# UPSCALES: A "fancy fish" blog



## FlotsamandJetsam (Oct 14, 2013)

*Chapter 1: I Aqua bid you good day*


My fish journey begins with the discovery of Aquabid and its beautiful colourful fish. I came across the site while looking online for info about betta fish and became obsessed.

I knew I needed to get my fish from there.

So I picked out a beautiful Blue and White Butterfly Crowntail and instead of bidding (I am a tad impulsive) I just bought him right then and there! 

Moments later a foreign email popped into my inbox telling me to send them money and I had sent the money to Thailand through Paypal. 

This is when things got confusing. After a week of multiple emails asking for shipping dates I had no response. I thought I had been jipped! I decided I rushed into things and went back to see the sellers feedback history like a normal person would have before sending 50$ across the world. And there wasn't much there....So I accepted my loss and I went back onto the site disappointed but determined to find a new fish from a breeder with good ratings.

This is when I stumbled upon this beauty. A Blue Red and White dragon butterfly half-moon (picture below).










Again I bought him outright and this time was contacted by a breeder with much better communication skills and we organized a shipping date. I named him *Jetsam*.

I then went out to an amazing local specialty pet store and bought Jetsam his new tank. I chose a 5 gallon Fluval Chi Tank along with a Fluval compact aquarium heater. The tank also came with small containers of Nutrafin Aqua Plus and Cycle.

I also chose the following accessories:

Black Gravel
Green Gemstones (I wanted them to look like treasure)
Plastic assorted plants
A large Skull Ornament

I decided on a Pirate theme for my tank and took everything home, followed all the instructions and VOILA set up my tank! (picture below)










The next day I was sitting looking at my fishless tank (as my fish wont arrive for another 10 days) when I got an email to my phone.....

Low and behold it was the MIA breeder and he just let me know that he would be sending my original fish at the end of the month!

This meant that now I would be expecting not 1,.... but 2 Betta fish!

So now I need to go and prepare another tank for my other son *Sonic *who will also be arriving from Thailand.(Picture Below)










THe questions I am stuck with now are:

1. Should I get a 10 gallon tank for my other fish? Or stick with the 5 gallon again? I somehow thing the 5 Gallon seems too small?
2. What theme should I go for with my other tank I need to buy! I was thinking Greek and Roman, or Cartoon!

Also if people want to share their positive or negative Aquabid experiences on here please do so!

Thanks for reading


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## MattsBettas (Dec 18, 2012)

You have some beautiful fish on the way. Five gallons is fine for a betta but upgrading doesn't hurt, and the theme for the other tank should be... Planted. Because I love live plants and they are awesome for fish. 

Where in Canada are you, if you don't mind me asking?


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## FlotsamandJetsam (Oct 14, 2013)

Vancouver!!!

Yes I am going to look into real plants or even start with silk plants until I do more research


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## Niece (Feb 27, 2012)

I love the pirate theme. :]
Cartoon would be cool for your other one because it would make his color pop. But I do love the idea of Rome or Greek.


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## FlotsamandJetsam (Oct 14, 2013)

*Chapter 2: Tanks, Plants and Unexpected Guests*

I would like to thank everyone for their good advice as I have been quite busy at the Pet Store this week. Even though they pet store employees at the place I go to are super knowledgable, I don't think I would have been nearly prepared for finding all the items I was looking for.

My first mission was to look for another new tank. I chose the 12 Gallon Fluval Edge tank here:

http://www.amazon.com/Fluval-12-Gallon-Aquarium-42-LED-Light/dp/B005X88XIK

Here is my tank while I am prepping it:


















I like the way that it had a larger viewing area and it fit perfectly in the corner I had chosen for it. 

I then needed some decorations, I went for Greek and Roman Theme so I chose:









Greek and Roman Pillars









Broken Greek Vase









White Gravel

I also went for everyones plant advice and bought 2 types of plants (If someone can help me identify them that would be great!

Some other accessories I purchased were a 50 watt heater, magnet cleaner and thermometer










I also got a FLuval gravel cleaner to keep my white gravel nice and clean!










I also picked up some Betta Basics and Flourish fertilizer for my plants (I still need to get one more branch of the leafy green one for the other side to balance everything out but the store needs to restock!)










Voila! Here is what everything looks like all put together!










(Be warned that the top of this tank is small so my poor Greek and Roman Pillars couldnt fit into the auctual tank itself no matter how hard I tried!










Here is a picture of the tank with the blue night mode LED light on










I also had a stowaway baby snail sneak onto my bag where they put my plants. He is SO small I have no idea what kind of snail he is but I carefully put him in the tank and threw in some betta pellets and hoped that he would make it!

In the morning I caught him munching on a betta pellet that had sunk to the bottom and he looks happy!










He is literally the size of a sesame seed - I really hope he grows.

My questions are:

Does anyone know the breed of plants I put into the tank?
Does anyone know what kind of snail he is?
what should I name my little snail!


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## FlotsamandJetsam (Oct 14, 2013)

You can also see these posts on my blog:

*http://upscalesfancyfishblog.com*


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