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Dec. 27th, 2007
New Levels of Fish Obsession
Dec. 27th, 2007 08:58 amA lot happened over the Christmas break, fish-wise.
I got a girlfriend for Johnny/Giant-Girl. It was a bit of an impulse buy, but I knew it was a possibility, at least, so I had a net separator. She’s milky-white, almost albino-like, although as she acclimated to the better quality water of the five-gallon tank (and, as it turned out, got excited about the possibility of having a boyfriend,) she developed faint, shimmery red and blue stripes on her body and her fins grew darker maroon. Mason named her South Africa. He said that his newest naming scheme is countries in Africa -- the previous fish he named was Kenya.
Shawn immediately decided that South Africa looked “creepy.” She does have a bit of a point, if only because South Africa’s gills are dark red and her eyes, like all betta eyes, are bulgy.
I kept Johnny and South Africa separated for a couple of days. Johnny didn’t seem terribly interested in her. He mostly ignored the net, though he did check it out a few times. I thought, given her color and the color of the net surrounding the cage, that maybe he couldn’t even see her.
Johnny isn’t terribly aggressive, generally. I’ve been doing a bit of reading about bettas, and apparently there are some females that grow male tails and, basically pass as males, tough they tend to be less aggressive. Likewise, there are some males that are crappy fighters. When put together with other males, they lay down and act dead right away. In other words, there are variations on gender roles in the fish world, too.
So, given his personality, I thought I might see what happened if I released South Africa into the tank. I got a cup and tried to scoop her out of her net. She squiggled away a couple of times. Then, I was pretty sure I had her. I looked in the cup. No South Africa. I looked in the tank. No South Africa. I looked on the floor. No South Africa. Then I started to panic. Where was she? I called Shawn in. Mason came in to see what was the matter. He was instantly convinced Johnny/Giant-Girl had eaten her.
I was really starting to think we’d lost her on the floor or something when Shawn noticed South Africa stuck in a curve of the netting near the surface. I very carefully unstuck her, and spent several panicked moments watching her to make sure her gills weren’t damaged or anything like that. She seemed completely unfazed by the event, thank goodness.
Again, Johnny ignored her. I’d been hoping that, while separated, he’d attempt to make a bubble nest or some other sign that he appreciated the company, but he didn’t. Now, occasionally, he’d notice her swimming around and he’d go up and get a closer look. She ran for it any time he came close, and they’d chase once or twice around the tank. I worried he was nipping at her, but that didn’t seem to be the case.
Plus, she had a lot of hiding places. I made sure of that before all this started. There’s a fake coral that acts as a cave (where I think the shrimp I gave them are hiding, as well,) and a honeycombed, arty blue-brown porcelain tower that Mason picked out when we were last at A World of Fish. Johnny particularly likes to lay in there because he blends almost perfectly.
So, I stopped worrying about them. Outside of the occasional chase around the tank, they seemed to be getting along, well, swimmingly.
On Christmas Eve, Johnny built a nest.
It’s kind of pathetic-looking, if you ask me. Not terribly fluffy, just a string of mucus covered bubbles on the far side of the tank. It took him all day, and I suspect he started a few days before. Apparently, some betas build their nests in a matter of hours. Not my Johnny. He took forever.
However, he must have done something right. South Africa liked it. A lot. On Christmas, while Mason and I were watching BLUE PLANET: The Open Ocean and The Deep, Shawn yelled out, “Uh, I think your fish are mating!”
We paused the DVD and ran to see. Sure enough there was South Africa hanging around under the nest, her head up. Then Johnny swam up, as if to say, “So…. What do you think?” She gave him a little push, which he ignored, until she did it a few more times. Then he was like, “Oh!” Suddenly, they wrapped tightly around each other and started sinking toward the bottom. Before impact, they released, and so did her eggs. I watched Johnny grab them in his mouth. He spit them up into the nest, and then it was “wash, rinse, repeat” for the next several hours (although he was a lot quicker to “get” what the bumping meant after those first few times.) I didn’t watch the whole thing, deciding to give them privacy. I just peeped in now and again, and there they’d be wrapped up or nearly so, spitting eggs, or poking insistently.
Now what? I have no idea. I’m hoping to get more information about what to expect now that we’re expecting from the internet. I understand that now is the hard part, and I’ve already pre-warned Mason that the survival rate for the fry is likely to be low… uh, especially since I read that South Africa may have lain as many as five hundred eggs.
UPDATE: This morning... no nest. Johnny/Giant-Girl probably destroyed it himself. Apparently, betta males will eat any addled eggs. It's possible he sensed they weren't fertalized and ate them. Or it wasn't humid enough to keep them all afloat. I'm sad, of course, but also relieved. Now I plan to change the water and see if that gets them back in the mood.
I got a girlfriend for Johnny/Giant-Girl. It was a bit of an impulse buy, but I knew it was a possibility, at least, so I had a net separator. She’s milky-white, almost albino-like, although as she acclimated to the better quality water of the five-gallon tank (and, as it turned out, got excited about the possibility of having a boyfriend,) she developed faint, shimmery red and blue stripes on her body and her fins grew darker maroon. Mason named her South Africa. He said that his newest naming scheme is countries in Africa -- the previous fish he named was Kenya.
Shawn immediately decided that South Africa looked “creepy.” She does have a bit of a point, if only because South Africa’s gills are dark red and her eyes, like all betta eyes, are bulgy.
I kept Johnny and South Africa separated for a couple of days. Johnny didn’t seem terribly interested in her. He mostly ignored the net, though he did check it out a few times. I thought, given her color and the color of the net surrounding the cage, that maybe he couldn’t even see her.
Johnny isn’t terribly aggressive, generally. I’ve been doing a bit of reading about bettas, and apparently there are some females that grow male tails and, basically pass as males, tough they tend to be less aggressive. Likewise, there are some males that are crappy fighters. When put together with other males, they lay down and act dead right away. In other words, there are variations on gender roles in the fish world, too.
So, given his personality, I thought I might see what happened if I released South Africa into the tank. I got a cup and tried to scoop her out of her net. She squiggled away a couple of times. Then, I was pretty sure I had her. I looked in the cup. No South Africa. I looked in the tank. No South Africa. I looked on the floor. No South Africa. Then I started to panic. Where was she? I called Shawn in. Mason came in to see what was the matter. He was instantly convinced Johnny/Giant-Girl had eaten her.
I was really starting to think we’d lost her on the floor or something when Shawn noticed South Africa stuck in a curve of the netting near the surface. I very carefully unstuck her, and spent several panicked moments watching her to make sure her gills weren’t damaged or anything like that. She seemed completely unfazed by the event, thank goodness.
Again, Johnny ignored her. I’d been hoping that, while separated, he’d attempt to make a bubble nest or some other sign that he appreciated the company, but he didn’t. Now, occasionally, he’d notice her swimming around and he’d go up and get a closer look. She ran for it any time he came close, and they’d chase once or twice around the tank. I worried he was nipping at her, but that didn’t seem to be the case.
Plus, she had a lot of hiding places. I made sure of that before all this started. There’s a fake coral that acts as a cave (where I think the shrimp I gave them are hiding, as well,) and a honeycombed, arty blue-brown porcelain tower that Mason picked out when we were last at A World of Fish. Johnny particularly likes to lay in there because he blends almost perfectly.
So, I stopped worrying about them. Outside of the occasional chase around the tank, they seemed to be getting along, well, swimmingly.
On Christmas Eve, Johnny built a nest.
It’s kind of pathetic-looking, if you ask me. Not terribly fluffy, just a string of mucus covered bubbles on the far side of the tank. It took him all day, and I suspect he started a few days before. Apparently, some betas build their nests in a matter of hours. Not my Johnny. He took forever.
However, he must have done something right. South Africa liked it. A lot. On Christmas, while Mason and I were watching BLUE PLANET: The Open Ocean and The Deep, Shawn yelled out, “Uh, I think your fish are mating!”
We paused the DVD and ran to see. Sure enough there was South Africa hanging around under the nest, her head up. Then Johnny swam up, as if to say, “So…. What do you think?” She gave him a little push, which he ignored, until she did it a few more times. Then he was like, “Oh!” Suddenly, they wrapped tightly around each other and started sinking toward the bottom. Before impact, they released, and so did her eggs. I watched Johnny grab them in his mouth. He spit them up into the nest, and then it was “wash, rinse, repeat” for the next several hours (although he was a lot quicker to “get” what the bumping meant after those first few times.) I didn’t watch the whole thing, deciding to give them privacy. I just peeped in now and again, and there they’d be wrapped up or nearly so, spitting eggs, or poking insistently.
Now what? I have no idea. I’m hoping to get more information about what to expect now that we’re expecting from the internet. I understand that now is the hard part, and I’ve already pre-warned Mason that the survival rate for the fry is likely to be low… uh, especially since I read that South Africa may have lain as many as five hundred eggs.
UPDATE: This morning... no nest. Johnny/Giant-Girl probably destroyed it himself. Apparently, betta males will eat any addled eggs. It's possible he sensed they weren't fertalized and ate them. Or it wasn't humid enough to keep them all afloat. I'm sad, of course, but also relieved. Now I plan to change the water and see if that gets them back in the mood.