I had a few extra dollars today, so I bought a female betta and a tank and food and water conditioner and I went outside and picked a bunch of ivy, rinsed the dirt off, and pulled all but the top five or six leaves off and stuck the roots down in there, so now I have a pretty little fish tank.
I named her Susan. She’s the only girl in this entire building!
I’d post a picture but I don’t have my camera software on this computer yet but she’s common-looking anyway. She looks like this (she is also full of eggs, as this fish is):
Nice fish Cran! I hope she does well.
My daughter brought a couple goldfish home last Spring that she’d rescued from the college bio bldg.–they were scheduled to be fed to the big fish. They were called Tip and Barbie. Tip, unfortunately, succumbed to an unknown ailment in August, but Barbie is going strong and back at school in a suite full of girls, a gecko, and a guineau pig.
Thanks. I wanted to get a mouse but we’re not allowed to have them in the dorms…
…but if I got a female (which don’t produce the musky smell like the males) and let her live in a big sterilite box under my desk where nobody would ever know…
hmmm…I don’t know whether the guineau pig is a legal resident or not…
Last year she took in two different kittens (against dorm policy, obviously,) and they had to find home for them.
I won a goldfish for my wife at a carnival when we were dating…cost me 75 cents, since I won on my first throw (softball into milk jug kind of game). We named him Irwin (which was changed to Irwina when she layed eggs one night).
The fish ended up growing to be a monstrosity at something like 5 lbs, and easily taking up all the living space in an entire 30 gallon tank. Between medications for fish diseases, pumps, food, etc, she ended up being the most expensive 75 cent pet I ever had Didn’t mind all that much, though.
The females aren’t as gaily colored as the males, and their fins are shorter, so they’re not as popular with people who keep them as pets, although breeders (obviously) keep females. I just needed some feminine energy around me, I guess. Too bad she’s blue. She should be bright pink with purple spots.
Great pet, just watch the water. Most people try to treat their fish too well and change all of the water at once. Lack of healthy bacteria, chlorine, etc. will hurt a fish faster than neglect.
Actually, I’ve kept hundreds of mice like that before. As long as the insides of the big sterilite box are smooth, there’s nothing for them to grab on to so they can’t (and don’t) chew out.
Bettas are cool to breed, the male will create a bubble nest and capture the eggs in his mouse and ‘blow’ them into the bubbles. They stay there until hatching.
We used to keep them when I was a kid, but my dad kept the tank in the path of the window AC unit, so they didn’t live though the Houston summer.
