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Post by siobhan on Feb 24, 2020 11:56:00 GMT -5
I love bettas and always have at least one, but the most awful things go wrong with them. Gomer, whom I'd had for well over a year, started having serious difficulty being upright in the water. He wedged himself behind his heater cord to hold himself upright near the surface (bettas also breathe air) and continued to eat well so I thought it was swim bladder and did the things that are supposed to help. They didn't. He got worse and then he got so he couldn't even swim and would just float around on his side. He refused food Saturday night and Sunday morning and I decided that was the sign it was time to let him go. I so hate euthanizing a fish but fortunately there's an easy and painless method -- Red Cross toothache medicine, just a little in a bowl of water. Put the fish in and he goes to sleep in a couple of minutes and never wakes up. I moved my other betta into his tank (after cleaning his tank) because his was bigger than Bert's and Bert seems content enough, but he just doesn't have as much personality as Gomer. He's a nice fish, but Gomer recognized me and came to the glass to visit with me and I miss him.
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Post by cnyguy on Feb 24, 2020 21:23:36 GMT -5
Sorry about Gomer. I guess unless you've lived with fish you might not realize that they do have personalities. Gomer seemed like a friendly fellow, and I'm sure he will be missed.
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Post by siobhan on Feb 25, 2020 10:39:33 GMT -5
That's what my brother says about birds, too, that he didn't realize how much personality they had until I got mine. And he had a parakeet when he was a kid! I admit that the guppies and the goldfish kind of blend into a collective, and the goldfish have never yet got over being afraid of me (they're almost big enough to beat me up, but I guess they don't realize that), but the guppies recognize me, come to the glass, poke their little fishy noses in when I'm cleaning and nibble my fingers. They're not a bit afraid of me. Bert, so named in honor of Albert Einstein because he acted so smart when I first got him, has yet to figure out where to come for his breakfast and dinner and when I call him, hides in a corner and then wanders around looking for food after I move away.
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Post by cnyguy on Feb 25, 2020 21:26:05 GMT -5
The original Albert Einstein was known for being forgetful about meals when he was absorbed in his researches, either forgetting to eat at all or eating two breakfasts in succession, not remembering that he'd already eaten. So Bert is indeed appropriately named if he gets confused about eating.
It's been a long time since I kept fish, but I still remember the angelfish I had who used to follow people when they walked by the tank, and a neon tetra who used to actually leap out of the water when he saw me coming with the fish food. Usually he'd dive right back in, but I few times he'd land outside the tank and I had to put him back in.
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Post by biteybird on Feb 26, 2020 4:34:58 GMT -5
Oh, I'm sorry about Gomer. I've always thought all creatures have personalities and intelligence. I've never understood the assumption of many people that certain creatures don't have these things. Maybe I'm a bit weird....  |
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Post by siobhan on Feb 26, 2020 17:43:39 GMT -5
I have a lid on my tanks partly because Freddie went swimming once when I was cleaning (I was right there, thank goodness, and scooped him out) and partly because bettas and goldfish have a bad habit of thinking they're Flipper, too. One of the goldies is especially bad about breaching when the food's coming and has probably bonked his silly noggin 100 times on the lid. In spite of the lid, I once lost a mystery snail to exploratory tendencies. She found a tiny gap and crawled right out of the tank and across the floor. By the time I found her there after work, she'd been out too long and though she was still alive, she didn't live through the night. The aquatics are almost as much trouble as birds.
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Post by biteybird on Mar 8, 2020 4:55:50 GMT -5
Siobhan, it's beyond me how you juggle looking after your menagerie (very well, too, lucky buggers!) and your work. I can only aspire to your level of awesome-ness! |
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Post by siobhan on Mar 9, 2020 9:55:24 GMT -5
Awww, thanks. After all these years, I've just developed a schedule, and I'm down to three birds now, which seems like a lot less work compared to my high of 10 birds.
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