#i think he’s a veiltail but i’m not sure | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

agapaic · 3 years ago

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[19 days] whiplash [ch. 365 after-shot]

The shop will be closing soon. He’s seen an attendant wandering around, who will probably ask him to leave in the next five minutes. There’s no one else here. His clothes are vivid against the neon glow of the tanks. The fish cast strange shadows on his shirt, living out a second life on his skin.

They swim in half-circles before sharply changing direction, never touching the glass. He wonders if they know it’s there, as if they can sense some immovable wall that holds them back.

He’s not getting deep about this. He could contemplate, quite extensively, about how their freedom must be bought by some higher power, and they would really only go from one tank to the next, slightly bigger, slightly richer. It’s all fake shit, and he remembers that in some ways he’s got it better than an animal. He can, at least, run away. Maybe he won’t get far. Just to the edges of the city villages where he’ll get a job earning less than before and lose his place in school.

Guan Shan puts a finger on the glass in front of him. There’s a label in the corner, peeling away from the glass. Veiltail goldfish. They have wispy, membrane-like tails. He could put his hand on the other side and see all the way through. Guan Shan watches the only black fish in the tank move placidly through the water.

Beneath the label, a smaller one: Black moor. For a minute he considers tugging the label off and putting it in his pocket, a little secret. He remembers that would be stealing, in some way, and someone in the shop would have to go to the effort of printing and laminating and reapplying the label just for one fish.

Guan Shan turns away.

He wanders for a few more minutes. He’s aware of his reflection in the glass. He worries about how long the attendant will let him stay there, and the thought that they will make him leave makes him feel slightly sick. He likes it here—the quiet, the muted hum of the tanks, the strange lights. They make him feel somewhere else.

His mother is working the night shift and won’t be home until just before he’s meant to go to school the next morning. They’ll have long enough together that he could tell her he got fired from the shop, but not long enough that he could reasonably pretend to have forgotten as he tugs on his uniform and slips out the front door.

She won’t be mad—she never is.

She can’t take on another shift.

Mentally, he has started taking stock. His Xbox is a few years old, but he’ll get something for it. He has a stack of old music magazines from his dad that could catch the eye of a collector. His computer, maybe.

The earrings.

His stomach twists.

Really, it’s not much. It’ll earn them a month, which could be just long enough for him to get another job, but what’s the likelihood of that in a city where most kids are just trying to bulk their CV’s for their college applications. Besides, his grades speak for themselves. He got lucky with the shop, and lightning doesn’t strike twice.

‘Hey, kid. We’re closing soon, so unless you wanna buy something…’

Guan Shan nods. His shoulders round.

For no logical reason, he says: ‘Can I take a goldfish?’

‘Sure. The black moor? Saw you had your eye on that one.’

‘No, one of the others.’

The attendant comes up next to him. ‘Just the one? They don’t like being on their own, you know.’

He presses his jaw tightly. A small sound comes out of him. He looks at the price tag and is somehow shocked and saddened to see the figure so low.

‘Fine,’ he says. ‘The black one, too, I guess.’

He pays, then leaves. It’s late enough that the streets are quieter than he expected. He’s usually home by now, his shift over, reheating leftovers while he works on his homework. He stands there while the shop attendant locks up behind him, holding the plastic bag with two fish in his hand. He feels stupid. Behind his eyes, he can feel a sort of stinging sensation.

He has the unnameable urge to grab one of the passing strangers and tell them how he’s feeling, what has happened, what could happen. On some level he knows that everyone has their own problems, and he’s not the type of person to overstep his bounds. Instead, he watches them pass, and after a few more minutes he goes to the nearest subway station and gets the train home.

He had half expected He Tian to find him on the street. He’d imagined it, He Tian catching his arm as he wandered from store to store, deliberating at large windows with thin mannequins and expensive jewellery without price tags. There is a part of him that’s disappointed that it didn’t play out like this, a part of him that is even angrier to find He Tian sitting in the stairwell of his apartment when he eventually does get home.

It’s close to midnight, and the stairwell is clinically quiet. Outside, the stars are dusty and covered in a thin layer of smog that is less noticeable in the day. He Tian looks exhausted. He’s the type of good looking where even the slightest imperfection somehow makes him even more attractive. Guan Shan hates it.

He stands when Guan Shan walks in, suddenly filling the space, and Guan Shan says, ‘Get outta my way.’

‘Where have you been?’

Guan Shan shoulders past him. There’s a moment where he thinks He Tian will grab him around the shoulders, the air around him simmering enough that Guan Shan is convinced it’s a near thing, choking with danger, but he lets him pass. He follows Guan Shan up the staircase, his footsteps silent, his body casting long shadows on the steps where Guan Shan sets his feet.

At the door, Guan Shan pockets the notice that’s taped there, knowing He Tian has already seen it. Less sharply, he picks up the notes in He Tian’s and Jian Yi’s writing and folds them into careful squares.

‘You’re not comin’ in,’ he says.

‘I called you, like, fifty times. Did you block me?’

Guan Shan thinks He Tian sounds angrier than he really has a right to be. He turns and presses his back to the door. He has his keys clenched tightly in a closed fist.

‘Yeah. I didn’t want to talk to you. I thought you would’ve gotten that.’

‘I can get you another job. Something better paid.’

‘You’re so fuckin’ clueless.’

He Tian’s eyes tighten.

‘You’re ruining my life,’ says Guan Shan.

‘That’s—that isn’t true. I’ve helped you. You would’ve been expelled if—’

‘Maybe I would’ve gotten expelled. But I wouldn’t have had She Li on my dick all the time, would I? Wouldn’t need you to get me a job ‘cause you made me lose my last one, would I? You’re just—stickin’ a bandage on shit when you hurt me first.’

‘It’s not always like that. Don’t make it sound like it’s always like that.’

Guan Shan shakes his head. ‘I want you to go. I told you I didn’t want to see you again. Fuck off.’

He Tian says, ‘Let me pay what was on the door.’

‘Fuck off.’

He Tian doesn’t move and Guan Shan squeezes his eyes shut. He’s going to cry again, the frustration bubbling sourly in the back of his throat. He doesn’t trust himself to open the door while He Tian is still here because he knows he’ll probably let him in.

‘Do I really make you feel like a failure?’

Guan Shan rubs at his eyes with his fist. His voice comes hoarse and thick: ‘I am a failure. Bein’ around you just makes it so much more fuckin’ obvious.’

He doesn’t want He Tian’s pity when he says this, or his reassurance. He’s just being honest. Saying it out loud is kind of breathlessly relieving. He couldn’t say something like that to his mother, or any of the teachers at school. He couldn’t say it to Grey, who he’s known for years. He Tian knows more about him than anyone. It’s a terrifying thought.

If they never see each other again, will He Tian tell everyone the things Guan Shan has told him? About the restaurant and his dad, or about She Li and the things Guan Shan has let him do to him? He feels vulnerable and sick thinking about it, completely powerless, as he does a lot of the time when he’s around He Tian.

He oscillates between that feeling of uselessness and the feeling of being so empowered that he thinks it must be what being high or drunk feels like. That latter has him trusting his own convictions, having an unadulterated faith in himself like jumping from a bridge and thinking he might just fly—so long as He Tian is with him. He doesn’t like how it’s one or the other, empowered or powerless, and rarely anything in between. He’s heard adults on TV talking about being codependent, pulled punishingly into each other's orbit, and he wonders if this is the same thing.

In the end he supposes it doesn’t really matter. So what if He Tian tells everyone? Probably, he won’t see the rest of the year out at school. He’ll get a job on a different side of the city and no one will hear from him ever again. The embarrassment will all be internal and will only last a week or two. Then life will move on. He wishes he were older and wiser and better at believing this. He wishes it didn’t feel like the universe might fall out from beneath him.

‘Doesn’t matter what I do, it turns to shit,’ he tells He Tian. ‘No matter how hard I work, I’m never gonna earn enough. I can spend three hours studyin’ for a test and still come last. If it isn’t She Li, then it’ll be someone else. I just—I can’t catch a fuckin’ break, He Tian. But you do somethin’ and you come first every time. Life’s so easy for you.’

He Tian shifts from side to side. ‘Do you think things wouldn’t feel so hard if you stopped focussing on what you think my life is like?’

‘You’re pissin’ me off.’

‘I don’t know how I’m meant to help you. You won’t let me give you money. It’s like pulling teeth from you just trying to know what’s going on with you. What are you so fucking afraid of?’

‘I never asked for your help.’

‘You shouldn’t have to—that’s why we’re friends.’

‘I never said I wanted to be your friend.’

He Tian frowns, his look very serious. He isn’t teasing tonight. Neither is Guan Shan. There is the sense that their interactions are always anything but teasing, really, some dark undercurrent that runs between the two of them like dark veins.

He Tian says, ‘Are those fish?’

For a moment Guan Shan thinks he’s joking, deflecting wildly to distract from the seriousness of what Guan Shan has just said. Then he feels the crinkle of a plastic bag in his hand and, remembering how he’d just spent the last few hours, nearly drops the two goldfish onto the floor.

‘Yeah,’ he says.

‘You don’t have a tank.’

‘Yeah, no. I don’t know why I bought them.’

He Tian hesitates. There is a curious, predictable gleam in his eyes. ‘Red and black?’

‘It’s all they had left at the store.’

He Tian is looking intently at the bag. ‘Do you remember when we went to the aquarium? And you said I wasn’t someone you could forget?’

‘I just meant that—’

‘I know what you meant. But I always pretend like you meant it the other way.’

Guan Shan thinks, Don’t you think things would be easier if you stopped focusing on what you want me to mean and what I actually mean?

Instead of saying anything, he looks down at his sneakers. They’re scuffed and starting to rip at the seams. The thought of having to buy new ones makes him panic and the thought of buying a pair of second-hand ones online makes him panic even more. There’s no shame in it, but the thought of wearing someone else’s clothes makes him feel strange, especially when he knows He Tian could buy fifty pairs without blinking.

Guan Shan considers that thought and replays what He Tian has just said about focusing on his life too much more than his own. Maybe part of that is true.

Before He Tian, did he always feel things so intensely? Did the bad always feel so fucking awful? He knows that things were mechanical, and he was mean and didn’t think much about other people in particularly nice ways. He knows he didn’t laugh much then, or have dinners and sleepovers with friends. He knows everything hurt on a distant, muted level that was easy to ignore. Not much time has passed since then, and he reasons that nothing about him has probably changed, just everything else around him.

‘I can’t understand why you won’t let me help you,’ says He Tian, when the silence has stretched too long.

‘Because I’ll get used to it.’

He Tian frowns, not understanding.

‘One day, you’re not gonna be around. And I’ll be fucked.’

‘I’ll always be there for you.’

‘You don’t know that. People say that a lot and then they disappear or get taken away, even if they didn’t want to.’

It’s obvious they’re talking about his dad, but it feels safer to talk about things in vague, subjective conversation. Maybe things would be easier if they talked openly about things and didn’t use metaphors and hypotheticals. As it is, Guan Shan doesn’t feel ready to try the alternative. He is conscious of the fact that this feels like a conversation. They are passing words back and forth that hold meaning and neither of them has touched the other yet. It feels new and fragile as an oil painting, still wet, and so he doesn’t let himself think about this for long.

‘I think you’re getting this wrong,’ says He Tian. ‘I’m not asking you to rely on me. Obviously, I’d kind of like that. I like the thought of you needing me, and I know that says something about me. But—I’m just asking you to let me help you. Just here and there, no strings.’

Guan Shan rubs his forehead with the back of his knuckles. His keys are starting to pinch his skin and he can feel a headache starting to surface.

‘I’m tired,’ he says. ‘I actually do want you to go.’

He Tian’s jaw clenches and he breathes out heavily through his nose. He’s probably thinking he’s wasted his time.

‘Okay,’ he says then. ‘But we’re not done.’

A new wave of exhaustion comes over Guan Shan, crippling and final. He wants to get into bed with his skin against cold sheets and sleep for twelve hours without waking once.

‘You’re not the only one that ever gets to decide that,’ he tells He Tian, a little sharply. ‘You’ve gotta learn to let people go.’

‘But what if I know I can help them?’ says He Tian. ‘If I don’t, I’ve just—failed.’

They look at each other.

A minute stretches into an eternity that could be seconds or hours, and everything has gone backwards. Everything is the same.

Guan Shan can’t put his finger on what has just happened, but he feels like laughing. Their fears are twinned, self-perpetuating, some kind of ouroboros chasing its tail. Who will get caught first?

They both seem to take in a breath at the same time, and He Tian takes a step back.

‘Goodnight,’ he says.

Guan Shan nods. He waits for He Tian’s retreating back to disappear a few flights down before opening the door to his apartment, and shuts it swiftly behind him.

There’s a knock at the door while he’s brushing his teeth. The fish are swimming placidly in their bag on the edge of the bathroom sink. It’s past one, and he keeps all the lights off because his eyes are feeling sore. He’s adjusted to the dim glow that comes from street lamps seeping through the curtains, the blink of the timer on the electric stove, his Xbox gleaming in his bedroom. His mother shouldn’t be home yet and she has her own set of keys.

With a sinking heart, Guan Shan pictures his landlord demanding payment.

Worse, he pictures He Tian. Before He Tian left, they’d resolved nothing. It feels like being back to square one, chasing each other around a chess board. It fills him with a vast emptiness that makes him feel like he’s existing outside of himself, waiting for someone else to take over.

He pads silently towards the front door, his toothbrush jammed into his cheek, and peers through the viewer. There’s toothpaste dripping down his chin. In the hall, there’s no one there. He’s half-convinced he imagined it. He counts to ten before he opens the door, steps out—and his foot connects with something hard. There is a cardboard box sitting on the welcome mat.

Guan Shan peers around. The light in the stairwell is artificially bright. He kneels down and opens the tabs on the box, which hasn’t been taped. He swallows.

For the fish, says the note on the second box, nestled inside the first. Careful, it’s fragile.

Guan Shan rubs the heel of a palm into his right eye. He sighs. Then he reaches out, braces himself, and picks up the tank. He carries it into his apartment, and the door locks behind him.

thank you for reading! if you’d like to support me on my ko-fi/request a short drabble, you can do so here: https://ko-fi.com/agapaic 💞

#19 days #tianshan #old xian #he tian #mo guan shan #my fanfic #sorry for errors - it's late but i couldn't get this out my head

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aquariumadventures · 5 years ago

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I feel bad that I just euthanized my sick betta yesterday and I’m already considering replacing him (I mean I knew it was coming so it wasn’t a surprise, but... still.) But I am, idk. His tank was just a 5 gallon but for some reason it’s by far my easiest tank to maintain, so even though downsizing because I’m moving soon might be a necessity and is probably a good idea, I don’t know that that’s a tank I’d want to get rid of, so it might make sense to not tear it down and keep something in it?

I wasn’t sure about getting domestic bettas again, since I had quite a few problems with this betta common in problematically bred fish, like fin biting and tumors and this latest illness that I think was tumor related that just progressed to where he couldn’t swallow anymore. But then again my other betta from my LFS is still doing really well at 2+ years, and I know they are especially selective about breeders. So I think I can trust them to have the healthiest domestics there are, especially if I got a veiltail or even a plakat.

Plus while I’d love to do wild bettas I think the only one I could keep in a 5 gallon while using 7.4 pH tap water would be Mahachai, and I can’t find anywhere where I can buy just one or buy domestically, because I’m not dealing with the whole transhipper expense.

SO idk, maybe I will do a domestic betta again?

#betta #bettablr #fishblr #i'm about definitely selling my 29 before i move #because a lot of places have a 10 and under limit for fish tanks and all my others are 10 and under #also it's just never worked out to be the tank i wanted it to be so while i love it it is absolutely the easiest to part with #though if I didn't move something else it'd probably be better to also sell my 2 10s than my 5?#i mean i love my 10s #but they're like 4x the work (put together) than the 5 is #the 5 is like #less than 15 minutes to do a 40 percent water change and squeeze out the filters #and it's at a perfect height that is easier on my back than a lot of my other tanks when i deep clean it #and the plants vs fish/invert bioload just works #so IDK #maybe i should see what my LFS has in the way of domestic bettas

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lokilicious-hiddles · 6 years ago

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Does anyone have betta fish? I need help. Advice!

My betta tore like half his tail/fin off some how and I’m not sure what I can do to help him grow it back or heal. I think he is a Veiltail Betta and so his fins are very long and thin. I just want to help him feel better. Please let me know!

#betta #betta fish #care

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lex-artis-studios · 6 years ago

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Betta baby update

Juggernaut, the biggest, is now what I'd consider 'young adult' size. He's a steel blue veiltail, looks like he was trying to be a bicolor but he wouldn't be winning any shows. Also he's almost definitely a he, given that he's started flaring and wiggledancing at his heater. I've jarred five other babies, all royal blue veiltails. A couple unfortunately did not develop ventral fins--been looking into the cause of this aaaand it looks like nobody really knows, everyone has their own theory and they often contradict one another, so I'm not sure what to do other than what I've been doing (daily water changes, keeping the tanks as clean as possible, feeding a variety of foods, etc). Anyway, the ventral-finless babies seem perfectly happy otherwise. Not sure on the sexes of these five, I'm thinking that two (I numbered them 1803 and 1804) are male and 1802 is female, no guesses for 1805 and 1806 yet. Will have a few more to jar this weekend from the 'big baby' tank! This has been very exciting, my first betta spawn I've raised to adulthood! Been a lot of work, and I already know some things to do differently next time to hopefully get more of them to adults. Currently I'm hoping to get a good royal blue female from this bunch to breed to Scherzo, to see if I can get some butterflies like him with stronger color. But I doubt I'll do that until the end of this year, or even next year. This was a lot of work and I'll need a break after I get these ones off to new homes!

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plantanarchy · 7 years ago

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so I saw @drowsymanatee‘s fish timeline and saw a few other people do theirs as well and since I have a similar “started from the bottom” type timeline, here we go

Under a cut because large images lol

Age 5+

My first childhood fish and first real pet was a comet goldfish won at a fair when I was very young. Obviously the care was mostly in the hands of my mom and she did decently well for the fish, I think. At first, he lived in a small one gallon tank with another goldfish and a bunch of guppies (not the fancy kind... just regular guppies). I have a picture of that somewhere but can’t seem to find it currently. But eventually, he got moved into a 55 gallon with various other goldfish and it turned out he was actually a decently fancy veiltail and he turned completely white and lived ~8 years and maxed at ~8 inches long in the body, nearly a foot with his tail included. He should have been in a pond and the tank was way overstocked with fancies and single tails with nowhere near enough filtration.

Age ~12?

I also had a fish that was “mine” for a while who lived in a 10 gallon tank outside my bedroom that I called “Neighbor Fish” that I think was actually a silver dollar. My mom had tried to set up a tropical community with fish her friend didn’t want anymore and Neighbor Fish was an asshole to the other fish (I don’t blame him) so got separated and lived in the 10 gallon until his heater malfunctioned one day and cooked him. No pictures but I technically was in charge of him for a while and would feed him (but didn’t do water changes) Poor dude.

Age 19

In the beginning of my sophomore year at college, my ex and I decided to get two betta fish together. We kept them in one of those terrible 1/2 gallon “tanks”. They were named Michael and Lucifer because we thought we were clever lol

My suitemate who kept a betta in a heated, filtered 5 gallon told me it wouldn’t work longterm and I’d need a heater at least, so I got one of those but didn’t get a bigger tank. Yeah, needless to say, Lucifer passed within a month and Michael looked like this:

He clearly has fin rot in this picture and is underweight, stress stripey and just awful looking but I had no clue. I was distracted by my friends and by my relationship and I did do a 100% water change every week or so, but mostly I didn’t pay attention to Michael at all... eventually, I got him an “upgrade” into a 1 gallon tank with a bubbler from Petco that was on sale... and then second semester sophomore year, my friend went abroad, my ex was busy with rushing a frat and I had more free time... and that’s when the special interest level of fish research began.

First “real” tank, February 2014

I upgraded Michael to a heated, filtered 2.5 gallon after reading a lot on betta forums. I was taking a break from tumblr at the time but I eventually came back on tumblr that summer and discovered fishblr.

Soon, Michael looked like this:

I was really getting fond of him and the difference was incredible.

Second tank, March 2014

Within a month I got a 5.5 gallon tank and a second betta named Kaiju. It was hideous and had bright blue gravel and didn’t have a lid for a long time.

First divider attempt, 3rd fish

So yeah, like an idiot, I tried to divide the 5.5 gallon tank with a craft mesh divider. Didn’t go so well, both fish were very stressed and I returned my third fish, Kenway, but actually went back and rebought him a few weeks later.

And promptly panicked thinking my parents would hate me for having three fish tanks (lol in retrospect this is hilarious), so Kenway lived with my boyfriend for the summer and got less than stellar care.

Third tank, 4th fish

So as soon as I got home for the summer, I promptly got a third fish anyway... I had never seen a plakat betta in person before and the majority of fish I’d seen were not that interesting color-wise either and Odysssey was just... a dream. He lived in a 1.5 gallon Tetra cube which I actually really liked the look of... but was far too small.

Also, Kaiju got sand and a lid and his tank looked no longer super awful except it turned out the sand I got was too fine and developed some wicked anaerobic bacteria smell and it was awful. I replaced it with black sand within a few months lol

Age 20, Junior Year 2014-15

So I went back to school with three fish, plus Kenway who I took back not long after coming back. Michael passed in September and not long after, I got my first female betta, Wyn.

These were my tanks at this point:

And Wyn, when I first got her:

Divided 10, January 2015

So I found a $5 ten gallon at Good Will over winter break and divided Wyn and Odyssey (which was dumb) with a DIY mesh divider (which was not safe) and lit it with an under cabinet light ducktaped to the wall (which looked hideous holy shit)

Second divided 10 gallon

Found a $15 10 gallon with an Aquaclear filter (my first HOB) and a hood so I upgraded Kenway and Kaiju to an equally unsafe and ugly divided 10 but at least it was slightly less ugly.

Then, that summer I took all my fish on an 8 hour road trip to NJ to be babysat by roommate while I was in Europe? I’m not sure why that was necessary but ok

First single betta 10 gallon, July 2015

About a month after returning from Europe, Odyssey unfortunately passed away. I decided to keep Wyn by herself in the 10 gallon because she loved the space so much. And I got an actual light. Wyn had grown into a beautiful lady fish and she was the best and most precious thing in the world to me.

No more divided tanks, Octoberish 2015 idk

Kaiju developed a tumor sometime in the beginning of my senior year of college and as his swimming began to deteriorate, I moved him into his own 10 gallon. Despite his tumor, he actually outlived Wyn, who passed unexpectedly after a year and one month with her.

Kaiju just before I put him to sleep:

And my Wyn’s resting place:

I cried for days after Wyn passed and didn’t really want much to do with the hobby. I still had Kenway but mostly just maintained his tank and didn’t do much with him. He was pretty slowed down by his big fins and was going blind.

Age 21, February 2016

After a few months, I brought home Durriyah, a new lady betta and put her in a HIDEOUS 10 gallon by herself ft. return of the awful blue gravel

Age 22, still 2016

I graduated and came home with two bettas in 10 gallon tanks. Towards the end of the summer, Kenway passed away, and I got Zazzle. And then a month later impulse bought Buzz and set up the third 10 gallon and got a rack. My ability to not make tanks look like garbage had improved significantly.

March 2017, Planted, Community Tank and Exponential Tank Increase Begins

So this is getting long as fuck but ok, in March I got ~employed~ so decided I had money for trying out planted tanks. Bad mistake, 10/10 do not recommend for the sake of your wallet. I also got into a bunch of fish Youtubers and tried out some DIY shit and became way more present in fishblr but also branched out more

I also added a small school of 8 ember tetras in my 10 gallon tank with Zazzle

They did pretty well together!

One month later (after some rearranging and some plant death)

20gal community, May?? Idk what is time

So then the next big fish thing was my decision to upgrade the planted 10 to a 20 and start an actual tropical community.

Planted 20 when first set up:

Most recent picture of the planted 20 ft. dwarf gourami, harlequin rasboras, ember tetras, and horned nerites. I am very proud of this tank today and though I’m currently dealing with some illness and lots of algae, it is eons better than my beginnings.

Some other stuff happened with my tanks within there but all that feels too recent to really talk about. Currently I have six bettas and 8 tanks overall. I continue to learn constantly, especially about plants, filtration, and fish illness. My fish opinions have changed SO MUCH since I was a wee baby betta blog back in 2014 it’s ridiculous... and I thought I knew shit back then and would attempt to give advice like a dumbass.

Important fish thing to remember: you are ALWAYS LEARNING ALWAYS. There is always something you don’t know or haven’t encountered. Most of the advice you’ve heard/give others will turn out to be bogus. RESEARCH ALWAYS.

And it’s also ok if your tanks are hideous because pretty tanks can be very very expensive and I feel you, I was cheap as fuck for a long time. Your fish doesn’t care that you have rainbow puke gravel and ugly tattered plants. Your fish just want food and clean water and not much else.

Take risks, do your research, and branch out. Keep what you love, not what other people love. My favorite tank by far is my snail tank full of pest snails lol My favorite fish is my ugly, plain looking female who hides 99% of the time. I have been keeping fish for over four years and have made MANY mistakes and had a lot of ugly tanks and setbacks and times I almost quit.

I have spilled a lot of water on stuff I shouldn’t have spilled water on. I have ended up with lots of sand in my bed and on my floor. I have gone through more towels than you can believe and blown a lot A LOT of money on nice pieces of wood and weird sponges and rocks. I can no longer sleep without the sound of a whole bunch of air pumps and filters. I wouldn’t trade any of it, even though I started off a bit rocky and almost quit after losing Wyn and would have way more surfaces and more money if I didn’t have fish. I can’t even imagine it though. My fish got me through a bunch of rough patches in college and tank maintenance has both caused me a lot of stress and eased my anxiety at the same time.

Whew this is long please do not read this whole thing lawd

#fishblr #fish timeline

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aquariumadventures · 5 years ago

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I’m sorry your betta is struggling and that the person you trusted to take care of him didn’t!

It can be really hard to tell the difference between fin rot and fin biting. The first picture shows black edges to his tail which are characteristic of finrot, but the second looks maybe more like fin biting, since it’s unevenly missing?

Recently a veiltail betta I acquired had finrot that I couldn’t seem to eradicate with IALs and water changes alone. I did two back to back rounds of API tri-sulfa treatment, as well as fresh IALs in the tank before, during and after treatment. If you do need to treat for finrot, I think tri-sulfa is one of if not the the best meds for finrot out there, BUT be sure to keep up with the water change schedule on the box and it’s best to run activated carbon at the end of treatment to remove all the meds. I think it can mess with the tank cycle as well? I always forget which meds do, I’ve never had an issue with tri-sulfa messing with the cycle of my tank but I always do extra water tests anyway just in case there are any ammonia spikes for any reason during or right after treatment.

(this is what he looked like before treatment, I don’t actually have a closeup of his fins after, but they’re full and have lost the black edges. He also has more energy and doesn’t generally have his fins droop the way they did when he was sick.)

Tank size and water parameters are very important, as well as temperature! Bettas will recover best in tanks 5 gallons or more with clean water that is 0/0/~10 for ammonia/nitrite/nitrates, and at temperatures between 78-82F. There’s a lot of debate about pH tolerance with domestic bettas, but I’d generally recommend anything 7.5 or lower is okay as long as it’s steady, though slightly acidic is preferred.

If it is fin biting:

I had a halfmoon I thought had finrot, but he actually was biting his fins. It’s also possible for bettas to have both- fin nipping can lead to finrot in less than perfect water conditions.

I was sure that guy above had fin rot because I never actually saw him biting at his fins, except that I noticed it was only the fins he could reach to bite that seemed affected by the fin rot. One day I came out to the tank and found an entire section of his tail just laying on the bottom of the tank (usually they dissolve fast and are hard to find,) and it was clear he was biting his fins. I swear I used to have a picture, but I can’t find it, annoyingly.

(also for reference in case it’s not obvious how much tail he bit off that guy was a halfmoon! with a full tail! he’s supposed to look like this:)

Fin rot generally has the black edges, it looks like the fin is being burned away, whereas fin biting is less even across the fins and the edges are usually the regular fin color, but often jagged.

Treating fin biting is harder because the real problem is generally that they feel their fins are too heavy, but there are some things that help. Betta hammocks and/or floating logs are great so they can rest near the surface even when their fins are fatigued. Lowering the water line can also help, so they don’t have to go as far to breathe at the surface, especially if your tank is taller rather than wider.

Sometimes they bite because they’re bored, so switching the tank scape around can help too (as well as just adding things like hammocks or logs, if they’re new for the fish.) My guy stopped biting his fins when I rearranged his tank. I don’t remember what all I did, I think I just added some floating plants and switched things around like putting the filter/heater in different spots and reversing the sides the hammock and log were on. It wasn’t a total rescape, but apparently enough to interest a betta.

I definitely do recommend the NLS pellets! I feed NLS and have always been happy with the quality. I’ve heard good things about omega one too. Dried bloodworms don’t have much nutritional value for bettas and should only be occasional treats, but are great treats because they do tend to love them. Frozen bloodworms can also be great if you have access to those, as well as frozen brine shrimp. Some people feed bettas frozen daphnia as well, but mine have never been fans of those.

I’ve been out of the betta facebook groups for a while, but I think the thinking is still that feeding small amounts 2x a day 5-6 days a week, and fasting for 1 or 2 (nonconsecutive if possible) days, is best if that’s something you can do. I usually feed my betta 3 of the little NLS pellets 2x a day most days, except for one day a week when I either feed live grindal worms or frozen bloodworms, and another day when I don’t feed at all.

I don’t know if any of that info was helpful to you, but hopefully at least some of it was! Good luck with him, I hope he starts recovering for you soon!

Hi. So I'm not really in the fish community on tumblr but I really love everyone's posts and i need some help and advice.

For all of October, I had to take a trip out of the country and left my betta, Puka, in the care of my mom's ex. I had him for about a year at that time. I was already struggling with curing his fin rot at that time too.

When I came back home, my mom's ex did not take care of him as promised. The tank was dirty and it was evident he hadn't changed the water at all, Puka was sluggish and almost his entire tail was gone. I changed his water as soon as i could.

Puka's tail has still not shown any signs of regrowth as of January. I'm really worried... he's very active, swims around and follows me a lot, but his tail hasn't been getting any better and I'm at a loss.

His 5 gallon tank is cycled, he has a heater + filter w/ low flow, he only has some live anubias and a little hidey pot in his tank. I bought Indian Almond Leaves and I've been putting a few in his tank/changing them out every week. I do a 50% water change 3 times a week.

I've tried putting in kanaplex but I don't want to overdose/am unsure if he still has fin rot (because he's VERY active). I would really appreciate any advice on how to help his tail regrow...

Here is a picture of when I had him for ~2 months compared to him now. It really hurts me seeing him like this.

Some more info: the black at the end of his tail i always assumed was coloration. His colors got brighter and much darker after he spent some time in his new tank and the black part got darker as well, but now im doubting myself and I'm unsure if it's fin rot....

He used to make big big bubble nests but he doesnt do that anymore.

I feed him tetra betta pellets and dried bloodworms but im thinking about changing the pellets to new life spectrum since ive heard good stuff about them...

#i'm not sure how tri-sulfa compares to sulfaplex by seachem but that would probably be my second choice fin rot med #i almost bought it to save on shipping when i last ran out of tri-sulfa but then went with tri-sulfa again #betta

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milesbeardworth · 8 years ago

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Treating Separation-Related Fin Biting in Domestic Bettas

I have recently been talking with @oliviner about our experiences with domestic bettas and separation anxiety, and put together a post summarizing some of the things I have done over the years to treat my bettas that I believe have bitten their fins and suffered other symptoms characteristic of separation anxiety.

I am sometimes met with skepticism when I bring up this topic, but I think people often forget that bettas are a domesticated animal species and that being domesticated is inherently a process that changes the way a species relates to and behaves around humans. In my eyes, a betta fish having separation anxiety is just as plausible a scenario as it is for a dog or a cat.

Interestingly, with this sort of fin biting, tail type seems to have little to do with the behavior. I have had veiltails, crowntails, halfmoons, even plakats and one female betta fish bite their fins for this reason.

It’s true that most of what is out there on the topic of separation anxiety is dog-centric. I spent the majority of my Canine Training and Animal Behavior/Welfare classes a few years back adapting what we went over to my bettas and other aquarium fishes, despite rarely ever actually talking about fishes in class. Just like in training, all the same concepts do work here, they just sometimes have to be applied slightly differently. Taking those classes was when I first started to really see the parallels in behavior and symptoms between canine separation anxiety and what I have observed in my own fishes, and started trying to figure out how I could adapt existing treatments to be used with my bettas. I am in no way a veterinarian, but without access to a professional to consult on the matter, these are the methods I have come up with myself and found to be most effective.

I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but it is a subject that is difficult to explain (at least for me) without going in to some amount of detail.

General things to help with separation anxiety:

Changing your departure routine

A few years back I realized that every time I left the house, I sat down and put my shoes on right in front of Puck’s tank. I thought I was doing a good thing by spending time with him before I left, but the opposite was actually true. This potentially could have made his condition worse, as he came to associate me putting on my shoes with me leaving, and he may also have started getting into that stressed state as soon as he saw me sit down to put my shoes on.

You can change up what you do before you leave the room your fish is in, and you can also practice doing things that are associated with you leaving (such as putting shoes on, in Puck’s case) without actually leaving, thus breaking the association between that behavior and your departure.

Making hellos and goodbyes calm and brief

I try to keep things simple and somewhat detached when I am about to leave the room. I drop in food or turn on videos for Duo, but don’t sit in front of or interact with him before I leave. I do the same thing when I come home; I will give him a small wave, let him know I’m back and that I see him, but I will not go sit down with him until at least 10 minutes have passed since I returned. This helps keep from unintentionally reinforcing the anxiety/fin biting, by not giving your fish excessive attention as soon as you return.

Giving noncontingent reinforcement (using social interaction/attention as the reinforcer)

Noncontingent means that the reinforcement is given regardless of whether or not the animal performs a desired behavior. In this case, it means giving attention to your fish regardless of what they are doing at that moment. With one of my past bettas Phoenix, I found that having fixed periods of time throughout the day in which I would sit and give him attention regardless of anything else that was going on or that he was doing, really helped to reduce his fin biting.

Training a signal behavior that the fish can give you when they want attention/want you nearby

This one is not really adapted from anything I’ve read about in regards to treating separation anxiety in dogs, but if you’ve ever trained a dog to ring bells on a string or bark when they want to go outside, the idea is very similar. I once had the thought that Puck’s separation anxiety might be so bad in part because, unlike a dog or a cat, he was restricted entirely to his aquarium and could not approach me directly when I was not sitting with him to interact or spend time with me. I thought that training him to give me a signal when he wanted me to come over to him might help him feel like he had more control and influence over the situation, and may help decrease his separation anxiety symptoms.

To do this, I captured a behavior he already offered, and reinforced it with attention. Most betta keepers are familiar with the wiggle a fish will often do at the front of their tank when they see you. Puck would do this whenever he saw me come into the room, or when I was moving around it. So I started immediately going over and sitting with him whenever I saw him perform this wiggle at the front of his tank. I only ever reinforced the behavior with attention, never food, and he caught on very quickly.

Eventually we got to the point where I would see him offer the behavior and go sit with him, he would go back to doing what he was as soon as I did, making it look like he was “ignoring” me, but as soon as I got up to walk away he would come straight back to the front of his aquarium and signal again. The same thing would happen over and over again, making it apparent to me that he was very aware of what the cue meant and what he was doing when he offered the behavior.

If there is a day or period of time in which you are going to be home more than usual, make sure you still spend time apart from your fish

When I was in school, I had to make sure to give the bettas space on the weekends (even if only by going into another room for an hour or two), or else they would be much worse with their fin biting when I went back to class on Mondays. I made the mistake with Puck over winter break a few years ago of being home and around almost all the time, and when I finally went back to school after about a month of this, he bit off over half his caudal and anal fins in just two days.

Over time I have realized that I need to be conscious of my schedule and how it might affect things in this way, and even if I don’t really need to go anywhere for the day, I make sure to get out of my/the bettas’ room for a while. This also helps ensure your treatment stays consistent, and that your fish doesn’t go long periods of time without being exposed to it.

Some adapted treatments you can enact to help a fish suffering from separation anxiety:

Using “medication”

In severe cases, dogs and cats with separation anxiety are sometimes treated with medication. I am not aware of any instances in which a companion fish has been treated with medication for anxiety, and I would not suggest trying it without the supervision of a veterinarian. However, there are some things commonly used to decrease stress in aquarium fishes that you may also be able to try with a betta fish suffering from separation anxiety. The main things I have used are: Indian almond leaves, rooibos tea, StressGuard, and dim lighting.

Indian almond leaves and rooibos tea perform similar functions, adding tannins into the water that are both beneficial physically and that darken the color of the fish’s water, which could potentially help to reduce stress and make the fish feel more comfortable. I have used rooibos tea in place of almond leaves when I did not have easy access to them, or when it was already working well for that fish in particular. One of my worst biters, Makoto, was also the only one I cured entirely, and rooibos tea was what he had in his tank when I was treating him.

StressGuard (or a similar product, if this one is not available) can help reduce stress, as well as promote healing and prevent infection if the fish is fin biting. I also dosed this daily when I was treating Makoto.

Finally, dim lighting can help to reduce stress and keeping the lights off or dimmed while you are gone may help to reduce the stress and anxiety caused by separation. None of these are truly “medications”, but they are additives that may be used in combination with other separation anxiety treatments.

Providing additional mental stimulation and exercise

“Mental stimulation” can mean a lot of things, as can “exercise”, but in the context of treating a betta fish with separation anxiety, I usually accomplish this through training sessions. I can provide more information on how to do this if desired, but I have found this to be a good way for some bettas to expend energy and focus that they might otherwise be using to feel anxious when you are away. With Puck, I held daily training sessions, usually 30-40 minutes before I was going to be leaving the house. We trained various behaviors such as flaring on cue, pushing around a floating ball, and giving “high-fives”.

Providing additional environmental enrichment

A more complex environment may help to decrease symptoms of separation anxiety. Different forms of enrichment may be more effective for different individuals. For example, I had one betta, Odysseus, whose fin biting was greatly helped by having another betta in a tank neighboring his that he could still see and interact with while I was gone. Puck, however, was actually worse with his fin biting when he could see another fish next to him.

Training itself is another form of enrichment. Enrichment can also entail changing the physical environment, offering new plants and decor, changing the environment outside their aquarium, and so on.

Variety in the diet

This is actually another form of environmental enrichment, but I mention it separately because it has been one of the most successful treatments I have tried for separation anxiety. There are two primary ways I have used food/variety in the diet to treat separation anxiety: by varying how the food is delivered, and by varying what foods are given.

Primarily, I vary “delivery” by scattering food around a fish’s tank as the last thing I do before I leave the house, leaving them to forage for it while I am gone. This keeps them busy and focused on something other than me being gone, and allows a positive association to form in regards to our separation. This is somewhat like leaving a Kong toy stuffed full of treats for a dog, just adapted to better suit a betta fish and their environment and behavior.

To make this even more effective, you can also vary the types of food that you use. I have found foods that are more stimulating for a betta fish to eat to be more effective, and some of the foods I have had the most success with are: canned mini mealworms, canned crickets, canned river shrimps, and gel food (made with insects as an ingredient).

I often use pellets for this purpose as they are easy to scatter, but the other foods work very well and even just including them in the diet has, in my experience, helped decrease this particular sort of fin biting. There are also treat tablets made for fishes that you can stick to the aquarium glass for the fish to pick off, and though I have not yet used this specifically as a treatment for separation anxiety, it is something I intend to try myself. Eating these foods takes more time and effort, and may be a good way to keep a fish engaged and (productively) active while you are gone for a long period of time.

A digital photo frame for your fish

For one of my current bettas Maes, I put together a digital picture frame filled mostly with pictures of myself, as well as some other people he knows, some pictures of my other bettas, and pictures of other things he might find interesting (such as flowers).

I specifically trained this to function as a sign that I am gone, but could return at any moment. Some people suggest doing something similar with dogs (often with something like a radio), but I picked a digital photo frame because I thought it would be the most salient thing for a betta fish as well as being easily customized by picking out pictures I thought would be most effective.

I started by only having the frame on when I was going to be gone for very short periods of time, and slowly worked up to having it on for several hours. This was done in combination with other treatments, such as scattering food and having a neighbor. This combination of treatments has been extremely effective for Maes, to the point where he only bit his tail once (as opposed to biting large chunks out of it) when I was out of town recently.

Playing videos for them when you are gone

In particular, I have found videos of fishes swimming, cartoons, and video game footage to be the most engaging and most effective for a betta fish. I have a Youtube playlist specifically put together for Duo, and so far this has been the most effective thing I have tried for him. Duo in particular seems to like the Wind Waker Collection Series on Pbggameplay’s Youtube channel, and Maes has always really liked watching lightsaber fights, if you are looking for some specific videos to try out.

Other bettas in the past have also shown interest in and benefited from watching videos while I am away. If I am sneaky enough, I can often return home and catch them in the act of watching what I’ve left on for them!

These are just some of the things you can try, and some of the methods that I have found to be most successful. If more clarification is needed on anything or more information is desired, feel free to ask! And of course, I am always happy to hear others’ opinions or experiences with their own fishes!

#bettablr #fishblr #betta fish #fish training #fish behavior #separation anxiety #fin biting #milesbeardworth writes

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