think to save the one that looks ill because we feel sorry for it, well maybe not me. I know I sound really harsh but those healthy looking ones need good homes too.


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## Phantom Miria (Mar 17, 2013)

I'm sorry to hear about you're loses Lilnaugrim, in particular the sorority sounded awful. I hope things really turn around you, you are a great betta keeper!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Thanks to both of you 

Yeah, well when I bought Tony I knew he had some issues, he was having difficulty swimming and his belly was a bit enlarged and I never really expected him to last this long really. Steve was much healthier and I'm sure he would have lived if I had just done the right things.

However the next babies I have will most likely be from a spawn of my own so there won't be much trauma involved which means that they will actually grow up and live lol

As far as the sick fish, I used to do that but that's part of what I'm pretty sure ruined my sorority as well along with the Ram's and my newbish mistakes. So I won't be buying sick fish either, not because I don't feel bad or anything but I'd rather keep the ones that I have, healthy


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## annyann (Oct 28, 2013)

Im so sorry to hear about all the bad luck you have been having with your Bettas, 26 fish lost is awful! I didn't read far back enough in your journals I guess, I didn't know you had a sorority. I can imagine how I would feel if I lost my sorority tank.. Do you think you will set up another one someday?
Sometimes things just happen with fish, you're a good fish keeper and I would hate for you to be discouraged.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Thanks annyann  yeah I had a lovely sorority of 33 gallons with, at one point 23 girls in it and it all went kaput after the three month struggle.

Came home and Steve's gone now. I'm doing the Betta shuffle now so I'm not going to take out the divider, I'm going to put Aero my DSPK in where Steve was and then take Pip out of the 33 and put him in the 2.5 but that's more for my other journal.

S.I.P. Steve and Tony, at least you're together again! And for that I am happy.


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## Rosencrantz32 (May 12, 2013)

I'm so sorry you lost them. It was so fun watching them grow and I know they had an awesome life with you! 
Swim In Peace little ones! You and your antics will be missed <3


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Thank you Rosencrantz!

Well I still have Hawkeye and Kit-Kat and they'll be the center of attention for now when I get pictures  Hawkeye started a flaring contest with Aero once Aero got in the divided side lol. I feel like I'm going to move Aero to Kit-Kat's side and switch her to the middle so that Aero just flares at her, although he was body slamming the divider but he can't get through thankfully. If I do come home and he's on the other side, I'm gonna punt him out the window! lol not really but yeah.


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## beautiful Betta (Sep 19, 2013)

I am sorry to hear that, you worked so hard with them. You can rest easy knowing you did all you could for the little guys.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Thank you beautiful_Betta


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## BettaLover1313 (Apr 15, 2013)

I'm sorry to hear about Steve


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

Aww, Steve passed away? I'm so sorry! I always enjoyed hearing about him.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Yeah he was gone when I went home yesterday. Looks like he'd been gone for a good 24 hours by that point, had some fuzz growing on him :-(

I'll try to spice things up with Kit-Kat and Hawkeye though! I think I'm going to do the Great Betta Swap again and go like:

Aero|Hawkeye|Kit-Kat|[Black CT girl]


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## logisticsguy (Sep 7, 2012)

Im sorry about Steve. I really liked reading about him and Tony. You do have to be resilient as a betta keeper. Many people blame themselves and cant get over the inevitable losses. Your fish are lucky to have a good keeper that cares.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Thanks CJ, that does make me feel a little better. I always felt I was too hard, I try not to think completely like "there are always more fish in the sea" but that's also difficult to NOT think like that lol. Of course with betta's, their personalities are so different that sometimes you can't just simply replace them and for that I'm more grateful. I feel like with most schooler fish that I could just replace them in a heartbeat and not care less about it. So I guess it's a good thing I don't keep schoolers often. However, there's always another Betta giving me those eye's >.>

I'm really trying to cut myself off, haven't been looking on AquaBid or Ebay lately! At least not for Betta's.

I'm wondering if I should breed guppies first to really get the hang of breeding before I go jumping into Betta's or if that's just a silly idea. My LFS has this gorgeous trio, I think he is a sort of black with a sky blue platinum running down his back and all his tail is that color too. And then the girls are almost completely black with just the same blue on their tails but with a black butterfly around their tails, I might be wrong about that though. But they are beautiful and I haven't seen too many like that before.

So maybe it might be worth it just to breed/sell them to keep the line going? I know my LFS won't intentionally breed them and has offered them to me before so....idk! what are your thoughts on this everyone?

I have pictures later to sort through after I make my dinner and to upload! Hawkeye and Aero don't stop flaring unless I come over XD and then Kit-Kat is just chillin' lol. I did the switch too so Aero is on the end then Hawkeye on his right, Kit-Kat and then Black Copper CT girl in the 3 gallon next to it. Lookin good!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 95 and 19*

Well my computer blue screened in the middle of this so I'm just gonna make this quick instead. Still can't believe I've had Hawkeye for 95 day's now! That seems so long! But he's almost a full grown fish now! He's also built a bubble nest in less than half an hour since the water change and I moved everyone O.O










He looks bigger than Aero but Aero was further back than he.


















"I'm stuck!...Just kidding!"


















Classic picture!









Kit-Kat is filling out well too!


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## DatBetta (Nov 14, 2013)

If it was someone else I would say guppies but since it's u and you are always on top of things and very responsible I would say go for the bettas. Plus you already have experience with baby bettas. (Sorry about Steve!).


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## Phantom Miria (Mar 17, 2013)

Kit-Kat is looking wonderful and vibrant =)!


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## beautiful Betta (Sep 19, 2013)

I say go with your passion, as pretty as guppies are, they are so stupid, when I had a five foot community tank fully planted, we actually had baby guppies we had to place the birthing mum in a birthing floating container which had a gridded floor to allow the babies to swim down into a safe compartment away from the mum, yes during birth she actually was turning around a eating a few as she was birthing them. We managed to raise the ones that survived to adulthood easily enough and we wasn't even planning on breeding any fish.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Thanks all!

As far as the guppies, I don't care much about how stupid they might be or anything but I'd be looking more for just purely raising the babies into adulthood since I failed with Steve and Tony so I obviously did something wrong and I really think it was lack of water changes which caused the stunt and so on. I know guppies aren't the same but at least I could get into the habit of actually doing something rather than jumping into something with only some knowledge about it and finding out that I'm going to kill an entire spawn because I skipped a water change.

I mean, I'm sure I will be more responsible for when that time comes....idk...I just worry too much I think.


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## beautiful Betta (Sep 19, 2013)

I don't think you can say you were to blame, at the end of the day they were sickly fish when you bought them and did manage to get them to mostly adulthood which in theory they should have been tougher as they got older, they were pretty much adult betta, and should have been as tough as any adult, but they weren't and I think they probably had other issues internally that you couldn't have done anything for. 
Anyway whatever you decide to do good luck with it.


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## logisticsguy (Sep 7, 2012)

Absolutely not your fault with Steve and Tony. They most likely didn't have the best genetics health wise to start. Also the conditions in their spawn and early development were certainly less than ideal. Then being packed shipped and in cool conditions with no heat, filter, food or water changes at a very young age for who knows how long before they were lucky enough to find you. Do not doubt yourself on this one you did just fine by them.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Well I wouldn't say Steve and Tony were practically adults, Steve was almost an inch in body and Tony was just over half an inch in body; still pretty tiny. But thanks anyway 

I'm still wondering if maybe I should breed those guppies for the heck of it and sell those babies because if I remember right, they were a gorgeous trio and I've never seen such definitive color on a male! It might be something fun while we get ready to breed our CT pair, my friend and I. At least we'll be helping each other. She's kind of squeamish and afraid about the actually spawning part so she's letting me do that part and keep an eye on them and then I get to raise them and once we jar them, the males will go to her place and I'll be keeping the females at mine until maturity and we can sell ^_^


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## Chachi (Sep 22, 2013)

Sorry to hear about your loss.  I am struggling with my babies as well. They act totally fine but they just aren't growing. I've had them for a couple of months now and I would have thought I would have seen more growth. I am wondering if maybe I am not doing enough water changes but at this point is it almost too late? Are they going to be stunted permanently??


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## Phantom Miria (Mar 17, 2013)

You've got to breed that CT pair! They were meant for each other!! And I want they're babies >:l


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Chachi said:


> Sorry to hear about your loss.  I am struggling with my babies as well. They act totally fine but they just aren't growing. I've had them for a couple of months now and I would have thought I would have seen more growth. I am wondering if maybe I am not doing enough water changes but at this point is it almost too late? Are they going to be stunted permanently??


You can still amp the water changes up to daily to see if it helps and it should. Hawkeye was received from a friend who had him for almost four months or something like that, in a 1 gallon with water changes only weekly. Now look at him. So with Steve and Tony it was more the underlying issues rather than the water changes that I did since Hawkeye grew amazingly even with my minimal water changes (don't follow my example >.<) So yes it can be "reversed".



Phantom Miria said:


> You've got to breed that CT pair! They were meant for each other!! And I want they're babies >:l


I know! But guppies are so low maintenance, all I have to do is feed them and boom, babies. lol I was actually planning some of the breeding of the CT pair this morning. I'm so freaking nervous it isn't funny but I know if I just sit down and read some more I'll be more confident.

But also considering that I have a 500+ frame animation to finish by Dec. 3rd, I'm a little stressed at the moment with only 203 frames.....the animation is only 1:48 long and running at 32 frames per second (fps) and....uggg, I just need to get on it but I have so much crap that I have to do it isn't funny! :-(


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## annyann (Oct 28, 2013)

Lilnaugrim, remember the little cambodian baby Betta I bought and posted questions about? You helped me figure out he was a boy, well he just died this morning. I dont know what happened, I was on top of water changes and he had great food, but still I only could get him to live for 12 days.. So sad, no more Petco babies for me.
His pics are in my sorority journal. =(


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## PetMania (Mar 28, 2013)

lilnaugrim said:


> I know! But guppies are so low maintenance, all I have to do is feed them and boom, babies. !


 
Yeah, but they breed like CRAZY! Within 2 months you can have hundreds-thousands of babies. But they are really pretty and it is fun to watch them grow.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

annyann said:


> Lilnaugrim, remember the little cambodian baby Betta I bought and posted questions about? You helped me figure out he was a boy, well he just died this morning. I dont know what happened, I was on top of water changes and he had great food, but still I only could get him to live for 12 days.. So sad, no more Petco babies for me.
> His pics are in my sorority journal. =(


Oh no, I'm so sorry :-( as we've discussed here though, it's often not our fault. It happens with adults too, we can be the best keepers and for some reason, they still die no matter all the things we do right. One of the biggest reasons, at least I think, that PetCo babies die is because they've been through this huge trauma of shipping, they don't come from local breeder's so they often spend a few day's in cold, freezing shipping bags that only further hurt them! So it's quite often, I would say at least half if not 60% of those babies end up dying from all the stress they've been under. Being separated from their spawn is just not a good idea but Breeder's just want the more money.

I'm sorry for your loss though :-( he did look like a nice healthy baby.




PetMania said:


> Yeah, but they breed like CRAZY! Within 2 months you can have hundreds-thousands of babies. But they are really pretty and it is fun to watch them grow.


I plan on picking out the not good ones and feeding them to Rembrandt and Aero since they are the most aggressive and will tear apart other fishes in their domain. Charlie is the gentlest betta I've ever owned! He's so dainty for a giant lol.

I also have a friend with an Oscar would'd love the culls for his fish! ;-)


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## PetMania (Mar 28, 2013)

I was thinking the same thing. Hehe, my loach would love fry. He's 2 inches and he already murdered a smaller snail.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

*Day 98 and 22*

*Posting from Saturday* yeah that was a long time ago lol. I apologize, it was a pretty hectic weekend! Between trying to finish commissions and my final animation project, yeah I'm pooped!

So I didn't really actually get any good pictures I'm just now realizing haha. I got one good one of Kit-Kat though, just her regular picture but she's filling out pretty well. I know it's not much change but for almost having her a month (crazy how time flies!), she's grown fairly well!


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## annyann (Oct 28, 2013)

Kit-Kat is looking good! At my local pet stores I never see a black or dark bodied Betta with red fins, they always have the light colored bodies.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Yeah they come in waves. Sometimes we have light colored ones and then at other times in the year we have darker ones. It all depends on who's breeding and how fast they're breeding


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## annyann (Oct 28, 2013)

I'm always looking and hoping I will get lucky and find a dark bodied one with bright red or blue fins.
I haven't had any time on the computer in over a week, I been meaning to look back threw your journal and read about your sorority. I plan to add more females to my tank and actually just bought one, but she is way to aggressive and I'm going to have to take her back. I didn't actually put her in the tank, just in a specimen container in the tank and she flared and tryed to attack every girl that swam by. That's just the way my "big blue" was and when I let her out she teared every girls fins and she had to be removed. I think the new girl I got is a good bit older cause she is bigger, I need to find younger girls that are closer to the size of the girls in my tank. I hope that will make it easier to add more. Right now, with only five girls in a 25 gallon tank, it looks so bare.
Did you find there to be a difference in the amount of aggression between VT and CT females? I read somewhere that the CT girls tend to be more aggressive so I have only bought VT so far, but the selection on CT's was so much better last time I went that I almost bought one, plus they were smaller like my five girls in the tank are.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

When they first see each other it's very natural for them to flare. What you have to do is float them in the tank, either in the specimen container or a cup they can't get out of, float them for a minimum of one week so that they can get used to the presence of another fish. If needed, float for two weeks. Then when you release her, watch how she interacts with them. If you find she's doing some serious damage like biting off tails and fins completely, yeah take her out and try doing the Time Out session again for two weeks (floating in tank so they can see but not touch). This can also act as a QT period since you need to QT them for the minimum of two weeks if not more.

What I did was acclimate them to my sorority water, change their water from the store cups to my water and then float them. I would usually tether them to the side with a twisty tie or something so they didn't float away and sink under the filter or anything. Then every day or every other I would take my spare cup, fill with water from the tank and put the girl into that new cup. Throw out old water, don't put it back into tank since the whole point of quarantine is to keep the tank disease free!

Then by the time their two week probationary period came to a rest, all the girls were comfortable with each other. Yes, occasionally you will get the random girl that can't be housed in a tank but generally with some patience, they can be housed together.

Tearing, ripping, niping and chasing are all very normal for the fish when they are first introduced to the sorority. There will be body slamming and flaring and more, it's part of their need to figure out hierarchy and you have to let them go at it. Only remove if you find the bully doing some serious damage as I said before, like literally taking chunks out of the fish. But all the nipping and tearing and chasing is all normal and has to be done, usually it lasts about 2 weeks.

There was a small study saying that CT's and red girls were more aggressive however I found that my CT girl was very submissive and my red girl was the sweetest girl in the tank. It's hard to say that one color is more aggressive than the other. It's like saying black people are angrier, that's racist lol. Each fish has their own personality and while some may conform to that, most of them don't.

Also size of the fish doesn't matter either, I had one of my smaller girls be Alpha for quite a while, she was eventually pushed down by a bigger fish but size doesn't control the amount of aggression or submission they have. Same thing in people, just because someone looks big and scary doesn't mean they actually are ;-)

Also more about my sorority is in my Betta Log, not this one since this is for my babies rather than my other fish. Although lately it's become about everyone haha. All is well though!


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## annyann (Oct 28, 2013)

Thanks for all the info, the big blue girl was doing some serious fin ripping when she was in the tank, none of the five that I have in there now were any where near as aggressive as she was. I still have her, she is in a 1 gallon tank by her self, the new girl I just bought acted just the same, for that reason and also quarantining, is why she wasn't let out. So you think Im giving up to easy on them? You're probably right, but its just such a difference in behavior between the big blue girl, new girl, and then the other five. I wonder how it would go if I put both my new girl (after quirinten) and Big blue in to float for a few days and then introduced them at the same time... I wonder if they would bully each other and leave my other peaceful five alone for the most part... I don't know, its hard to figure what's the best thing to do. 
Sorry im kinda spamming your Baby Betta thread!!
I will switch over and check out your Betta log, actully Im on page 11 right now :-D


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

lol no worries, I don't mind the talking ^_^ And uhhh yeah, good luck reading it all! I talk a lot too haha and 90 some odd pages....yep!

I would float them for a minimum of a week if you want to put them both in, two weeks is the best though in my opinion. When I see a girl is aggressive when she comes out, she's already been floating for two weeks. So she actually get's a full month of floating really when I float her in for "Time Out" another two weeks.

So yeah, I think you are giving up too early and not letting them get to know each other first through floating 

The most important things I've learned in sorority keeping is Quarantining (QT) at least two weeks, heavily planted tank (silk or real doesn't matter), and give them time


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