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So sad... I picked up this TINY female betta at well, a LCS on Saturday. I mean, she was like, 1/2 an inch long at the *very* most. She was in rather disgusting water (wasn't even blue water like most of the other bettas there, in fact, it was rather dirty and kind of brown) and I knew she wouldn't be going home with anyone if I didn't pick her up. She was rather drab and hadn't even gotten much of any color yet, she was so young.

She perked up a bit, to the point where I could see she had pink/blue edging to her tail, got a nice tankful of clean water... I put her in one of my extra one gallons, figuring that someone as small as she would be overwhelmed by the room in a two gallon, which is my normal betta tank.

She didn't eat at all (tempted her with betta bites, blood worms, etc) and sadly, passed away between Sunday night and this morning (Monday). So sad... she had seemed to perk up and unclamp her fins, but we found her dead this morning. Well... at least she had a chance, and died in a clean tank, hopefully happy.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Most wouldn't have even tryed..kudos to you for trying!

at least she died in a home and not alone in some shop. I've done the same thing and although it makes me sad that they didn't make it, at least I made their lives a little better even for a short time.

---

I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.
~ Mae West

I'm tempted to go back to the store and get the other girl that was in nearly the same situation. Looked quite like her, as well. Poor thing. Don't know if I want to spend another four bucks on a fish that could quite likely die on me, though.

My mom has absolutely horrid ideas for names (in my opinion, anyway)... she wanted to name her "glimmer" or something along that line, because though she was rather plain in color, she did gleam prettily in the light. She was dubbed Iris (short for iridescent, and also Iris is the Greek goddess of rainbows) in the tradition of the rest of my betta girls, named after the Greek Muses.

She really was tiny...

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~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Wow i've never seen such a small Betta for sale at a LFS. You should go back and read them the riot act and MAKE them give you the other girl seeing as how she doesn't seem to have a fighting chance, and they don't seem to be doing much to prevent it.

It's umm... not a fish store, it's well... Begins with a W if you know what I mean. And there's NEVER anyone in the fish department. I should go find the manager and read them the riot act about their ENTIRE fish dept. It's disgusting: Sick, dead and dying fish everywhere.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

I know EXACTLY what you mean, Kitten!! I was so fighting mad about mine once (before I was even into fish) that I took photos of their tanks and threatened to tell the ASPCA or something ]:| ...and the service is lousy too...

Or PETA... isn't that the one with the beef against Petco?

Good idea... maybe I can threaten them with that... or maybe they'll just hire me to take care of all those poor, poor fishies. I could deal with that... I need a job, and those poor fish obviously need someone who knows what the HECK they're doing!

And I'll rescue that lil girl one way or another... assuming she's still alive.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

I wouldn't get a job there... at mine, the fish are just so far beyond repair, and I don't want to be a part of it.

And uhh, PETA scares me Extremists are weird!

But yeah. Definitely threaten it. It really worked a difference in my case, because now, at least they take out the dead fish, and the betta's water's only brown -half- the time. I guess you can't expect miracles...

They just have bad quality fish, too. I bought two bettas fromthem once, who I believe were sisters-- same colors, same behavior (killers), same tumors that formed between their gills and killed them in a few months.

Last edited by smantzer at 02-Mar-2005 11:25

Yeah, I'm with you on that, working there would just be a disaster.

I went back and got the other similar girl - she's actually slightly bigger than the first one and more active now that she's in clean water. It took Iris hours to lose her stress stripes and flare out her tail; this new girl's tail is already unclamped and her stripes are light. However, she's got some fin rot going on.

When I went there last, there were two or three males (none of which looked terribly perky) and five or six females, including Iris. Today, there were two pink cambodian girls (one dead) and two others besides the one I picked up (who was again, the runt of the bunch).

I brought my digicam and took a bunch of pictures before the batteries died (drat!). Almost all the goldies, and quite a few other tanks, suffered from Ich. I don't think there was a tank without a dead fish. And many of those fish had been dead for quite a while. You don't get skeletal remains in a few hours.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Here's a pic of the new girl... alive, thankfully. Poor Iris, I don't have a nice pic of her.


Think I'll call her Eos, goddess of the dawn. Hey... gotta keep up the ancient greek goddess thing, right?

Last edited by Kitten at 02-Mar-2005 15:55[/font]

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

The newest goddess is still alive and well this morning... turning quite a nice shade of red, too. Still shy, not eating much.

I think the only thing she's eaten thusfar is a betta pellet or two. She seems to only really be interested in the food once it starts sinking. Once it hits the gravel, she ignores it. I'm going to have to do a quick gravel vac soon to get the food she misses. *shrugs*

She's more active than Iris, so hopefully that means she'll be with me longer!

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~