# The Tales Of BB & Her Fish-Phobia



## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

Welcome to my journal..

I'm going to cut the carp and get straight to the point of this journal. I thought it would be interesting to have a journal, on the life of a long time fish owner that has a phobia of fish (ichthyohobia). :shock: More specifically, I'm afraid of fish touching me or biting me. And I don't mean.. Just a little scared. I am *positively 100% terrified*. It's irrational, stupid, silly I know, but I just cannot help it. In the past, I have been touched by a fish, and I squeal like a little girl and pull my hand out of the tank so fast. . . You get the picture. :shock::lol:

This does not hurt my fish in any way. I don't neglect them or anything, I just put them in a fry net or jug while I mess around in the tank. All my fish have become accustomed to this ritual of me netting them and are fine with it. (Apart from that darn black widow and algae eater. They are always a grand pain to catch.)

I'm sure I'm not the only person suffering with ichthyohobia. But anyway, I'm going to keep a journal on myself and what it's like to be fish-phobic. Just to be clear, ichthyohobia can be different for different people. I still find fish incredibly beautiful creatures- when I'm viewing behind the glass, but when I put my arm in with them, it's a whole different story!

Please come forward and tell me about your personal experiences. I'll explain probably how I developed this phobia at some point, but for now, I'll keep it as short as possible. 

~:3


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

Interesting! I have a phobia of people and public places, but I'm okay with most animals. I'm glad you have a way of dealing with your phobia so you can enjoy your wonderful pets! I'm interested in reading more on your and others' phobias.


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## BettaSplendid (Jul 12, 2015)

What an interesting idea for a journal. I am looking forward to reading more. Did you get fish to "face your fears" or because you just like them (but not to touch)?


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

Thank you for your replies  
I thought it would be something new for everyone to have a read about. And I too and pretty glad I can still enjoy them too, they are wonderful pets to have. 

BettaSplendid - thank you. ^^ Regarding your question, well, not really. I always had fish as a child, or rather my parents did, and I grew up watching my nana's ginormous fish tank. I wasn't afraid of them whatsoever, and I'd happily stick my fingers in so the fish (most likely the guppies) could have a cheeky nibble. I have just always loved fish, guppies, bettas and rummy nose tetra. 

There was a period of time where we didn't have fish for a while. I'm not entirely sure what triggered this phobia, but Im sure it could have been my nana's huge Pakistani loach that did it tail whapping me and jumping out the tank. It gave me a HUGE fright. Whether that's what did it I'll never know. I can't pin point it to an exact moment in time. All I know is when I got fish, I found myself too frightened to put my hand it and it was then that I realised I had issues, and I have managed my fish accordingly since then.


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

ESorry for the delay in post! I've been saving it all for one big ol' update. Come, come! There is much to talk about. I'll get the more boring stuff said first:

I replanted all my plants in my community fish tank. I think Orion and the crew had decided to go on a lets-tear-up-and-destroy-every-plant-we-see-spree which equalled a floating plant mess. I took them all up (I used the fish net and thankfully the water level had dropped due to evaporation (terrible lid) so my fingers didn't even skim the surface, so therefore my fishies didn't have to get netted out.) and carefully removed and cut any dead plants and disposed of them. I also binded the stems together and studied them for roots. Some had some crazy roots going on that I didn't want to disturb so I had to be really careful wrapping the aquarium plant sponges and metal wraps round (I really don't recommend those awful plant holding things, the little baskets are WAY better). It looked fairly neat when put all back together. Sadly I forgot about pictures ew! I did this about a week or maybe more ago. Since then, one of my plants have broke free (which I was fully expecting from this particular plant) and I have just pushed it aside. Besides, Orion uses it as a hammock  I can see good roots on the other ones so I'd say my plant mission was a success, hooray!!

And now for the exciting news. I recently purchased a new tank! I got the Aquael Leddy 60 (medium one of the range) for £59.99. It's 54 litres so just under 15 gallons, although I'm calling it 15 gallons xD . It came with a super snazzy 50w heater which I love and a internal filter - 1 stage sponge sadly - but I'll be modifying it to take 3 different medias hopefully - 2 atleast. It's a bit noisy unfortunately but eh. Free filter, can't complain. My thoughts so far on the Leddy is I love it. It's sleek, has a gorgeous hood and plenty of ventilation at the back so it isn't airtight but it's - dare I say it - impossible for a jumper to get out of. The tank seams are really nice too. I have no clue how it's sealed. It feels like it's made of glass and I think it is, but I'm not 100%. 

I'm going to seed it with some of my community tank media and gravel and will be using the "wringings" of my dirty sponge pad in my community tank. I already have some of dirty goldfish rocks in there so I should have something going on. I need to buy another test kit but I refuse to £40 for something in store that I could have for £10 online. Will have to order.

Now what exactly do I plan to put in it?? 

*Drum roll* after much deciding, I'm going for a sorority taking up the full space, and then I'm going to make a 2.5 gallon divided part for a male betta (this will be some time later and only if the sorority is working out fine).
This will mean that I'll have a 12.5 gallon sorority and 2.5 gallon divider space - which could end up being for a incompatibable female if it doesn't work out. If it does, then I'll start looking for the male I like. 

Sorry if something doesn't make sense or isn't clear. It's late, I just wanted to update everyone, and I wasn't able to properly proof read so my errors will be in there lol. :,)

*** Edit:
I forgot to add about my funny little story. When I was buying my tank, a customer, that looked at me as if I must have been clueless, tried to get me to buy this food you put of your fingers to feed your fish to get "closer" to them. *shivers* When I said no thanks he looked at me and said "Why not, it's only cheap?" and I explained that the food is not good for the type of fish I plan on having (it looked like a solid flake disc for tropical community fish) and then I bit my lip and explained my main reason - that I'm afraid of fish touching and biting me. The look I got, I tell you all, if looks could kill, I wouldn't be telling you about this right now. He must of thought I was taking the mick out of him or something, but he looked angry at me. Gee, he wasn't staff or anything! It crossed my mind that he was sponsored by them, trying to sell me all this stuff. Lol.


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

I got the filter pad wringings from my community tank and some healthy bacteria should start forming in my new filter. 

I did some major shopping today. I bought some gravel in a really nice blackish grey shade. I also bought a lovely array of live plants. I'm a firm believer in live plants over fake. They always look so so wonderful and have many benefits for your tank and fish. I got some of the more expensive basket ones this time and bought my plants from PAH instead of my usual LFS. 

I have got 3 females and I'm certainly going to get more. I just didn't want to have them all the same colour so I'll be picking some more up eventually. Everyone is doing really well. A little chasing, few nips, nothin major.
One of them looks to be really 'eggy' - the dominant girlie.
I chose a red and blue, who looks to be showing some slight combtail, but otherwise isn't. She keeps showing me her stress stripes. She's the medium sized one of them all, and she's very cheeky - always sneaking up, lol.
The other is a much darker blue and red and maybe some black too. She looks kind of "plakaty" but is showing some signs of having some comb tail - but it's much fainter than the others. This one is the dominant one and only showed stress stripes in the bag. She's very calm and only chases when the others get too close, she's definitely the boss. 
The other is a little blue who I almost didn't see. She's the smallest of them all, the baby, and is blue all over and is starting to show some yellow and greens. I can't wait how she decides to turn out.  She's really smart and when the others chase her she actually goes and finds her own space. She shows the most comb tail or possibly a crown tail. She looks like a 2 Ray variety of CT. not sure yet. She's very fidgety.

Pictures: (water is cloudy from all the disturbance)




Everyone seems to be doing great. I know 3 isn't great, but since they were all coming from the same tank, I decided to just go for it. As I said, I'll slowly add to it.The woman who helped me in PAH was brilliant. She obviously knew her trade and had a sorority of her own in a 100 gallon community  she was lovely and gave me plenty of freebies to try out and really took her time with the plants. Glad PAH have finally employed someone worthwhile.

EDIT:
I did not quarantine because they were in together anyway at the store. If one of them has something, and the others don't it would be a miracle, so I decided to skip and get them in the tank. They all looked fairly healthy, so I'm not worried on that front. 

*PAH = Pets At Home

. . . Who likes ma Buddha?? :lol: I chose "tranquility" and "peaceful" and "natural" to be my themes. Bettas need to remember to be peaceful in a sorority so that's why I picked it


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

I love it! I hope you find some new girls soon.


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

Thank you! ^^ 


I was too slow to add:

I have decided on names. Carpathia, for the dominant large female, for she keeps her cool and she is a larger fish compared to the others, or how I put it she is a bit of a 'unit'. She was a boat for those who don't know - she answered the Titanic's mayday calls when it hit the iceberg. 

Rosaline (Pronounced roz-a-line and not "rose-a-line") for the tenpremental stressy girl, the red and blue medium sized one. She's got something special about her, and we need another character from Shakespeare's Romeo&Juliet, after my cat Romeo recently died aged 16. She seems to have a real outrageous character and a bit of a drama queen. The name just fits I guess. She also has really nice blue eyes. I didn't realise a betta could have such stunning eyes! I will have to get pictures.

And lastly, Atalanta for the little blue. I just have a feeling she is going to be amazing when she grows up. So Atalanta for her after the Greek goddess.


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

Awesome names!


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

Thank you 

Little drama queen Rosaline has calmed down a bit:


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

One of my female swordtails is dying in my community tank. Not sure what to do about her. She's a gonna for sure. She's floating sideways trying to swim down, breathing rapidly. She looks roughed up, her body looks like she's been bit. One of her pectorals is shredded and she has a tear in her caudal. I've dimmed my lights and added stresscoat, it looks as though I'm too late anyway. ): I don't know what's happened and it's unlikely I could save her. I won't be posting any pictures of her - I'll probably just cause her more stress and I don't want to be posting pictures of a half dead fish. ): I could put her in the floating hatchery but from experience that's more stressful for fish. They always look for an escape and panic. Floating death traps.
I just hope it isn't too painful. She is an older fish, so that's what I'm putting it down to. I think she is a year and something old.  so she has done well. All the others look healthy and aren't attacking her while I've been watching. My male swordtail is swimming close by her, they've always loved being together.


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

Update: She passed on, yesterday, I removed her and everything seemed fine. Then today I found my algae eater that I absolutely hated, dead. He'd gone white and was rotting. I think I found the cause of the death of my swordtail. I didn't see him so he must of been stuck somewhere. Ew. The water smelt really really bad, so I did a 50% water change. Everyone else seems okay health wise. I need to get some more water testing kits, I've ran out so I can't test my water. Ugh. The algae water must of been like 5 years old. I'm glad he's gone really.

On another note, my black widow turned on my male swordtail and was attacking him right before my eyes, so she is in a floating hatchery, the little pain. I hated having to catch her, she always flips and I'm scared she'll jump on me. But my swordtail is actually swimming about at the front, happy as, swimming beside Orion.


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

Sorority update:
My girls are all doing really well! Only occasional disputes, nothing major. No injuries touch wood. Infact, Atalanta's torn fin looks like it's healing, yay!  Rosaline is being less tenpremental and showing less stress stripes. Carpathia is definitely the boss, the others dare not even try chase her. However the pecking order between Atalanta and Rosaline is definitely unsettled. Thankfully, chasing doesn't happen to often and its usually only a slight dart forward. My water has cleared up SO SO much. It's much clearer, and I believe it's due to my filter pad wringings. Definitely.  I'll need to get a water test kit soon to check my cycle is complete and everything. 

I also woke up to a bubblenest today. I'm enjoying the novelty of seeing it, since Orion and Blue never ever made me any, that or they were destroyed by my filter or something. I'm thinking Carpathia made it although I have no idea who did.

I'm starting to look for new girls. I'm going to be adding at least 2 more at some point but I'll see, I could end up with more.  I'm looking for either ornamental values, eg very pretty nice finnage, eye catching colouring, and also good show quality breeders. I know that I'm wanting a SR (super red), or a SB (super black), or if not some form of camodian female, ideally red. It's a breeding project I'm yet to do, but I'm planning hard for. I'll explain it more nearer the time. But form is most important, then colour for that project.

Suggestions for what I should get anyone? These may be my first imports, I'll be quite nervous / excited.

I also need to pick a up a few things for my tank:
•Test kits
•Backdrop
•Betta box (for photos, cleaning out, etc, since I don't fancy putting them together in a hatchery net. Small space + 3 bettas & no hiding spots = disaster)
•More plants
•Zoomed betta leaf hammock (x2 - one for each tank.)


And omg. I was so proud of myself:
I tried to pull my filter higher up to create more surface movement, and I ended up pulling it out of its little holder. I managed to push it back in without having to submerge my hand in, but it was clear the filter would not budge unless I pushed it upwards from underneath the holder. So I had to keep a watchful eye on THREE fish, three I tell you, and quickly push it up. I would of netted them but I just didn't want to stress them after they were so well. So I bit my lip and did it so fast. I was so scared and so pumped afterwards. Literally I felt I'd achieved a little milestone. On another note I did a 35% water change after I noticed that there was a bit of a oily film on my water top. I only managed to get rid of half of it but I didn't fancy disturbing my tank too much. I put it down to the water additives is been putting in: Tetra Water Conditioner, API stress coat, API quick start, etc.

One more thing, I'm setting up a small hospital tank / plant dumping tank / QT. It will only be a dinky little thing, maybe 2 gallons max. But it's going to be filtered since I have a spare filter - an Eheim pick up 45 - and all I'll need is a 2.5w heater which aren't expensive. It will mean I can treat the girls if they get sick, QT newbies, and have somewhere to dump plants if I need to. 

Picture updates:
Carpathia (she looks so black in this picture :shock: )

Rosaline looking pretty dark in this pic too:

My gorgeous little Atalanta, showing off some of her golden features (still can't get any of the yellow and metallic in her fins though :S )

Is that tail re-growth? 

One of my nice clear tank: (so happy the water cleared up so quick after WC)


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## BettaSplendid (Jul 12, 2015)

I really like that last picture. So peaceful looking! The lighting looks very nice.

Your ladies are cuties. Soroities are very tempting. We have one female...it is tempting to get all those languishing females at petsmart. I see lovely colored ones there. The crowntail girls are really cute to me.


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

Awh! You should. I'm loving mine thus far. I love the fact means you can give many girls good homes easily. They have such cute characters.

I'm not sure whether Atalanta is going to keep getting beat up until she grows a bit. I'm a bit concerned. Carpathia gave her a bit of a beating because she's become territorial about this bubblenest (I decided to break it up and she got so mad and rebuilt it :shock: ) so she has 2/3 tears in her anal. Not too serious but I do feel sorry for her. I'm getting a hospital tank set up soon. Might make it 2/ 2.5gal so she could hopefully be housed there for a while. I find myself really wanting her to go punch Carpathia sometimes, but her and Rosaline seem to be on equal terms.


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

I think you have to have the right female for a sorority. Mine is way too territorial for it. It took her two days of constant attacking to decide she couldn't get through a snail shell. She demolishes shrimp during the time I have the tank covered so they can find hiding spots to feel safe. She's even more aggressive towards other fish.


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

I've given Carpathia some time out in the net. It's all the bubblenests, she won't let the other girls on that side of the tank. She is doing fine in there and I'm going to let her out later today. She's been in there nearly 24hrs only. I just want to give the other girls time to do some recuperating and recovery. It's only temporary anyway and I don't think Carpathia is that bad, I just don't want them to become weak.

I'll be adding some more girls soon. Budget won't allow it for a while but I'm planning to get some more bits and pieces. Including more girls. I'm desperate to get some more, hope it will help the dynamics.

Haha, your girls sounds like a character. Well, you can always try. In a large group of females they get put in their places. :lol:


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## BettaLover1313 (Apr 15, 2013)

This is an interesting journal to read. Glad to hear that your sorority girls are getting along pretty well. I look forward to reading more


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## Hopeseeker (Feb 6, 2012)

Do females make bubblenests or is Carpathia possibly a boy? I just have to ask, I've been away from betta keeping.


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

Hopeseeker said:


> Do females make bubblenests or is Carpathia possibly a boy? I just have to ask, I've been away from betta keeping.


She's definitely a girl. Some girls do make bubblenests, and I guess because she is the dominant one she is allowed to make nests? Not sure, but Carpathia is definitely a she (I can see her egg spot).

& thank you BettaLover, I look forward to keeping this journal.


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## Kyle15 (Apr 22, 2015)

BeautifulBettaFishies said:


> Sorority update:
> My girls are all doing really well! Only occasional disputes, nothing major. No injuries touch wood. Infact, Atalanta's torn fin looks like it's healing, yay!  Rosaline is being less tenpremental and showing less stress stripes. Carpathia is definitely the boss, the others dare not even try chase her. However the pecking order between Atalanta and Rosaline is definitely unsettled. Thankfully, chasing doesn't happen to often and its usually only a slight dart forward. My water has cleared up SO SO much. It's much clearer, and I believe it's due to my filter pad wringings. Definitely.  I'll need to get a water test kit soon to check my cycle is complete and everything.
> 
> I also woke up to a bubblenest today. I'm enjoying the novelty of seeing it, since Orion and Blue never ever made me any, that or they were destroyed by my filter or something. I'm thinking Carpathia made it although I have no idea who did.
> ...


In this post, the first pic of Atalanta, I've always wondered what those things are doing there on the gill(2 stripe ) My female has red stripes


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

I believe those are just markings, I've also been wondering. But since she does have yellow and green hues in her fins I haven't really been too concerned or questioning it


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

Some bettas have that, and I've seen people call it "blush" the same way they call one with different lip color "lipstick." Both of my current bettas have it.


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

Sadist said:


> Some bettas have that, and I've seen people call it "blush" the same way they call one with different lip color "lipstick." Both of my current bettas have it.


That's so cute. One way of thinking about it


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

Today is WC change day. Today I'll do 25 - 30% WC. I need to wash the ornaments too, remove dead leaves from my plants, and assess what the heck is going on with one of my plants - 'blehri' I believe - which has a very perculiar green fibre fluff growing on several of its leaves. I'll take pics of it before I remove it, but I have a no idea what's going on. 

I have to be careful not to damage my plant roots, as I have plenty of them growing! Which is exciting to know they are rooting.

Updates on the Carpathia in her net:

I've let her out several times but she is such a meanie. I'll let her out occasionally, but until I get more girls she is going to have to stay in there. 
I have full hope that she will be fine with other girls. I'm not worried about that, but I am about the prospect of not finding any more girls soon. In checked my LFS, and all they had was some males in the new tank setup. 

I'm both annoyed and happy with my LFS, they have a new stand full of small, maybe 0.3 - 0.2g tanks. They are all next to eachother, they are filtered and I assume heated, by one big filter in centre of the tower. They each have little lids. And are packed full of some sorts of betta and this other type of fish that prefers to live alone or in pairs.

Each tank has some substrate, maybe a little plant or something, and a moss ball. (Which they are advertising for sale - I nearly picked one up but decided I didn't have time.)

This is great compared to cups - and I think this idea should be thrown at Petco and Petsmart. It would mean less tail biting, sick bettas from not having cup WCs, and that they would all have a heated warm environment. The only thing I'm a little annoyed about is the size of the tanks, but eh you can't win at everything, and that they had a bi-colour labelled a dragon, which he clearly wasn't.

I did really like that bi-colour SDeT, and a yellow CT that was there. Aw. <3

Back to the fact I'm still hunting for girls, I'm going to hunt for some more next weekend, if I don't find any then, I'll be ordering online.

I'm also ordering some Salvinia hopefully today, along with some IAL that ships to me (the struggle was unreal to find some).


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

Long time, no see!
Sorry about that. I've been lumped down with revising for some super important science examinations. And considering I'm looking for a career in veterinary, that's pretty dang important I do well. The exam is Friday so please wish me luck!

So my girls are doing very well! 
I've just about lost one of my plants. It's beyond salvageable methinks, oh well. My vegetation has really thinned out, especially when I had to do trimming. I cut a good hunk of my Ozelot away, because the leaves were rotten. It seems to be suffering from some kind of bacterial algae. I've been gently wiping the leaves clean every so often, but there is only so much I can do. The baby leaves are looking healthy so fingers crossed it will recover.

My Amazon sword has its runner and the daughter leaves are forming. I'm glad that is doing well, along with my other 4. My rooted cabomba is doing fab too so far.

I was a day late with my WC, I felt really bad. Not much I could of done though, it had to wait. Yeh fish looked okay though.

Carpathia though, has 2 small pinholes in her anal fin. She has red and black fins, so if it's fin rot, I'm not going to be able to tell very well. I'm hoping she just got caught on my plastic plant (temporary to give them more cover, I hate plastic plants) when she was having "swim time".

Rosaline had a gaping hole in her ventral that cleared up overnight with some stress coat. It made me think wether it was fin rot, clearing up so fast, and I think that was surely the result of that plastic plant.

All the same, I'm ordering some AQ salt ASAP tomorrow.

Other than that, everyone looks good touchwood.

I have news on the other Betta's! I went to my LFS on Saturday to get 2 moss balls (one for the sorority one for the community) and I asked when he was getting some female Betta's in. He said he was making an enquiry and the fish would be there by Thursday (tomorrow) if he could. So I'm off ASAP tomorrow to see if they have any. I'm hoping there will be. I'm probably being too ambitious, it will be luck even if there is any, but I'm hoping to see some bright colours. IDK, maybe some orange dalmatians, butterfly's, or maybe some CTs, DTs or halfmoons...

The excitement is real. I'm positively growing to cry if thee is none. It's been a growing ball of excitement since Saturday.. :lol: 

Other news:

I have added some new additions to my community! I added a ton of new plants, including some Java fern I'm trying to grow into my driftwood lol. I also added a pair of ram cichlids. Both are completely breathtaking. My male is totally unique to any other I have seen- he looks like a regular ram on one side, but on ten other he has a complete black face = flipping adorable!!

I've named them Honey and Ram (how original I know). Call him Rum if you like. Rum, Ram, same thing (_almost_).

Pictures of the male, more to come):


So that is all I guess. Fingers crossed on the females. I've saved a wad of cash to take so I'll be able to take as many as I need providing there is any!


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

I just got back from the store (well about an hour ago actually) and I came back with 2 new bettas. 
I'm a little "peeved" with the ransom charge. Actually I'm rather, (shut your ears) pissed off. They charged me £4.99 each. Considering they are normally around the £3 mark, I think I overpayed, but it really needed them. Secondly, they are TWO MORE round VT wild types. I really wanted some variety and colour in my tank and it's just a shame I guess. I'm going to save up for a reserve for importing bettas. I have 2 spots left maybe 3 or 4 at a push. The bioload would be huge though. Oh well, we'll jump that hurdle when the time comes. I'm planning on setting up a canister filter soon, or a huge multi media sponge filter...

Anyway, they are very young, babies. They are considerably smaller than my other girls, but the small blue decided she'd still try boss smaller Atalanta around; which Atalanta soon corrected.

I let Carpathia out of her net. Chaos followed between her and Rosaline. I whitenessed them having a body slap off and a small fights for the rank of dominant female. It hurt to watch, but the pecking order had to be set. They both have come out of it with some tears, Rosaline more so. I believe Carptahia is still the dominant one, but the water is very unsettled between them still. I just hope they don't end up beating the crap out of each other. They've calmed down a lot now though, and are entertaining themselves by scrutinising the newbies.

I'll be ordering some more plants on eBay and such today, & AQ salt and a few other things like IALs.

More updates later.

I got a picture of my newbies in the nursery net - which I put them in after releasing them but it soon became clear they preferred it out in the tank. *shrugs*


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## Olivia27 (Nov 26, 2015)

Sorry to hear about the squabble resulting in fin tears  sounds like the new girls are a blast though! Love the active, energetic, hard to photograph ones 

Any names? I love names XD


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

It's okay. Rosaline did give Carpathia a reality check. Since I've had her, she hasn't torn a single fin. I don't know, I may of been rooting for Rosaline. Carpathia is a mean girl, lol.

I really hope Rosaline is okay. I just put in a bulk order for 25 plants and made an offer on some salvinia, so the place will hopefully be pretty full. Also ordered some IAL, but I'm going to wait before getting AQ salt. I don't have a tank to do salt baths in lol. But yeah the tank is gonna be nice and crammed. Waiting for them to get shipped. It's a random batch, so you don't know what your gonna get really 

I adore my babies. They've got such loveable personalities. The little blue knows there are big fish but she thinks she's bigger. She's challenged Carpathia (who to my suprise, just kinda turned to face her, at which point the baby was already darting off).

Names. None yet! I'm waiting for something special, suggestions welcome!


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

Pics:


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## Olivia27 (Nov 26, 2015)

Any blue females must first consider the name Sapphire XD and then Eragon, because I'm still sad they never made a second movie >< 

Anyway. Yay for plants! I always worry I'll end up with high-tech or soft water plants if I order a random bunch like that  worse yet I'm still so new to this whole planted tank thing so I won't be able to tell if they're "one of those plants".


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

Those are lovely names! I think I'm going to collect a name hoarde and wait until I get to know them better and they colour up more. They are so wiggly. They already are having 'flare offs' at eachother!

I'm still feeling sad for Rosaline. I tried to net her but she made it clear she didn't want to be netted for the night. I guess I just wanted her to sleep in peace lol.

I'm so excited for my plants! And I'm so bad with plants, I shove anything in there. I'm hoping nothing will be dead and everything a decent size. I'd literally die with excitement if some type of floating plant was in there but I doubt it. I'm still deciding what floating plant I like best: Salvinia, Frogbit, of Dwarf Lettuce? :roll:

I'm wondering when and how they'll arrive. I hope I don't have to go an pick them up from my local sorting office. That sucks. Let's pray it doesn't need signing for, along with the other stuff I ordered. The root fans should fit through my letterbox fine though. ^^

I'm sure you'll get used to plants, just learn as you go I guess 
I'm not as worried about it as I didn't pay loads, I got a fab deal - as long as everything goes as planned.

EDIT: That crazy moment you realise you have 6 bettas, and counting. I'm diseased with the betta bug. :0


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

Bad news.

Orion is sick. He has ich (aka white spot). Poor little guy. I'm going to go get some treatment for him tomorrow.

Dang. It's my fault. I put the water in from the Rams in by accident. The Rams had already been treated but the bacteria must have still been in the water. Even more my fault - if I hadn't cracked my knitter keeper QT I'd of had something else to put them in.. The water would have never contaminated.

Great. Just feel sorry for him, but he seems to be the only one effected - yet. I'll just have to see what my LFS has to treat it.

Update- plants still haven't been shipped!! I guess they'll get shipped Monday. That will be a nice pick me up when they come. I only have a few more things that I want for my tanks-
Sorority- floating plants (salvinia + frog bit), some AQ salt.
Community- Ich treatment, new gravel (I'll split the salt packet).

Hopefully the dog bed I ordered for the guinea pigs will be here soon too. I feel really bad as they haven't really been treated this week. Just the basics - clean cage, foods, hay. So the bed is almost an apology that mommy has to pour her money into her aquarium. To be fair, they both like to watch the fish, and they like the light my tank light provides them with when its starts getting darker in the evening and I'm not there to turn the lights on.


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

I hope Orion gets better soon! I love guinea pigs.


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

Thank you! The swordtail also seems to have it, ew. I got some AQ salt (API's) and some treatment that treats a multitude of things, like Velvet, fungi, neon tetras disease, etc as well as ich. So I underdosed on that and added a 1.5tsp's of AQ salt (also an underdose). I guess all these chemicals and stuff worry me. Ever since I overdosed treating a disease, may of even been ich, in my old giant aquarium, and killed a lot of the fish, I've been very cautious when treating them.

Awh! I love my two fuzzies too. They are just so sweet, and have a comical value at times. I bought my male, Tiggy, a new hayrack recently, and I walked in to find him sitting in it eating and chilling, gah, it was funny.
Here's a collage I made of him:


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

The two newbies have names! The blue is Nyx, and the Red is Hestia. (Nyx - pronounced: Ni-cks and Hestia - pronounced: Hes-tee-a).
Atalanta, Nyx and Hestia... The Greek Goddess mythology is coming through lol. The babies are still wiggly and are not quite settled in. (Sometimes clamping and stress stripes occasionally.) It's to be expected I guess though! 

Orion is being treated with his salts and medicine, hoping he gets better. ):

Did about a 50% WC, took everyone and everything except the gravel out. I was really happy at the amount of roots my plants have. They're doing great. Everything is more or less in the same place but I've made it so all the plant weights are covered and so it's easier to add the 25 more plants that I'm planning on having.

I'm not allowed anymore aquariums (may be able to push for a QT sized one, but nothing much). So I was toying with the idea of putting a divider in my aquarium for about 2.5gals so I could house the male to the pair I'm planning on. I don't know. I like the fact my girls have so much space. So maybe I'll end up just upgrading my aquarium for the 20g and putting the 15g in storage. No way would I sell it though. It would make a good grow out, or house a shoal of Rams nicely. 

I'll try get some more pics, but here's a lovely one of Atalanta:


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## Olivia27 (Nov 26, 2015)

Nice Amazon sword! I kinda wanted one of those at one point but then decided to stick with the crypts. That one is so green and healthy though!  

Great name choices for the girls, speaking of. I know a human Nix LOL it gets awkward at times because so many pets are named Nix/Nyx/Nixie nowadays.


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

Thank you! I love my Amazon sword, would recommend it. It's fairly low maintenance, I just trim the poorly / dying leaves that sometimes occur, and it's just so fabulous. I'm so happy it's got a runner and the daughter plant has roots growing! I can't wait for it to grow enough roots for me to plant it. 

Aw! That's awkward, although I think it's a really nice human name too. Hehe.

Here's a shot of Nyx, sorry it's not the best (& Hestia is being too wiggly for pictures!!):


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

Hestia passed on a little while ago. Dropsy took hold of her so fast, she couldn't stop it. I had no hospital aquarium available, and no treatment on hand. 7:00pm on a Thursday; no where open.

I believe it was relatively peaceful. She was in a breeders net with some plants to ledge herself on.

She declined very quickly from me first noticing. She only has small barely noticeable pine coning, and no bloating. About 2 hours on it was violent "back combed" pine coning and huge bloating, she passed on soon after. Being so young I don't think she had the fight.

I picked her because she was the saddest girl there. She has never been 100% since I had her.

For the time I had her, she was precious. Swim in peace Hestia, you little angel.


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## Olivia27 (Nov 26, 2015)

I'm sorry  SIP Hestia xxx


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

More tradgedy.

In short Orion passed on. I'm all teary and I've written this post once already and my app crashed, if I write it again I'm going to lose it.

The ich got my little guy. I miss him so terribly. I was 30 mins late of being able to be there for him. I rushed as fast as I could but I was too slow. ):

Orion was one of the most special little guys. I can't even describe. He was accustomed to my strange ways and was used to the peas I'd give him monthly (he suffered chronic constipation).

The swordtail however recovered his ick, thankfully.

It means I do have an open spot in my tank, but no way will I be ready to fill it. Orion may of been small but he took up a big place in my heart, I have so much to be grateful for because of him.

I'm actually shocked. Like I just want him to be there waiting. His death has hit me like a thousand bricks; worse even.

He may of _just_ a been a fish. But he _wasn't_ at the same time. I loved him. 

Swim in peace Ori. I'll miss you. xoxo


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

Oh, I'm so sorry. When you're ready, you'll find someone to fill the physical spot in the tank. He or she won't fill the mental spot. Hugs.


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

Thank you for your kind words Sadist, I really appreciate it. He was a one in a million fish.

On a side note, I may take a break for a while. I think I need time to reflect and time to think where I'm going with the hobby. I won't give up; but I'm certainly going to have to make some kind of change. Like, I think I may end up no longer keeping community fish and bettas together. Although my Orio adored his swordtail buddy, I think I'll have to carefully select fish this time. I love my rams, but maybe I should have waited before getting them. IDK. I'm not making any sense...


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

Little Atalanta passed away while I was away over the weekend. Dropsy took hold of her.

I'm going to get some Epsom salts to dose my girls with. This is getting ridiculous. I've prepared myself to lose everyone.

Sorry for not a change in the mood. I feel like I shouldn't even update this because you'll all get sick of hearing of this. Start guessing he's going drop next...

Ugh. Why oh why. I was upset with Hestia, distraught about Orion and I'm just sick now because of Atalanata.


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

Oh, no! I hope everyone else is okay. I'm glad you aren't giving up, just trying to take some time off. I personally only keep my bettas with creatures they are unable to kill like snails. Everything else is in my 10 gallon, which has too much flow for anything but a plakat.


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

Carpathia, Rosaline, and little Nyx are doing very well, thank you  touch wood, dare I say it, they are all are looking healthy. Nyx was looking at little sick and stressy, so I put Carpathia in the net, and everyone seems to be quite happy. Likely hood is that she'lol be in the net for a while now, until I get a QT up, and until I save money for imports. I may ask for one for my birthday, maybe even select a pair. I want something really pretty, and I may be getting a small aquarium extra as well as a QT. Depends if the parents can be persuaded...

Had a rearrange. My Ozelot is chilling at the back now, and I moved all but two plants. I'm fairly happy with it now, but I would like to add that little something extra which it's lacking; but what? I'm going so go ornament or maybe plant hunting, but I feel like if I get any more plants they'll die due to surface crowding.

Gonna go look on AB for my dream imports  

When I have a QT set up for my community tank, I may be ready to fill that spot. But maybe not yet. I saw a gorgeous SD Koi, that was really thick scaled, almost a dragon, that my nana really liked. I just said 'no, not yet, he's not the one.' Whether I wait a few days or a year, I'll know the right one when I see him.

And now for a crabby iPad pic with shaky hands of the still murky setup:


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

*My fish phobia:*

My phobia:

My fear of fish touching me doesn't just end there. I also have a strong fear of dead fish. The thought, sight or talk of dead fish literally make my teeth clatter and the hairs on my neck stand up. Whenever any of my fish dies, I have to find a family member (who are completely un-aquatic orientated with the exception of my uncles) to remove them. They usually end up in the bin, sadly. It's lovely how people put them in flowering plant pots, or in the garden under a bush or plant, but I just don't have the space in my garden, (patio) and if I planted them in a plant pot I know at some point I'd probably knock it off and spill the plant pot everywhere, probably revealing... Well, let's not get into the details.

Besides, I don't have the stomach for burial of them either. I've only had to remove one dead fish - Atalanta. And the whole time I was nearly vomiting everywhere. I really do wish I could just get over it!

Having said all of this, somehow, I am able to go fishing and pick up ginormous carps wriggling everywhere. I think my phobia is only applied to little fish (and downright ginormous ones, I mean, who isn't afraid of sharks??), which is odd. I think it's because I can control the carp easier, where as a little fish just wriggles! Hehe.

How strange right? Meh.

I'm still not happy with either of my tanks. Want more plants + ornaments but I guess it will just have to wait. Hopefully going to a big aquatics store at the weekend. Who knows, there could be a new arrival. (All I need for a quarantine is a heater, and preferably a tank but if not I have plenty of containers about).

I'm never skipping a QT again, and I'm never listening to my LFS's promises either. ("We QTed them privately weeks before they are put on sale, so no sick fish are available". Yeah right).

Im really growing to love little Nyx. She has such a cheeky personality, and she has attempted to boss Rosaline about. Priceless! :-,)

I worked out I'm 3/8 on Betta capacity. Only one spot for a male though. Unless I decided to divide my community. Might be getting 2 more tanks, only 2.5g's. One for the kitchen maybe, not sure.

Anyway, if your still here, thank you for reading, it means a lot. ^^


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

Wow, you're so brave to have tanks at all with that phobia! That would be like me having a pet centipede.


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

Thank you. ^^ I Love fish, so the extra work I have to do to have them is so worth it.  and I'm quite the sissy, I net everyone out into the breeder net first. Hehe.

I've been looking into having my own shrimp - those critters creep me out just as much, but the idea of giving my girls some live food baby shrimp would be nice.

Sadist, I love your little shrimp colony you have going, have you got any tips? I'm a complete newb to shrimps - I've had them before but didn't do anything special for them lol.


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

My live food colony was actually an accident that came in on some java moss. They hide in the java moss and gravel in the 10 gallon.

I did buy one live food culture for the 2.5 gallon, but it didn't take very well. I may have acclimated them too hastily, or maybe the ghost shrimp in there at them before they were established. There are still a few gammarus shrimp in there, but there aren't enough to harvest and feed as meals the way I wanted.

From what I've read, they breed better in dark water. Supposedly, you put a bunch of tannin leaves of your choice (oak, IAL, whatever) and let them rot in the bottom of the tank to give them bacteria to eat. I have limited success with such actions -- when the leaves get to old, they cause a spike in my 10 gallon tank. The animals get clamped, and there's a funny smell, like pesticides. In the smaller tank, I was able to keep a leaf in there to rot without making the spikes and smells. I think it's related to light -- the plants get direct light from the window and process everything faster.

So after this giant essay, no I don't really have any tips  Good luck!

PS The gammarus shrimp look the creepiest to me. Hard to tell if their a shrimp or a large parasite.


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

Haha! What a awesome accident! :-,)

I'll have to look into it some more. It's nice to hear first hand what they're like to keep and feed. I think I'll look into them some more first, I don't want to have a 100 things that totally creep me out crawling everywhere, lol. I love those cherry red shrimps, but ghost are alright as well. Never seen gammarus, lol, but I'll steer clear. They sound super gross! Not my thing.

Thanks again Sadist ^^


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

They remind me of roly poly bugs but super small (1-5 mm). I'm hoping the supply of live food keeps bringing on the romance with my crayfish and that the female will get the hang of keeping a hold of her eggs and hatching them.


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

Haha! Fingers crossed for Tigeress!

One of my horses was a dope today. Pulling all his funny faces in the stables.  


Rescaped my community with a gravel change. But I'll save that for the next post so I get time to take some more pictures.


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## ShadeSlayer (Jul 20, 2015)

The QH I ride sighs heavily when he sees me pull out the saddle. It’s hilarious. Your horse is a cutie! 
I’m so sorry about Orion. He was a special fish, indeed.


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

Lol! I think one of the horses I used to ride did that. His name was Solo, and he was some chestnut X. Could of been a QH x lol too! :,)

He was. He was indeed. I miss him greatly. But I'm just glad I was able to give him a good life while he was here. ^^


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

Please do not kill me for this post:

I'm away from home currently so my mother is looking after my fish. She's not what I call "aquatics orientated" but she can manage turning on a light and feeding them. She also has a goldfish named Frank, who I mainly look after. I've never talked about him, since, he is not mine and I'm no goldfish expert. Despite me telling my mother, he shouldn't have a heater, he does. I have to agree, he's a lot more active with a heater than when it's not on. He has a neon friend that she rescued from a friend. That have both been fine until the tank broke. So I know a lot of you are going to be mad about the heater, but, it's out of my paws. Nothing I can do or say. Sorry. But it gets worse:

So I get a FaceTime call. I then am shocked to see Frank in my sorority!! She said she was desperate and that everyone was going to die (all the pumps heater, etc all run on the same system which broke) so she decided despite me often saying how my girls would rip him into a thousand pieces, she'd risk it and plop them in.

I'm literally raging. I don't even know if they're disease free. Worst, she could be putting 2 healthy fish into a tank where dropsy has acted twice recently. I don't know if my girls tank is even in the green.

My girls were all very curious. I could see them swimming up to him and then swimming off to hide. Rosaline and Nyx have stopped fighting because they're So confused. It's in fact the neon that is getting picked on. But apparently he's finding hiding spots the girls can't fit in so I'm not that worried.

I understand this is going to be frowned upon, etc, but there's nothing I can do while I'm not there. It's really annoying, and I'm just hoping when I get there everyone is in tact and my tank too.

I can't get back until later today, but I'm going to sort out his tank asap. I have spare filters and air stones, no heater so the neon will have to remain in the girls ( -_- ) but I'll be able to get frank in temporary housing or his tank if it is fixable.

Everyone is doing fine, but I'm still angry beyond words. She didn't ask me because she knew I'd say no.

But there you have it. Goldfish meets Betta. And I'm not proud.

However, remember, I can't be blamed for this, and I'm not about to lose it with my mother. She's been seriously ill lately, she collapsed and was in hospital a few days ago, as she has a heart condition which flared up. She's probably going to need to be operated on, and I'm not about to make her feel any more crap than she is already. So please, be understanding. I'm aware this isn't okay.


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## Olivia27 (Nov 26, 2015)

What kinda goldfish?

One of the breeds that begin with F actually prefers a 76+ water. Fan...tail? Fancy? F.... Something.


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

I'm more worried about the disease aspect if he was already used to warm water. I hope your mom feels better soon, too.


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

Olivia27 said:


> What kinda goldfish?
> 
> One of the breeds that begin with F actually prefers a 76+ water. Fan...tail? Fancy? F.... Something.


He is a "F" something I remember that much. Hopefully he is the right type for it, I feel much less guilty for my mother.


I'll be home in about an hour; hope things are okay.


Yes, I hope so too! I'll dose with some mild treatment when I get in.


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

Before I write up my current post, I just wanted to say everything was fine, the goldfish was fine and so were my girls. I fixed the tank system except the lighting, but everything apart from that works now.
***

Hello everyone again, sorry for the lack of input and updates lately. Well to start with, I've had a lot of school work, my Art coursework and lots of stuff with deadlines. I have exams looming too, and upon filling my calendar in with all these important dates, it's very depressing to see the lack of open gaps available in such a short amount of time. I've just come off a week or so break, which I was REALLY grateful for.

I've also had no Wi-Fi. My router is broken, and the new router arrives tomorrow or Wednesday. I'm relying on my phones limited 3G/4G for this post! 

Anyway, enough of myself. Onto the fishes! Well, in short, Carpathia found an area where the net on the hatchery had slipped down on the plastic frame and decided to squeeze through, which lead to some crazy dispute over dominance with Rosaline. Long story short, they both now have rags for fins and lost a few scales here and there.

I'm treating with API Stress Coat, under doses of AQ salt, and clean warm water. 

Today however, I came home to the remains of a ginormous bubble nest by Rosaline and also some eggs which shocked me. All my girls are girls, I promise. They were all infertile. She'd seemed very "eggy" prior, however I just assumed she would absorb them again. Because she was vey territorial, I decided to break the nest. She got in the way so I temporarily netted her, and Nyx gobbled up loads of her eggs. I netted some into Carpathia's hatchery.

Once the majority of nest was broken up I released Rosaline, who decided she actually did want to eat her eggs so she got some too. (She had been tending to the nest prior to this, moving the eggs about and rebuilding broken bubbles).

Rosaline has now become too aggressive towards Nyx. So in short Nyx will be going on temporary vacation. She will be going to my community for a while, which should prove perfect. There will be some moderate to peaceful fish in there so she should be nice and comfortable there, with plenty of fresh plants and everything. I'll perform a WC before she goes in to make sure the water is very nice and clean.

This sounds simpler than it is. My community and sorority aren't at the same house if you weren't aware, so I'll have to transport her. It's okay since I have spare fish bags. 

My community got a facelift. You can see it in the planted tanks thread, however, it's very much still WIP. But it's a step in the right direction. I'll save my pictures and post until Nyx is in safe and sound. She'll be going tomorrow if everything goes as I planned.

I also have new ideas for my sorority. I plan to divide it to make it a 12.5gallon sorority community and also a 2.5g male betta section. These will most likely be dividers that aren't solid and allow water flow through slits. I plan to use 1 suction cup divider thingy, and a 3d background with deep rivets to hold the divider in place. Will the tank be overstocked? Most likely, but I'll cross that hurdle later on. I over filter my tanks, anyway, so it shouldn't be too serious a issue.

Dividing my tank up means I have less space to fill so densely, and should mean less open gaps for the girls to see each other. Other fish also mean more distractions. 

Thanks for reading guys! ^^
Here's a picture of the nest before being destroyed:


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## ThatFishThough (Jan 15, 2016)

0.0 One of my girls in my sorority has Ick/Ich. *cries* how were you treating Orion?


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

Wow, what an adventure!


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

​Well, I noticed Orion's ich quite late, being a light coloured boy it made them hard to spot. My swordtail being bright orange had quite a contrast between the few white spots he'd caught making them easy to notice early on and treat. He survived.

I treated my guys with (API's) AQ Salt, IAL, API's Stress Coat and Waterlife White Spot and Fungal treatment. The Waterlife treatment was the one that seemed the best option at the time. I needed a treatment fast and this was one of the best out of the other treatments available at my small LFS. I also picked it so it would be useful - it treated a multitude of other things too, so it wouldn't just be something that I had sitting in my fish drawer until my fish suffered a bout of ich a few years (hopefully atleast) later, where I'd find its now gone off and of no use to me.

I'd suggest checking what treatments are available to you and just quickly review that particular products reviews and effectiveness and whether it had any severe flaws. Whatever you decide to use, you must act quickly otherwise the ich will spread.

You also need to do large WCs every day to every other day. This can be a pain, but essential for all your other fishes well being. If possible if segregate your girl but also having a sorority I know that sometimes that isn't always the best idea. The bacteria is already in the water anyway. 

Speaking of that pesky bacteria, it dies within 24 or 48 hrs of it doesn't find a host fish, which is a good thing. It means you can significantly reduce the bacteria lurking in the water for a host with WCs.

Once your happy you've removed the ich successfully, (I'd give it 3/4 days + a dose of treatment the day before) and then doing a 100% change to remove anything that could of possibly been in the water you don't want. It also means nice fresh water! Yay 

Just make sure you monitor her closely and select a treatment to start ASAP!

Good luck with your girl ^^

***​
Nyx transferred today. It was sad but happy at the same time. She'll probably remain there until she has grown up a bit more. She's so tiny right now, aha.
When I went to plonk her baggy in, I saw Honey my female ram cichlid lying lifeless at the bottom, her fins all ragged and torn. She didn't die of a disease, that's for sure. I have my suspicions over a culprit. Feel sorry for my male ram, "Ram" is his totally original name (yes I call him that for real). I'm going to have to research about lone males and finding him a girlfriend, however o have a feeling this could prove very tricky. I'll probably be getting another pair or two, I really do love my rams. Anyway, I'm pleased to say Nyx is doing well and is settling.

I'm hopefully going go get a fish haul at the weekend. Buying 3 girls or so (which I'll attempt to quarantine in their baggies / my plus size baggies I have already. I've done it before, hopefully it works this time. They will probably only have a week of quarantine as I've been watching them all for weeks and they have there own filtration system, I'll have to see). I'll also be buying some cheap tetras or something to start the community ("distraction") side of the tank. Possibly a ram girl or pair or so. 

Also looking to get some floating plants. Maybe some ricca or salvinia, hm.

That's all!  I'll get some nice pictures of Nyx, and the new community but for now, it's a picture of my lovely girl Honey who passed on as I mentioned. 

She had such a lovely character, and ate her food SERIOUSLY LOUD. All I'd ever hear is "splash .. Sploosh ... Splash.." Haha, I'll miss you Honey, and so will Ram. ):


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## ShadeSlayer (Jul 20, 2015)

awww, I’m sorry about Honey. It’s tough loosing fish. I just lost one of my cories, so I feel for you. I hope you can find some nice new buddies for Ram.


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## ThatFishThough (Jan 15, 2016)

Aww. Lil reccomended QuickCure; but my petco/smart doesn't carry it. Imma look into something with malchite green, as she suggested.


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

Awh, poor city, I'm sorry for your loss. I'll admit I wasn't as attached to her as Ori, but still ): I hope so too. I'm very worried about the whole situation and trying to re bond. If anyone has any experience re-bi ding GBRs then I'd love to hear, I'm trying to research but very contradicting info. Thanks ^^


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

ThatFishThough said:


> Aww. Lil reccomended QuickCure; but my petco/smart doesn't carry it. Imma look into something with malchite green, as she suggested.


I'm not very experienced with medicines, I will admit it's not my area. So probably go with that, I tend to just pave my way on experiences, and I found mine worked on mild ich.  didn't seem to affect the ich in its final stages. IAL is always good to have, and I'd definitely be doing frequent WCs. That way the disease eventually dies from not having a host and a large amount that's in the water is removed. ^^


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

So we have some new arrivals. I bought them on Saturday, and only just managed to type this up.

I bought 3 girls and 7 Neon tetras.

However, sadly one of the girls has disappeared. I can only hope she is either seriously good at hiding or I kept confusing her with the other two. Somehow, I'm fearing the worst, which is really disappointing.

I picked out a mostly red wild variety SDeT with some combing, most likely VT girl, and she is the one missing. :-S she showed completely no signs of illness, and was the healthiest girl of them all, super curious, and colouring up instantly. She also for a few seconds showed me some horizontal bars, which was strange, she looks so tiny.

The others were a red with blue irid (obviously wild variety based) and I picked her due to even though having stress stripes, she had a very nice red coloured head. I've forgotten the name now so I'll have to look it up.

And lastly, this girl is a Royal blue or violet. She's still very nervous and pale, all stress stripes and is less active, albeit healthy touchwood.

The neons were simple, and I got some great discounts. They only had 4 adult neons, so I picked those. I asked about the "neon" on its own in the tank next door, thinking it had accidently got in. He said it was a "diamond head neon" but being the lovely guy he was, he gave it me the price of regular neons.

Wanting to have 6, I asked for a baby neon tetra, but to my suprise he gave me two for the price of one because they were only small.

The guy, who I've spoken to over the course of a couple of weeks of going to the store and everything was lovely, happy to help, knowledgable, chatty, and obviously passionate about his job.

I went to the store Maidenhead Aquatics. Mine wasn't too big, but a lot was crammed into that space and Everywhere was clean and tidy, the fish healthy, etc, and the atmosphere was nice. Couldn't ask for any better ^^


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## ThatFishThough (Jan 15, 2016)

Picturesssss!


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

I apologise for my lack of activity. I decide to take a break.

Well, as usual it's not good news. I cracked my tank shutting the lid. It got a bit jammed and I thought it would just slip round. To my suprise the plastic hood remained and it snapped the glass. The crack spans about a third to a quarter of the way from the top at the back of my tank. At first I thought it went straight to the bottom and I was doomed, but it wasn't that far down fortunately. I had just done a WC, so I managed to siphon into a bucket while I shoved a handful of towels under the crack as I did not want the electrics to get water in them, so I turned all my tank electrics off.

The fish are fine (well, not everyone, but I'll get to that) and are living in a third to half of the usual amount of water. I fully intend to repair the crack with aquarium sealant and a glass insert the is "L" shaped so it's covers the whole corner properly. I'm praying it works, if not, my tank will be replaced, and this one will end up as spare with a glass partition in after the crack so it can still hold water. That or I'll sell it, someone will be able to use it for a hamster or something.

And then...

Well Nyx and Carpathia are both ill. I think they have a severe constipation or dropsy. They seem to have some pineconing but nothing too severe like all my other fish that had dropsy. They have bouts of rapid and slow breathing, and I'm fasting currently, and have fed peas. I'll be going out to get some Epsom salts if this doesn't help. They had no symptoms other than very slight bloating, so I just assumed they had a little too much. I'll also be getting some clove oil, because it's clear they are suffering, but because they seem to not be deteriorating any further, I won't be euthanising until I know that death is certain and there is nothing I can do. I'm a firm believer animals are PTS too early on, and for too smaller reason because it's seen as the 'fairest' option.
Well I think life is just too precious to go taking it away so easily. I'm only generalising on personal experiences.

Also... I'm giving up on sorority. Well not giving up, but I will no longer be keeping a sorority, as I feel like this is not what I'm looking for. I'm able to keep two aquariums, one will always be a community,and the other something... More extravagant???

I'm looking at taking on a pair of discus or a pair of convicts. My tank is on the smaller side, but I'm looking into a canister filter and or sump. Quite a difference but, that's what I'm doing, still researching which would be my best match. My all time grail is discus, but we'll have to see. I certainly will only be buying from a reputable breeder this time and no LFS fish.

The little purple/blue and red girls are doing really well! I'm happy to say. They have lots of growing to do and I'm hopefully going to be keeping them, oh yeah, I think I forgot to explain the part where I think I'll be rehoming all my girls. I am really attached to them all so I don't know. Tank dividing ? My plan is not set, but, if anyone should be interested in rehoming them to a good home, I'll give them to you, and you can collect or I can ship (however I'd rather not due to the fact they could be infected with some kind of disease knowing my luck.) I wouldn't even consider taking on these girls if you couldn't quarantine them for a good amount of time. Please let me know if you are interested. I'm not sure if Nyx and Carpathia will make it, but if they do, I will be very unlikely to offer them for rehoming, it just wouldn't be fair if my miracle fish didn't stay with me. 

Basically, I'm taking my fish keeping in another direction. I'll still have a Betta in my community, but, I probably won't have any in my other tank. I mean, and then there is the sneaky 8 gallon I was thinking of putting in my room at my other house. (Shh don't tell anyone.) So I could easily keep another boy or two in there, but that's not set it stone.

Bettas will always remain my favourite fish type. There is something about them. But, I'm just taking a little break.  

Should anyone still be interested in my fish keeping with reduced amounts of Betta posts, I'll continue to happily keep my journal updated. I completely understand if nobody is really interested after. Well, there are many parts of fish keeping, and this is just one of them. I'm starting a new chapter hopefully soon. 

Practically none of that makes sense, and I'm sorry, I'm not in the mood to rewrite it. I just hope you get the general gist.

I'm going to most likely remain inactive for a while, sorry.  I've not died or anything haha.

Sorry again. -BB


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## ThatFishThough (Jan 15, 2016)

Oh, I'm so sorry, BB. I've been following the journal and I'm sorry to hear things have turned for the worst.

I might be interested girls. I'd be more of a backup, if no one wants a specific one, but if worst comes to worst... I can somehow talk my mom into it.

Hope things perk up again & everyone gets better.

;-;


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

Wow, things always happen together it seems. I wish you luck with your new ideas! I'll read about all of your fish keeping even if there aren't any bettas. I love all animals.


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

Carpathia and Nyx both passed on. It seems I'm cursed with female bettas, and for their own sake, I refuse to take any more on.

The two little ones have names. Lénor and Violeta, or Viola for short. Little Lenor is the gorgeous little red with cute head markings, and Violeta is, the purple-blue one suprise.

My tank is empty, and has been for a while. My fish are living happily in an ikea trofast tub. They have less space but more depth. They all seem a lot happier, with the babies finally losing their stress stripes and little Lénor has put on a bit of weight and size, and Viola is growing at a steady pace. Rosaline is happy, she has succeeded Carpathia and become the dominant girl, and I think that's definitely helped the atmosphere.

The neons are neons. Happily going along put put at the bottom. I'm a little concerned not enough food is sinking down to them, I can only hope. I'll try using a tsp to sink some more food so my hungry girlies don't gobble it up before they even have a chance!!

I have the glass, and I'm waiting for my sealant to arrive, hopefully it will arrive soon. My tank got all scrubbed today which is fabulous. 

Thanks for that ThatFish, and meh, things go down before they go up right? I hope anyway! I don't know if I'll be adopting them out. I'll play it by ear. May have to put one in the community and put a 8g there, divide it and have it filtered in both sections, I have two filters (or I will rather, as I'm replacing my 15g's with a canister, or something stronger methinks) and I'll just have to get a heater. Or one of them will have to stay in a 1.5g for a bit, idk. The offer is open to anyone. I'm increasingly becoming attached to little Lénor, but then Viola is so pretty... And Rosaline is very special. If any are offered appropriate homes, then I'll probably accept. Decisions decisions! 

It's still very up in the air, lol. And then their is the what if my 15g doesn't patch up... Oh lord.

Thanks sadist! I love all animals too.  speaking of ideas, I have plans for my community. I'm planning on getting: another swordtail because my little dude is all lonely after his girlfriend got SBD, another ram pair and plus two-three ram girls to pair with my lonely Mr. Ram, after Honey died unexpectedly, 3 giant mollies, a pair of bottom dweller things I forgot the name of, a shoal of marble hatchets and a male Betta. 

Probably overstocked? I'm unaware of that tanks gallon age and due to its unusual bowed sides I can't calculate it. It holds a fair bit anyway. (Don't judge me for this lol.) I'll be adding everyone slowly so the filter can keep up. My filter in there is a complete badass, way too big and overfiltering, which is how I like it. I can always make adjustments later accordingly.

I was so sure I wasn't going to blabber, and there you go I've done it again. ;-; sorry everyone. ;-;


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

Haha, blabber away! I love reading ideas and plans.


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## BeautifulBettaFishies (Dec 21, 2014)

Hey everyone! I just wanted to let everyone know that all my girls are happy and safe with the neons in my patched up 15g. It repaired beautifully, and touchwood, I hope I'm not going to jinx it, the tank is very sturdy and doing perfectly, after 24hrs of being stocked and all water and fish added.

My tank has a new stand, I'm using the IKEA Kallax 4-box square (happy week early birthday to me!) thing and I'm 100% sure that the stand could take another 15g if I could fit it. It's built seriously sturdy and is just what I was looking for.

I completely re-did my room for my birthday, and it's got the look that I wanted. It was pink shabby chic, which was mature and reflected my teen-age. But it just wasn't me...?? I'm a bright, colour funky person and for me that's what I wanted to reflect in my room. I also have a new bed set with cat mermaids on (I know right?!) which makes me happy! 

Back to fish. I was pretty stressed it wouldn't work out, but I'm quite happy, even if my tank somehow seems a lot more sparse plant wise. A lot of my Cabomba melted from lack of light exposure (it's really hard to get a tank light on an ikea trofast tub!!), but it seems to be recovering... My Ozelot seems to be thriving and I feel really bad because it's issue in my tank must of been that it was getting too much light. My Amazon swords large leaves had all died, but there was plenty of sprouting healthy green babies below so it won't be long before its fully back to its former leafy glory. The Java fern... Yeah, what Java fern? It had rotted and fallen off and only 10 long strips that had started to attach are on my mopani wood. ): I'm definitely going to try and get some surface coverage by floating plants. 

All my neons are fine, with the exception of the fact that I didn't manage to remove the Ick. I missed a dose after the tank broke, so while I have caught it early again, I'm having to treat them all over again.

Rosaline seems to be doing well as the dominant girl. She isn't too cruel either, and certainly doesn't go looking to cause trouble like Carpathia did. Violeta, even as the smallest, is middle of the pecking order. I was concerned that she would be bullied, and even though she still has her stress stripes from the cross over, she certainly isn't being bullied!! Lénor is bottom of the order, and she has certainly filled out. She is so beautiful with her red head and doesn't seem to be concerned about the hierarchy. She minds her own business and doesn't get too stressy. She is such a lovely red colour now with blue/ green irid. Definitely had atleast one wild variety parent.  Her form isn't the worst either for a pet shop fish.

I -think- I'll be continuing a sorority / community in this tank. But while the fish are happy, I'm not concerned. I was so sure I wanted to try other fish, nut now I think I'm going to wait to get a 20-30g high for some discus, and a 20g long at some point in the future for those convicts. Nothing is set in stone, but I think I'm never going to buy another LFS Betta female. Definitely will be importing from the US / other. They seem a lot more hardy and stronger. What I want. ^^

I have two more posts planned - one picture overload of my girls, especially Lénor and Viola as nobody has met them yet, and one of how I fixed my tank / a tutorial ? It's hard to write a tutorial as every crack is different and could need an equally unique repair. I'll do my best to explain mine and give my opinion and experiences.

Thanks for reading guys


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

I can't wait to see the new girls and how the repair is done! I'm surprised cracks can be repaired at all. It'll be a learning experience.


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