# I'm addicted to bettas.



## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

So I think I'm addicted to bettas. I just can't stop getting them! It's getting to be really rediculous, actually. I just keep on bringing them home from work. Ya see, every week or so we get a new shipment in as we go through a rediculous amount. And it seems I'm always bringing another one home. Go figure!

I brought home the fourth one today... He's a nice blue/turquoise with hints of crown tail in him. Number three turned out to be a huge hassel as he got cotton mouth. (Which I'm treating him for right now.) But he looks like he'll make a full recovery.

I think once I get my tanks cleared and arranged and such I'm going to use my 20 gallon tank, put in a ton of dividers, and house them in there. It'll make for a pretty nice show tank.

We'll see.


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## Scarlet (Apr 15, 2004)

I think at my worst point, I had 10 males, 6 females and several hundred fry.







Just the 3 males and 3 ladies now.


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

The problem is I normally see them the day they come in and I get my pick. So I put the ones aside that I like in the back hospital room, lie and say they're being medicated, and then after a few days, knowing they're in good shape, I bring them home. LOL.

I get interesting ones this way...

However. It all started with The Lonely Betta. Our supplier at my work f'ed up on us, and we didn't get a shipment in for a week and a half. So we were down to this single betta. He's got a white body and light blue fins. Nice fish. Nothing wrong with him. But he carried this stigma of being 'the last fish' and so no one wanted him... WELL. The night before we got the new shipment in I brought him home. That was about four or five weeks ago. And now I have four bettas.

When will it stop? I don't know.


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## Scarlet (Apr 15, 2004)

It only stopped for me when Angels became my new addiction. Unfortunately, 30 Angels plus several hundred fry take up a lot more space than the Bettas used to.


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## jan (Apr 24, 2004)

You need a docter









Serious: everyone have his favourite specie of fish, in your case they are Betta's. So what..... if you like them you should take them home, at least if you still have room for them. You are just in the position that you have first choice, so if I wre you I would take advantage of that as well


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

I don't think bettas are my overall favourite fish. I think that honour lies with my oscar. However. They are definitely top five material.


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## MR.FREEZ (Jan 26, 2004)

you like girl fish
















its cool, i have an unhealthy obsession with tetras

these days, my favorite is the bleeding heart tetra


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

MR.FREEZ said:


> these days, my favorite is the bleeding heart tetra
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Haha. You like a pink fish with a bleeding heart. p*ssy!









But I like them too.


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## acestro (Jul 7, 2003)

I honestly think true aquarists come around to the small fish. I have some guppies outside this summer and they're amazing. If they weren't so easy to keep (or small), people would be losing their minds over them like they were flowerhorns!

I always thought keeping and breeding some crazy bettas (all black crowntails, etc.) would be awesome.


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## MR.FREEZ (Jan 26, 2004)

i think they look pretty tough man, tetras you just gotta get

a bit closer to appreciate em, plus in all the fish shop i been in

the colors are very washed out


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## acestro (Jul 7, 2003)

Also, it's always good to be hooked on compulsively buying SMALLER species. You could be compulsive about pacu... then where'd ya be?


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## MR.FREEZ (Jan 26, 2004)

acestro said:


> I honestly think true aquarists come around to the small fish. I have some guppies outside this summer and they're amazing. If they weren't so easy to keep (or small), people would be losing their minds over them like they were flowerhorns!
> 
> I always thought keeping and breeding some crazy bettas (all black crowntails, etc.) would be awesome.
> [snapback]1159609[/snapback]​










i have a ton of guppies very well established in my pond now.

they are also breeding and living along side my big toothy tetras


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## acestro (Jul 7, 2003)

MR.FREEZ said:


> i think they look pretty tough man, tetras you just gotta get
> 
> a bit closer to appreciate em, plus in all the fish shop i been in
> 
> ...


Agreed and Agreed. Up close tetras are obvious carnivores (usually) and it's really all just a question of scale. Probably best we enjoy them now before we get old and farsighted!


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## acestro (Jul 7, 2003)

MR.FREEZ said:


> acestro said:
> 
> 
> > I honestly think true aquarists come around to the small fish. I have some guppies outside this summer and they're amazing. If they weren't so easy to keep (or small), people would be losing their minds over them like they were flowerhorns!
> ...


Did you ever post pics of this pond Freez? Sorry for the temporary derail Mettle...


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## MR.FREEZ (Jan 26, 2004)

pm sent ace, so we dont derail to badly
















also the think i like about the smaller fish is the smaller tanks

you can have a really nice looking tank setup in your room on

your dresser or something and not take up space


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

I'm right now in the midst of plotting how to transform my 20 gallon long into the best betta tank I can. I want to have six compartments, each of five inches, making the total of the thirty inches of length. And then of course they'll be the twelve inches or so deep. It'll do, in my opinion... I'm going to have a mixture of black sand and fine black gravel in the bottom, with fluorescent lighting, to really make the colours on these fish pop. Probably a small piece of driftwood in each compartment with a piece of anubias nana attached to it. (That stuff grows like no tomorrow for me. Go figure.) Might add a sprig of hygro as well, as I have a monsterous bunch of it and it never stops growing.

One thing I also want to do is make the dividers in such a way as to allow the passage of khuli loaches through the bottom. I think that would be so cool. To have maybe about ten khulis in the tank along with the bettas for cleaning and such. Plus it'll add a little extra something.

The only thing I'm not sure on yet is what type of filtration I wanted to do. I didn't want too much current in the tank. But I also hate ugf's. I might do some type of sponge filtration, I think. Maybe I can custom make something. A small sponge in the back of each of the compartments for optimum cleaning. Anyone with ideas let me know!

And I agree about the small fish thing. I'm just starting to look at them again more seriously... I'm going to be freeing up my 55 gallon in the next couple of weeks and I want to do a community tank set-up.


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## acestro (Jul 7, 2003)

Seems not too long ago that you were worried about being burned out on fish. How things have changed!


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

Well right now there are seven aquariums running in my house and I've been taking care of all of them... I have recently shown both my mother and father how to properly care for the three tanks they have between them. (It's a 15, a 10 and a 5 - so nothing big.)

I myself, when all's said and done, will have my 90 gal, 55 gal and 20 gal long going. I figure the three tanks are manageable.

My turtle - who I don't count as a fish as he gets a different amount of time designated toward him - will soon be going into a 40 gallon breeder until he outgrows it.


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## Scarlet (Apr 15, 2004)

Mettle - A drip system would be good, like the Betta breeders use. Little current, but plenty of clean water.


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

That involves drilling, though. And it's not something I want to do.

I figure sponge filters should be enough. I do water changes on my tanks two times a week, anyway. So altogether it should be good.


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## benJii (Feb 17, 2005)

acestro said:


> You could be compulsive about pacu... then where'd ya be?
> 
> 
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sadly, thats where i am

ive owned one and have taken care of some others and those things never cease to amaze me, i just wish they didnt get so big

yo mettle, i tottally think that 20L idea is awsum!!!!

although, i think id use "corner" filters, or some sort of air powered filter

and for the kulhis, just by every divider cut a lil like .75" square outta the bottom, and put it somewhere kinda reclusive, so the bettas wont see it

i almost picked my self up a betta a lil while ago, it was yellow, i shoulda picked it up, ive never seen a betta bright yellow before


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

We just got our shipment in today. There were some cool ones. But I held back. heh


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