# Bettadiction



## catsie (May 7, 2015)

Bettaddiction Journal 
Hi all  After many exciting and eventful journals that I've read of other betta owners on this forum with their beautiful bettas, I couldn't help but find myself wanting to do the same to show off my cutelings! It seemed like a great idea since I can talk, discuss, and record my memories about my lovelies. Since I am fairly late in the game, I will be writing from start to finish  I hope anyone who stumbles upon my journal will find the read as interesting as ive found some other journals!

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## natashahickey (Mar 21, 2010)

Hi, I shall subscribe, I love white in bettas and all of yours have white in them!  looking forward to your posts.


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## catsie (May 7, 2015)

*New Years Eve, Marimo Balls, and Zinfendel*



I finally got some time to ignore everything else for a moment or three in order to start this journal  
My obsession and addiction to bettas began with marimo balls surprisingly. I never had any intentions on bringing a betta home or even taking care of fish. Ive always had interest in them in the past, always had a love for animals and have raised fish previously, but I had thought it was a thing of the past. I wont be talking about the other bettas ive had way before as sadly I was ignorant, young, and too childish to understand how to properly take care of fish. If anything reflecting back on it now makes me quite sad on how I couldnt and didnt do much for them. I always keep them in the back of my head when raising my current now that im much older, knowledgable, and interested in taking care of them properly.  To my previous bettas, im sorry. 

My cousin was into miniature terraniums and marimo balls at the time, I saw them on her instagram and thought how cute these tiny moss balls were. She offered some of her extras to me saying how easy they were to take care of, and I figured a little terranium would look adorable on my desk. While helping my grandmother prepare things for new years, I was over there and got to see these little moss balls and later that evening after all the prep-work was done, my cousin and I went out to trader joes and it already being so late and new years eve, nearby craft stores were already closed for the year. We shortly then decided to drive a block or two to a Petco, if you needed a tank for a terranium.. petco would most definately have glass bowls, right? Walking through the doors of that petco was literally like.. walking right into an addiction. But, i feel that if i knew all this would happen, that I would end up the way I did now I would honestly do it all over again haha! 

Neither of us went to find glass bowls. I saw the betta rack and remembered the gorgeous little yellow halfmoon betta I had briefly during my first year of college.. more speicifically on how my dorm's heater only blew out cold air.. and I didnt want my betta to be too cold.. especially since I even had to cuddle my hair dryer and wear my winter coat to stay somewhat warm. My friend's room however, was nicely heated and warm.. so since we saw each other every day.. she offered to keep the fish in her room until maintenence got around to fixing my heater. I unfortunately dont have photos of him, but he was a pale yellow with a slight irridescent green to his scales, very friendly personality, he was the first betta I had in years. Because of his pale coloring, I named him Zinfendel since I thought his coloring reminded me of white wine. My friend who shared her warm room with a roommate.. Not planning on going into full detail on how much i despised this person for constantly having boys over, but my hate for her went full on when I found out a few weeks later that she had poured laundry detergent into the fish tank.. My friend who noticed the wierd floral armoa in the water that looked a bit sudsy.. would change the water.. this kept Zinfendel alive for a bit.. until her (censored) roommate decided to go overboard on the detergent, killing Zinfendel. Even thinking about it now.. infuriates me to the point where i can feel tears welling up in my eyes at the thought of how much poor Zinfendel suffered and felt pain as soap was poured into his bowl. Whats worse is that this hideous person went around bragging about how she killed Zinfendel.. telling people on their floor how she killed the fish with soap because the tank "smelled bad". In my opinoin, the only thing that truly smelled bad were her sheets from having multiple male guests on a daily basis. I have always been an animal lover, I really bonded with Zinfendel and I despite the fact that it wasn't my hand that poured the detergent into his bowl.. I felt that i should have really pushed maintenence to come fix my heater faster and Zinfendel could have been safe. 

Now.. this wretched swine was not my roommate, and she didnt even live in my building but soap in the bowl meant I could never use it again to house another fish due to the residue, then she killed my fish.. worse, went around bragging about it. So I found myself writing up a report against her. May have been childish or unecessary but, destruction of my belongings and animal cruelty. if those two were actual things that were brought up and discussed in court, i knew that the school couldnt just tell me to simply "get over it". What ended up happening was that the school went to her to discuss the report and what she had done. This (censor) cried and screamed saying she didn't do anything and when they needed more "proof" we had the entire floor who heard her bragging about killing the "smelly fish" I didn't get refunded, she didnt get punished.. ( considering the fact that not many people value the lives of fish.. i wasnt surprised..) but, she did leave the room and get moved elsewhere.. so my friend could finally stop sleeping on the lounge couch because her roommate had boys over every night.. that.. and I will admit.. it was great seeing her arrogant attitude completely diminished and replaced with her crying and screaming like a child. I wasnt able to save Zinfendel, I wasnt able to put soap in her water like I had initially wanted, and I most certainly did not kill her with soap.. but I like to think that this horrible (censor) got a slight taste of her own wretched ways. 
as for Zinfendel.. I can only imagine how much pain and suffering you went through because I wasn't good enough of an owner to help or save you. Swim in peace little buddy. 

Ever since the incident with Zinfendel, I almost.. gave up on fish, bettas, I think it may have been the lingering anger and guilt I felt. When I looked through the tubs of bettas at Petco on New Years Eve, I couldn't help but think about Zinfendel. My thoughts were interrupted when my cousin pulled out a cup from the rack and shoved it in my face and I saw the most beautiful little boy. Fully white with not another speck of color on his tails, fins, head, or face. Despite my lack of interest in bettas and fish.. I've seen pictures of beautiful white bettas and considered possibly getting one.. but they were so hard to come by.. Depsite being there for a small glass bowl for marimo balls.. My dream betta in my hands in a little tub, I just knew I couldn't leave without him. Due to not having much money (or having prior plans to spend alot..) I picked up things that I could only afford for this irresponsible impulse buy.. (please dont do this. I admit that this was bad) I picked up a Marina betta cube.. a .5 gallon cube tank that came with gravel, picked up a little thing of betta food and paid for all of it with this beautiful betta. 5 Years after Zinfendel I found my little dream betta, It almost seemed like a sign since we were only a few hours away from the new year. 

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## catsie (May 7, 2015)

natashahickey said:


> Hi, I shall subscribe, I love white in bettas and all of yours have white in them!  looking forward to your posts.


 prepared to be a bit disappointed..


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## catsie (May 7, 2015)

*Dream betta dream Tuna*



I initially planned on calling this adorable white halfmoon betta "Luna".. or "Artemis".. you know, that white boy cat from Sailor moon. So this new white betta was swimming around in his little .5 gallon cube.. he has been good for a week or so then suddenly, I look over to see him swimming and then suddenly floating as if he was dead. I panicked, dropped everything I was doing and looked at him. He was sinking to the floor and suddenly got up and started swimming again.. scared, the first thing I decided to do was change his water. After a quick water change.. he perked right back up.. and that instant I knew i had to get him a better tank and a filter. I wasn't going to let myself lose another betta due to being a bad owner. Immediately after giving him the water change, I went onto petco's website and ordered a 2.5 aqueon minibow had the extra money so expedited it as well. When that tank came, I quickly set it up went out to purchase some extra things I needed (also had to replace the tank since the filter on the inside scuffed the hell out of the tank) When I got home, I quickly assembled everything that needed to be put together and accimilated him into his new home and oh my god. He looked so happy, confused, and so much more beautiful in this new tank. 








In his less than suitable .5 Marina cube.. his temporary tank









Getting his new home ready









A not so good shot of him after being introduced into his new tank 

I took a video of how happily he was swimming around in this tank and sent it to my brother who immediately responded with.. " Why is that Tuna so slow?". Pretty much teasing the betta but.. the name Tuna just stuck. I couldnt settle on Luna or Artemis.. but Tuna seemed too perfect and cute.. My beautiful white dream betta who I met on New Year's Eve.. his name was now Tuna. 
Words in any language could not describe how much I adored this little fish. everything he did seemed too cute for words. I wasn't sure if I was simply smitten with him, or if I was starting to love bettas all over again.. but this time, I felt as if I had a better understanding for this species. They had personalities, they were smart, the better you treated them.. the more of this personality you got to see and that itself was such an amazing thing to get in return. Tuna was a good little betta. other than that one time in his cube tank.. he never made me worry, the most he would do is that I would find the marimo balls in his tank moved or pushed around.. but bullying marimo balls wasnt a crime. It was such a joy to have him and if anything, he taught me so much about bettas and how to properly care for them.. even at his expense. I began to notice tears in his tail fin.. as if something was slicing them.. he didnt seem too bothered.. swam fine, ate normally, seemed excited over everything.. and then one day i realized the tail problem was due to the filter intake of the Aqueon Minibows. Tuna would get stuck on the intake and it would end up tearing his fins.. My next visit to Petco, I scanned the entire store looking for something that could help with the intake.. and thats when I found the fluval sponge. a little cylinder sponge..after a few trial and errors.. I found that using a rubber band to wrap the sponge onto the intake helped greatly. But.. unfortunately, It seemed like I would never be able to see his fins back whole again. from January to March, I've made alot of progress in learning about bettas, taking care of Tuna, joining this website, panicking whenever I thought something was wrong with Tuna.. Like that one time where he wasnt using one of his pectoral fins.. (luckily this went away a day or two later ). Ive added some glass marbles into his tank and I cherish the little videos I have of him pecking the glass marbles in curiousity. It was around March where I ended up having to say goodbye to Tuna. Even now I'm not sure if he felt pain, if it was just uncomfortable, or what was really wrong. I fed him a boiled pea that I let cool before feeding him. I ended up dropping a big chunk of the pea into his tank and ignored it while i fed him the little pieces. I totally forgot about the pea when i ran out to run some errands.. came back to see that it was gone.. I was worried.. if he ate that whole thing.. that cant be good.. but Tuna seemed okay.. or so I thought. 

Next day, I look over to his tank and see him lazily sitting on a leaf. highly odd considering that he has always been up when the room was bright from the sun.. I walk over to see him.. looking so odd. I can't really explain it. It just seemed like his personality and anything that represented it was just completely gone and replaced with a dead looking expression. Tuna however, was still alive. I would only see him swim up.. struggling to swim up, get some gulps of air before sinking back down to the ground or a leaf. I was so torn and heart broken that I tried to do whatever I could think of.. ask friends, call Petco, call a local pet store, start a post of it here. just anywhere and anyone who might be able to help me. I decided to try and wait it out for about a week. about day 3.. I began to worry that at this rate, he was slowly starving to death. he wasnt getting any better, if anything each day he seemed to be progressively getting worse. No shame in admiting it, I totally cried for days. Its one thing if a pet suffers from your mistake, but its another when you cant fix it. I came to the thought and acceptance of the thought that I may have to end his suffering. Considering that I couldn't tell if he was suffering, in pain, or anything.. the last thing I wanted was for him to slowly starve to death or die a slow painful death because I was too much of a coward to at least let him go in peace. I tried to go out and find some clove oil.. but ofcourse.. the only place that would sell such a thing happened to be out of clove oil that day. It seemed like the universe wasn't going to let me or Tuna end this in the cleanest and painless way possible... and that honestly frustrated me. I asked in a post on this forum, the one where I wanted help on figuring out how to help Tuna.. the topic had changed to.. "What can I do to put him out of his misery/euthanize him" to where someone had responded with a temperature shock method. I knew 100% I did not have the guts to decapitate him. I heard about how freezing the fish was extremely painful as ice crystals would form in their veins.. and with clove oil not being an option.. Temperature shock seemed to be the only option. 
I talked about it in that post. I honestly dont want to bring up or talk about what happened here as it still disturbs me. But whatever hapened.. I did euthanize Tuna. I wrapped him in a little paper towel and buried him outside in the front surrounded by flowers. It was also right in front of the large window in the living room.. so I buried him somewhere with a great view and not too far from me.. That and I bullied any stray cats who came too close to the flowers because I was afraid they would dig Tuna's body up. 









Swim in peace you glorious sassyfish <3 


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## catsie (May 7, 2015)

*I can't do math*



So over the few months that I've had bettas since the 31st of December 2014. my abilities in math and comprehention of math seemed to have deteriorated. especially when it comes to addition and mutiplication. My one tank has some how become 4. I am basically trying to say that I am addicted to this hobby and willingly olbivious/blind to the con of it. deaths and price. Goodbye wallet. 

Cant write another oversized over -lengthy post but.. There is another betta to add to the list  Shall introduce him soon!


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