New fish!

So I got a shipment of fish the other day from the amazing Pandora. It was four young males and unfortunately only one survived (it's kinda cold up here right now...) but he's gorgeous. Named him Sky, and I'll post some pictures later. I kinda went to bed an hour and a half later than planned yesterday because I was doing water changes and then couldn't resist picking up a camera. Don't know how many of the photos are actually in focus, but we'll see.

Also planning on (finally) getting to work on cleaning up that 12g tank and accessories today. It likely won't get done today and I still need more decorations before I can stick my females in it... but it's a start, right?

Post!

I realize I've been neglecting the blog... sorry... so busy...

Anyways. Maddi has recovered from ich, constipation and fin rot. It was wierd... I did a water change and didn't have time to put the decorations back in, and she's suddenly fine. I think it was the marbles I was using as ground cover. Either way, she's fine now. The constipation and fin rot went away on their own and ich went away with salt and darkness.

Just got some fish shipped to me from someone in Winnipeg. Four fish and only one survived. I think it was because there was only one heat pack and it's winter up here. If there had been two and they were attached to the bottom rather than the top (heat rises), all four might have lived. The one that survived is currently floating in my heated 2.5 gallon to try and get him to perk up a little.

Also, I bought a 12gallon tank, along with a heater and a filter and some other miscellaneous stuff off of a friend for $40. Such a good deal. Once I have a chance to clean and decorate it, it'll be my new sorority tank.

More ich!

Ya, ya, haven't been posting... not much to say. Maddi has ich again - guess it just didn't totally go away the first time. But salt, heat and darkness seem to be working... and that's about it.

Lost Rose

Couldn't find Aquarisol anywhere, either... but came home and he was dead... so I have no more males for now, and I might never buy fish from a pet store again. Thinking maybe I'll get a peaceful betta and another... something betta... from the aquarium store once my new tanks get shipped and I have money.

Rose...

So he's got an insanely severe case of ich. Added salt, keeping him in the dark and going to buy Aquarisol this afternoon... hopefully I can afford it...

Posted pics... in case anyone needs to be like "hey, that's what my fish looks like!" and then you'll know what to do...

...

I just got paid $46... that is the most pittiful paycheck ever... and it means it'll be even longer than I thought before I can afford that 10g tank.

I owe a couple friends quite a bit of money, and I only have $76 even with that last paycheck... which means I have to wait until the end of the month to be able to start paying off the money I owe people and it'll probably be the end of February before I can get back to my fishies... *sigh*

More on Rose

So apparently it's just ich that came on really fast (which is such a relief...) so I've added more salt and I'm trying to raise the temperature so he can get through this thing... and hopefully he'll get better.

Also... careful when you have a sick fishie. You can easily cross-contaminate the tanks, and then you'll have lots of sick fish. I wasn't as careful as I should have been yesterday when I decided to clean Maddi's tank and now she's got ich, too >.<

Rose is sick again...

It's strange. It looks like ich, and he's acting like he has ich... alternating being irritated with just sitting looking miserable on the bottom, like he has before when he had ich... but it came on so quickly that I don't think that's it. One night he was fine and the next morning he was just covered with white spots. Usually it's just one or two spots and they go away quickly when I start treating them.

So... I'll write more when I know more. Treating it like ich with salt for now.

OMG!

I just found the cutest fish in the world on AquaBid (Orange CT Male) but he only ships to the U.S. I'm so heartbroken over this... and now I'm not going to be happy with my fishie collection until I manage to get one of these guys. Of course, every fish is different, and I doubt if any other orange CT will look like that one... but there isn't much I can do about it... except sit here and whine and stare at his photo. Humph.

I lost power this morning

Did anyone else lose power this morning? I always get nervous when I lose power and there are electric things in my fish tanks - not that anything ever happens, but I always have to check on them obsessively just to be sure. Took me forever to find Iri... she was hiding in the plant and all I had was my little mag light.

Anyways, everyone's fine, got another fish on the way and still waiting on those two tanks I keep mentioning... scroll down, I posted pics yesterday!

Iridescent (Iri)

Maddi

Rose

Specks

Pictures!

Ok... so I took about twenty photos of each of my fish... and failed miserably at focusing most of them. So here are the half decent ones. There are more of Specks than anyone else because every time I take the lid off her tank she thinks I'm going to feed her, which makes her a lot easier to photograph. And some of them are over-edited because the lighting's crap.


These are all my betta tanks.


This is where I keep my brine shrimp... yay live food!

Rest are coming up in slideshows made by Photobucket... because Ocie is lazy today.

Had to separate them again...

So my females are now in separate tanks once more. If I can get my hands on a 5 gallon tank that isn't going to take up all the space I have for my bettas, I'll get it. In fact, if I get one in the same style as my 2.5 gallon, I can stack my 2.5 on top of it and hopefully still have room for the others. My other option would be to make some kind of clear shelving unit... but I don't think I have time to do that.

Still planning on posting photos, still have no batteries.

Females!

So I picked up two female bettas yesterday... why? Because they were there! It was the first time I'd managed to find them at an aquarium store (everyone - Al's is awesome!). So anyways... at the store there were about a dozen fish in what looked like a ten gallon tank... and now I have the two I bought in a 2.5 gallon (the math worked out well...) but I had to separate them last night because they wouldn't leave each other alone.

Even now, they keep following each other up and down the barrier, flaring at each other and looking like they're trying to show off. I have to admit I'm kinda amused by watching them... but I really want them to get along. They were in the same tank at the store and they have plenty of room (they're each less than 1.5" long).

Hopefully I can get this sorted out soon...

And... now that I have more fish, I'll be posting pics of them soon - as in whenever I get around to getting batteries for my camera...

Edit: ok, found the problem, supposed to keep them in threes... so I guess I'm taking another trip out to Big Al's...

Edit2: ok, I have three females now - got them a bunch of plants and places to hide and whatnot... and now they seem to be doing well. Haven't seen them flare at each other in a while, and there's none of the biting that was going on last night when there were just two of them. I also got really cool gravel - black with random coloured pieces that glow under a blacklight ^^ I like neon.

So ya... we'll see how it goes.

Dummy tips for photographing fishies

Alright - I have seen way too many horrible photos today. If you want to photograph your fish with a digital camera and really only know how to use auto modes, here's what you do:

1. Turn off the flash - it'll reflect and your photo will be a big ball of light. Of course, without the flash, you might need to bring in some other lights.
2. Use the macro setting. It might be called close up or have a little tulip icon on the button.
3. Get really close to the tank or bowl or whatever, you can even put the lens right up against the glass.
4. Usually, you can push the shutter down half way and it'll focus and then all the way to take the photo. This is extremely useful with macros because if you're on an auto setting it very rarely focuses where you want it to.
5. Turn on the screen on your camera if you have one, it'll make this easier to do (and I will never, ever tell anyone who's actually trying to learn to use a camera properly to use the screen, just so you know).
6. Push the shutter down halfway like I said. On the screen there will usually be a box or something showing where you're focused. If it's not where you want it to be, move the camera until it is, still holding the shutter halfway down - you may also have to move it forward or backwards to actually get what you want in focus.
7. Push the shutter down all the way... and check how successful you were.

Is that simple enough?

New lesson

Ok, see this tank?

Cute, isn't it? Actually, I don't particularly like that one, but you can get them in all kinds of different styles. Mine has ladybugs on it.

Don't use them!

I lost Curly this morning, and I'm sure part of the reason was that for a long while (until he got sick and I moved him to a 1gallon to try and reduce stress) he was in this little thing. It's not even as big as the containers they come in, and even though bettas could be kept in something smaller if you really wanted to do that to them, it makes them stressed which increases the risk of disease. Not to mention how cruel it is to keep a fish in something that it can't even spread out its fins in.

Curly was small, though, I thought he'd be ok because he could spread out in this one. But... that's why I only want .5 gallon or more tanks from now on.

This little tank won't be going to waste, though. There are even smaller creatures that I've been planning on raising that would do wonderfully in this tank. Sea monkeys! Also known as brine shrimp, they're supposedly good to use as live food for bettas - and you can get them at toy stores! They don't cost much, they're easy to take care of and they grow to be about a quarter of an inch long (well, mine do, apparently you can get them to half an inch in the right conditions... but my house is cold).

Introduction

Hello everyone. I'm Ocean and I collect beta fish - each in their own unique tank. None of these silly simple clear tanks. So this is pretty much just going to be me rambling and ranting about my fish.

I had three fish, but one just died a few days ago and one is currently sick (I think he's getting better, but it's really hard to tell). But I've got two new tanks on the way, so I'll have two new fish coming, as well. I'll post pictures when those two come, since Curly (the sick one) should be better (or dead) by then. The other one I have right now is named Rose and is a bright, deep pink.

So, I'm a little new to betas, but not to fish, and I read and learn fast. So I might also be asking any readers I may have (as if I ever get readers...) for some advice once in a while, or just tossing out bits of advice. Like don't frieking trust the people at those useless little pet stores! The bigger PetSmarts seem to know what they're talking about, but the guy at Pet Value gave me regular freshwater medication for Turquoise when I couldn't find betta fix - and I found out later that that stuff is too strong for betas and is probly what killed him. Also, 7-day feeders are evil. Don't use 'em. They screw up all the levels in your tank.

Beyond that... if you ever stumble across a unique beta tank (.5 gallons at least, please), let me know so I can buy it. In fact, if you have one I'll buy it off of you. But it has to be unique - I don't even wear shirts I've seen other people wearing.

Questions? Comments? Anyone out there?
Bye for now!
~Ocean