Letters of a Betta Addict

Things are getting hectic around here now with finals starting to breathe down my neck so posts “might” be a bit scarce for a little bit. However I thought I should give an update since the move.

I’m learning that the 56 will need a few… modifications, the sound of running water is driving me up the wall so there will be some DIY on that in the next week or so as I finally start buckling down for finals and can’t take the noise anymore. I don’t know if I’ll do an upgrade on the whole canopy then or not. It’s tempting since I’ll working on it anyway.

All the Betta tanks handled the moves like champs, except for the hood on shimmers 5 gallon. For some reason I’m having issues with the light and if a new bulb (to pick up tomorrow) doesn’t fix the problem I may have to get serious and DIY a whole new hood and light for it. I know finals must be near because the thought of that is making me giddy with delight (dang procrastination streak). If I do decide to go the whole DIY route expect that I’ll just make 3 new ones since both Mama and Max have “faulty” lights of some sort or another.

Red is still in the 20 gallon though I’d hoped to have him back in his 32 gallon by now. The 32 is currently sitting empty and taunting me. Another finals project? Possibly, more likely I’ll push that off a bit more for now. As much as I’d like to get it up and running it’s too cold to work outside on it and I don’t believe that I have the ventilation in the suite necessary to work on it indoors.

On a happier note I’m working the quirks out of a design for a Betta Barrack system so by the end of april I hope to have that ready to go.

That’s all for now,

A betta addict

Ok so I may or may not do more of these “How To” sort of articles but I noticed that google sent someone here looking for “what to do when you receive your fish from  a transhipper?”. Now this shipment of betta’s has been the first set of fish that I’ve ever had shipped to me period but I never did mention anything about what I did in regards to handling them once I got them. So here is a brief run-down of how it happened.

1) Spent all morning online hitting re-fresh on the tracking number of the shipment.

2) Barely restrained myself from beating the FedEx guy to the door (just in case it was someone elces package)

3) Signed for the package then walked carefully up the stairs trying to restrain my giddyness.

4) Immediatly opened the box (remembered to take a few pictures first)

5) Dug through the newspaper and insulation to find each of the newspaper wrapped treasures.

6) Un wrapped each betta in their bag from the newspaper and tried to resist hugging the bags (obviously couldn’t cuddle the fish but it was the equivalent)

7) Checked to make sure there were no DOA’s

Took many many pictures

9) Contacted the sellers to let them know that their fish had arrived safely, re-packed everyone in with the heat-packs and took them to the new apartment where their new homes were ready and waiting.

Once I had them home the tricky part began. Acclimating the new kids to their new water.

There are alot of things that you’ll read about in regards to acclimating new fish, different techniques and methods. What I did probably wasn’t very proper but it’s turned out alright for me.

First I have to say that everyone is in QT. I’m only sharing equipment between fish from the same breeder, everyone has a separate volume/container of water, disease and bio-security are something that I take fairly seriously. None of the new fish are sharing equipment with my “pets” other then the bucket, however the new kids “used” tank water has a separate bucket just for emptying the tanks, my big bucket I’m only using to fill the tanks.

Right back on topic, acclimatizating. I left the bags to float in the tanks for about 15 minuets or so to allow them to warm up (they arrived pretty chilly). For the Ontario Betta’s, I decided after a bit of debate to just add them straight into the tank. Water and all. I figured that water in Ontario couldn’t be that different from me, and they’d only been in their bag water since Tuesday.  For the Thai kids I did a bit of a different method. I have a 1cc syringe so I cut their bags open then used the syringe to slowly bit by bit double the amount of water in the bag (which took about 10 minuets) then I tipped the bag and the fish slipped out. Most of the time when I did this most of the water in the bag actually stayed in the bag so it worked pretty well. Someone on Fishlore mentioned that once you open the bag you want to get the fish out of there fairly quickly since as the excess CO2 in the bag escapes the pH in the bag will spike rapidly and can cause extra problems. I didn’t notice anything like that but then in terms of buffering abilities my test-kit has informed me that my water is the equivalent of super-man. I wish I’d thought to keep some of the Thai water just to see what some of the parameters are but I didn’t, maybe I’ll remember to next time.  My acclimation may not have been perfect but the Thai kids aren’t any the worse for wear for it, (those boys are flaring machines!).

Some things that I’ve learned from this experiance and will try to remember for next time?

1) Make sure that you have scissors or a knife handy to get into the boxes.

2) Most deliveries won’t occur until after 8 am at the earliest (probably) waiting at 6 may have been a bit extreme on my part.

3) Make sure your tank (or QT tank) is ready and has all the nessecary bits and pieces.

4) Betta’s are tough tough little fishes, they’re not all looks :p

I don’t know if that was helpful or not. I hope that it may help someone else out and if you have any questions feel free to ask :p

Well the new babies are finally here! Everyone arrived safe and sound yesterday and seems to be settling in without too much trouble.

The RoseTail pair have been dubbed RT and Rosie respectfully and don’t seem any the worse for wear this morning. RT is in a 5 gallon hex tank that I picked up a while back for him and is sharing a shelf with NightHawk. I think that NightHawk is enjoying it since he appears to have built his fist bubble nest in months! I guess finally having some “competition” made him decide he needs to declare what’s his territory :p RT ate his bloodworms like a champ this morning despite his tank being a bit on the chilly side. I was a heater short unexpectedly so I’ll have to run and pick up another one for him later today. Rosie is a little bit spooky yet, not quite sure what to make of everything. Hopefully she’ll settle down soon. She has some amazing coloration a soft pale lavender with a butterfly pattern. Too bad that she’s a Rose Tail but I think she’ll turn out to be a beautiful pet.

The Breeders seem to be pretty content in my “bath” set up for now. The boys were confused by the blood worms but they must have caught on quickly enough since there isn’t a single blood worm left on the floor of the containers now :p The Red HM boy has stolen my heart just as quick in real life as his picture did :p Draco and the marble are growing on me. I wasn’t sure how I was going to like Draco’s coloring but it’s beginning to grow on me. Megan’s already declared him her favorite.

As for the ladies the red female wasn’t interested in the blood worms but I think that they’re gone now so she must have ate them eventually. The green girl gets some serious attitude whenever I come by her tank which is quite fun to watch. The real surprise was the extra female that I received from Ashley. She’s much younger then the others, about half their size so she has a bunch of growing to do yet. I believe that she’s a Lavender Cambodian and is from a DT line. She looks pretty promising so I’ll have to try and get some pictures of her soon. I’m interested to see how she grows out. Right now I’m thinking that I might pair her up with the marble boy.  I don’t know yet if she’ll show any sort of BF pattern but it’ll be interesting to see at the end of the QT period.

Well the more I think about it the more I come to realize that space is going to be an issue (not that it never was but perhaps more then I originally thought). With that in mind I’m thinking I may invest in a new shelving unit. You see I’m thinking that to save space, I might put the 5 gallon tanks perpendicular to the length of the shelf. I mean that instead of the long sides of the tanks facing out, if I set it so that the narrow part of the tanks face out I can fit more tanks on a shelf. I’d still be able to have a good view of all the babies and they’d still have the room. I don’t know if I would do with but if I did it would mean that the 3 5’s that I have now would fit on one shelf with potentially room for more. I’ll keep thinking on it but I like the idea and I’ve found a shelving unit for only $89 on the Canadian Tire website that would work perfectly.

Thinking on it,

A Betta Addict

Well I wrote up the first of the betta genetics articles last night and strangely enough that seems to have stuck in my head this morning. I was just doing the morning sweep through AquaBid and I found myself looking that the colors from a “slightly” genetic point of view. Sort of like looking at a melano and a white betta and going, a cross here would give me multi colours. Why? Because of the interaction of the alleles in the color layers.Ok so I’m still on the search of understanding in regards to the white/platinum genetics. I think I’d like to try working with a platinum CT line but I’m not familiar enough with the genetics yet to be sure.

There are so many colours and patterns out there to work with, Dragons, Coppers, Melano’s, Butterflys, Marbles, and then the traditional colours, the Blue, Greens, and (extended)Reds, and of course we can’t forget the Multi-colour varieties. There are more than I listed (MG’s, Bi-colors, pinapples, etc.) but I’m mostly trying to make a point that there are so many to choose from that it’s hard to pick the stock I’d like to work with. Then there’s the various tail types that can be combined with each of the colours and I’m torn about those two.

I suspect that I’d be smarter to work with an HM line since they’re so rare here in Saskatoon it’s possible that finding homes for these guys would be easier and (dare I whisper) profitable? lol. Never get rich at this but homes would be nice to find for the fish I don’t want to keep as breeders. Also with all the work being done on HM’s around the world right now there are way more of them out there to choose from. However I’ve also got a weakness for the CT’s and the PK’s. I don’t have room to run three lines so I need to start making some decisions in regards to what I want to do.

Tough choices. For now I’ll keep working my way though the possibilities of my Rose TailxVeil Tail Line and getting Ruby up to breeding condition.

Speaking of Ruby I think that I’ll be doing some tank swapping with the move and all. Right now the 10 gallon is really a pain in the neck to deal with so I think I’ll throw a wanted ad out on kijiji for a none broken 10 gallon hood. The piece of glass I’m using is just starting to be more trouble then it’s worth when it comes to working with the tank.  I’m tempted to move her into one of the 5 gallon tanks and move either Mama or Max over to the ten gallon. Haven’t decided who yet though, maybe all three will play musical tanks before I’m done.

Sincerly,

A Betta Addict