The Betta Part 2

I’m enamored with my new Betta Fish. I have so many other things that I can tell you about including a wonderful night at a safari lodge where my Other Half and I spend the night over the weekend and instead, I find myself happily narrating in my mind the first delightful problems I’ve had with my new roommate.

Any new relationship has its ups and downs. You have to establish what both parties like, and then find middle ground. The first thing I’ve noticed about my Betta is that there is no middle ground with him. It’s his way or the highway. And, as a gold fish owner, I’m almost unsure of how to deal with it.

I like to think that I’m a pretty good fish keeper. Most of my fish live for 4 years or more (and then, they only die when I leave them in the care of others). When I didn’t have a lot of space, I used to keep them in bowls (normally large 10litre glass cookie jars or flower pots) but recently acquired a fairly large rectangular aquarium. Now, I keep my Betta in the one bowl, perched on my printer by my computer because that’s where I spend most of my time in my room. I went through the usual routine of introducing my Betta to his new habitat the moment I got home and made sure that he had enough cover to hide in the bowl. I hadn’t bothered to buy Betta fish food because I had some tropical fish food left over from an accidental purchase and thought that I’d be fine with that (my gold fish love it, why won’t the real tropical fish?!).

That was my first mistake.
Lan Harrison does not like flake food. I watched a bit disheartened the first night as he swam around the bowl, tasting every individual flake that was drifting around on the surface and spit it out.
Luckily, I had some freeze dried white shrimp that I sometimes feed to my gold fish as a treat so I broke that up and gave it to him so he didn’t sleep hungry. He ate it reluctantly and quite suddenly I knew that I had a problem. I went online, googled Betta feeding and realized that most Bettas would rather starve than eat flaked food. I wish the store attendant had told me that.

So, despite having an absolutely CRAZY busy day yesterday, I wrung time out of my schedule and stormed into a petshop to get some proper Betta food. But, I knew as I drove home to feed it, that there was a big chance that he might not even like that. Because, that’s what Bettas do. They are very picky eaters.

Luckily, the Betta pellets went down well and I got some satisfaction from watching him chase the tiny balls around his bowl. Then, he settled in the corner closest to where I sat and watched me. It wasn’t a friendly kind of stare, I could almost swear he was looking at me and going: Yes, I can take you. Just come in here and I’ll show you what I can do. They don’t call me a fighting fish for nothing…

I’ve come to the conclusion that my fish is a very agro fish…

He puffs himself up whenever I put my finger near the bowl, puffs himself up and has a tiff with the plants in his bowl and puffs himself up when I use my custom made gravel hoover to take out the waste (and replace some water). He actually went as far as biting the tiny pipe that I use! I couldn’t believe it.

I’ve been browsing around the net and one thing’s become very apparent. The moment you have a Betta, you’re hooked for life.

I totally agree with that.