#ask thlpp

I honestly don’t know! I got her from a chain pet store, she’s a GloFish, and fluoresces under higher-frequency lights (from blue on up). I have no idea what stock the company started out with when breeding them, but it would stand to reason that they would select a light-colored line.

If you “think away” her fluorescence, she looks quite a bit like this picture of a “pale” colored Cambodian b. splendens male, but it’s not described as “king” and I couldn’t find another picture of a betta of similar coloration.

She was somewhat smaller when I got her in November, and I’ve been feeding her frozen/thawed foods in the morning and a few pellets most afternoons, soaked in VitaChem. I make her jump for her food, so that she can keep in good body condition.

Aww! Thank you!

They’re doing great! Thank you for asking!

Sunny is learning to cook.

Porthos is becoming a Big Boi (TM)

Makeba is Hunting

Leeloo is chilling.

Yes! Yes I do!

There are many snake species that stay on the small side, and don’t require super-specialized setups to keep happy and healthy. Here are some off the top of my head:

Hognose snakes

Adorable little buggers who love to dig. Look at that cute turned-up snoot! Boiz are significantly smoler than gals, so if you want a smol snek, a hognose boi is your man!

Kenyan sand boas

Check these out! Colorful, docile, and won’t you look at that derpy face! Absolutely presh. Love to dig. Shiny! I want ten.

Rosy boas

Another compact boa species. They are ground-dwelling and cute-cute-cute! Docile and derpy. Very good snek.

Cal King Snake

Depending on where you live, it may or may not be legal to keep. I believe in California, where they are native, you can’t keep them as pets without a special permit.

King snakes like to climb, so if you don’t have room for an enclosure with a large footprint, but can have a tall one, you’d make a cal king one very happy snek.

You can move it fully assembled if you have two people who can lift things. It’s not super-heavy, just bulky.

Or you can take it apart and move it in parts.

You’re supposed to caulk inside along the bottom edges and a couple inches upward to waterproof it, but you can cut the caulk with a knife when you take the thing apart if you must.

You can also just not caulk it, if you’ll be using a thick layer of absorbent substrate like coco husk chips and coir, so any pee etc doesn’t leak out.

Then you can easily disassemble it for the move and put it together and caulk it at the final destination.

Thank you for asking! They are doing quite well!

We just had a feeding day, and tummies of many of my noodly friends are pleasantly distended :)

Lasso, Coil, Leeloo, Slinky, and Porthos are all enjoying their meals.

Makeba said he wasn’t hungry. We’ll try again in a little while. He’s in excellent body condition, and can afford a skipped meal or two.

Sunny and Rocky were a bit disappointed that it wasn’t their turn to eat yet. They’re not very good at keeping track of time, so it’s understandable.

Here’s a picture I just took for you of Porthos peeking out of his hide right now.

Thank you! He is indeed adorable, and greatly loved.

He’s sending you and your sister some snakey kisses!