Little Life

If you've ever seen the cramped quarters and unhealthy water conditions of bettas waiting for adoption in some pet stores you'll know why this beautiful poem, "Little Life", by Autumn Rhinesmith, brought tears to my eyes. I wish I could adopt them all!

New Shirt for Ben

I finally found some time today to make a couple of shirts for Ben. Both are blue, but one has short sleeves and the other has long.

Looks like maybe next time I should make the long sleeves a wee bit shorter. Still, not bad for a first try.

Solomon's Debut

Meet my beautiful new Betta fish, Solomon, just purchased today. His name means "peace" in Hebrew.

I'm not sure, but I think he'd be classified as a "Half Moon Fancy". 

I chose him for his striking colours, but I'm happy to find that he is also a very peaceful fish, not bothering his tank mates at all. 

Tree's Up

Ben got his tree up yesterday.

I wish mine was as simple to arrange. Maybe I'll get to that one later today.

Eenie, Meanie and Hermoine

Meet the hard working Panda Tetras that are here to cycle the tank. I've named them Eeny, Meanie, and Hermoine. Watching the 12 second video you might be able to figure out which one is "Meanie".

Meanie may have to move out when Ben, the Betta, is ready to move in. With Ben's large beautiful fins and prior solitary lifestyle a nipper and chaser might not be a welcome tank mate.

A Better Home for Ben

For the past 6 weeks or so I've been caring for my eldest daughter's Betta fish, Ben. That's him hanging out on the leaf near the surface in this 1 gallon vase like tank. Even if the tank's "no-clean" system worked as it was supposed to it still wasn't an ideal home for Ben. It's too small and too cold.

But the no-clean system was clearly not working as it should since even with large daily water changes there was debris building up on the very bottom of the small tank. Even though the water above remained clear looking that build up of waste could not be good for the water quality.  

Initially I only had my daughter's fish so that I could do some much needed tank maintenance for her. But after doing a lot of reading about Betta fish I couldn't shake the feeling that his little tank was too small and too cold for him. I felt bad for the little fish and decided he needed a bigger, warmer, cleaner tank.

Costly decision that!

But after much research and agonizing over various options,

I bought a Fluval Spec 5 gallon tank, a BioOrb 50 watt heater, a few artificial plants, aquarium safe rocks (not as dumb as it sounds apparently), and 10 pounds of gravel. My son will be providing some aquarium treatment and a couple of small hardy fish, possibly ones from his tank, to get the "cycling" started. Once the tank is "stable" Ben will be able to move in.

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