Caring For A Betta Fish

 Meet Uncle Sam

Sorry about the picture quality it's really hard to get a good picture of a fish,  he just wouldn't sit still and smile for me.
Anyway this is Uncle Sam he's a present for my Hubby who wanted a little fish for his office.  I love betta fish they are probably the simplest pet in the world to take care of and the ONLY fish that can truly live in a fish bowl. 

YES I KNOW

The picture on the bowl and those little tanks (the ones under 10 gallons)  show gold fish in them.  But don't for a minute think they are going to live out their full life in those bowls.  Yes I know there are people out there who say they were able to keep one in a bowl for a couple years but since they can have a life span of 10 or more years, a couple is death in childhood to them.

Anyway sorry got off track there.... 

Betta fish have a life span of 2 or 3 years. they don't require a heater or a pump though a low flow pump is good for water circulation ( that black thing behind the fish is a small filter).  You can set up the bowl with what every decorations you want.  We have two live plants and a half a hollow log for him to hid it. 

 Make sure it is not in direct sunlight since this will encourage algae growth.

You want to either get a betta water conditioner which is a solution that takes the chlorine out of the water or let the water sit for 24 hours before adding the fish which will allow the chlorine to evaporate. 

About once a week remove 10% of the water from the tank and replace it with fresh water.  This helps in two ways.  First if you empty all the water you kill of the good bacteria that have started to develop which help keep the tank in balance.  By only removing 10% you leave them in.  2nd you remove excess minerals, left behind by water evaporation and excess waste.  Because of the small sizes of betta tanks I recommend going out and buying a Turkey Baster to help remove water from the  tank.  The turkey baster allows you to reach the bottom of the tank where the fish waste sinks but doesn't remove an excessive amount of water.  Don't forget to de-chlorinate the water before adding it to the tank.

Last feed him every other day.  He has a little tummy don't feed him an Supersized meal, a few little pellets is all he need.

Last But not least DONOT place him with another Betta Fish one of them will end up DEAD. 

Meet the Babies

We give Rex, our red eared slider fish to eat. It helps balance out her diet and gives her some much needed exercise. Well the fish have been hiding in the rocks that we used to create a basking spot for Rex.


Well they are so safe and well fed that they have been reproducing. Now we have 10 little baby fish swimming around in Rex's tank.



We think they have survived this long because they were too small for Rex to see and they have been swimming around him which has protected them from being eaten by the adult fish.

Weirdest Goldfish I've Ever Seen

I saw the goldfish the other day and thought I'd share.
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Pets and Vacations

We are planning on going on Vacation and the problem arises.....How to care for your pets when your not there.

Dogs and Cats have a very simple solution though kind of expensive. There are kennels and "pet motels" everywhere you go. You simple have to find one you think will care for your pet they way you want them cared for. I am choosing to go with the kennel at my vets. Simply because I have an extremely elderly cat and a dog with a gimpy hip. I know they will get the best care there. But what about the fish, frog, tadpole and turtle?

Fish aren't a big problem either. We have timers from past trips we can place on the lights and picked up some vacation fish food from Petco. It is pyramid shaped and will dissolve over the time we are gone to release food for the fish. If you want to go a little more high tech you can get a battery powered feeder that will drop food in every day.

The real problem is the exotic pets in my case the turtle, tadpole and frog. My solution was to talk to some of the experts and here are the solutions I've decided on. For Rex the Turtle we will be adding some live plants and some feeder fish to his tank since we have a canister filter we shouldn't have to worry about cleaning his tank. We will probably put in some of the small snails to give him something to dig around for too.

We took Kermit the Frog out and put him in his new habitat it's not as finished as I would have liked. I wanted to get some moss growing in there but haven't been successful yet so we added some "Frog Moss" I purchased at Petco to put on the land side until I get the moss to grow. There is enough room that I will be able to add several crickets for him and he will eat some of the fish food that will be released from the vacation food.

As for the Rocso the tad pole he will be a little tricky. You see his little tank wont support a battery operated vacation feeder and though he would eat the food in a vacation pyramid the water would quickly become filthy and he would suffocate. We have added some plants to his habitat. We have chosen Anicharis, which is a long plant that can be placed in the rocks to grow roots or left to float (which is important since the tadpole habitat has no rocks) and some duck weed which is also a floating plant. These will feed the tadpole and help keep the water a little cleaner.

Some Cute Pictures and a Word of Warning!

A rare quiet moment with Fitz and Spot

(usually its Spot attacking Fitz)

Ok I know these aren't the best shots of Rex but he is very camera shy!

I've been trying to get a good shot of him in his Super Turtle pose but when ever he sees me coming with the camera he dives into the water. I took these shots across the room using the Zoom.

Some new Additions to the Family Menagerie. Since the Frogs haven't come in we got these colorful fish to fill the tank. We've got an order of tadpoles coming in with a local store and when they come in these will go to the tank in my sons room.

Ok now for the word of warning. If you get snails for your tank and they lay eggs you may want to think twice about having them hatch. The tank in the picture above is NOT dirty those are all snails. While the big ones crawled up the side of the tank and laid their eggs when they are little apparently they lay them on plant leaves the filter where every. Now we have hundreds of snails (no I"m not exaggerating).
It may seem mean but right now I'm really glad the turtle likes to eat snails!