Something Fishy

I wrote about my fish some time ago, but I haven't updated in a while. At that time, I had gotten a blue Betta. He was beautiful, but he died. He was diseased when I got him. Poor guy. He is now fertilizing our apple tree. Well, we couldn't be without a Betta. They are really beautiful fish. So, we picked out a red one and named him Red Ribbons.

Isn't he gorgeous. He is such a docile fish. If you know anything about Bettas, you know that they are particular about their tankmates. He can be the only one with long fins. That means only one male Betta per tank; otherwise, they would fight till the death. That also goes for any other fish with long fins. Right now his tankmates include:

3 Bloodfin Tetras. The are schooling fish and always seem to be shivering in fear. Ha.

2 albino Corey cats. I think the look like Wilford Brimley (you know, the guy how now advertises for Liberty Medical). I think it's the "moustache". In fact, I call them Wilford and Brimley. LOL Bobbi calls them Sniff and Schelley. They are scavengers and eat everything that falls to the aquarium floor. Sometimes they nibble on algae. At night, I drop a couple of pieces of shrimp pellets in for them since they are most active at night.

There are also three Otocinculus Catfish, Otto for short. This one is the runt of the litter. He has 2 bigger brothers one of which is spotted. We call him Spot, of course. They eat the algae off of the glass and other decorations. I think I would need a dozen to keep up with the algae in my tank. Spot is the most active in the day. The others are a bit scared to come out in the day.

Lately, I have noticed that Red has seemed a bit lonely. All the other fish had buddies, except for him. He would just sit on the bottom most of the day. So, I got him a friend. A female Betta we named Sugar Cookies, Sugar for short. She is much smaller and doesn't have long fins like Red, but she is all Betta. She is pink with red markings. It looks to us like she is wearing red lipstick.

It was obvious that Red was very intrigued with her. No more moping under a plant at the bottom of the tank for him. As soon as I put her in, he became very territorial. He chased the poor Tetras for days with his gill covers flared out. That is a sight to see. Then he would chase Sugar. She may be small, but she is a good swimmer and fast to. Then after a week, she was coming out of the castle when Red slowly swam down to her. Well, in true Betta form, she flared her gill covers at him and gently chased him away. The tide has turned. Hmmh. Never a dull moment. Today was even more different. Red hasn't come out of the castle yet, not even to eat. You should know that fish can go for days without eating. In fact it is good for them sometimes. Then mid-morning, I saw Sugar go in the castle with Red. He didn't chase her away and she was in there a while and maybe more than once. Maybe he is building a bubble nest. They do that when they are happy and want to have babies. I guess I'll just have to wait to find out.

Red hiding inside the castle. Mostly he stays in the top.

We also have other aquatic animal in our house. A couple of weeks ago, one of our Botany coop students brought us some tadpoles. Apparantly 10 thousand had hatched on their pool cover and they wanted to share with everyone. Some of ours died, but many lived and are growing well. They now have legs and some will probably have arms very soon.

This one isn't the biggest, but boy he sure looks like a frog now.

Tonight, Tyler put in a piece of algae pellet. Shortly we returned to find a feeding frenzy. If you can click this pix (for some reason you can't always do that), you can better see the little arm buds on the second one from the right. It won't be long before he has arms breaking through. That is exciting stuff.

I don't know what we will do with them once they are frogs. In fact, we don't even know what kind of frogs they are. I do know what we will not do with them. We will not be keeping them. Uh, NO!!! They are just a science experiment, nothing else. As is said, the brown stuff in the tank is an algae pellet. We also feed them bloodworms and fish food. I'll keep you posted on their development