# New fisty friends, new tanks, and sudden illness and emergency surgery.... oh my haha



## AbbieTheCurious (Dec 16, 2020)

I have reached a milestone in my life and fish keeping at the same time and that being the case I feel like it would be fun to kind of document my recent fish journey on here because its been a bit wild lol.

Before getting to the recent milestone I'll give a little history on how I ended up with the fish I have.

The first fish I acquired were goldfish... my mom who doesnt know much about fish care decided to get like 12 goldfish and put them in a pool in the backyard... (all this was unknown to me)... so almost all of them died obviously... she told me about it and i told her that was because a she didnt cycle anything or anything and also it probably got way to hot during the day because she didn't give them any shade. So she moved them inside... into an unfiltered 10 Gal lol so I eventually convinced her to just let me have the gold fish, I moved them into my room and gave them a filter, treated them for everything they could possibly have as they are feeder gold fish.

So fast forward a few months, one day I'm walking through the kitchen and notice mom is cleaning a vase in the sink... nothing to weird there.... then I notice a flash of blue in the vase... I was like "ummm ma.... is that a betta in that vase?" Mom: "yes this is my betta royal why?".... Me: _trys to think of a way to explain everything wrong here... realizes this is my mom and I could explain all day and she would just say she has kept plenty of bettas this way and they were happy.. decides on a different strategy..._ "uhhhhhh well..... ummm... I've been feeling kinda depressed working from home.... was just thinking maybe a betta tank on my desk might help.... so ummm can I have your fish? Maybe? just to like barrow kinda" Come to find out she had actually been feeling bad because she kept forgetting to feed him so she was all for the idea lol so that was the day I became a betta thief haha

I decided I would get a bigger tank for the gold fish on black friday and then give Royal the 10 gal. I wanted him to be more comfortable in the meantime though so I made a make shift tank for him out of a huge cheese ball container lmao was about 2.5-3 Gal so not super good but much better then his vase and I gave him a little filter and heater too. He hid up behind the filter for the first few days but eventually got comfy then I got to see his personality come out and fell totally in love.

Black Friday came and I got a 55 Gal for the goldies (which if I understand right they may need a bigger of upgrade at some point but this should hold them good tell at least next black Friday haha) and I also got another 10 Gal because I was already pretty sure I wanted another betta haha.

I started getting the 55 Gal set up, got the decorations in and had started to get it all filled up. I had gravel from their old tank plus a bottle of beneficial bacteria so got the cycle started. I went back to petco one day because I wanted to get some frozen foods and stuffs for the fishies and needed some more air hose..... well..... while I was there I of course had to "just look at the bettas"..... and ended up coming home with a dumbo ear female (Im honestly not sure if its dumbo ear or elephant ear, but I've heard both and like dumbo lmao) She looked a little sick but I had all the meds you could possibly try and an extra filter and everything so should be all good... got her home set her up in a quarantine tub... was all ready to switch over the goldies and set up the 10 Gal tanks... aaannnnddd then I got really, really, really sick.....

What had started as a slight tooth ache had with in a couple days turned into a really bad infection (I have immune system issues.. these things happen).ended up going to a walk in dental thing since there is an issue with my insurance, they gave me antibiotics but we didn't remove it as I didn't have that much money. Unfortunately, the antibiotics didn't really work and over the next three days it got worse. At one point it got so bad it had got so bad it was hurting in the jaw joint and I couldn't open my mouth. So I went to the hospital, was there for like 16 hours because they had to do like dental surgery and put a tube in my jaw... I had to get that removed a few days later and everything seemed to be getting better... then I got COVID lmao because its meeee.... That was just as not fun as everyone has said haha definitely a nasty one.. As this was all going on anytime I had a little tiny bit of energy I would add one more jug of water here and one there to the 55 Gal lol and eventually got it filled enough and cycled so slowly added one fish at a time when I had enough in me for the stairs to the basement and what not. Eventually I started getting a bit better I had gotten all the goldfish in there new tank and had started on tearing down the 10 gallon.

One morning I got a call from my friend, she knew I had gotten back into fish, also that me and a friend used to rescue sick and baby bettas get them all fat grown and happy then find them forever homes with people that had the right set ups. Well.. she was at petco and there was apparently 4 babies that looked kinda extra small and needing tlc.. she said she would buy them and give me an old 20 gallon she had if I would try to give them a chance... I looked at my closet.. my little space heater that is all kinds of customizable and shows the room temp and stuff.. started thinking of a plan and said "yeeeeeaaaaahhhh bring em on over Ill clear out my closet and set up a temp baby hospital" and down the rabbit hole I fell.

I got the first 10 Gal torn down and was getting ready to make some dividers. In the span of a day though I suddenly spiked a fever and my face swelled back up.. and back to the hospital we went. This time though they actually ended up giving me a penicillin shot which seemed to do the trick. 

So we are finally feeling better and back on track and made it through that super scary time! and the best news is I got my boy bettas all set up in their brand new 10 Gal (with separators of course lol) So that's the milestone I was talking about.. and the life milestone was not dropping dead from all the illness lmao.. Now its time to get started with the girls 10 Gal and then get to cleaning up and getting all the needed fixing for that 20 Gal so we can upgrade as the little ones get bigger. 

I'll post pictures and updates below as I go with the rest! and also of the already set up one lol and sorry this turned into an entire book.. I have no life lmao


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## AbbieTheCurious (Dec 16, 2020)

This is the 10 Gal for the boys sorry about the glare I have to adjust the light and figure out what will work for seeing the fish better in photos
















I promise there is 3 fish in there lmao in the middle is the handsome Royal on his right his adopted son King Louis and on his left his adopted son David Bowie 😋 I will post individual pictures you can hopefull see them each better.


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## AbbieTheCurious (Dec 16, 2020)

I did take closer pictures of the fishies in their new tank but they all wanted to not sit still for photos so they still aren't great lmao

This is King Louis who might be Queen something in the future because im pretty sure I spotted an egg spot as I was taking these photos..

















Our handsome Royal looking as grumpy as ever 😋 (don't worry pretty sure with him grumpy actually equals happy lmao)









And finally the one and only David Bowie hehe


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## Rose of sharon (May 23, 2020)

Wow! What a story! Glad you are feeling better!

And they are beautiful!!!

😊


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## AbbieTheCurious (Dec 16, 2020)

Rose of sharon said:


> Wow! What a story! Glad you are feeling better!
> 
> And they are beautiful!!!
> 
> 😊


Thank you there's actually 3 females too I want to get them in their 10 Gal and out of there temp containers before posting pictures though lmao I wanted them to be in a big enough space for filters and heaters so they are in big sterilite tubs and taking side pictures is impossible.... The 4 babies made me have to improvise just a bit lmao but I'm glad I told her yes they all made it, they are fat happy little things now which I'm thankful for as two of them I really questioned if they would pull through so I'm excited lol


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## AbbieTheCurious (Dec 16, 2020)

So I found out we are going to have to move in a couple months... of course I found this out literally as I was walking in the door with the new oscar I had just rescued from petsmart lmao... any way this means all tank upgrades have been put on an immediate hold lol so unfortunately this journal is irrelevant now... Buuuut bright side!!! we will be doing all new set ups now at the new house haha we can do it even bigger and even better!

I may go ahead and star a journal showing the growth and stuff of the 4 babies though and maybe one of my newest friend Sunny the oscar.. if anyone would like to see that let me know I will try to set it up


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