Establishing my sorority

[beckyd]

So, my 10g has sadly been vacated by my blue king betta. Those kings sure like to jump. I had seen him jump into the lid before and I have heard my black king hit his lid too. Anyway, his antics apparently found the 1" hole for the filter and he has passed on

So, the debate over a replacement soon turned to the girls for two reasons. 1) Little Amelia in my 75g has been stuffing herself full of guppy fry! My fancy sword is about to deliver another brood and I can't let Amelia snack on them. And 2) females means I can have more, if they will play nice. Besides, everyone will buy the impressive looking kings while the comparatively drab, puny females get ignored. They all look so pathetic with their fins all scrunched up, barely old enough to transport and not even big enough to eat a betta pellet. They just ship the females out to get rid of them, I think.

Anyway, Amelia moved yesterday, as did the two females I found at the LFS. Three is bad, so today I went searching for one more. I got two, but you all saw that coming!

Here are some pics of the little girls I bought yesterday. Lady is the blue. I show her with a small cory to show you how dinky she is. Cami is steel blue with red. She looks more blue in daylight, but the amazing thing is I thought she was pale silver, almost white! That is how stressed this poor thing was. She looked like a different fish in no time with clean water and room to swim. She really seems to like the cories and checks out what they are up to alot. She's scared of the other girls and runs from their bitchy antics, so I will watch her for bullying. The red is Priscilla and she came home today. She's showing Lady who is prettier in one pic. More pics in following post...

 

[beckyd]

Who says only boys get tough??

And here are the drama queens of my tank. Amelia is the blue/green. Lily is the white/red. Both crowntails, both quite full of themselves. Let the hazing begin! At one point, I thought Lily was running from Amelia when Lily stopped dead and swatted Amelia hard with her tail. And everyone thinks male bettas are tough! Too bad I was playing with my still camera instead of the video.

 

[beckyd]

OK, one more. Lily and Amelia scrapping. And the last two photos are both Amelia. The first is when I got her. She was much greener. Now she is more blue and her head has turned black. She has grown about 50%larger and filled out. Apparently guppy fry are good for betta growth. Bassbonediva always says females change colors as they mature. She's right on spot!

 

[Newman]

Nice betta...
wish you best of luck with them getting along, and watch for any missing scales..

 

[bassbonediva]

Awwwww! Becky, you're makin' me miss my girls! Yours are so pretty! Your little Priscilla reminds me so much of my Victoria (the one that was mysteriously paralyzed and died shortly after I found her like that). And Lady is the same color (and size) that my Soibbhan was when I first brought her home (she later grew to be 2.5" and turned into a nice dark turquoise). Now I'm going to have to buy a new female every time I get paid (I clean an older couple's house every three weeks for $25...so, part of it is going to go into building up my sorority again).

 

[littletankbigworld]

Great pictures! I cannot wait to begin my little sorority!

 

[ValRasbora]

it is such a misconception that the betta chicks aren't as beautiful as the guys. Geez! Now I NEED to use my 10 gallon as a betta sorority!
I love that 3rd picture... the grey\red one- very cute color combo- Love it!!!

How many chicks do you have in your 10?

 

[beckyd]

Betta chicks, you crack me up LOL. My sorority is holding max capacity for a 10g, probably over, so I'll have to keep an eye on the water. 5 ladies, 3 cories, and an ADF.

Everyone seems to be doing well. Cami, the little gray/red has a little nip out of her tail. She seems the most timid, so I am not surprised. The CT drama queens seem unharmed despite the show they were putting on. I'm off this week , so its a good week for me to keep a close eye on them.

Sorry for forcing you into this Val. Bass started it...

I expected someone to ask if I was sure that Lily- the white/red CT- was a female and not a short-finned male. She really looks like one to me next to Amelia. DIfferent body shape. And the way to two of them acted kind of freaked me out. Took awhile to convince myself. Its hard to find that white dot on a white fish!

 

[beckyd]

Bass, sorry you are missing your girls. You can live vicariously through me for a little while Gotta tell ya, while the CT males are still not my favorites, the CT females are! Spunky little things!

Did your breeder female survive? Maybe you could hold off on more girls and use the tank space for the fry. Seems like there is a time between teeny and big enough to sell that you will need some room for them. Once you sell them, you will have plenty to buy more females, or just keep enough to keep you happy

 

[ValRasbora]

HAHAHA yeah eh "betta chicks" lol silly me...
well, not your fault- I'll blame bass... anyways I've been thinking about a betta sorority for a while, so I guess it's not COMPLETELY you guy's fault.
Lily is goregeous... hope I can find some beautiful "chicks" (LOL little inside joke there!) like you.
I hope Cami heals!

 

[beckyd]

Val, both of those CT females came from Petco! That same Petco had hifin platies awhile back too. I am so impressed when a chain has some less ordinary fish!

I just noticed your Canadian. How are the stores there? Do you have our chain stores?

 

[bassbonediva]

Bass, sorry you are missing your girls. You can live vicariously through me for a little while Gotta tell ya, while the CT males are still not my favorites, the CT females are! Spunky little things!

Did your breeder female survive? Maybe you could hold off on more girls and use the tank space for the fry. Seems like there is a time between teeny and big enough to sell that you will need some room for them. Once you sell them, you will have plenty to buy more females, or just keep enough to keep you happy

I fully accept the responsibility for starting the "betta chick" craze!

Yes, my breeder female survived, mainly because I hadn't put her in the big tank yet. She was languishing in her little cup until yesterday when I kicked Garrett (my little steel blue male VT) out of his 1.5gal and put her in there. My biggest issue with using the big tank for fry is that I have six platies in there, and platies (as I'm sure you're aware) are notorious fry-eaters. However, I went to feed my magnificent CT male today and he wasn't acting like his normal self, so I'm going to have to hold off the breeding for a little while to see if he bounces back (he's getting kind of old, actually). Hopefully he does, 'cuz I have another friend who wants a baby from him! lol

 

[bassbonediva]

Val, both of those CT females came from Petco! That same Petco had hifin platies awhile back too. I am so impressed when a chain has some less ordinary fish!

I just noticed your Canadian. How are the stores there? Do you have our chain stores?

I hardly ever get my bettas from Petco. I seriously don't like their selection. Although, they did have a King there yesterday that I would have snatched up if I'd had the money. Both of my CT females have come from Petsmart (were randomly shipped to the one by me, since Petsmart usually doesn't carry CT females...which was nice, 'cuz they were sold to me as VT females, which are only like $3...you pay close to $5 for CT females at Petco around here).

 

[ValRasbora]

Val, both of those CT females came from Petco! That same Petco had hifin platies awhile back too. I am so impressed when a chain has some less ordinary fish!

I just noticed your Canadian. How are the stores there? Do you have our chain stores?

well, there used to be 4 fish stores around here. 2 lfs and 2 chains. The lfs's where "Noble Aquarium" and "Getfish Aquarium" the chains where Walmart and "Pets Unlimited". Walmart fish section closed (good riddance!) and Noble Aquarium shut down (no!! )
I'm not sure if we have the same chains- Pet co and Petsmart... well not here in Moncton NB anyways. They might have some in other Canadian cities, though. The selection of fish is good (great actually), only thing is price: bristlenose plecos $20+ and harlequin rasboras can be up to $5 EACH! That's not the worst of it anyways.

 

[ValRasbora]

I'm still very impressed with those betta chick's (tee-hee) coloration. Fabulous! I can't wait for mine to get set up (as long as I don't change my mind- but I don't think thats gonna happen!)

 

[RexyTexel]

I expected someone to ask if I was sure that Lily- the white/red CT- was a female and not a short-finned male. She really looks like one to me next to Amelia. DIfferent body shape. And the way to two of them acted kind of freaked me out. Took awhile to convince myself. Its hard to find that white dot on a white fish!

Honestly though females can have all kinds of different body shapes. I have 7 females(3 different tanks) and I have very small petite CTs and some very robust female veils. The two biggest are housed together because they love to bully.

 

[bassbonediva]

Honestly though females can have all kinds of different body shapes. I have 7 females(3 different tanks) and I have very small petite CTs and some very robust female veils. The two biggest are housed together because they love to bully.

Mine were the same way, Rexy. My VTs were pretty big (about 2.5" on average) and my CT was tiny compared to them (about 1.5"-1.74"). She bullied them more than they bullied her, though.

 

[ValRasbora]

Cami, the little gray/red has a little nip out of her tail. She seems the most timid, so I am not surprised. The CT drama queens seem unharmed despite the show they were putting on. I'm off this week , so its a good week for me to keep a close eye on them.

how's cami doing?

 

[RexyTexel]

Mine were the same way, Rexy. My VTs were pretty big (about 2.5" on average) and my CT was tiny compared to them (about 1.5"-1.74"). She bullied them more than they bullied her, though.

Yeah I had to re-arrange some fish last night. My biggest female was harrassing the two albino cories in her tank. I took them out. Now they're with my other three small CT females. They can be so spunky sometimes

Both of my CT females have come from Petsmart (were randomly shipped to the one by me, since Petsmart usually doesn't carry CT females...which was nice, 'cuz they were sold to me as VT females, which are only like $3...you pay close to $5 for CT females at Petco around here).

The Petsmart I work at gets CT females in all the time. I'm the only one who really buys them, though. Everytime they come in I find them all sitting on a table in the pump room waiting for me. I actually had a customer come in that asked if we got CT females in at all and they told him yes but that their manager buys them all. lol What can I say? I like the female CTs.

 

[bassbonediva]

lol...Rexy, I had some rearranging happen today, but that's 'cuz I added some fancy guppies to the 46gal and Jane, my little VT female that was in there, went BALLISTIC! She attached herself to the tailfin of one of the males and would not let go. So, needless to say, she got transferred into a temporary 1.5gal hex with my CT female I'm conditioning for breeding.

I have gotten both my CT females at Petsmart and were very pleased with them. Our Petsmart doesn't usually carry them, but every once in a while they have one thrown in. For some strange reason, the CT females get pushed way to the back where no one can see them...I'm not complaining though. That means I get a CT female for the same price as a VT female...at other stores, they are different prices (with the CT being more).