Trying a rescue-

[mary_j_59]

It was making me sad looking at my empty bowl and tank, so my sister and I went to Petco - I was planning to get a betta. While there, I saw something new to me: baby bettas in cups. Several of these little ones looked ill, or even dead; several more were lively. On impulse, I got a cute, lively little one from the middle of the rank of fish. As I said on twitter, he's so little I'm not even sure whether he's male or female, but I'm starting to think he might be a little boy. He's probably about two months old, from the reading I've done. And - I didn't realize it was cruel to buy these babies! The big chain stores treat their bettas cruelly, in any case, and I'm sure he'll be better off with me. But he was so little that he couldn't even manage to eat a betta pellet - not even when I chopped it up for him. I got some bloodworms and betta flakes, and he/she absolutely loves those, when they are broken into tiny pieces. That's one of the big problems with selling babies this young; they often don't get the right food so they fail to thrive. But he's doing well so far. Doesn't have a name yet - I've been calling him/her Babe, Minnow or Nipper. Deirdrej doesn't like those. Does anyone have any ideas for names? I just thought of Boromir, if he actually is a little boy (Boromir's kind of a great name for a betta, IMHO!), and Eowyn if a girl. 

Here he is, in his new gallon bowl -

Comments

[anne-arthur.livejournal.com]

Very sweet! I hope he's still thriving. And Boromir's a great name, IMHO.

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Honestly, the betta sites were very discouraging - saying that anyone who bought these little fish was promoting cruelty, and that you needed a large tank with a filter and heater, and that you needed live food, and so on. About the first thing, they're probably right. But he or she is thriving, so far - he's active and hungry, and, I think, starting to recognize that i"m the person who feeds him. His color is better - he's turning a lovely, dark purply-red - and his fins have a very nice shape already. So I don't think we're doing so badly, he and !!

And, yes, Boromir's a great name - but Deirdre said, "You can't call him that! Boromir dies!" Alas, true. So - I thought of Fili and Kili, my absolute favorite dwarves when I was a child. Deirdre said, "They die, too!" I thought of Thorin - same problem. Oh, dear. My flute teacher thought of Sherlock - that's kind of great, too, but I always preferred Jon Watson, who is no fool. If s/he's actually a little girl, I suppose I could call her Lobelia! She doesn't die. :) And there's always Irene Adler.

[thirteen-ravens.livejournal.com]

Sweet. :) I think in the UK we call them Siamese Fighting Fish? Either that or they are related to them, aren't they?

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Yes, you're right. We call them Siamese fighting fish, too, but they get called Bettas more often these days - I guess because their actual name is shorter than the popular one!

He's still doing well. Hope he will continue to, and that he'll be big enough to weather it if we get another storm. I was so lucky that the power didn't go out! The babies have to be kept warm, and it's grown chilly after all the rain and wind. If I'm lucky (and if he is!) he should live to be three or four years old - or maybe more. Deirdre had a betta that lived to be five.