Betta Addicts Anonymous

So my dragonscale is Illuyanka, or Illy for short.  Named for a mythological ocean dragon, he's my youngest, most energetic, most neurotic boy.  He's never staying still.  And he's so into everything that's going on. He doesn't like to be caught sleeping, either.  As soon as I walk in and he'll notice me, he'll jump up, completely awake and spazzing out, like "WHOWHATWHERE?????" So it's rare that I'll catch him sleeping. But tonight I did catch him, in the cutest position. He was literally curled up between the glass and one of his fake plants, nestled in between the fuzzy little edges of the plant. It's so adorable.  I've never seen a fish sleep like that before. Of course, it didn't last long.  Only a moment after this, he was completely awake and alert, trying to pretend he'd never been asleep in the first place.

This post contains pictures of a snake eating a mouse. So the spawn loves Karana, and is a very responsible pet owner.  She helps with every aspect of the care. Including feeding.  Although she's definitely more of an observer during feeding time.  Karana is a very eager feeder. She's usually curled up in a ball when I first get her out of the tank.  Her colors are a bit dull right now because she's going to shed soon. And here she is in her feeding bin. It doesn't take her long to realize where she is, and her nose is up, looking for food. As soon as she sees the mouse, she's ready. And she strikes! Of course the mouse is already dead, but she still curls around it and squeezes it for a few minutes, to make sure it's super extra dead. While Karana is "killing" the mouse, the spawn takes the spray bottle and sprays down the tank. When we came back, Karana had already started swallowing the mouse...

So we got the spawn a gift for Christmas, a kit that you can send off for caterpillars and watch them grow into butterflies. So once it got warm enough, we sent them off.  Five little caterpillars arrived, and the spawn was so excited. They were so tiny! Here's what they looked like on Day One: And Day Two: Day Four: Day Six:  They're growing fast! Day Eight: Day Ten: And Day Twelve:  They look a lot different from the tiny little things we'd gotten two weeks before. On Day Thirteen, they started climbing up to the top and hung upside-down in a J shape, ready to make a chrysalis. Day 14, they were all in their chrysalis.  And nothing to do but wait. On Day 20, we woke up to see that two of them had emerged, and were drinking nectar from the flowers we'd put in. They're Painted Lady butterflies, and they were so pretty. We missed three of them emerge, and only had tw...

So I've been keeping an eye on Illy, and I think I can actually breathe a sigh of relief.  There's no difference, and it really just looks like his coloring.  It looks like he doesn't have velvet. I've never had a dragonscale, or a white betta before, but I have read that many of the lighter colored bettas are iridescent, and it can be difficult to tell if the sheen is from their natural iridescence or from velvet. I'm still going to keep an eye on him.  I'd much rather be safe than sorry, and with Grim having it, I have to be so vigilant against spreading it. But it looks like, in Illy's case, I can actually breathe a sigh of relief.

The husband and I decided to get the spawn a pet.  But dogs and cats are too mainstream.  And she finds them boring. So we decided to go for something else.  I know as much about ball pythons as I do about bettas, and ball pythons have the benefit of being somewhat more cuddly than fish. We broached the idea with the spawn.  She decided it would do. We went to the local pet store and picked one out.  She was ecstatic, and fell in love immediately.  She named him Slither. We got the tank all set up, and Slither was happy. She was a very attentive owner.  Things were going swimmingly. Until, about three weeks after we got him, he died. The spawn was devastated.  The husband and I decided to get her another one, but we would go with an actual breeder, with a captive-bred, healthy animal. And that's what we did.  I bought a hatchling female Mojave morph, and she was shipped to a small local reptile store. ...

Alright, so it's been a few days since I started treating Grim's velvet.  It's still there, and it's much worse on his right side than on his left.  But by looking at his anal fin, you can see that it's getting a bit better. This is such a bad case, I know it'll take a while to get it rid of it completely.  But it's improving, and that's a good sign. For comparison, this is what he looked like the day I started treatment. The anal fin is where I see the biggest difference. And I'm glad, I've really been worried about him.  I mean, this guy's sheer stubbornness and determination to live are incredible.  He's just not giving up. And I know I haven't helped him as much as I could've.  I was expecting him to die when I brought him home, so I didn't start treatment right away.  I probably could've assumed that he would have both fin rot and velvet, even though I couldn't see it, and started tre...