A Tale of Three Fishtanks

Letting people know that this account will be inactive for the foreseeable future. After 15 years of keeping fish, I've decided to leave the hobby until I have more time on my hands. The industry I'm in is full-time, and all the studios are a ways away from home, leaving me with next to no time to take care of my fish. I leave work early and get home late.

Right now I have a little tank running with Gilbert (my white dumbo betta) and my 6 cherry barbs. Scylla has passed, the ferocious little bean that is the star of my most reblogged post here. I will be caring for my remaining fish until they pass away. My 10 gallon and Spec have been torn down.

I will eventually come back to the hobby, as I do love taking care of fish and planted tanks. But it might be several years.

Thanks for all the likes, reblogs, and lovely comments you guys have left on my posts. Take care of yourselves and your family and friends during these worrying times, and don't horde food. Seriously.

Kai.

(this is Gilbert btw 😁)

Cthulhu passed away today.  I think it was his time.  Was gone all day yesterday, so I didn’t see him until this morning...And he was already pineconed and barely breathing.  He passed within an hour.  

He’s been with me since February 2016.  A PetSmart betta sold as a plain, pale veiltail that blossomed into a gorgeous red dalmatian halfmoon.  He was truly a gem, feisty and unafraid of anything that came up to his tank.  Always excited to see me, even when his swim bladder failed he would always come up to the edge of the tank to give the best wiggles he could manage.

The majestic monster-bean.  She is now two years and three months old!  Scylla was only about 8 weeks when I bought her, so it has been a pleasure watching her grow up.

My little bean!

Just finishing up my final projects for uni, and then I’ll start posting here a little more often.  Uni’s taking up almost all my spare time, and now there’s less than 2 weeks left but then all the projects UUUUUUUGHH

Yesterday was Cthulhu’s gotcha day!  We celebrated with bloodworms.  I’ll try to get a picture of him tomorrow; no promises, as I’m very busy right now and will be away over the weekend.  

It’s been two years now since my sister picked him up at our local Petsmart, because she liked his colours - back then, he was a peachy shade, standing out from the dark reds and blues of the other bettas in their nasty, smelly little cups.  He was sold to me as a veiltail, which I did not care much about.  I just wanted a betta’s wonderful personality to watch for however long he might live.

Unlike my previous betta, Shruikan, Cthulhu has proven to be full of surprises.

A year had passed when I discovered that not only was he a red dalmatian (those classic red spots had been showing up on his fins), but he was also a full-blown halfmoon.

He has had his fins bitten to nubbins by tetras, has been in at least 4 tank setups, and has survived an overheating heater and then heater-less waters.  And honestly, I didn’t take good care of him his first year.

And until recently, has had no health problems.  Now he basically doesn’t have a working swim bladder.

But that issue, combined with his age of around 2.5 years old, has not hindered him in the slightest.  He continues to follow me around when I walk around my room, always thinks my finger is a tasty morsel, and thinks his reflection is his mortal enemy.  Nothing stops him from flaring and zipping around the tank when he sees the mirror, not even his inability to stay buoyant.

Honestly, I love him so much that I know I’m going to cry when he passes on.  When that happens, I obviously do not know.  He’s been such a joy and comfort these past two years, even more than Scylla, Gale, and Huanghun (the latter two have passed a while ago).  God has surely blessed me with a wonderful creature, and I am proud to be able to take care of him, as bumpy as that road was.

Long time no post!  University takes up so much of my time now that my fish have been rather neglected.  And this blog.  Man, I suck at maintaining blogs.

This tank has been interesting. The only plant that’s really been doing well is that java fern.  It’s huge, the biggest one I’ve had to date - and over 5 years old now.  

The echinos in the back have gone to narrow leaves for whatever reason.  Started dosing daily about a week ago and already they’ve been exploding in growth.  Hopefully this will extend to the melange of other plants I have scattered in here.

The 10-gallon gets sunshine every evening as the sun sets.