hello!

hi! i'm new to the forum so i thought i'd introduce myself. i've been keeping fish for about twelve or thirteen years now and i've loved (almost) every minute of it. of course there have been a few disasters here and there but i'm pleased to say that it's been a good while since i've had any of those i've had most run of the mill freshwater fish you can imagine, but it all started out because i wanted a betta. of course, back then the shopkeepers were all about "ah sure you can't waste that much space on one fish! throw a few neon tetras and guppies in with him!" and naively, i did that. i would never recommend sticking neons in with bettas, for the record, and whether or not you can put guppies in depends on the betta in question but in my experience the neons were the issue: fin nippers supreme. anyway, it was the beginning of an obsession. i won't bore you with the details of various set ups over the years! i ventured into goldfish keeping for a while, too (separate tanks from my tropicals, of course!) but it was at a busy time in my life and i ended up giving them to people who had more time for them and retiring that tank. my interest in fish tapered off during that time and i only had a couple of very old gouramis and a pleco left in the one tank so it was easy enough to maintain even without them being the centre of my universe anymore. a relative was looking for a pleco last year so he went off to live with them and eventually, as all fish do in the end, the gouramis died - the last one dying late last autumn. i hadn't introduced anything new to the tank, but i couldn't tear it down either so after a few months of watching it empty, i decided to go back to my old friends: male bettas

now, if i was going to do it again, i might have started a sorority tank instead because this particular tank is around 80l and admittedly sometimes it looks funny, one little fish having all that room. i wouldn't upset his peace by putting in any other fish but i did try him with a group of yellow shrimp a few months ago. they tore his dorsal fin and he had quite a feast, that's all i'll say about that! i have three other tanks set up - 10ls - with male bettas in them, too. it wasn't the plan to take over the living room, but sometimes you just can't resist! there was a sickly looking one in the petshop two weeks ago who i couldn't leave there and the change in him is unbelievable. i can't say i'll leave it at the four, though.

i know these are more boring than a lot of what you're used to, but i'll add that 'the fish wish list' of mine amounts to gold piranha! i don't usually feel like the bigger fish are up my alley but one of these days, i'm going to have one of those! as i said, my fish might be a little more boring than most people are used to around here but here they are regardless

There is no boring fish mate.
Welcome to the forum.

welcome, enjoy, share. Looking forward to pics

Welcome and enjoy,

Bettas are def not boring. Looking forward to seeing the pictures as im a huge betta fan

Eric

Welcome along sherlock.
I will agree with Eric, bettas are not boring at all ! They all have their own different personalities, that s the reason most of the people will give them a name.

Anthony

thank you all so much! i thought i posted pictures, but i think i messed up my coding. mine have names, too, but usually people refer to them by their colour to me, i suppose you can't convince everyone!


i know the quality isn't the best, it's from my phone, but this is the oldest. his name is bill. his tank is the biggest so he's the hardest to get a picture of because he's constantly patrolling. flaring, too - he thinks he owns that portion of the room. i honestly think there's some rose tail in him because his fins are longer and more scattered at the ends than any veil tail i've ever seen, but since most of what i've had has consisted of veil tails, i suppose i could be wrong and he could just be a better example of his species.


this is also from my phone and so not great, but! this is my veil tail, charlie. i've always had a thing for orange fish and found it impossible to leave him in the pet shop. i always say he's the most laid back of my fish and usually people look at me as though i'm mad when i say that, but it's true. he comes over to see what's happening around his tank, but he rarely flares. he is in that picture, hence why i enjoy it! but yeah, he usually just watches and wiggles. this is to the point where he's had two different male betta in tanks neighbouring his and he will watch them while acting like he can't see them at all.


my crown tail is harder to get pictures of. his body is literally like a bruise - it's kind of purple, but also blue, and depending on the way he turns or the way you see him, he can look entirely different. his fins are red and blue. he's either incredibly skittish or territorial. initially, he lived in the kitchen, but the contrast between skittish and territorial made us think he was suffering for it, so we moved him to the living room. it turns out it really is just his personality. he's beautiful, but hard to take pictures of, and hard to observe. his name is percy. he lives between charlie and my next guy, and he's the only one who gets territorial about it, but it's dying down. i should stop apologising about the quality of the pictures - the best ones i take are on my iphone! my actual camera picks up movement and exaggerates the blur.

i'll continue in the next post, it's telling me i can't add pictures!

so, continued! i picked up a fish that wasn't looking too good a couple of weeks ago. this is the picture i took of him immediately after getting him:



as of yesterday that same fish is looking like:



his name is fred! you can't really see regrowth on those pictures, but honestly, it's astounding me how much he has changed. he's changing colour, too, but the fact that he's behaving happily now is enough. he's a great little fish, though they all are, but there's something rewarding about knowing that you're doing right by a fish.

Hi sherlock, welcome. There are no boring fish just ugly ones, like my big ugly cat fish here, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. His name is Billy.

Hi and welcome Sherlock
@paul is that a upside down catfish or just the photo lol

Thanks for sharing

Welcome along Sherlock.

Siamese fighters are awesome fish.

ian

Hi Sherlock, welcome!

I think bettas are a fascinating fish, no two are the same!

Niall

irish-zx10r wrote:

Hi and welcome Sherlock
@paul is that a upside down catfish or just the photo lol

the fish sees the world just fine, it's me first thing sunday morn thats upside down.