# Baby Bowie's Journal



## bl0ndern (Aug 18, 2017)

Hello Everyone,

This is my first real time being on a blogging site. I see all these journals and I'd like to start my own for my baby boy Bowie. Honestly I'm still new to betta fish and I don't even know how to describe what type of betta fish Bowie is. I mean, maybe he's too young to really identify his fin type. Shoot, I'm not even sure if he is a boy or girl! I'll tell you the story of how Bowie came to be:

Sometime last week, my boyfriend and I, were discussing adding a "new addition" to our family. We currently have two dogs and live in an apartment. I've always been fascinated & sad for the betta fish I've seen at Petco. We each decided to get a betta fish. I wish I had done more research before buying our betta. I bought Bowie advertised as a "baby boy." He seemed to be dark red in the pet store.

He was originally set-up in a 2.5 gallon tank with terrible rainbow gravel (I thought it would be cute? I don't know what I was thinking). He had this artistic cube decor and a fake floating lily pad to lay on. He got a Aqueon® QuietFlow Internal Power Filter & temperature gauge. I bought terribe meal based pellet food & freeze dried blood worms. I also got all the water conditioner & water testing kits. I didn't originally buy a heater because I thought my apartment temperature would be good enough. The temperature in the tank did generally stay above 72 degrees, but I just noticed Bowie seemed depressed and not moving too much. I found him hiding behind the internal filter constantly. I'm pretty sure that he did not like the current that the filter was creating. About a week later and after hours of research I upgraded him and he is so much happier!

He is currently in a 5 gallon tank with the same filter but I baffled it by placing the "toe end" of a pair of stocking over the outflow. That has slowed down the current so much! He also has a nice tank heater now. I bought the Fluval Marina Submersible Heater for Aquarium Mini. It has an adjustable heat setting which is great! He's got more natural looking substrate, some accent stones, one marimo moss ball, bulbs for lily pads (I'll let you know how those turn out), java fern, an annubis plant, a couple mussel shells, a garanite rock that is hiding the filter, a wood looking hiding place, & an indian almond leaf. Oh yeah and his favorite thing I added was this little floating log. 

He seems to be loving his new home! I want to try to update this blog once a week. It will probably be update late at night once a week. I really like this new hobby that I've started and I hope others will enjoy this learning journey with me! We can all watch my baby boy grow together


----------



## bl0ndern (Aug 18, 2017)

Update 8/25/17

Baby Bowie seems to be doing well. I finally got him to flare! I flare him after I feed him everyday. He's so cute when he does it because he tries to be big, but he is still a little fish. He still seems a little funny (he's been doing it since I got him). He swims around a lot but always swims at an angle, head higher than tail. The only time he seems to swim "straight/level" is when he is flaring. If you guys have any ideas about this, let me know. When I approach the tank to feed him in the morning & evening, he gets so excites and darts back & forth. He's like a little puppy dog who is excited to see their owner. I just abosultely love keeping a betta. Today Bowie will be fasted and then I'll give him a little pea tomorrow. I also bought bowie some frozen fish food, which I will give him in a couple days. Another question: I'm not sure if it's his natural color but his fins are dark on the edges. I don't think its fin rot because I haven't noticed any degrading of his fins. How do you guys know if this is a natural coloring or the beginning of fin rot?

Aquarium Update:

Did about a 30% water change last night. I seem to be having clear "goop" hanging off some of my plants & decorations. I am told this is bio flim & will eventually go away. There seems to be a lot of debris on the bottom of my tank too. I decided to get a new filter because I think the one I have is just crap lol. I just ordered the Aquatop PFE-1 Aquarium Hang on Filter. It was suggested in someone else's thread about filters. I also went to petco & picked up some more live plants. When I did my water change, one of my plants was mostly dead (it wasn't in great shape when I bought it). I also took out the betta bulbs I put in. They were not growing and I read on someone else's forum that they usually never work & end up molding. I smelt them when I pulled them out, and they smelled TERRIBLE! I also bought some beneficial bacteria this week to help bring down my ammonia level until my tank gets more established. I think those nasty bulbs may have spiked my ammonia level a little.

Water Update:
ph- 7.5
Ammonia- 1.0
Nitrate-- 5
Nitrite- 0


----------

