# Kisi's Fishy Journal



## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

It's about time I started one of those! Everyone's welcome to come here to chat, comment or just read through my fishy adventures. I'l mainly be posting about my bettas as well as other fish, maybe about finless friends too. We'll see how it goes! 

Now, for some introductions: 










• Lucifer
• Deta tail male
• 3 gallon - planted, heated, filtered
• 1st of August 2014

Lucifer is my first betta and the guy that got me into fish keeping. The original plan was that I would have this little tank with a nice fish in it sitting in my bedroom and that would be it. Well, that didn't last a long time. Even though I had done all the research before bringing my new friend home, I certainly underestimated how amazing and addictive bettas are. My sister has two goldfish in a bowl, feeds them flakes once a day and changes the water twice a month. At first I thought it was that simple. But Lucifer proved otherwise. Even though he was very forgiving of my newbie mistakes, it soon turned out that the little guy needed far more care and attention than I first anticipated.

We've battled white spot and fin biting together, and despite his chewed up caudal and half a ventral, he's still georgeous as ever. He's a feisty little bugger, flaring at everything he doesn't like. He seriously dislikes my boyfriend which is hilarious as every time he comes over, Lucifer sits at the front of the tank and flares at him. He also doesn't like my tablet pen and freaks out when he sees it. He's not particularly friendly and has murdered a snail in the past, but I love him despite his grumpiness. 










• Perseus
• Plakat male
• 6 gallon - planted, heated, filtered
• 8th of November 2014

The story behind Perseus is quite heartbreaking. One afternoon I decided to visit my local Pets at Home, and as always I went to have a look at the fish. By that point I had another tank up and running and I was hoping to find another handsome big boy to add to my fishy family. I don't know why, but I went to look at the female betta tank. What I found whas a scene of horror. Out of the eleven fish, seven were dead. Some were lying on the gravel, some face first in the plants, others stuck to the filter intake. It was horrible. The remaining four looked poor, pale with clamped fins and barely moving. I stood by the tank for some time and eventually decided that I can't leave them like that. I picked one that seemed the most interested in my and took her home. 

I didn't expect her to survive the night to be honest. But "she" did, and grew up into an amazing little fish. It turned out that it wasn't actually a female, but rather, a young male. Big beard and huge bubblenests proved that. He was about three months old when I brought him home and still has lots of growing to do! 

There are no words to describe how friendly Perseus is. Of course, his mummy is the only person he's friendly towards. He'll shy away if anyone else approaches the tank, and he gets stressed out by other fish. He still flares when I show him the mirror, but the poor little boy is terrified of Lucifer. Whenever I'm near, Perseus always comes to the front of the tank to wiggle and say hello. He never flares at my fingers and even lets me pet him! I don't do it often as I don't want to damage his sime coat, but it's honesty adorabe when he comes over and rubs himself on my fingers haha. He likes getting his dorsal fin tickled!


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## Schmoo (Oct 3, 2014)

Perseus is stunning!


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## kjg1029 (Jun 14, 2014)

pretty fish!!


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## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

Thanks guys  Perseus is such a little gem! I'll get round to posting what he looked like when I first got him at some point  

I was taking 2 am pictures of my fry last night - obviously I have nothing better to do as I can't sleep haha. The camera I borrow from the college could _not_ focus in these things, they're too tiny even for something that's supposed to be professional. I had to resort to using my phone, so bear with me haha. The fry are seven days old and have been upgraded to a new home yesterday: from a shallow floating box in my 15 gallon to a bigger container which is now in Lucifer's tank. The main reason was that the tanks in my bedroom get far more light than the 15 gallon in the hallway, and platy fry need 12-14 hours of light per day, from what I've read. They got nowhere near as much in the hallway! Lucifer is a good boy and doesn't bother them, I think he knows he can't eat them. When I had my first group of platies and a batch of 18 babies floating in his tank he kept trying to eat them trough the plastic :/ silly boy. The previous kids passed away at four days old, sadly. Now that I look back at the whole thing I realise it was probably because I fed them too much... Anyway, I'm getting off topic. What I wanted to say was that when I was taking pictures, Lucifer decided that he's the only one who should be getting attention here and, well, this happened: 










I GOT PHOTOBOMBED BY A FISH. 

You can probably just make out the fry behind him, it's one of the nine that I managed to fish out of the 15 gallon. The rest became lunch, and there were about 20 :/ they currently live off TetraMin Baby powder, boiled egg yolk and whatever microorganisms live in Lucifer's floating plants: the kids get a daily dose of fresh floaters with "food" from his tank. They got frozen daphnia for the first time today, just a few pieces. Apparently the kids loved it as everyone has big rounded bellies now haha. I ordered a vinegar eel starter culture for them so hopefully they'll be able to munch on that in a couple of weeks too! 


It's been a really difficult day for me today, so the fish haven't been getting all the attention they usually get. I was at the hospital this morning and later got into an argument with my mum which was pretty nasty. Perseus was supposed to have his plants cut and tidied up today but I didn't get round to doing it... It'll probably have to wait until Friday, water changes too. I feel quite bad to be honest


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## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

Yoooooo my vinegar eels came through today! 

I put the little bag of eels under light and I could see some tiny little things wriggling about, I think I underestimated how small these are. I'm not sure if my fry will be able to spot them! Especally since it'll be a couple of weeks since the culture is strong enough before I can harvest, and the kids will have grown in that time. I'll maybe buy some microworms to supplement their diet, they need some protein. 

I just poured them (the eels, not the kids) into my 50/50 apple cider vinegar solution, added three slices of granny smith apples and a pinch of dry active yeast - the instructions also sad to add a teaspoon of sugar but I was reluctant to do that so I didn't... Apparently the sugar = food for eels but they have apples and yeast to munch on and the solution is stinking enough as it is, I don't want to make it worse. I need to cover it with something, can't stand the smell haha.

My kids are getting nippy with each other, there's one that's an obvious bully especially at feeding times. I can recognise him (I don't know the gender, but we'll call it a he for the convenience of this post) as he completely lacks any markings and has the biggest belly out of all the children. Their colours are slowly starting to come in, most have the beginnings of black markings on their tails, a few have a spot or two on the body: one is even turning golden! This bully fish nips others when they take a piece of food that he had an eye on - as if there wasn't enough for everyone! Hopefully he'll calm down once everyone is moved into the 6 gallon I have for them 

They're nine days old today and have grown considerably since they were born. Today was also the first day that they were at home alone, as college started again and I wasn't here to look after them all day for the first time! 

Pictures coming later!


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## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

I have a bunch of pictures to post but the stupid camera died and I can't get them onto my laptop because I can't find the battery charger... Great. 

Today was a busy day, fish wise. I done water changes on all the tanks and this is how it went: 

First up was Lucifer. He was due a water change and his plants needed to be sorted so I cupped him, took out the grass and drained about 70% of the water. I made sure to get most of the dirt from the gravel out since it was a good opportunity to do that as the plants were out. I split up the rocks with java ferns on them, rearranged them a little and filled the tank back up. After cutting off the grass runners and replanting the mother plants in the corner, I planted the runners in the centre of the tank and up front. They'll stay here for a couple of weeks until they're big enough to be moved further back: by that point I should have more runners from the mother plants. I wasn't quite happy about the state of the water so I drained another 70% and refilled again. 

Before putting Lucifer back into the tank I decided that perhaps he would benefit from a short salt bath. After all, his fins aren't healing and they're looking irritated again. I heated up some water in the microwave, added a pinch of aquarium salt and dissolved it. Lucifer wasn't happy about the bath but it was only ten minutes. He made sure to let me know how unhappy he was with me by sulking behind his plants after I released him. Silly boy. 


The platy tub was the quickest to do, even though I took out the biggest amount of water. I'm not sure how much, I usually just vacuum the substrate until all the poop is gone. One of my big girls looks like she's about to give birth, she's becoming square and spends more time alone. I'm not sure what I'll do if she pops, I'm already taking care of fry and I don't want to mix litters in one tank because I'll get too confused with who came out of who. Another girl has gotten into a habit of attacking their floating plants and wrecking them. She's the most active out of the whole group and is always up to something mischievous! I have some floaters drying out for her, I'll crush them up and feed her because she's honestly crazy for plants. She even tries to eat java ferns and fish aren't supposed to do that haha. 


I had to take a nap before starting the next tank. Perseus was very happy to see me, but not so happy when he realised he's getting cupped. I never usually take him out of the tank during water changes, but I had to clean up and trim some of his plants and he always gets in the way of the scissors and I'm afraid that one day I'll accidentally cut him. I swear this fish knows how to manipulate me. Now, he's all grown up and in theory, adult males do not get racing stripes, right? Well, neither does Perseus unless he wants to make me feel bad. He spent five minutes in the cup before striping up, apparently realising that I wasn't about to let him back into the tank. I know when he's stressed because in addition to the stripes he clamps up and loses colour, but I can tell you that this wasn't stress. He lost the stripes within two seconds of being put back into the tank. I swear he knows I feel guilty when he does that. 


The fry were the last to get their water changed, and the most exhausting. I still don't have an adaptor for their heater so they're floating in Lucifer's tank, hopefully I'll be able to get one tomorrow so they can move into the 6 gallon and I never have to catch them again until they're adults. After taking out their plants I dumped some of the water and put the rest in another container with the kids. I then cleaned out the original container, filled it up with water from mum's tank and proceeded to catch every single child with a shot glass. It took me half an hour to catch nine fry. Half. An. Hour.


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## Abhinand (Jan 10, 2015)

Wow i love ur kids! Wish i could have one  and,im have changed my mind and im getting a 5 gallon tank instead of a bowl! Yay! Im also getting a betta in an hour! I CANT EVEN WAIT yay


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## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

Abhinand said:


> Wow i love ur kids! Wish i could have one  and,im have changed my mind and im getting a 5 gallon tank instead of a bowl! Yay! Im also getting a betta in an hour! I CANT EVEN WAIT yay


Go you on deciding on a bigger tank! Yay! Getting new fish is always exciting


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## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

I finally moved the fry! I'm a little wary as the heater wouldn't work at first and the water cooled down a little, but my boyfriend got it sorted. The lamp turned on eventually so hopefully it will be okay. I borrowed Lucifer's thermometer as I didn't have any spares and stuck it in the fry tank to keep an eye on the temperature. Here's the set up: 










It's a six gallon, exactly the same as Perseus's tank. I'm keeping the water levels low for now as the fry are still small (twelve days old today) and don't need all that space. Instead of stressing them out with water changes and risking sucking someone up with the gravel vacuum I'll just slowly add water every two days or so until the tank is full. That will allow me to control waste as well as keep the pH up as all the after comes from their mum's tank where it's buffered to 7.6 with aragonite sand: I'm my other tanks it's 6, possibly lower. Obviously that's not ideal for livebearers. I threw in the java ferns they had in their old container and a little clown fish decor: it glows in the dark!! 

Fry hideout. They seem intrigued by their next door neighbour. 









Look at that fat belly! 









My vinegar eel culture is growing: I shine a light through the liquid and every day I see more and more eels. Still not enough to harvest, but the fry don't really need them _that_ much: they're doing well on TetraMin Baby powder and boiled egg yolk. I plan on buying a micro worm culture after I get paid because they're not too keen on frozen foods and they need protein in their diet.


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## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

I'm heartbroken. 

I've lost the fry and I have no idea why. I'm done with trying to save kids from getting eaten, I'm not fishing anyone out of the main tank again. Another batch of kids was born overnight and I have some in a container but I'm letting them back into the 15 gallon with the adults. I know that's a cruel thing to do but I can't cope watching any more fish pass away in front of my eyes. I plan to plant the 6 gallon and I'll possibly get another betta, most likely a baby.


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## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

The fish front has been calm, I've had some water quality issues in Perseus's tank the other day but it got sorted with PWCs. It looks like all the kids in the 15 gallon have been eaten, I can't seem to find any - not that I've been looking. 

I was planning to visit the pet store after hospital yesterday but I ran out of time and had to go home, so I never got the chance to look at the pretty fish. Another option that I've been considering for the 6 gallon is Killifish, but I don't think the pet store has them: I found some on ebay. Actually, there's a guy in Glasgow who said he'd be happy for me to collect them instead of sending them out in the post, but I'm not buying anything until the tank is done cycling. 

Speaking of the 6 gallon. I'll post a picture of it later, but there's something really strange happening to the water. I haven't touched it since the fry died, but now there's this horribly disgusting layer of something that looks like slime at the surface of the water. It looks different than the protein layer which accumulates in Lucifer's tank, so I doubt it's that. One way or another, it's _disgusting_. I'm gonna clean out everything before adding soil and planting it. 

On a more personal note, my application for veterinary nursing at univeristy got rejected because apparently the course was full. The deadline for sending the application was today and I can't understand why they've accepted people before everyone applied. I'm so gutted. My qualifications were above the entry requirements and my personal statement was really good, as were my references and I was told that there's nothing to worry about. I don't have a plan B either and I'm afraid to tell family and friends because I feel like such a failure...


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## Abhinand (Jan 10, 2015)

Aww  how is lucifer and perseus


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## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

So it’s been a while since I posted on my journal. Every time I came back here and read over the previous posts I just felt down and discouraged again. The past couple of weeks have been difficult but things are starting to look up again and everything is slowly settling into place. 

I obviously have some updates to share with you guys. 

*Losses and new additions. *
I have lost two fish since I last posted. The first to go was one of my silvery blue platy girls, Cloud’s sister. She passed away due to an internal bleed and sadly, there was nothing I could do about it. A few days later I lost Stella, my calico platy girl. I have no idea what happened to her, she was perfectly fine and one morning I woke up to find her belly up. I suppose these things just happen sometimes but I can’t help but feel sad that I lost her. She was such a nice fish. Swim in peace little ones. 

There are also new additions to the family. Before Stella passed, she blessed me with 17 healthy babies that are two weeks old now. They’re growing like weeds and their black spots are starting to show! Stella’s sister also gave birth last week but because she done it overnight and I didn’t have the time to fish out the children from the main tank in the morning, I managed to save 11 later in the day when I came back. Cloud is also pregnant and Stella’s sister (she really needs a name) spawned with my new male so I’m expecting some more babies from her in about a month’s time. Speaking of the male, I went to Dobbies a while back and they had some really nice fish. My little sister wanted one of the white MM males and because I liked them too, we decided to get one and call him Marco. We also got a bumblebee platy! She is stunning. I really like her and I hope she spawns with the white male - he’s my only one atm - because I think it would be an interesting mix. She hasn’t shown any interest in him so far but maybe she’ll change her mind. I’m hoping to get some more bumblebees in the future  


*Changes in tanks.*
I took down the new 6 gallon and redone it with less substrate. I didn’t like how messy it looked and the water just wouldn’t clear up. I’m in the process of dividing it so I can get more bettas, I’m actually considering buying from a breeder but I’m not too comfortable with purchasing an animal I haven’t seen in person. I need to feel a connection with the fish, especially bettas. But we’ll see. The 3 gallon is getting redone too, I’m going to attempt cycling it. PH will get raised with some aragonite sand mixed into the substrate. 


*Lucifer and Perseus*
Both boys are doing great. Lucifer is still having some issues with biting his fins, he seems to constantly feel the need to trim them. He obviously wants to be a crowntail :roll: But I’m keeping his water warm and clean to prevent infection from settling in so it’s not like he’s suffering from fin rot or anything, he’s perfectly healthy. He made a huge bubblenest, and by huge I mean massive! He’s never made one so big in his life, I’m quite impressed 
Perseus is being his usual self, always dancing for me and begging for attention. I was on Skype to my grandmother who used to keep fish too, and I showed her how he lets me touch him and how he rests in my hand and comes up to me. She was very surprised to see a betta acting like this. He's healthy and active and terrified of Lucifer haha. 


*Personal stuff. 
*Even though I didn't get accepted into uni, I applied for two colleges: one for microbiology and other related stuff, and another for veterinary nursing. I have an interview for biology on thursday morning! :shock: So nervous haha. The other college hasn't gotten back to me yet but I have a 2 week work placement in a clinic for next month so that should give me some experience and hopefully increase my chances of getting in. I'll re-apply for uni next year


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## Abhinand (Jan 10, 2015)

Jones is alone in hks 11gallon tank so i want to add guppies or platies with him. He is not even aggressive. When i added 2 plastic(very real looking) floating fish to his tank, he never seemed to bother about it, but my other betta kept nipping at it. Pls give me tips on if i should add guppies or platies, since u have experience with them..


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## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

I personally prefer platies over guppies, so I say you should go for those. Remember to get at least two females for every male. I had three females to one male and the male kept pestering one particular female :roll: Is your 11 gal planted? As long as there are some hiding spaces for the fish, you should be fine - if the betta isn't as aggressive as you say. I don't think the plastic fish are a good way to indicate aggression of your male: they can tell if it's real or not. It's always good to have a back up plan in case something goes wrong. I'd get two platies to start with and see how he handles those. If he shows signs of stress or aggression, you can move him to a smaller tank and use the 11 gal for platies. Remember to keep the lights off for at least an hour after introduction!


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## Abhinand (Jan 10, 2015)

Great! I went to the store and saw that all the platies has some pointy like tails. Is it normal? Shall i buy them?


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## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

"Platies" with pointy tails are actually swordtails, or swordtail/platy crosses. Stay away from those if you want to keep a betta in there too: female swordtails can get quite big and males are often a little more aggressive than you'd expect. Also, don't buy mollies because they get big and can be bullies. Stick to cute little platies :3


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## Abhinand (Jan 10, 2015)

Thanks alot! I googled and saw that there is a platy (not "swordtail") breeder near our place.. Will contact her tomorrow


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## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

We have a new addition to the fishy family!

Everyone meet Baron (name suggested by litelboyblu!), my new VT boy: 


















He's a very friendly and curious boy and he's been eating great from day one. I bought him from Dobbies on the 17th, so he's been with me for a couple of days already. He shares the new 6 gallon with Lucifer who's very unhappy about his new roommate but he has to suck it up and deal with it. The first few days were rough as the boys kept having a go at each other through the divider, but it hasn't been pushed over and there was no jumping attempts so nobody has been physically injured - which can't be said about Lucifer's hurt pride: this is the first time another fish is sticking up to him and flaring back and he seems surprised by the new boy's ferocity. I've rearranged some things the other day and they've calmed down now, but they still show a lot of aggression: hopefully they'll learn to live together in moderate peace eventually. 

The upside to Lucifer sharing a tank with another male is the fact that he's not biting his fins anymore. After all this time of having a ruined tail and half of his ventrals, I can finally see signs of regrowth. He still has a long way to go in terms of recovery, but I'm hopeful that we'll get there. He's also building bubblenests again! 

Here's their tank: 










Along with Baron, I brought home two new platies: another bumblebee girl and a rich red male. While I have no idea which one was it, one of the bumblebees have birth overnight. It is a small litter but an interesting one nonetheless. The fry aren't like your regular colourless platy fry: most are a little darker, two have prominent black markings and one is _completely black_. I've never seen a black platy before so this is pretty exciting! We called it Beelzebub:


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## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

It's been hectic over here these past couple of weeks. 

The fish are doing great, everyone is alive and healthy with the exception of my calico platy. I'm expecting her to pass away anytime now and it breaks my heart seeing her like this. She's just wasting away but she's acting fine and I can't bring myself to put her down. 

Lucifer and baron swapped sides in their divided 6 gallon, mainly due to the fact that Lucifer kept freaking out Perseus whenever I removed the card between the two tanks. The latter certainly seems to like Baron more: the two boys come right up to the glass and just sit still for a while looking at each other without flaring haha. It's adorable. I divided the other 6 gallon too as I have an import from Thailand coming to me at the end of the week. He'll live beside Perseus for now, we'll see how my little boy handles having a room mate. I honestly hope he won't get too stressed out by having another fish beside him permanently: I've been training him up to handle other fish by exposing him to them and showing him that there's nothing to be afraid of. He even spent a couple of hours in a gallon holding tank inside the platy tank the other day and only showed signs of stress for the first few minutes when everyone came over to say hello to him. 

Beelzebub is doing well, I saw him in the main tank two days ago. I have pictures but can't post them right now as I'm not at home. He's still tiny and hasn't grown much, but he's doing okay as far as I can tell. There's some of his siblings in there too, one is particularly interesting with large prominent black spots on her back. I have a picture of her too.

I have lost some of Stella's fry which is okay - I wasn't expecting them all to survive. They now live in the main tank with the adults and are getting pretty big, one in particular always has a full belly and is growing faster than the others. She's a little cutie, not afraid of the adult fish at all: she comes out to eat with them and doesn't bolt when one approaches her. 

I have lots of pictures to post later!


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## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

Everyone, meet Eclipse - my new import from Thailand. 










He was sold to me as a "fancy dragon" VT, but he certainly isn't a dragon scale as his scales aren't fully opaque. He looked white in the seller's pictures but under the proper lighting he's got a baby blue shimmer to his fins and there are some grizzle spots coming through on his right side. No matter how he turns out to look in the end, I'm really glad I got him :3 

I decided to call him Eclipse as he arrived at my home in the middle of Friday's solar eclipse - the name fits perfectly. I went out into the back garden with my mum to watch the sun but we couldn't see much as it was really cloudy. I still managed to get a couple of decent shots. Can't wait for the next one! 










Baron has settled in exceptionally well, it's been a month now since I brought him home. He builds the biggest bubblenests ever :O he's such a spazz though, doesn't stay still for a second: he's always dancing or flaring and it's so difficult to get a relatively decent photo of him. 

His tail looks so silky ;-; 









If you look at him from above you can really see the blue on his fins! 









I took a similar picture of Lucifer when he was resting in his floating water wisteria. The poor plant still hasn't adjusted itself to my water and isn't doing so well  Lucifer is doing great though, feisty as always and being a major a-hole to anything that moves. 










I don't have any new pictures of Perseus as he gets way too excited when I'm near him and doesn't stay in one place long enough for my phone to focus on him.


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## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

I think I should probably show you guys how my whole betta set up looks now. 










Lucifer is housed in the far left section with Baron beside him; next is Eclipse and Perseus lives on the far right. I have space for two more of these 6 gallons on the chest of drawers these are on but sadly no money at the moment. Maybe one day haha. 

My betta channoides are finally eating! I've had them since Tuesday and they've _just_ started munching on the frozen food I give them. I was getting so worried about them getting hungry but I think everything will be okay now.

Here's the male: 









"Do u want to fite meh???" 









He's quite horrible to the female sometimes, when they're not cuddling up together somewhere he chases her around the tank and the poor girl gets all stripey. She needs to stand up for herself! 

Perseus is getting fat. I think he needs to go on a diet.









*gasp*
"Did you just... Call me... _Beautiful?_"
:O 









Edit: what on earth happened to that last picture in my previous post? :shock: Tinypic, are you messing with me???


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## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

I sold a decent amount of vinegar eels these past couple of days on Ebay and have some money on my paypal so I can finally put together a small shopping list for my fish. Here's what I need:

Duckweed - for all my tanks
Java moss - for the channoides tank
Moss balls for Lucifer, Baron, Perseus and Eclipse
Other misc plants for everyone
IAL - for channoides
Live bloodworms
Clay pots
Plastic or clay tubes

I'll be able to get some plants on Wednesday on my way back from the hospital, the pet store is just nearby. Hopefully they'll have something nice. I'll look for pots and tubes too as I need some for my channoides to hide in: they like their cup but I don't feel like it's enough.

I found a nice deal for a relatively big clump of moss on Ebay, the auction is ending in an hour. Wish me luck!


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## gracem2002 (Dec 27, 2014)

Love your journal♥


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## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

Feeding time with my channoides girl: 



















Male was like "nah, this stuff ain't for me." 

I removed the anarchis from their tank as it melted and replaced it with two good sized java ferns. I still need java moss but that'll have to wait until I get paid in two weeks. I also have them some duckweed, or rather what was left of it. BECAUSE MY PLATIES DECIDED THAT DUCKWEED IS A TASTY SNACK AND ATE HALF OF WHAT I PUT IN THEIR TUB JUST THE DAY EARLIER. NO MORE DUCKWEED FOR THEM. THIS IS WHY WE CANT HAVE NICE THINGS OK??? 
/rant over lol 

Speaking of the platies, Steve the red male is having some buoyancy issues. I suspect SBD due to being a little pig and eating too much, so he'll go for timeout in the breeding trap for a couple of days to see if that helps. No more food for him. 

Eclipse was being silly tonight :roll: 










He has settled in very well. He's not aggressive at all and not too enthusiastic about flaring at Baron. Perseus is on the other side of the divider but he won't flare at anything but the mirror, so the two of them just chill in their sections unlike Baron and Lucifer who spend a _lot_ of time displaying and showing aggression. I'm thinking that perhaps Baron and Eclipse should swap places so the two more aggressive boys can chill out for a while. None are showing signs of stress or exhaustion though, and I feel like their energy levels match each other. Lucifer certainly benefits from living with Baron as he doesn't bite his fins anymore and is far more active than when he lived alone. Oh the dilemmas. 


On a non-fish related note, it was my first day at the vet clinic today. It was a very eventful nine hours: amongst the multitude of dogs that passed through the consultation room there was a spaniel with an injured paw, a diabetic mix with cataracts, two labs who insisted on giving me kisses, a limping German shepherd and an old, death and blind mongrel who came to be put to sleep. Poor thing was in so much pain he kept screaming... It was over in five minutes but the owners didn't stay with him. It angered me because they should have been there for him in his final moments. There was also a chihuahua girl who got spayed and she's been crying in the kennel room all day long. And drooling. A lot. 

In the afternoon I had a spaniel puppy chewing my hair off and saw a cat with dislocated kneecaps which is quite unusual amongst cats according to the vet. My boyfriend's kitten popped in for a visit too, she got spayed the other week and she came in for a quick check up. Two greyhounds passed through the consultation room as well as a black pug: one of the last patients was an eight week old puppy who insisted on chewing my hair lol. Another two dogs got put to sleep which was pretty saddening, but I didn't watch... I mopped the floors instead and then it was time to go home.


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## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

gracem2002 said:


> Love your journal♥


Thank you! I'm glad you like it


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## Axeria (Feb 6, 2015)

Aww! I love your puffers ^_^ And your bettas is gorgeous! I especially like Eclipse, those long vents are just... wow! 

I agree about the owners not staying with their dog... I have always stayed with my animals during their last minutes, they have been there for me in difficult moments of my life, its just right that I am there for their last, guiding them with a loving hand towards the bridge....

*subbing*


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## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

Axeria said:


> Aww! I love your puffers ^_^ And your bettas is gorgeous! I especially like Eclipse, those long vents are just... wow!
> 
> I agree about the owners not staying with their dog... I have always stayed with my animals during their last minutes, they have been there for me in difficult moments of my life, its just right that I am there for their last, guiding them with a loving hand towards the bridge....
> 
> *subbing*


That's a betta channoides female, not a puffer lol xD although she does look like one in those pictures haha. I wish I could get a puffer though, I think they're the cutest things ever! The pea puffers especially, but I don't think I'm experienced enough to provide a good home for one  

Very well said about being with your pets in their final hours! I can't imagine leaving my dog alone when her time comes - she's my best friend and she will need me to be there for her. I don't want to even think about it though, she's still young and there's no need for these kind of thoughts: it'll just get me upset haha. When my birds were passing away and I knew it was their last day I would take them out the cage and hold them until they passed. Sometimes they just passed away in their sleep at night and there was nothing I could do about that. But I can't imagine abandoning any of my pets in their final moments. 

Second day at the clinic was a little calmer. We had two bitch spays in the morning and then a little bunny had to get his teeth trimmed. It wasn't as busy in the consultation rooms as yesterday but we still had a fair amount of dogs and cats pass through. There was a huge yellow lab who insisted on jumping and drooling on me. He was so cute  there was also a husky pup that looked like a wolf! :O two of the nurses brought in their dogs into the clinic: there was Rory the Poodle and Lily the Dalmatian. It was crazy. Lily is a very playful girl and I spent quite a lot of time petting and scratching her, as well as playing with the toys she took out the kennel room. 

In the afternoon we had a "weight clinic" for overweight dogs. The first one was a nine ear old west highland terrier who weighed an astounding 13kg. A dog of her breed should ideally weigh 8kg. A lady with a huge chocolate lab came in later and the dog just... He peed on the scales :/ when the nurse went to get a mop to clean it up the owner started petting her dog and saying things like "oh my goodness you did that? Good boy!" Not impressed. 

Fish are all fine, I've not been paying as much attention to them as I should but I'm sure they'll forgive me. Steve is the only one who's not doing too great, I feel terrible because there's not much I can do to help him. My mum says I should put him down...


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## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

I've been so busy these past couple of weeks that I've barely had time to come on here :/ not much to update, all fish are doing well with the exception of the red platy male and the calico female who I had to euthanise a while back. Swim in peace little ones. 

My channoides pair still haven't spawned but they're happily hunting down live brine shrimp and daphnia all day long which is good. Their colours are fantastic! The female is much more outgoing than the male: she's often out and about in the open while the male prefers to hide amongst the plants or inside his cup. He gets so frustrated when the food escapes from him though haha. 

I won a pure white pair of HMPKs in a photo contest on one of the Facebook groups I'm on a while back but one of the fish they're sharing the tank with (they're in breeding traps) got sick and they had to be quarantined and treated. While the pair didn't show any symptoms and appeared healthy, the breeder wanted to stay on the safe side and decided to hold on to them for a little while longer. I'm quite excited to meet them! 

Lucifer decided to start biting his fins again which I'm pretty disappointed about. He was doing so well! Silly boy, he wants to be a Crowntail instead haha. 

I'll post some pictures later


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## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

Wiggle wiggle wiggle. 



















Excuse the mangled fins, he decided to follow Lucifer's footsteps and eat his tail :roll: Other than that, he's doing really well. I've swapped him and Perseus about so he gets a chance to relax with a more mellow male as a roommate.


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## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

I have so many platy babies I don't even know where they're coming from anymore haha. There's a couple that stand out but I don't think Beelzebub made it. He either became someone's lunch or lost most of the black as there's a couple of yellow and black kids that obviously came from the bumblee girls. There's a really nice red baby with a black splotch on his side as well as a bright blue one. I really need to get some pictures at some point. 

Lucifer is being grumpy today, he doesn't want to interact with me as he's too busy building a bubble nest. He was just like, "look at my butt gurrrll!!" 










Baron is doing well, minus the fin biting. He seems confused because his new roommate won't flare at him and Baron doesn't like the fact that he has nobody to provoke with his bad manners. 










This is the Anubias from the previous photo, it's such a pretty plant :') I need some more of these for the other sections! I did order ten moss balls as well as some java moss. I got a fantastic deal for the whole lot: I paid £9 ($13) for everything including postage! But back to the point. How gorgeous is this Anubias?










And then there's Eclipse. I honestly don't know what he thinks he's doing, but he's marbling blue with red on his fins :roll: he had a little infection on his caudal the other day but we took care of that and it cleared up now


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## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

It was water change day today but Eclipse's and Baron's tank needed some more maintenance as the stem plants were melting. I pulled them out, cupped one of the boys and removed the divider to clean it as it was getting a little dirty. I finished the water change, put the divider in place and put the fish back. I moved on to do the next tank and when I looked back at the first one, Eclipse was on Baron's side parading around with a piece of his fin in his mouth. I didn't put the divider back correctly and he squeezed past it into the other section  

I feel terrible. Poor Baron got bitten and it's all my fault. He isn't injured, just a little stressed out as Eclipse turned out to be the dominant male out of the two. 

I also accidentally sucked up Perseus into the siphon. Oops. He's fine, in fact, I think he quite liked it as he kept going back later and trying to get into the tube again. Silly boy.


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## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

I know this may seem like a really stupid thing to get upset over, but I can't help it. I've always had long, red hair and over the past few months I've managed to get it to halfway down my back. I don't think I'm a particularly attractive person but I always took pride in my hair and I loved it. Fair enough, it was a little broken and I had some split ends that needed to be cut. Now, my boyfriend is a trainee hairdresser and he needed to cut someone's hair for an assessment so I thought, why not? He only needs to take an inch and cut it straight, not a big deal, right? Well... He ended up chopping near enough five inches off my hair and now it's barely past my shoulders. I was a little annoyed at him yesterday but when I looked in the mirror this morning I burst into tears. I look hideous... 

Anyway, fish are all fine. They got some frozen brine shrimp today for breakfast which everyone but Perseus ate. I don't know what's wrong with him, he's not been too keen on shrimp recently despite the fact that they used to be his favourite thing when he was younger. He prefers bloodworms and daphnia now :roll:


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## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

I forgot all about my journal... Oops. 

Big update with lots and lots of pictures to come later tonight! Everyone is doing fantastic and the fishy family is growing!


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## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

As promised, here's some pictures. Not everyone wanted to cooperate but I tried my best. 

Lucifer is being his grumpy old self. I love this boy to bits; after all, he's the one who got me into all this! 










I'm not sure why his colours look so dark and dull in this picture. But it's the only one where he's not spazzing out so it's better than nothing lol










Elsa. 










Here's the boy I won in the photo contest. I also have his sister but they don't have names yet  



















I always take lots more pictures than I show but because it takes so much time to download, resize and upload them to a hosting site that I only post selected few... 

I forgot to fast my fish yesterday. Oops.


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## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

Honestly, there's nothing interesting happening; it's a routine. Lights on, feeding, water changes, exercise. Nobody's getting sick which I'm very thankful for, but there's not much to do around my fish. I spend hours in front of the tanks watching them and time flies by that way. 

Perseus has learned to chase the laser pointer which is histerical.


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