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

I’m officially moved into the new place and am buried under under a Bazillion boxes. I managed to dig my way free long enough to type up this update for you all. The fishy babies are all doing fine and don’t seem any the worse the wear for the rather rocky move that happened yesterday. Hopefully by the end of the day I’ll have everything here cleared up well enough for me to to a bit of tinkering about where all the tanks and furniture will be. Also I’ll post a better account of how the move went then to.

On the Betta front I have an update. All 5 of my babies have made it safely into Canada and I’ve sent the payment to Hung for the Transhipping and Shipping costs. I can’t wait to have all those little guys here with me soon! Also Ashely is back from her Holiday and contacted me to let me know that the Rose Tail pair is ready to go and that there may be a “surprise” in there as well since she says she has another female that she can send to. They’ll be shipped out Tomorrow as well so hopefully they’ll all arrive safe and sound on Tuesday. I’ll be posting the final cost tally here soon and will give you an update on how everyone has settled in.

However I must return to the sea of boxes, so until next time take care.

Sinscerly,

A Betta Addict

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

Ok so my first impulse when I found out that I was going to be moving was to try to design a special stand to hold the betta tanks. Now that I’ve thought about this for a bit longer I think I may scrap that idea. I might still cobble a stand together (more of a 2×4 and plywood construction) but after thinking on it I can probably get by with the stands that I already have or perhaps I’ll pick up some of the black plastic ones for the breeding set up later.

Now I’m thinking that I need to work on the evaporation issues. I mean yes there will always be humidity especially with so many tanks. However I think that on a few of my tanks at least it shouldn’t be to difficult to modify them to cut that down a little bit. Specifically I’m looking at my 10 gallon and the 5 gallon in the kitchen. The main culprit is the 56 gallon goldfish tank. Since there’s a HOB filter on it there’s only so much that I can do with it but it’s mostly an open top tank right now and I think that’s one of the big issues. I’ll see if I can come up with a plan to fix that before the move. Also the 2.5’s probably will need to have something done with them. No hurry there right now but I think that I may use them for my conditioning tanks and likely as the tanks for the breeders as well.

Anyway that’s all for now,