Bettas, Foxes, and Owls, oh my!

[kiramaru7]

Last week my betta Fishie went to that great pond in the sky. I had him a long time & he basically died of old age. I kinda knew it was coming as he had slowed down and hid most of the time and barely ate. I gave him a "burial at sea" and did a 50% water change on his tank since Snailie was still zooming around his tank. While that was going on, I had been slowly gathering what I needed to start another tank as I wanted another betta. So I got another sponge filter on Amazon, a bag of gravel & a "moon rock" (little ceramic cave) from Walmart along with air tubing, silk plants from Petco & another tank from Petco. They're small 2 1/2 gallon tanks & cuz they don't make tops for them, I had gone to AC Moore before they closed & bought plastic canvas which I cut to size & which makes a good, cheap tank cover. I do get evaporation issues, but when it gets to about a 1/4 inch from the top, I do a quick 2, 3 cup water change, using a turkey baster I got from the supermarket. (The dollar store only stocks them during Thanksgiving. XD) So all's good. I also picked up a thermometer strip & some moss balls from Petco. The moss balls I shared between my 3 tanks (I also have a 10 gallon full of self replicating Guppies. XD) They help with keeping the tank clean, by breaking down ammonia & nitrites (or nitrates?) Anyway, when I saw a few videos on Youtube about "glo-bettas" I had to get one.

They're controversial, since they're genetically modified by injecting jellyfish cells into the fish embryos (I think. XD The process is trademarked & patented) so they will glow from bio luminescence. I think they're cool, since they're genetic chimeras. Anyways, as luck would have it, I was wanting a female betta, not to breed, but just to have it as a pet, & glo-betta females are rather cheap. It used to be female veiltails were slightly cheaper than males, which are really cheap at about $4 a fish, compared to fancier males which can start at $10 & go up, depending on what you want. So I combined my wants & got a cute lil female glo-betta, I named Daisy. She's kinda highlighter yellow that's been greened down a bit (she's called neon green), with faint greening in her pectoral & dorsal fins. Her tail & caudal fins are faintly red. She's fat & sassy & has settled into Fishie's old tank rather nicely. I put her in there since the gravel is light beige & all the plants are dark green, except for a dark purple flowery one. She looks good against the dark background & while she doesn't glow like she would under a black/blue light, she does glow from the right angle.

When I went to get her tank from Petco, I looked over the bettas they had. There were a lot of "dead" ones of various colors, but I was looking for something light colored as I was looking for someone to put in Fishie's tank. I saw a gorgeous White Orchid male, but $20, or was it $25 was a lot to spend on a fish. Fishie was only $13 (now up to $15). Then I saw him, a pretty, purple-ish red, "old school," veiltail. He was sleek & lively, & perfect. I got him & named him Valentino as he reminded me of a Valentine. He spent a few days in Fishie's old tank, before being moved to the new tank with the brighter colored plants (I guess to go along with the glo-fish craze.) I meantime cycled his new tank by swapping filters & letting it sit for a few days.

Anyways, I was supposed to go to the Family Pet Expo, but Dad said not too with all the corona virus going around, so we went to Petco & he got me Daisy & a snail for Valentino's tank. It would have been her tank, but looking at her & how bright everything was, I thought she's get lost in it, so Valentino got it instead. They're both set up the same, with the only difference being, the gravel in one tank was the left over natural rocks from my guppy tank & the other has an orangey brown gravel I got from Walmart. (It was the closest they had to a natural looking substrate.) Also to make up for not going to the Family Pet Expo, Dad took me to the golf course where the foxes live. We got to see them & he took pix & one ran past me to close, I could have taken its pix with my phone, had I been expecting it. XD

On Sunday, we got up early & went out on the Island to this fancy area with million dollar homes on the beach where a male snowy owl was. OMG! He was just hanging on some junk in someone's million dollar yard, just chilling. :D He was too cute for words & with the warm weather this week, he'll probably head back up north sooner than later. It won't be long before the eagles & ospreys start nesting. I hope the owls in the one park come back this year & nest there again. :D Baby owls are just too cute! :D (I'm also hoping we can make a side trip to the carousel there so I can get a quick ride in. *LOVES carousels*)

Comments

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

silvrethorn used to have betta fish for a while. She and her mother started having them after purchasing some at an art show (yeah, that was my reaction too, but they were awfully cool). Silvrethorn wound up with four or five males at a given time for a while with tanks that attached to each other. They'd sometimes see each other and flare prettily.

Oh, I hope you can share some more pictures of your excursions with your Dad!

[kiramaru7.livejournal.com]

Cool! Yeah, that would be the last place I'd expect to see bettas too! XD Trust me, if I had the room, I'd probably have that many too. XD They're really pretty to watch! Valentino will flare at his reflection as well as the current from the filter, but Fishie never did. I even held up a mirror to his tank & nothing. I guess he was just a gentle soul.

I do have fox pix I should add as well as owls. *must check my email again* I'll add my faves to this post. :D

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Someone came up with the brilliant idea of adding rocks, water, a betta, and a plant that can just grow with pretty much water to a lovely, clear vase. So S & M each both a vase (I did not, I had much much farther to drive to get home). That started the collection. The bettas eventually came out of the vases and into other containers and then S started collecting them. Her prettiest was an opalescent male she named after an opal mine in Australia.

Ooo~!

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Oh, what a magnificant fluffy fox! <3 And the owl looks all too pleased with itself. :D