Clearly, LG never read the book about bettas that describes their needs and their behavior. If he had read it he would surely have given up when he was suffering from ammonia poisoning and the swimbladder issue. Just my good luck that he was as ignorant as I was when we first met. He got hopefull when I put him in a two and a half gallon bowl that was warm, with clean water and nice leaves to lay on and hide behind.

Waking up every morning and finding LG still alive just encouraged me to think that he might just pull through. He seemed to feel the same way.

So as my Little Guy got better he continued to show me that he hadn’t read the book. He is more active than any respectable betta should be. For the first couple weeks he spend much time sleeping on leaves as his body recovered. But once he got feeling good he had things to do. Maybe it comes from being nearly dead and recovering.

LG is an active and sensual guy. He relishes in touching things and feeling things. One of his more unusual behaviors is that he loves to drag his long fins across everything in his tank. Even more weird is his fascination with trying to wedge himself under or between ever small place he can find. It used to freak me out really bad, but I’m used to it now LOL.

Another quirky aspect to his behavior is his love of playing in the filter current. He takes great pleasure in exploring the ways his long fins are blown around in the current. He delights in swimming sideways in that current. Confidantly swimming into the current and holding his head in place as his body gets blown around. He places himself in the plants and purposely rubs his fins along the leaves, eventually finding a spot where he can rest his body while his long fins flow with the current.

I love watching him play this way. Since last night he has incorporated his rings in his spots to hang out and snooze.

He is so much fun to watch and he makes me smile all the time.

In my earlier posts I have explained a little about LG and his roommate, Jiang li. But I’ll do a little backtracking here to better explain things.

I neglectfully left my darling LG all alone for almost two days at Christmas so that I could visit my parents. I expected that he should be fine since his tank stays at a constant temp and bettas can go days without food and be fine. But LG is a sensitive guy. When I got home he had chewed a good portion of his tail off, I think from stress and boredom.

So I had to come up with something, besides myself, to keep him entertained. I settled on the idea of placing a large glass bottle inside his tank with a tiny crowntail female betta inside it. LG showed mild interest in his new, live entertainment, but he acted nothing like my other male bettas do when I introduce a female to their tanks in the same way.

So I made the decision to place Jiang li’s bottle on it’s side so that she could exit it. With the bottle on it’s side there remains an air bubble inside the bottle so I wasn’t worried about one of them being caught in the bottle without air to breathe. Jiang li quickly made her escape and made herself comfortable in the planted tank. LG paid her no attention at all.

Unique among my male bettas, LG had never even tried to build a bubblenest. He is simply not a normal betta. His interactions with Jiang li continued to be limited to deliberate shunning of her and the occasional short bratty chase.

But LG found that the bottle provided him with great amusement. He found that it was superfun to hang out inside the bottle and play with his reflection in it. He takes great pleasure floating around in his bottle, flaring and just generally looking beautiful. This lead to him engaging Jiang li in really fun flirting/fighting through the glass. It doesn’t matter which one of them is inside the bottle (and I have yet to see them both in it at the same time).

I think that the bottle is an important part of having them live together. It gives Jiang li plenty of warning and ways to avoid LG if he’s feeling uppity. I have yet to see them make actual physical contact. But they often swim very close to each other, especially around feeding time, and there is no aggression. Their fins are a good testament to this. They both have perfect finnage.

I am suddenly struch with an idea for rearanging my other bettas now, so I have to go start working on that. I had wanted to wriye some more about LG’s crazy and playful behavior, but I suppose that will have to be another blog LOL.

Well we went to a some what small city today to get a few things and i caught vision of a PetSmart store.So i whipped in to check out the fish section.Low and behold i rounded the coner of a aisle and ran into a huge tank of plants.Oh i was giddy with excitement.I have 3 different varietys ordered and should be here by Wensday but i still had to get something.They had a real nice crop of Hornwort so i picked up 4 nice size bunches and the race was on for home.

Got home and stuck them in the old 5 gallon tank to rinse them off good.Stripped a few of the ugly plastic plants from the tanks and put the Hornwort in.It looks so much better and as im typing this im looking over to the aquarium and the fish are adventuring  in and out of it now.They seem to like the new addition to there home and hopefully the water quality will be better for them too.

I will keep updateing next week when the other plants arrive and i get them in the tanks.Pictures will follow.

Today we bought a Blue Powder Gourami and a Three Spot Gourami! They’re both getting along and we’re happy!

Greetings All,

The 30g tank is up and running, and the cycle should be close to complete, I used some biozyme to speed up the process.  I was hoping to add a picture, but I can’t get the fraking thing to upload onto facebook from my blackberry.  Technology and I have a…tenuous relationship.  Maybe when I get home I can figure out how to hook up to my laptop.  Anyway, now is the time to decide just what I’m going to put into this tank.  I had Fancy Guppies in the 10g tank before the heater incident and I really liked them, so I know I want to add them to this tank.  I work with a lady whose tank runneth over with cory cats so I will get three of those, and maybe they will help keep the bottom clean.   I have read about Platies and they seem to be a hardy, active fish and my mother has had them in the past and liked them, so I think I will give them a shot.  Now here is the one I’m concerned about.  I had a beautiful blue female betta in the 10g and she seemed to be a happy member of the community, however, I have a new female betta and she does not play well with others.  I definitely want Japanese Algae Eater and Red Cherry Shrimp, so I think I’m going to have to pass on adding the female betta to the 30g tank.  Although, I am considering trying to breed them this spring, but that is a whole other post.  I have put a few Malaysian Trumpet Snails in there already, as well as a few in the 10g tank.  I got them for free when I bought a plant, and I don’t mean as hitch hikers, I mean I asked if I could have some and they gave them to me.  It sure beats paying $10 for a lot more than I wanted on ebay.  Last but not least, I want African Dwarf Frogs.  I have seen them in my LFS and I love them.  They are very interesting little critters.  I have read that it is common to find African Clawed frogs, which can grow the size of your clinched fist, erroneously labeled, so I will be very careful in picking them out.  Apparently, the clawed frog’s eyes “bug out” and the dwarf’s eyes are rather small, so I will check both before I buy them just to be sure.  I suppose 30 gallons is enough for the big frogs, but I don’t want them eating my fish and I just like the smaller ones better. 

I know I will have room for more fish, but I am not really sure of what else I want, that will be a good community fish.  There are lots of things I have wanted to add, only to find out they get too big, are brackish, require a species only tank, are amphibious, etc.  Some of these include Blue Crayfish, Fiddler Crab, Violet Goby, plecostemus, rope fish, and the list extends beyond my memory. 

Since the live plants worked out so well in the 10g tank, I definitely the 30g to be planted.  I have hornwort, banana plant, two anubias nana, one java fern, and Christmas moss in the 10g, and all seem to be doing well.  The hornwort had a few problems due to aquarium salt, I believe, but it is doing well now and I’ve actually taken cuttings from it.  The Java Fern had some brown spots and I wasn’t sure which way it was heading, but it looks really nice now, and the brown Christmas Moss is starting to turn a nice healthy green.  I will probably add all of these to the 30g tank, however, I will avoid Purple Waffle and Star Moss which are not true aquatic plants and will rot if fully submersed.  Some of the plants I have not tried but would like to, include Cabomba, Water Sprite, Anacharis, and some others with names that elude me at the moment.  I really like the look and benefits of live plants in the aquarium.  Some folks on here have very beautiful heavily planted aquariums, and I really liked the tree(driftwood with flame moss).  My mother has even suggested that I might set up a tank just for plants.  I know others have done that, and it could possibly even help raise a few cubits for the fish fund, but I think I’m going to hold off on that for the moment. 

I have also purchased a 10g setup(everything) from Craigslist for $20 and set it up for a breeder tank.  Neither the tank or myself is ready for that yet, but for $20 I just couldn’t pass it up.  Even if I just stored it in the garage, I would eventually use it.  I would like to eventually get another 10g for a species only Red Cherry Shrimp tank.  I really like them but they are nearly impossible to find within 2 hours of where I live, and if you can find them they are very expensive.  This way I could have my own as well as give some to friends and family, but could also sell/barter the extras.  Again, this is not something I’m ready to do right now, but perhaps you’ve picked up on the fact that I like to daydream alot.  These daydreams have also led to three other species only tanks I would like to have some day, but they are really, REALLY far in the future when I have more space, money, and experience.  I will however be making posts for them which you might enjoy. 

If anyone reads this and reacts in horror at something I’ve planned, please comment.  I’d rather find out now rather than after something has died.  If you know of some unique critter that might make a nice addition to the community, that is always welcome too.  I will be putting fish in soon and the more informed I am the better.  Thanks all. 

May your fish be fertile, and your water crystal clear!

Bartimaus