Yikes! Advice?

[beckyd]

Thanks everybody.

I am an avid believer in retail therapy for sadness and have begun immediate treatment. So far in my period of mourning, I have liberated 2 more bettas from their 8oz cups at the lfs. I now have two male 'giants'- there will be no filter incidents with these guys. They are bruisers compared to my previous betta's body size. They are about 2" long in the body with big ole heads and supposedly they are youngsters. It'll be interesting to see how big they get. (Newman, send me some water. They'll weigh 8lbs by Christmas- inside joke) And one teeny little female crowntail. Crowntails are not my favorite, but she's a really great green color and an unattended kid had her cup sideways as he ran down the aisle hollering to his unseen mom that 'there's a fish in here!' I snatched her away from him, gave a quick lecture and figured she deserved to go away from there. The boys have their own smaller tanks, but she went into the 75g community tank. She was such fun to watch as she explored more space she has most likely ever seen. She flits around the plants, chases fry, checks out the cories, swims through the log, and generally is having a fabulous fishy time. She is smaller than my cardinal neons, so she must be young.

Thanks for all your advice on how to avoid filter issues in the future. I will take it all to heart, but for now I will enjoy my beautiful, spunky, shorter finned bettas

 

[DarkLies]

Aww, you saved the fishy!
I am amazed! It's amazing you took the fish from the kid! What was his reaction? (sorry, this part really makes me laugh =])

And what color the males?

 

[bassbonediva]

I bet your males are either dark red or dark green/blue, but they look black, eh? Your young Kings are just a little bit smaller than my fully-grown female bettas. About the female crowntail, I have one and she's an absolute doll. She's absolutely gorgeous too. Once your girl gets older, she'll have slightly longer fins than a regular veiltail female will and they'll stand up pretty much all the time. My girl is a pretty dark turquoise with red fins. I have a pic of her, but I'm too lazy ATM to share it.

 

[DarkLies]

Wow, I wish my betta was as spectacular as yours sound bass!
When you become unlazy (I have this problem too =]) you should definitely share it!!

 

[bassbonediva]

Wow, I wish my betta was as spectacular as yours sound bass!
When you become unlazy (I have this problem too =]) you should definitely share it!!

My problem is more that I'm sick than that I'm actually lazy. But, I'll find my best pic of her...
Alright, the two best I can find of her. Let me know if you can see them alright...if you can't, I can try something else.

 

[DarkLies]

Awww GORGEOUS!! I'm so jealous!!
BTW: Love the Twilight Poster in the background XD

 

[bassbonediva]

Haha! The Twilight poster came with my movie when I bought Twilight, and since I had the same poster only bigger, I decided to do something creative with it. Too bad it wouldn't stay up and got all warped. But, I couldn't have really used it on the 45gal anyway.
And thanks! Alice is one of the prettiest crowntail females I've seen. Unfortunately, she's not feeling great right now for some unknown reason.

 

[beckyd]

Oh Bass, the names of your bettas is hilarious! They are very pretty fish. I would really like to add more females to my community tank, but have not had good luck with it in the past. Maybe starting with a younger female will be better for me. She sure seems happy in there. Right now, she endlessly chases fry she cannot catch. I hope she gets over that or she'll wear herself out. I took some pics of her last night. I wanted to remember how little she was when I got her.

Darklies- glad you're amused by my fish-snatching antics. I didn't even hesitate when I realized that brat had a betta cup in his hand, water sloshing out that little hole in the top. The look on his face was really quite priceless, his mouth actually dropped open. I gave him a glare and told him you cannot treat any animal like that. You'll scare her to death. And asked "How would you feel if you were watching TV on your couch and suddenly a giant grabbed your house, tipped it sideways, and ran around with it, shaking it all up?" With that, I glanced at her cup, put it on top of the one I already had and walked away.

My giants are blue with a red iridescence- he looks purple. And the other one is black with a slight blue iridescence. I'm interested in seeing how he photographs. He looks black, but the flash is going to make the blue stand out, I think. The blue one will get huge if his appetite is any indicator. The black is the finickiest eater I have owned. We'll see.

I don't have pics of the boys yet, but here is Amelia's.

 

[DarkLies]

Wow, Becky...those pics are GORGEOUS!!
And I wish I was able to tell people stuff like that..though if it was a kid, I'd probably do it.

 

[bassbonediva]

Oh Bass, the names of your bettas is hilarious! They are very pretty fish. I would really like to add more females to my community tank, but have not had good luck with it in the past. Maybe starting with a younger female will be better for me. She sure seems happy in there. Right now, she endlessly chases fry she cannot catch. I hope she gets over that or she'll wear herself out. I took some pics of her last night. I wanted to remember how little she was when I got her.

Thanks, Becky. Amelia is gorgeous! She could be a twin for my Jane, except that Jane is a veiltail, not a crowntail. I was surprised to see such tiny females when I went to Petco! Petsmart's females are still bigger, about 1.5-2" in general, but Petco has little tiny things. I got Jane and Victoria there and they were both the size of my otos when i got them.
This is Jane:

 

[Newman]

LOL!
yea becky, ill be sure to send you some fish growth horm- i mean water....

Very nice bettas everyone
If only mine were as healthy and as happy as that lol.
ive seen some nice king bettas at petco too but they were huge over 3" and i guess were at the end of their lives
i made sure i got a small female, so im guessing the smaller they are the younger they are at petco. so petsmart females must be much older.
I'ma open up a betta thread in the photography forum soon, so we can all share our pics

 

[beckyd]

Oh fun! I'm going to look for it.

 

[Doomhed]

Undergravel filters trap all debris under the filter plates and over time cam cause major water issues, 20yrs ago I thought they were the best thing in the world until I cleaned the tanks and found all the crap that has settled at the bottom. This isnt the first time I have heard of this happening to a betta, it isnt the fins that cause the problem as much as the filter suction is to strong for the betta to swim out of. Your best bet would be a small sponge filter.

The only time this isn't a problem is when you use the undergravel rack+tube AS the feeder for a HOB filter. It makes it so even your tiniest fishes cannot get caught, and the rack provides a location for roots of your plants. Also all the wastes from your fishes will be pooled around, guess what, the roots of your plants. Seems like a match made in heaven, yes?

I used to have a 38 Hex with this setup and its plants were AMAZING. I had a breeding trio of blood parrots, then a breeding pair of angels and later a massive school of platies.

 

[littletankbigworld]

Awww! Sorry to hear that. One of my guppies was sucked into the filter. He didn't survive, unfortunately. Best of luck!

 

[littletankbigworld]

I agree. A sponge filter sounds great. Until then, slip the toe end of a pair of panty-hose over the filter so that no more fish are hurt.

 

[beckyd]

Hmm, I want to figure out how to set up the undergravel-tube/HOB Doomhed had. Is it just in the positioning? Do the tubes fit together right? I love this idea!