# Crumpet, my first betta



## MsChris (Jun 5, 2012)

Hi everyone,

This is my betta, Crumpet. I got him yesterday. He is in my cycled 10-gallon tank with a heater and filter. So far he seems to be doing great! (I think it's a male; please correct me if I'm wrong!) What kind of betta do you think Crumpet is?

I'm so glad I found this site. I learned a lot about what my betta needed before I brought him home, so thank you! I love looking at pictures of everyone's fish!

Christine


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## NapoleonUWS (Apr 23, 2012)

Gorgeous betta... I just posted a thread (in Betta care) about my white / clear betta... he's changing color and now is mostly blue! Surprise!


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## MsChris (Jun 5, 2012)

Thank you! I love him already. 

I just checked out your thread. The woman I got Crumpet from said that a few weeks ago he was nearly all white and over the last few weeks he has gotten the blue tints. I wonder if he will get bluer!


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## NapoleonUWS (Apr 23, 2012)

My guy has all blue fins now and large blue spots all over his body... doesn't even look he did as a baby... Good luck with your new betta!


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## MsChris (Jun 5, 2012)

Thank you! I really appreciate it.


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## betta lover1507 (Aug 6, 2011)

he is a male delta tail, ..... eh i don't know colorations no more ask a pro. i was thinking grizzle but.....i don't know


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## Enkil (Jan 15, 2012)

He is very cute! You'll have to get him to flare to know for sure, but he does look like a delta.


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## Sweeda88 (Dec 6, 2010)

He is a grizzle. =) And a pretty one. I also Delta tail, and he's definitely a male.


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## betta lover1507 (Aug 6, 2011)

he looks super tiny in his tank heh heh


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## Karebear13 (Jan 23, 2012)

wow you did an amazing job researching before getting your little guy. Lucky little guy in a ten gallon cycled  He is really cute and love the name


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## betta lover1507 (Aug 6, 2011)

I agree with Karebear, some people don't do that, unlike you, you played it smart


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## Karebear13 (Jan 23, 2012)

I wish I would have started like that but its all good now


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## MsChris (Jun 5, 2012)

*thank you!*

Aww, thanks everyone! I really enjoy him. He's such a funny little guy. I'm glad I found this site/forum because it helped me get things ready for him before I got him and everyone has been very helpful and supportive!


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## MsChris (Jun 5, 2012)

*Crumpet is dead*

Crumpet is dead. I just wrote a post about it in the Memorial section. I'm really very upset about it. I can't stop crying. I really loved him already.


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## Shadyr (Mar 27, 2012)

When you get a new fish, really, in spite of the best care you give, sometimes it happens. Might have been sick already. You just can't tell what kind of care they got prior to coming home with you :| Most places will give a refund or new fish for up to a month if they do have problems after going home.

I had a perfectly healthy and hearty looking red veil die after three days...you are SO not alone in what happened. I'd imagine most of us on this forum have experienced it at least once. 

If you decide to try again (hopefully you will!), you might keep the new fish in a smaller quarantine tank for a week and maybe gradually introduce water from your cycled 10 gallon to it? That way you can make sure he's healthy and won't cause problems for anything else in the big tank, and you can give him a longer acclimitization time.

I'm sorry for your loss - these dancing fish really hook you fast.


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## mjoy79 (Jul 13, 2011)

I'm soooo sorry.  I hope you don't give up on keeping bettas. I feel so sad though because you just got him and were so excited. I was just about to comment that he looked like a crowntail to me until I saw your last post.


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## MsChris (Jun 5, 2012)

Thank you. 

Yes, I will definitely try again. I went to my local fish store today to talk to the aquarium expert about what happened. It is his opinion that Crumpet likely jumped out and perhaps my cat ate him.  I really, really hope that is not what happened. I guess I'll never know for sure. I had never seen him jump and the holes next to the filter are very very tiny, but I guess it is possible. I will cover them before I get another fish, just in case. 

He recommended that I take all of the water out, get rid of the Tahitian moon sand (I had chosen that because I want pygmy cory catfish and had read sand is good for them, but he said it can break the filter and is harder to keep clean) and replace it with stones, replace the filter cartridge, and basically start over with QuickStart. He said to bring him water samples from the tank and my faucet next week and he will test them at the store for me. (They can test much more than my API test kit can.)

So far the Amano shrimp and my mystery snail are still doing very well.


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## mellyjelly321 (May 21, 2012)

I'm so sorry that he didn't make it! He was super cute and it looked like you did a good job with the tank. These things happen, we've all been there. :-( Don't give up on keeping Betta's, just keep learning as much as possible, and it will all work out!


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## lyolya (Jun 12, 2012)

wait wait, why does the guy think the sand will break your filter? i have sand and my filter intake is like an inch above (if not less) and i never had any sand get sucked in. 

u have a 10 gal, you could def bring in a small group of corys in there. unless you saw the sand get sucked in urself when u plug it in - id leave the sand; i think the guy was just trying to sell you more stuff.

and sand is NOT harder to clean. i've had both. 

y replace filter cartridge?.. and start over? y? replacing filter cartridge won't ruin your cycle. i'm not getting your salesman at all


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## MsChris (Jun 5, 2012)

He told me that if even a few grains of sand got in my filter it could break the propeller and that I was lucky that hadn't happened yet. I don't think he was just trying to sell stuff because the rocks were only a few dollars and I was going to buy new sand or new rocks anyway and the sand would have been more expensive. I hadn't seen any sand get sucked in, but I decided to try the rocks just in case.

I wanted to start over because I don't know for sure what happened to Crumpet. If he was sick or something I didn't want to just stick a new fish in there without either figuring out what happened (which I can't really do for sure) or cleaning/replacing stuff. Right now I'm waiting for the tank to cycle again before I put anything in there but when it is ready I'd like to put in a group of pygmy corys. Maybe I didn't NEED to start over but I am very new to aquariums and I feel like there is so much conflicting advice and information out there between books, the internet, friends, fish store employees (not Petco and Petsmart...this guy isn't even a salesman. He's just employed to care for the tanks and the fish). I'm not saying he is necessarily right or that his way is the only way. I just...I wanted to be on the safe side. I'm trying so hard to do everything right and no matter what I do at least 50% of people seem to disagree! All of his tanks are beautiful and clean. I've never seen a dead fish in any of them. I've never seen sick-looking fish in them. The water I've taken my shrimp and snail home in from there tested perfectly. I guess I just made the decision to kind of take his advice because I need to pick someone to get steady advice from because I was getting a bit overwhelmed with all the different advice. I guess we'll see how it goes. It's frustrating waiting for it to cycle again but I really, really want to give a new fish the best home possible.


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## lyolya (Jun 12, 2012)

so how r u gonna put corys in with rocks instead of sand? its not even gravel, the food is gonna just slide through the cracks. and u won't see them displaying their natural behavior either. and cleaning will be hard too in my opinion unless those are boulders lol

as far as cycling tank over, i guess its up to u, but you gotta get used to the idea that u can't possibly cycle ur tank every time a fish dies.

it's really nice btw that ur caring and researching things, and trying to provide ur fish the best environment


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## MsChris (Jun 5, 2012)

I know! I'm not sure about the Corys. I'd originally gotten sand because I'd read it was best for them. I wouldn't want to put them in with a substrate that wasnt ideal for them. I haven't completely decided what I'll do yet or what I'll end up putting in the tank. Thanks for pointing that out about the Cory behavior, though. I appreciate it and it's something I've been thinking about. 

Haha. No, I definitely have no plans to cycle the tank each time a fish dies. I'm just starting out, though, so I wanted to at least start out on a good foot! Sigh. We'll see. 

Thank you! I'm trying very hard, at least.


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## Tikibirds (May 26, 2011)

I'm sorry he didn't last long  It is very possible he was sick when you got him. A lot of them are because most places keep them in cold, unheated cups and seldom change the water. That can wear down their immunity.

I do have to ask - did you use water conditioner? 

I am kinda skeptical about this fish expert of yours - Many people use sand in their tanks, especially on here. I'm sure if it was bad for filters, I would of seen many posts about it by now. I also have sand in my 10G and my filter is fine. Sometimes the impallers get jammed due to the amount of debris in the tank but they should be easy to clean or replace - depending on the filter model. With a gravel sipon, I find sand is easier to clean because the poop and food lay on the top of the sand instead of falling between the gravel. 

you really do not have to replace the sand or decor - most people use vinager to disinfect their fish stuff. Some also use a very mild bleach solution. Personally, I use scalding hot water. NO SOAP


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## MsChris (Jun 5, 2012)

Thank you.

Yes, I did use water conditioner. Thanks for thinking of that, though.

Yeah, I am skeptical about the sand, too. I really want corys and everything I read says that they do best in sand and show their natural behaviors and play in it and everything. I don't want to get them and not have them able to display their natural behaviors and have fun playing in the sand. Maybe I should put sand back in? I don't want to keep changing things but if I'm going to go back to sand now is the time, I think, with no fish in there. Ugh. I'm so frustrated!


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## lyolya (Jun 12, 2012)

what filter model do you have? i'll look it up n try to see where your guy was coming from. 

u know what u could do? what if you put the sand back in, and put a few larger rocks on top of the sand around the area of the filter intake? 
orrrrrr, even easier, you could just create a little dip and have more distance between filter and sand. 

but honestly none of those should be necessary, but if it makes u feel better then y not. after a few months u'll see that nothing is getting ruined and just forget about the whole ordeal lol

yeh corys filter sand through their gills, it's really fun to watch  and by doing that they also sift the sand for u. i have to manually stir it up once in a while (not that it's a big deal anyways lol)

it's up to u if u wanna change it.. yet again lol.. ur betta won't care much if it's sand or rocks. but in my view it really will be pain in the you-know-what to clean it up in a 10gal as you can't take it out completely every week like with the really small tanks.


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## MsChris (Jun 5, 2012)

I updated the memorial thread but wanted to update here, too. 

I finally found Crumpet. It just kept bothering me that I didn't know what happened. I had broken apart the rock formation from the tank but I had only broken it in half. I broke it into many small pieces and found his little body in there. I'm heartbroken. Now I feel like it's definitely my fault. I'm the one who put the rock formation in there. I put something in his environment that wasn't safe for him. It was made for aquariums and it truly didn't seem like something he could get stuck in but he was so young and so small and I guess he swam in and couldn't find his way out...or maybe he was sick and went in there to die. I guess I'm glad I know for sure where he went. I will never ever put something like that rock formation in a tank again. I'm so sad for him and I feel incredibly guilty. Anyway, so many people on this site have been so kind and supportive and I wanted to let you know what happened to him.


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## MsChris (Jun 5, 2012)

Thank you to all of you who helped me feel better about Crumpet. I thought you might like to know that I haven't given up on bettas. I have a new betta named Cleo. I posted pics of her in the pics section.


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