# Witty Title



## Shesha (Oct 13, 2011)

In my plight to avoid math homework, I've decided to post here with my journey in aquatic life.

I first joined BettaFish.com when I got the idea that I must have an aquarium and researched on how to start. My zealotry back then is a little embarrassing to look back on  As it proved, experience was a better teacher for me, though that can be said for nearly every aspect in [my] life :roll:

I found out that keeping an aquarium was pleasantly stress relieving.. the way it felt running my hand through wet sand.. the trickling sound of the HOB filter.. the cute fish..

I attempted to make a community based around my betta Narai. First I tried adding some snails.. they died. I didn't exactly know why. I added ghost shrimp.. they died. The culprit then must've been the heavy metals in my well water! So I decided to not bother with inverts. I added ghost catfish; I figured that Narai wouldn't bother them because they were transparent. This was not the case. They were stressed out and scared of him, and he eventually killed every single one. At that point I gave up and let him be the lonely king of his castle.

The issues with my water ultimately halted my journey. Though Narai was ever active and happy, I noticed he developed lacerations on his head. While I'm not completely sure if my diagnosis is correct, I believe long-time exposure to the water quality led to Hole-In-The-Head disease. I took him out of the aquarium and treated him with some medication that escapes me at the moment, but did result in him regaining his health.

Until I made the mistake of putting him back in the tank. He died shortly after with no other signs of sickness.

I had a very big planted tank with no fish. It was very upsetting. I later tested our well water straight from the faucet and it was hard to make sense of the readings; we have 6.# ph but gh/kh through the roof. In retrospect, it made a lot of sense because we have repeatedly had broken water pipes. So, acidic water is eating the old pipes and the metals in the pipes are leeching into the water or something. :evil:

I kept my tank without any fauna in it for a while but my plants also died because depression and stress led to my negligence. One of my dogs died to cancer in Dec 2012. I had her since she was two months old and it hasn't stopped hurting. I've been in college for 4 years but I'm nowhere close to graduating. I have a lot of missteps to fix, among other things that are beyond my control. But my newest betta, Mithra, has brought some happiness into my life and I remember now how soothing it is to watch a fish swim.

Old pictures attached.


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## MameJenny (Jun 11, 2012)

Beautiful tank and betta!  Sorry to hear about your water problems, and the loss of your dog. I hope your new fish lives a long, healthy and happy life.


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## BlueLacee (Dec 8, 2013)

I'm sorry to hear about all the problems you've been having. You tank looks great though, and what a beautiful boy you have


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## Shesha (Oct 13, 2011)

MameJenny said:


> Beautiful tank and betta!  Sorry to hear about your water problems, and the loss of your dog. I hope your new fish lives a long, healthy and happy life.





BlueLacee said:


> I'm sorry to hear about all the problems you've been having. You tank looks great though, and what a beautiful boy you have


Thank you for the kind words! :-D

------

I went shopping after class one day and stopped at WalMart. I looked at their fish and on the spur of the moment decided that I should get a new betta. They had a lot of dead fish in their tanks and even more dead bettas in their cups. As honorable as it would've been to save a betta from WalMart, I also refuse to contribute to the consumer demand for them to stock fish when their pet department provides inadequate care. Moving on..

I picked Mithra up on April 2nd from a local pet store. The store only has about 5 bettas stocked at a given time, all of them in clean water and happy despite their cups. Not a lot of selection when it comes to colors and types, but I didn't choose Mithra for his color anyway; I picked him because he was the most active. He went crazy when I poked the cup and picked him up.

I also went to PetSmart and got some wisteria, lucky bamboo, and a happy Buddha ornament. Got home and placed Mithra in a bowl. I like the aesthetic of a bowl. It was fine for a few days, but once Mithra got settled in, I had to take the Buddha out to give him more space to swim. Another few days and he was still too big for the bowl, so I switched him out yet again. More space is definitely not a bad thing, but he spends most of his time hanging out in the corner closest to me while I'm at my desk, watching me and trying to guilt with his puppy eyes for food.


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## Shesha (Oct 13, 2011)

Here he is as of today, flaring at me for no apparent reason. (On second thought, I do know why! He HATES my glitter manicure, hah!)
I should be getting some floating pants and Marsilea quadrifolia next week. We'll see how that goes!


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## Shesha (Oct 13, 2011)

I received some four-leaf clover, dwarf water lettuce, and ludwigia from P_volitan on AquaBid.
The clover had a crazy root system and grown emersed. I'm really hoping it'll do well despite my low-tech setup. My substrate level isn't too deep so I'm having a hard time keeping it anchored down in the sand. I do have more sand, but it's unwashed and the idea of washing it feels like a pain in the butt..
Mithra enjoys the floating plants a lot, he's been curiously looking at them.

I've also ordered JBJ 3 gallon Picotope from Drs Foster and Smith, but it's on backorder until next month. 

It's nighttime right now so the pics aren't great and my wisteria's all closed up.
I also do not claim to be a good aquascaper :lol:


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## Shesha (Oct 13, 2011)

Mithra made a bubble nest for me! Safe to say, he enjoys the dwarf water lettuce..


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## Rollo (Jan 6, 2014)

Beautiful fish and tanks. Love that water lettuce.


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## BettaLover1313 (Apr 15, 2013)

Wow! What a beautiful tank! Not to mention the beautiful bettas!


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## Shesha (Oct 13, 2011)

I had an intense day at school yesterday. Monday/Wednesday are my Calculus days. I had a group meeting that lasted _*3 hours*_ where we taught ourselves a section of the chapter because we have to teach that section (Kepler's laws of planetary motion) to the class on May 5th.
Today in Linear Algebra was a lot less intense (eigenspaces). Thank goodness it's my _easy _math class :roll:

I added a HOB filter onto Mithra's kritter keeper and fed him some freeze-dried daphnia. The filter is an Azoo Mignon 60 and daphnia by Hikari.


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## Shesha (Oct 13, 2011)

I managed to get a pic of fishy's freckles while I was annoying him to flare at a mirror.  The bigger spot was there when I got him, but the little specks on him are new. The patch of blue on his dorsal has also been coloring up, he was a much truer cellophane 3 weeks ago.


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## Shesha (Oct 13, 2011)

I'm so tired I wanna cry. Finals are next week so it's crunch time. I should have had a LinAlg group meeting today but we agreed to work on our group project individually and compare answers before it's due :roll: And I have a calc group meeting tomorrow. :-?

Here's a little snippet of me proving aphelion/perihelion distances from the presentation I did on Monday http://vocaroo.com/i/s1feXevlc7lt 
If you listen closely you can hear me mix words up and I question myself as I say it but never correct it. :roll: ("the intervals in the period?" when it should be the other way around, pff)

But anyways, the picotope should come this Friday. Can't wait to aquascape it. My boy's home looks way overgrown and messy now, but I won't complain about good plant growth (in fact, I'd prefer that to good plant death :lol. The new marsilea growth is giving me 2 leaves now, so it's almost fully acclimated to being submerged, but the taller stems that made it to the water line opened into cute 4-leaf clovers that I really enjoy. I don't have a picture of that right now, but I will next time.


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## Shesha (Oct 13, 2011)

Due to unforeseen circumstances, this is now Mithra's new home.. It's a bit small but cozy..









What, don't believe me? :roll:

:lol:

I'm not too sure how I feel about the blue light. I thought I wouldn't mind it when I ordered it, but now it's, well, too blue and making the colors look weird. I suppose I'll replace it later.


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## Shesha (Oct 13, 2011)

I really don't like the light, so I took it off. Such a shame, too! Hopefully my marsilea and water lettuce will be alright with how low light the environment is.
The ludwigia has also developed a nice case of thread algae. It may resolve itself as the aquarium matures, I guess. I dosed with some iron, so that may attribute to its growth. It seems to be opportunistic when it comes to attaching to other plants, but it really, really likes the ludwigia. 

I didn't add the buddha from the old set-up into the picotope because it has air bubbles [???]. Disappointing, but I'm not willing to risk it flaking off one day. Sooo, what to add as a focal point without my ornament, hm..

But in other news, I've finished the semester. I'll be taking calc 3, physics, statics, and a general engineering course come Fall.


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## Shesha (Oct 13, 2011)

I went on a trip to Manhattan earlier this month. My girlfriend came from California and had us stay right between Times Square and Broadway. Cabaret on Broadway was amazing. I wish I could experience it all over again.

Nothing fish-related has been happening lately. My mother did feed Mithra without my instruction to do so the week I wasn't home much. She didn't feed enough to gunk up his tank, but boy was his tummy full. Maybe he was happier when he had the chance to be a pig.

I did clean out the tank last night. Cleaned off the algae build-up and trimmed the plants because they were breaking the water surface. I also moved the four-leaf clover to the back so it could catch more light, but that means it isn't visible behind the stem plants. I had to remove a lucky grass too because there's no more room for its root system when I've got so many plants going on now. Both lucky grasses have grown very well in the past 2 months though!


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## Shesha (Oct 13, 2011)

My big water lettuce mother plant slowly shrunk. On the positive side, the water lettuce didn't die, even if it isn't as big anymore.

Mithra seems to have abnormal fin growth. I suppose there's nothing I can do about that--I can't tell him to stop growing--so I'll ignore the issue.


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## Shesha (Oct 13, 2011)

I went to the dentist to have fillings done today. On the way back home, I decided to try to find root tabs. First petstore barely had a fish section, nevermind root tabs. The store I bought Mithra doesn't seem to stock root tabs, which doesn't surprise me because they also do not sell live plants. Lastly PetSmart.. no root tabs, wtf! 

So now I will begrudgingly buy root tabs online.

However, I _did_ come home from PetSmart with dwarf hair grass, telanthera cardinalis, and bulbs......*and*

an itty bitty female betta, and a male halfmoon. The halfmoon's color is so sleek and ah-maaay-zing. The little girl is totally adorbs with her big eyes, I think she's the cutest thing ever.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Oooh! Is he a copper rosetail? That's awfully generous finnage for a normal HM!

Sorry about how difficult your life's been in the past months  I know how that feels... have worked through depression myself. Fish are a wonderful distraction, aren't they? And of course beautiful on their own merits.

Mithra is super cool! He's a unique-looking fish, and I love his attitude!

Maybe you'd like to shop for a clip-on desk lamp? And then get a 23W "Daylight" 6500K CFL bulb (sounds really specific, but you should be able to find it, on the Internet if nowhere else) and just pop it in. Your plants will love it.

You can also make DIY root tabs. The simplest guide I've seen is here. I haven't tried it myself, so take it with a grain of salt as one would normally approach internet things.


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## Shesha (Oct 13, 2011)

myexplodingcat said:


> Oooh! Is he a copper rosetail? That's awfully generous finnage for a normal HM!
> 
> Sorry about how difficult your life's been in the past months  I know how that feels... have worked through depression myself. Fish are a wonderful distraction, aren't they? And of course beautiful on their own merits.
> 
> ...


He could very well be a rosetail! He seems a bit docile and it's hard getting him to display.

I'll consider your suggestions, thank you


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## Shesha (Oct 13, 2011)

Upsetting news about my school life: I was late paying for Fall classes and lost my spot in Calc3 and Physics. Physics I'm not too sad over, but I'm really bummed about Calc3. There's only 1 Calc3 class with 32 seats--when I tried to register for it after losing my spot, there were 6 others on the waitlist. They only offer Calc3 in the Fall, so it'll be an entire year before I can get into it. I don't know how I'm going to motivate myself to keep reviewing calculus until then so I don't lose my skill. Sigh.

In fishy related news, I switched the sand out of Mithra's tank in favor of Eco-Complete. There's an Aponogeton bulb in each fish's tank and 2 of the 3 have come in very well.

Some videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEc8a0-p60I The little girl has such a friendly personality. She chases me and will jump to eat food off my finger. Adorable sweetheart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3RV87rnP5E I can't get this boy to flare but he does let his fins fan out. I put him in a Fluval View because it has more water volume, but now that he's been in there for 2 weeks, I don't like it. The current pushes him around too much.*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiP7NzJenZw Mithra being the poop he is. He's only nice to me when he's being fed.

*I've decided I don't like any of the fishs' housings. I'm moving in the soon-but-not-immediate future--after that happens, I'd like to reconsider my set-ups. Ideally, I'd like to have racks for both my pet fish and pet snakes.


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## DaytonBetta (Feb 4, 2014)

Can you audit the class while you are on the wait list? I bet a few people drop within the first month.


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## Shesha (Oct 13, 2011)

DaytonBetta said:


> Can you audit the class while you are on the wait list? I bet a few people drop within the first month.



Unfortunately not possible. My fingers are crossed for someone to drop, but even if that happens--


> All course section waiting lists for the upcoming semester/session have been closed. If you were on a waiting list for a class, you have been removed. . . . If you are still waiting for a class, you are advised to keep checking WebAdvisor for availability.


I don't even get notified! I have to manually search for the class every time to see if there's an open seat. :roll:


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

Ugh, it wouldn't be hard to put an automatic notification system in ... I think.

So sorry to hear about those lost classes. A year is a long time to wait. Maybe you can find a website or free online course with activities to keep your skills sharp in the meantime? A problem a week keeps the doldrums away!


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## Shesha (Oct 13, 2011)

I managed to sneak into Calc3 after checking the registration page multiple times a day. The class actually says it has -1 seats available now. The instructor looked a little overwhelmed, "There's 33 of you.. _that's a lot._"

I knew Statics would be intense, but I wasn't expecting to do proofs straight from day one! This professor let us introduce ourselves and had a nice pep-talk with us, asked us about our geometry/precalc history. Then he got all serious, knowing that we wouldn't know what we should know, and started teaching us some geometry that I definitely did not learn when I was in high school and proving it all to us so it'd stick in our heads. He ranted about how he was unhappy with the the geometry/precalc curriculum because of the disadvantage we who are looking to pursue higher mathematics are stuck in. There's only 10 students in Statics, crazy. We're about even split between math and engineering majors.

Thenn there's my introductory engineering class.. in which I'm the only girl out of 17 students. :-?:-?:-?:-?:-?

Now the fishies!
I've named the little girl Poppy and the pretty boy Gromwell. :-D


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## Shesha (Oct 13, 2011)

Hello BettaFish forums! Long time no see. 5 years in fact. _Half a decade! _Jeeze..


Mithra died of natural causes. Poppy died after a freak accident? One day she was fine, then I did a water change, and she was gone. Out of all the fish I've ever kept, her death really hit me because she was the sweetest little bean. She had such a good personality and I feel so sorry that my mistake shortened her life. Gromwell died during my move, maybe a little bit of stress, a little bit of poor upkeep (because of MY stress), and a lot to do with the weather during the move -- we moved during the winter of 2015 and that was the end.


So for a long while, I decided to stop with fish. I was in no place to care for one mentally after all my past fish died due to my failures. I never did finish my degree. I'd still like to. I expect to, even if it's not immediately. My girlfriend broke up with me. I went abroad and lived in my mother's home country for about half a year. I came home with a new dog. I was still depressed. But after I did a lot of soul searching, I finally managed to take care of my mental health and get into therapy. I'm doing SOO much better on a whole. I've been taking my dog out for a walk almost every day, though that'll come to a stop as winter becomes bitterer and bitterer.. I got a new boyfriend who I'm very serious with.. I'm working for a company where I think I really want to focus my career.


and..


after a long time of having no fishy friends...


I introduce Major Tom (whose name I hate but was named by my boyfriend after the character in David Bowie's songs :roll::roll::roll::roll::roll


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Welcome back! I'm glad that you rejoined us. Major Tom is gorgeous I know he'll have a great life with you.


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