How It Started

Killian, Photo by Sabrianne Photography

It all started with a little veil tail named Killian... Wait, lets go back a little further.
I walked into the pet store with my mother and sister who was eight years older then me. Over the sounds of gerbils and squeaky guinea pigs, I noticed a mason jar sitting on a shelf way above my head, being eight years old at the time. Inside, a midnight blue fish with long flowing fins swam peacefully around and around the jar.
A Siamese fighting fish, I was told. They were supposed to be aggressive, but he looked so angelic in his little jar. From then on I wanted a betta fish, but only when I was nineteen did I realize I could get one. That's where Killian came in.
I set up a little two and a half gallon tank, with gravel and a little log and leaf hammock. When it came to picking out a fish, I looked at twenty to thirty plastic cups of veil tail betta fish, until I saw this little blue betta placed behind all the others. He was tiny compared to all the others, but he was lively. I brought him home, set him up in his tank.
A week later I realized he was so small because his fins were clamped together like they had been glued down. And he appeared to have an illness called Velvet. Immediately I starting realizing even with all the research I had done about caring for these fish, there was still so much to learn.
I went through a velvet scare, high levels of ammonia, swim bladder disorder and internal parasites. I realized he was so small because of his poor immune system, likely sick long before I picked him up off the shelf. I gave him a comfortable life for the few months that he was alive. I was crushed that I couldn't do enough to cure him of all his ailments, so I did even more extensive research before getting another betta.
A month's time passed, spent cycling a five gallon tank with a little filter, heater, a new log, with added substrate for various plants under the gravel. When the tank was finally cycled, I went to the big city of St. Louis and picked out a gorgeous half moon tail betta, Castiel.
I knew the basics, but even with Castiel I am still learning new tricks and tips. I will be writing about all things that I have learned, so that just as I found articles, forum posts, facebook statuses, and blog posts to help me learn a little more about my betta, so too will someone find this simple blog post to help them along in their research.
Happy bubble nesting!