My $14 lapse in judgment...

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Sharpchick

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Jan 13, 2013
Messages
715
Location
Arkansas
So I debated for a couple of weeks about which fish I wanted as the top dweller in my 20 gallon planted tank. I have lovely little shoals of neon and black neon tetras, and cories. It's a very peaceful tank, and I can lay for hours on my bed watching it.

Got lots of really good suggestions for that centerpiece fish. But in the end, it came down to a choice between a dwarf honey gourami or a really pretty male betta. And the betta had the slight edge, because I knew I could rescue a fish from a horrible little plastic cup.

So off I went to one of the big boxes that seem to specialize in horrible little plastic cups.

And found a drop-dead-gorgeous halfmoon male - cream colored, with just a hint of slight gray stripes in his tail.

Brought him home, acclimated him in the cup, and after about an hour, set him free. He immediately went behind the HOB filter. I went back after about a half hour, and he was exploring the tank - kind of the equivalent of aquatic bar hopping.

Holy moses...after three hours, he had all the other fish rounded up, quivering in the back right corner of the tank, except for the lone cory hiding out in the anacharis cover of the opposite corner. He'd dart into the crowd and single out a victim to terrorize - even the cories with their armor.

I named him on the spot. Ivan the Terrible.

It took me 45 minutes to net him. Many of the plants (stems fortunately) were uprooted in the process, and floated on the surface, which he used to his advantage to avoid the net.

I had a 2 gallon glass bowl, and a smidge of fine gravel. Into the bowl he went, along with some stems of anacharis floating, and an airstone.

But glass goldfish bowls don't have heaters or filters. I have never kept bettas under those conditions for more than a day.

So the next day, I went back to the big box and got him his very own Aqueon Evolve4 so Ivan can be all matchy-matchy with Lucky on the only available horizontal surface I have left in the cottage that has an outlet and surge protector available. (I had to put a blue vinyl report cover between the two tanks, because these guys did not eat or sleep so they could flare at each other non-stop.)

I really like this dual reflection of Ivan, flaring at himself.

73133-albums11654-picture52664.jpg




So my $14 lapse in judgment set me back another $60.

Such is life.
 
That's a shame, I have a male half moon with Endler guppies, corys, and pond snails. All good as of now.
 
Pretty boy that Ivan is!!!

Some bettas are like that and they don't want friends.

I'm glad he has his own little happy home!

PS, as I'm sure you know, as far as "rescuing" the betta is concerned it only contributes to supply and demand.
 
That stinks, but he is a very pretty betta. His fins remind me of a jellyfish all flowing and graceful. Beautiful.
 
Pretty boy that Ivan is!!!

Some bettas are like that and they don't want friends.

I'm glad he has his own little happy home!

PS, as I'm sure you know, as far as "rescuing" the betta is concerned it only contributes to supply and demand.

Sure, but that's one gorgeous fish out of a cup...
 
what a beautiful betta!

he's so lucky to have a large home all to himself.

my betta doesn't really care about the endlers and the cories. he doesn't bother with them at all.

sorry you had to shell out so much. :(
 
Very pretty!! I am thinking of moving my male halfmoon out of his 5.5 and into my 25... He lets me pet his tail :) I just don't want to go through what happened to the female betta I put in there. The poor girl died :( I think from stress from all the fish.

Anyways, he's very pretty, and I'm glad he has his own home now.
 
That sucks!!
But, I'm sure he'll be worth it. They have such adorable personalities. I have 23 adults (last I checked) and every single one is unique. To me they are almost equivalent to Cats!

Anyways, I'm really glad that you decided to rescue him. If you decide that you'd like to re-home him I'd take him off your hands :) he's gorgeous!
 
what a beautiful betta!

he's so lucky to have a large home all to himself.

my betta doesn't really care about the endlers and the cories. he doesn't bother with them at all.

sorry you had to shell out so much. :(

In the end, I knew the risk would be there. I've had bettas in mixed community tanks before, with no problem.

This just wasn't going to be one of those fish.
 
That sucks!!
But, I'm sure he'll be worth it. They have such adorable personalities. I have 23 adults (last I checked) and every single one is unique. To me they are almost equivalent to Cats!

Anyways, I'm really glad that you decided to rescue him. If you decide that you'd like to re-home him I'd take him off your hands :) he's gorgeous!

He's growing on me. But he really kills me. If the light is on, he cruises around looking for a spot where he can see himself, and then declares war on his image.

When the plants come today, I'll try and cut down on the amount of reflecting surface he has.
 
Am I terrible for suggesting that you should take him back to the LFS? I have a DIY 100 gallon planted aquarium and the one Goldfish that really encouraged me to build the tank because he was almost 9 inches in a 20 gallon tank was so mean to the others in the 100 gallon that now he is alone in the 20 gallon! He is 3 years old and I have to live with his insanity but Ivan is new and I would send him back!
 
I totally did the same thing with my betta.. i bought him on sale then brought him home n a little 1.5gal the big chain store thought was perfect since i refused to throw him in a smaller divided cup basically. After 1hr of seeing him in there i talked my mom into going back to that store with me n we bought a 5.5gal n a heater n set up.. so my $2 male betta ended up costing me like $90 .. i cried when he died.. bought a female n she just didnt have his personality so my hubby adopted her as his. Lol
 
Am I terrible for suggesting that you should take him back to the LFS? I have a DIY 100 gallon planted aquarium and the one Goldfish that really encouraged me to build the tank because he was almost 9 inches in a 20 gallon tank was so mean to the others in the 100 gallon that now he is alone in the 20 gallon! He is 3 years old and I have to live with his insanity but Ivan is new and I would send him back!

Oh heavens, no. He's part of the gang now. He stays. There's no fault here with him, and he's a stunning little fish.

I may just forego the idea of a top dweller and be comfortable with my peaceful little 20 gallon.
 
I totally did the same thing with my betta.. i bought him on sale then brought him home n a little 1.5gal the big chain store thought was perfect since i refused to throw him in a smaller divided cup basically. After 1hr of seeing him in there i talked my mom into going back to that store with me n we bought a 5.5gal n a heater n set up.. so my $2 male betta ended up costing me like $90 .. i cried when he died.. bought a female n she just didnt have his personality so my hubby adopted her as his. Lol

Isn't it a trip how they can move right on into your heart?

This little guy is a sassy one. Being a tad sassy myself, I can admire that.
 
Isn't it a trip how they can move right on into your heart?

This little guy is a sassy one. Being a tad sassy myself, I can admire that.

Yeap my guy was too .. we jokingly named him Neo the chosen one king of the tank.. lol then my hubby talked me into a docile white female and i wasnt happy but he was .. i like my fish to have spunk n personality.. my sunset honey gourami is docile to but peaches still has some flare n i luv her.. but still not the same as my betta male.. i wanna talk the hubby into making my 10g a betta male tank but we got 3 bigger tanks already so prolly not gonna happen.. lol
 
Yeap my guy was too .. we jokingly named him Neo the chosen one king of the tank.. lol then my hubby talked me into a docile white female and i wasnt happy but he was .. i like my fish to have spunk n personality.. my sunset honey gourami is docile to but peaches still has some flare n i luv her.. but still not the same as my betta male.. i wanna talk the hubby into making my 10g a betta male tank but we got 3 bigger tanks already so prolly not gonna happen.. lol

Tell hubby the footprint on this Evolve4 is 9 inches by 10 inches - smaller than all the sports magazines he reads...
 
I have Buddy, my beautiful blue Crowntail Betta, in a planted 10 gallon all by himself. He has a great personality, he just wiggles and wiggles when I come up, especially when he knows it is feeding time. LOL
 
Back
Top Bottom