Betta fish are such funny creatures!
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The personality they show never fails to amaze me!
Since I got my sister and nephew a betta fish and 5 gallon tank for him, I have had the itch to buy one of my own again to keep at home! So, I went ahead and got a 5 gallon tank set up for him on my armoire, and picked up a really lovely betta that appeared to have a whitish body and pink fins. I knew his color would change to a red eventually, so I brought him home and acclimated him to his new tank.
The guy at the store warned me that their latest shipment of Betta were all doing really poorly for some reason, and to keep an eye on him--so I did. Well, the poor little guy looked like he was dying from the start and I felt so sad for him. I tried to make him as comfortable as possible, but I couldn't pinpoint any specific set of symptoms that pointed to any certain disease or anything.
For three days I watched as he alternated between lying on his side on the floor of the tank, floated upside down in the top corners of the tank, and swam sideways. When I fed him, he was always ready to rush over to the food, but other than that he was listless and his body unusually thin.
I'm still not sure what possessed me to put him into my community tank--everything logically pointed to that being a bad idea, but something in me wanted to do it. So, on Christmas Eve I scooped him carefully out of his five-gallon and set him into the 29--fully expecting to have to scoop him out from aggression or weakness due to the strong current.
Boy was I wrong! At first, he made himself comfortable on a leaf and laid there, watching the other fish swim around. After a few hours, he was swimming around wildly exploring the tank's every nook and cranny. His white body turned to a bright, bold powder blue and his fins darkened to this amazing deep red color with blue tips. I have noticed a surprisingly significant change in the fullness and length of his fins, and the fullness of his body. He swims back and forth sometimes with my shoal of Harlequins and gets along great with my GBR!
I do notice a little flaring here and there at the GBR, but never more than a second, and then they're swimming around peacefully together and even sharing the wafers I drop in for my BN pleco.
Apparently this little guy is a social betta and just needed a community around him to liven up! You would never know looking at him that just days ago he was white, listless and about to die. He doesn't even mind the strong current caused by my two AC 50's! :) I need to think of a good name for him.
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Originally Posted by seb's fish
