# Betta's Skies || A Journal By anfarlamb



## anfarlamb (May 6, 2017)

* Hello there! 
*​In this journal, Betta's Skies, I, anfarlamb, will be spilling all of my information/thoughts about Bettas. I'll try to keep to Betta-related topics, however, no promises. First, I'll explain all of my past Bettas' happenings. 

_ In the beginning...
_​First, let me say, in the beginning, I was certainly inexperienced. I knew Bettas needed a home, and they ate meat. I - please forgive me! - put my Bettas in an unusually large vase with a blossoming plant at the top. Now, I _did_ feed the Bettas meats. I used flakes. I didn't realize this at the time, but the roots of the plant were quite twisty, and the Bettas enjoyed hiding in it to hide from the world around them. The vase had those plasticky rocks at the bottom, of which I still use.

The Bettas who lived in the summer did fine. It was around 68-74 in my house at the time, and they lived fairly "long" lives, considering circumstances. Bettas in the winter had less fortunate lives. They were lethargic and slow-moving. I didn't really understand or realize they weren't doing well because of the temperature. I had about 6-9 Bettas in these conditions. 

After the 7 or 8th had passed, my mom figured it out. She went to the store with me and asked the lady who worked there if they needed heat or something else to help them live. The lady passed it off and passed me another Betta. I took the newly-named Sashimi - half off of Sushi, a Betta who had lived for a while and we really enjoyed caring for him - home, happy with it, and it died 3 days later.

We marched to PetSmart, who gave us... some better information. I purchased a 2.5 gallon tank, a filter, and a heater. Then, after setting up the tank, I got a Betta. He was blue-red-purple in the store, and he was labeled as a "halfmoon". From my research, they had full spreads and pretty tails, so I purchased him. Deciding on the name "Gradient", I went home that fateful January 1st. 

Gradient never had the full {half} spread a halfmoon usually had. I still called a halfmoon, though I still wonder if he was simply a mislabeled vieltail. Passing it off, I enjoyed having such a happy and lovely fish. My whole family loved him. My dad likes to watch/speak with/to him in the mornings, my mom talks to him throughout the day, and my brother enjoyed watching him occasionally.

Fast forward a lot, add a lot of plants, a lot of worry, and we're in mid-summer. This is when Gradient started his lovely fin-biting. He began to nibble on the edges of his fins. I noticed his shrinking fins and added a bit of stress coat and a bit more plants that were silk. I took out some other plants, assuming that it was possibly the plants that was causing it. I realized it wasn't the plants and I didn't pass it off, per say, but I dismissed it because I thought the problem had been taken care of after adding the stress coat, etc. One day, I noticed his dorsal fin - normally long and flowy - had been seemingly cut. It didn't seem to be hurting him, so I just kept a close, blue eye on him.

His tail eventually just became a lot smaller. I hadn't minded too much. He looked like a smaller fish. He was still the same old Gradient. He was the same to me. I loved him still, not anymore, not any less. He stopped nibbling after - I think - he couldn't nibble. It would grow back and chomp chomp chomp, bye bye any new growth. 

Then, it was December 31st.

I knew I had to get him a present. I didn't know what. So, I drove - just kidding, I got my mom to drive me - to a local fish store. I snuck around, snatching up a few silk plants, and decided to get some bloodworms. I got them and decided to give them to him every Saturday. This became a true part of my feeding schedule. It is a regular treat in all of my Betta's diets.

He took the new food very well. Obviously. In February, Gradient got less active. I thought it was just him getting older. It made me sad to see him get less active, but he was still the same fish. I loved him the same.

Suddenly, in mid-March, I noticed a small, white, fluffy thing on his side. I immediately leaped to action. I began to give him salt baths at the beginning, and I got some fungi relief. I used it on him and it seemed to be going away. He was eating still, but like before, he was less active. Then, he passed away on March 21st. 

In May, I decided to get a new Betta fish. There was a new local fish store that actually knew what they were doing! I strolled over and found a lovely, gorgeous yellow-and-white elephant ear plakat male. I took him home and decided on the name Saffron. I had to go on vacation shortly after that. 

I hadn't wanted to go. I had noticed Saffron was having trouble eating - he would eat the food and then spit it out. I could tell he _wanted_ to eat, but he couldn't. I gave him some AQ salt and cleaned his tank before. I was on vacation when my dad told me, on June 21st, that Saffron had passed away. I felt really guilty for both of their deaths for a while, because I thought there was something I could've done more. 

*This brings us to current date...*​
On October first, I went to the nice, organized, local fish store and purchased Cosmo. His middle name is Rascal, and his last will not be disclosed here. (; So far, he's doing well, after a little issue.

I had the tank set up a few days before I got him. I thought everything was normal. The day I set it up, I noticed the tank wasn't really getting warm. I shrugged it off, guessing the water was just unusually cold. Once I got him, it was around 5:50. I got home and realized the tank water wasn't warm enough. I told my mom and she decided that the heater had died. We raced off - in the car - to get a new one. We walked into the fish store that was closest to us. 

Surprise! They didn't have heaters! We were looking for stores that didn't close at 6, and we decided on one that was about 15 minutes away. We drove over, bought a heater, and drove home. I installed it as soon as possible. An hour after the original buy-time of Cosmo, he was finally in his new home.


Cosmo is doing well so far. He's eating well, and he happily swims around whenever a family member passes by.

True updates will start tomorrow!


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## anfarlamb (May 6, 2017)

must... find... time... to... update...

Hello all! Apologies for the non-quick updates. School is probably one of my time-takers.  Anyways, onto Cosmo!

This past Saturday I fed him his first bloodworm. At first, he swam nervously up to it and observed what it was. Then, he took a bite and I thought I could see the "Mmmmm" in his eyes. He was very happy from then on.  Since it has been over a week since I got him, I decided to a little bit of comparing. 

His fins are getting darker and not cellophane anymore. His back fin still has the cool iridescent streaks, but it's all black and his dorsal fin is almost completely black. On his body, the red became darker and more of a rusty vermillion. He's still mostly cellophane and black, with some red.

He still has his pouty lip, thankfully. It's so cute! He also has this little reddish spot underneath his mouth and it's also adorable. 


Well, that'll be all for today's update. See y'all later~


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## betta8 (Sep 9, 2016)

I love your journal! I'm not sure if you want people to post on it besides yourself, but I just wanted to let you know that it's interesting to hear about your journey through fishkeeping, and I will be subscribing. I'm so sorry for your losses, losing a fish is hard.  Cosmo is probably very thankful for his big new home! Maybe you could get pictures, if you can get him to cooperate!


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## anfarlamb (May 6, 2017)

Oh, no, people may comment as much as they like! I should've made that clear, haha. Thank you, I enjoy telling my story through fishkeeping. 

Of course, I'll try - again - tonight ahaha. My profile picture is indeed Cosmo, but when I got him, so it's slightly outdated.


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## betta8 (Sep 9, 2016)

Aww, he's adorable! The blue rocks make him stand out!


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## anfarlamb (May 6, 2017)

Hello all ~

Today, with some help from fellow members on the site, I got a not-horrid photo of Cosmo. It looks better on my phone since the quality, unfortunately, deteriorated as I transferred it from phone > computer. But, it's one of the better photos I've gotten from my little guy so far, so I thought I'd share it.

Also, not much has happened regarding eating or health or anything really haha. Still have yet to see the little guy flare. In the photo, it looks like the top of his dorsal fin is torn but I promise you it is simply his coloring.  You can see the iridescence better in his tail as well.


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## ThatFishThough (Jan 15, 2016)

Is Cosmo a red or orange Koi? He's cute either way!


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## anfarlamb (May 6, 2017)

I'm not too sure since he seems to be brightening his colors a bit but so far he seems reddish orange. I think some of his little dots are redder, and some others are orange. I've seen primarily red, but there's no doubt there are orange spots.

As for an update, Cosmo's doing well. No signs of anything wrong; my supervising, observant, prying eyes didn't catch anything, thankfully. Today I fed him his weekly bloodworms - I feed him some bloodworms every Saturday - and he was really, really excited about it. I was at a Halloween party - I did not enjoy it, unfortunately - and I came home a bit later than normal. I fed him right away and he was very happy to see me.  

That's all for now haha.


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