# Life of Syd



## LurkerMom (Sep 9, 2013)

I always enjoyed bettas, had a couple for years too, males and a sorority of girls as well at the end.

It worked alright for a while... Then... well then the poop hit the fan. Lost most of my fishes from unknown causes, all of them breeder quality, fancy and expensive fishes. Life threw more curveball in other unrelated area that made my life a living hell that took a lot of time to get back on my feet and actually be happy.

During that dark time I got rid of everything (almost) fish related, sold my tanks, my gear, the fishes I had left. All I kept was my planted 15gallon that I didn't even maintain anymore other than culling snails that came to close to the lid(ironically, no death and everything is still alive and well), my desktop spec (that just had plants) and an empty 5 gallon. Also got rid of other non fish related thing (like a toxic relationship with someone who was emotionally abusive/narcissist and took his venom out on me and our son, a dead end job that went nowhere and so many other things)

It took some friends that kicked my butt out to realise everything, get help and do something about it. At that time, the fishes and losses of them, took too much on me, I wasn't enjoying it anymore.

Since I've met my partner, someone who's respectful and we decided to move in after a year. 

It was when I was packing to move with him and found the 5 gallon that made me realize how much I missed having a betta. By then I already took control back of my planted tank (barely to be honest, but more than before!) (seriously, amanos are awesome to clean algae) So I told my partner I would get one when we move , but I made sure not to be sucked up in insane, pricy, breeder fishes (for a while anyway!) and would stay in the LFS ones.

Low and Behold, we moved a little more than a week ago and the first weekend I have there (that wasn't unpacking boxes) was to go get my new boy. I've seen a lot of upgrades to a petstore that I used to go before with my kid so I decided to give them a try. I was pleasantly surprised! The guy (whom I think was the manager) really seemed to care for the fishes, they did a lot of upgrades in the last few months, the fishes are Quarantined and they actually have decent stock now!

After browsing for a while, my choice was this whatever color he is, crown tail... I really went for the attitude and general look, I wouldn't breed him for sure. He has some pale orange, purple-ish mix that's kinda cool to watch! He was very active in his little jar at the store.

After coming home I tried to find everything for the one of the 5 gallon but realized most of my gear was inadequate. It was better for him to be in the small 2 gallon with old gravel and driftwood until I got everything set up for him in the 5 gallon.

So far he seems to do alright in the spec. very active, bubble nest and everything.

So step one for me
Find snail free plants for the Spec (this week, weekend top) 

Get a filter for the 5 gallons and start it slowly. 

Can't wait to be able to set everything up.


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## Tardigrade (Apr 17, 2017)

Your fish is really beautiful. I personally love crowntails the most.


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## LurkerMom (Sep 9, 2013)

Tardigrade said:


> Your fish is really beautiful. I personally love crowntails the most.


thanks!


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So I added a Crypt from my planted tank, to his yesterday, decided since I'll most likely upgrade him eventually I could always take the risk of snails. However I cleaned it as much as possible, didn't find any eggs or snails so... let's hope anyway.

He seems ok with it. Went exploring around it 5 minutes swimming around and under it. 

I went to test the water and realized my kit was missing most of the things and some of the drops were half empty. I'll go get some more this weekend to test its water. But seeing I have a lot more stuff to buy for the new flat, it might have to wait and I'll keep on doing frequent water changes.

I switched the water change schedule to 20% every two days. So today he has a break, yay!

It's always nice to see him swim around when I walk close by his tank!


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## LurkerMom (Sep 9, 2013)

So I finally got a thermometer for Syd's tank (and had to restrain my self from buying a very pretty HM)
His tank been without a thermometer since I set it up so, was worried it was going to be too warm. 

I was right! it was, around 84 ish, so I ajusted the heater for that (I remembered how much of a pain heating with small tank was!)

While at the store I went looking around for filters and other things for his soon to be 5 gallon, couldn't find anything in the short amount of time I was there (I also had my kid who wasn't cooperating much)


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