@@ruthannfreeman4329 my son wants a fish. He’s six. My experience with fish as a child they all died within days of me bringing them home. What kinds of things do I need to get for a beta fish? I want the best support for this fish.
A couple days ago a Betta was rehomed to me in its 2.5 gallon tank with solid green water(that smelled completely of stale cigarette smoke), with a whole ass Chinese algae eater, who the Betta was actively attacking and fighting with. I named the betta Smoke and his CAE friend is safely separated and well on his way to finding a new forever home. Every rescue I take on pushes me further into my Betta rescue obsession. I have 4 rescue bettas now.
Four tanks? If you’re seriously into betta rescue, have you considered a bigger tank with dividers? I have a 15g with black dividers that’s cycling right now for 2 bettas. I was going to set up a 20G tank with 3 dividers so I could have 4 bettas in one tank, but my 55g, 20g, and 15g along with a 2g tank for hatching Daphnia eggs, are enough work. Not sure where I would put another tank anyway! They’re my favorite fish. I have orange laser catfish, fancy guppies, ember tetras, blue rainbows, and I want about 5 female bettas in the 55g - but the female bettas will be the last in that tank so there are no objections to the fish already there. It’s better to add the bettas last so they aren’t territorial if a whole bunch of new fish are added.
@@deborahjeanne2141 I have thought about doing that recently as I've gotten more into it! I wouldn't say im "seriously" into Betta rescue, I haven't yet managed to adopt out a single Betta, plus I have plenty of other pets(wetpets, mammals, reptiles) that need my care. That's why at the moment, what we have the most of(5 gallon tanks) is what I use for rescues. What holds me back from taking on more is my lack of extra heaters and outlets. I figure of I get and run two 10 gallons, each with a heater and divider, it'll be a lot more efficient than running 4 tanks with 4 heaters.
@@trippin9899 absolutely! 5G are smaller, but when you have several of them, you need extra everything - including spares. And WC take longer when you do multiple tanks. I had 2 bettas in my 15g 4 years ago, and the only thing I had 2 of were filters - one on each side. The divider hindered cleaning efficiently on the side without the filter, so that’s what I did. And I’ll be doing it again this time. The problem is, they are such beautiful fish, it’s hard to pick just one. My last 2 bettas were from petsmart. I couldn’t help it. They looked so sad in those little cups - no heater, no filter. When I put them in their new home with plants, rocks, and driftwood, one of them hid for several hours - I’m sure he was trying to figure out what happened. (WTF?!) The next day they were both building bubble nests, a sure sign of a happy betta!
@@MissMichSan the same thing happened to mine too! That was a couple years ago, but I still miss him. He was beautiful. A deep purple with streaks of red and blue, more visible when his fins fanned out.
Thank you! I grew up on a farm so we took a lot of stuff in. Lots of people would buy chicks or ducks or even rabbits for Easter and realize they have no means of keeping them. Everyone in school knew my mom would take them so animals would constantly be dropped off. The craziest thing was 2 new born pigs!! My mom drove a school bus and as a kid was getting off, yes getting off… and he handed my mom a milk crate with 2 black baby pigs! I won’t lie I couldn’t stand those pigs! They were so loud, and when we would feed them their bottles they would bite us so hard it broke the skin. My German Shepherd LOVED those pigs though. She had struggled to get pregnant and adopted them as her own. She would guide them around with her nose or pick them up and carry them to her dog bed. She even licked them clean like she would have puppies. When they got bigger we gave to some other farmer because we didn’t have a pig pen.
Yaaaaaay Ziggy! I’m appalled at the conditions I’ve seen people keep the poor beautiful fish. I always feel so sad to see shelves of them in pet stores. My heart rejoices with Ziggy in his much improved living conditions.
Zigy looks like a peacock in fish form and that gorgeous and not just because of his beauty that I'm so happy you rescued him from that tiny little bowl
I'm so happy you rescued him! ❤ I'm not surprised he likes the bigger space because he hasn't had that luxury of big open swim. I'm so happy for you and him! 🫶🏻💞🥰
Beautiful beta are used to own them, but when they would pass away, my son would bury them in the backyard in little jewelry boxes, and it got to a point where he just got too sad so I got him a bearded dragon and 2 axolotl’s n he loves them all. And so far three years old and doing well.
SO Glad this beta fish is in a safer home now. I always tell people that bowls are horrible for any fish. My go-to size for betas is always 5-10 gallon,but if its happy,its happy. And it seems to me that he's happy😊
It’s amazing how much their personality comes ur when you upgrade their conditions. I just bought a beta and I only put him in a one gallon tank but he’s like a whole new fish😂
If you got a micro bubble wand and more plants the water would be more oxygenated. It would stay cleaner and clear, but the water will still be calm enough for a beta. If set up properly. Liquid CO2 and plant fertilizer will help achieve this as well. Happy plants, happy tank.
I love rescuing betas from the store, this one I got recently, named scar (for obvious reasons) and even had fin rot. He's doing much better now, it's so cute to see how excited he when I come over to the tank to feed him. That and watching him nap in a shit glass is EVERYTHING
the best thing about these kind of betta rescue videos is that youre teaching so many people about them. now that i know more, i feel a stab of pity and guilty every time i see them in Petco. i wish i could help but im glad there are more and more people like you openly doing this and talking about it. Go Ziggy!!!! he's so beautiful 🥺 i also never knew betta get fin fatigue like that! thats something i never knew nor considered!
RIP to the bettas of my childhood 🥺🙇 none of them lasted more than a couple weeks. im glad my mom only let us have three before saying no more fish. 😔 i hope theyre enjoying betta heaven 💜🌹
At one point I had 7 female bettas 1 males betta all living together as a family, and they were happy and all played with each other. Now only three live on, but man what fun these fish are. Yours is beautiful take good care of him, he’ll love you for it.
makes me miss my Arno even more.... he changed colors 9 times in the 6 years I had him. He was the second betta I had that would swim between my fingers while cleaning his tank. My first was a red one I named Smaug. my current one, I named Opal, due to his teal colored tail and mica colored gill plates.. he doesn't like me in his tank much but seems to enjoy having some ghost shrimp with him. beautiful fish bit nothing like my Arno...
I love betas. We had one for like 3-4 years. We discovered they tend to jump! My mom found him laying on the floor and quickly put him back into water. He was very cute.
They don't tend to jump. They jump when their living conditions are unsuitable like ammonia poisoning or PH burns Edit: It's the equivalent to a human being on a boat in the ocean: the boat catches fire, so the human jumps into the ocean where he will drown, but at least he doesn't burn to death. That's why your betta jumped unless he had neurological problems, which statistically he didn't.
As long as he has a filter I'm happy! Even though they are lung fish they're from miles long rice paddys that are a few feet deep, plenty of fresh flowing water filled with plants. You've got the plants and I trust you've got a filter in there. Keep it up!
It is so refreshing to see someone who knows how to properly keep beta fish. They are not a fish you keep in a small bowl. The only time I ever owned a beta was in my teens going to the fairgrounds they had a bunch of them swimming in a kiddy pool for a ring toss game. Parents joined me in playing and we end up to our surprise winning a prize of... one of the betas. They scooped one out and in a tiny cup it went. We told the guy running it that we didn't have a tank and they said its fine they can live in the cup! >.> Once home I found the best alternate I could find, a large glass vase that held just under two gals. It was better then the cup and would have to do until my parents would get me a tank like I asked them for (had to research betas and showed them what they need). Three days later we got a 10 gal and some caves and real plants for it, heater, the whole works. Everything would have been fine if not a week later parents come back to surprise me with a damn bag of 5 goldfish, a 'pretty' normal, two fan tails, a bubble eye and one with the weird spongy crest on the head. All to add to the tank. That was too much for a 10 gal and betas need to be alone... but nope, they thought the beta was lonely and all that space it had... they felt it was a waste for a 10 gal and wanted to fill it up. Yeah... the beta was dead after two days and the goldfish very quickly overwhelmed the filter I had for the tank. Thanks parents who think they know best and didn't listen when I pulled up research on betas and showed them info just to get them to get a tank and not keep the beta in the vase.
I had my boy Max for 3 years and I swear they are like puppies...I love the tank and all the space Ziggy has to do as he pleases. Funny enough, I recently got a puppy and her name is Ziggy 😊
Aww, such a beautiful boy. I was absolutely broken hearted when I lost both my Betta Boi’s this past summer, due to what I strongly suspect was stress. Everyone in town & surrounding areas had to evacuate twice due to the wildfires here, and the first time I just didn’t have the time to get them prepped for leaving, so I had to resort to slow release food & just pray that they would be ok. Even though our home didn’t burn either time, I lost my favourite “Bawb T. Betta” during the first evac (a beautiful Dragon scale butterfly, whose colours were almost identical to your new boy - who also knew how to do several little tricks btw. Only Betta I’ve ever had who was so darn smart he was clicker-trained!) and my spicy boy “Percy” a short time following the second evac. 😔😭 Percy’s name came from his peacock colouration (he was a glorious iridescent green, gold & turquoise dragonscale crown tail). I am almost 100% sure he passed due to travel stress, as there was plenty of time to prepare for the second evac, and there was absolutely no damn way I was leaving a single member of our family behind, be they scaled or furred. First thing I did after coming home to find out I’d lost one of my boys (after burying Bawb under my rose bushes of course) was go down to the store and get proper packing materials for transporting Percy, as well as a smaller, temporary 5 gal acrylic tank with a filtration system as well as the big 15L jug of pre-treated water I always kept on hand for water changes. I don’t regret taking Percy with us as we weren’t allowed to return for a full 2.5 weeks that time, and he definitely wouldn’t have had enough food to last. My husband says he thinks Bawb died of loneliness…I’m not sure if that’s possible, even though both my boys clearly knew exactly who I was (aka: their food and treat dispenser, lol) and without fail, both would always quite literally follow me as far as they could in their tanks every time I walked from one side of the room to the other. Both of them would come to the surface of their tanks anytime I stopped to talk or play with them…sweet Bawb would always instantly just shoot right up to the surface the second I got near his tank, but Percy tended to take a bit of a more scenic route, lol. He was not as smart as Bawb was, and although he did know a few tricks as well, it was nowhere near as large of a trick repertoire as Bawb’s. (He also took far longer to teach). I was gifted both my boys a couple of years apart by a very dear friend who breeds bettas, back when each were between 4-5 weeks old. Bawb was the older one, being 4.5 yrs old at the time, with Percy being barely 2 yrs. The stress of the wildfires & evacs also cost me my dog as well. She was a cancer warrior who had recently been placed on palliative care 6 months prior. She didn’t have very long left, bless her, but up until after the second evac any pain she might’ve had was well controlled, as were her symptoms. She immediately began a downward spiral not long after the first evac, which only worsened after the second. She began showing her first signs of pain on the last day of July & I made the heart-shattering decision that the time had come to let her rest. With the assistance of our vet, (who also happens to be a very dear friend as well as our agility/dock diving teammate), my beloved “Little G” passed peacefully in my arms & surrounded by all those she loved the most on August 2, 2023. 2023 was a year of hell and loss for me & mine. I also lost a very dear friend from childhood, as well as my uncle and one of my cousins & I was not sorry to see the back of it. I greatly appreciate anyone who has bothered to read this stupidly long comment. Thank you & Happy New year - onwards we go! ❤❤❤
Awww he's so cute so glad you rescued him from that tiny fish bowl
Thank You!!
Same!
@@ruthannfreeman4329 my son wants a fish. He’s six. My experience with fish as a child they all died within days of me bringing them home. What kinds of things do I need to get for a beta fish? I want the best support for this fish.
@@mallred5 Google will tell you everything you need to know
@@louiseb6111 yes I know. But here’s a woman with some actual life skills and experience with fish.
A couple days ago a Betta was rehomed to me in its 2.5 gallon tank with solid green water(that smelled completely of stale cigarette smoke), with a whole ass Chinese algae eater, who the Betta was actively attacking and fighting with.
I named the betta Smoke and his CAE friend is safely separated and well on his way to finding a new forever home.
Every rescue I take on pushes me further into my Betta rescue obsession. I have 4 rescue bettas now.
Four tanks? If you’re seriously into betta rescue, have you considered a bigger tank with dividers? I have a 15g with black dividers that’s cycling right now for 2 bettas. I was going to set up a 20G tank with 3 dividers so I could have 4 bettas in one tank, but my 55g, 20g, and 15g along with a 2g tank for hatching Daphnia eggs, are enough work. Not sure where I would put another tank anyway! They’re my favorite fish. I have orange laser catfish, fancy guppies, ember tetras, blue rainbows, and I want about 5 female bettas in the 55g - but the female bettas will be the last in that tank so there are no objections to the fish already there. It’s better to add the bettas last so they aren’t territorial if a whole bunch of new fish are added.
@@deborahjeanne2141 I have thought about doing that recently as I've gotten more into it! I wouldn't say im "seriously" into Betta rescue, I haven't yet managed to adopt out a single Betta, plus I have plenty of other pets(wetpets, mammals, reptiles) that need my care.
That's why at the moment, what we have the most of(5 gallon tanks) is what I use for rescues. What holds me back from taking on more is my lack of extra heaters and outlets.
I figure of I get and run two 10 gallons, each with a heater and divider, it'll be a lot more efficient than running 4 tanks with 4 heaters.
@@trippin9899 absolutely! 5G are smaller, but when you have several of them, you need extra everything - including spares. And WC take longer when you do multiple tanks. I had 2 bettas in my 15g 4 years ago, and the only thing I had 2 of were filters - one on each side. The divider hindered cleaning efficiently on the side without the filter, so that’s what I did. And I’ll be doing it again this time.
The problem is, they are such beautiful fish, it’s hard to pick just one. My last 2 bettas were from petsmart. I couldn’t help it. They looked so sad in those little cups - no heater, no filter. When I put them in their new home with plants, rocks, and driftwood, one of them hid for several hours - I’m sure he was trying to figure out what happened. (WTF?!) The next day they were both building bubble nests, a sure sign of a happy betta!
They are so fun and beautiful. I loved mine so much he sadly passed away due to an Infection on his eye.
@@MissMichSan the same thing happened to mine too! That was a couple years ago, but I still miss him. He was beautiful. A deep purple with streaks of red and blue, more visible when his fins fanned out.
He looks so much happier in that tank. Couldn’t have done a betta job if you ask me! (Sorry, I’ll see myself out.)
Haha! Epic comment!
Needs to be highlighted and at the top!!!! 😁😁😁😁😁😁😅
😂 I was surprised that they took naps
Ba dum tss!
Please do!😂
😂😂😂😂
I believe anyone who rescues animals, even even fish, is an angel. God bless you.
Thank you! I grew up on a farm so we took a lot of stuff in. Lots of people would buy chicks or ducks or even rabbits for Easter and realize they have no means of keeping them. Everyone in school knew my mom would take them so animals would constantly be dropped off. The craziest thing was 2 new born pigs!! My mom drove a school bus and as a kid was getting off, yes getting off… and he handed my mom a milk crate with 2 black baby pigs! I won’t lie I couldn’t stand those pigs! They were so loud, and when we would feed them their bottles they would bite us so hard it broke the skin. My German Shepherd LOVED those pigs though. She had struggled to get pregnant and adopted them as her own. She would guide them around with her nose or pick them up and carry them to her dog bed. She even licked them clean like she would have puppies. When they got bigger we gave to some other farmer because we didn’t have a pig pen.
Him sleeping on the wood was so adorable
The fact he likes the open part more tho shows you were right in sectioning the planty area to a bowl, so he has both worlds
I would watch a live feed of this Betta swimming in his tank for hours.
I might actually do that with some of my tanks.
Yaaaaaay Ziggy! I’m appalled at the conditions I’ve seen people keep the poor beautiful fish. I always feel so sad to see shelves of them in pet stores. My heart rejoices with Ziggy in his much improved living conditions.
Aww he loves all that extra space 🥰 I'm so happy for him
He looks so much healthier and happier! Can't wait to see him when he gets his full color back!
God bless Ziggy and his thoughtful new owner! He looks so happy!
His side profile is too cute for words...the way his lips pout 🤣 he's fricking gorgeousssss thank you for saving him, you amazing human! 💜💜💜
😊 thank you
Zigy looks like a peacock in fish form and that gorgeous and not just because of his beauty that I'm so happy you rescued him from that tiny little bowl
Used your glass bowl idea for my aquarium plants! My betas love to sleep in the plant bowl 😂
He looks happy.
I'm so happy you rescued him! ❤ I'm not surprised he likes the bigger space because he hasn't had that luxury of big open swim. I'm so happy for you and him! 🫶🏻💞🥰
My betta also loves the roots at the top of his tank! He likes to swim through them :)
Good job..especially incorporating his previous home! He's beautiful. 😊
Beautiful beta are used to own them, but when they would pass away, my son would bury them in the backyard in little jewelry boxes, and it got to a point where he just got too sad so I got him a bearded dragon and 2 axolotl’s n he loves them all. And so far three years old and doing well.
Betta fish live for 5 years when cared for correctly. You shouldn't have been burying them often enough for him to grieve that repeatedly.
He is beautiful! Glad he has a real home now. I really hope your friend educates themself before getting another pet.
SO Glad this beta fish is in a safer home now.
I always tell people that bowls are horrible for any fish. My go-to size for betas is always 5-10 gallon,but if its happy,its happy. And it seems to me that he's happy😊
It’s amazing how much their personality comes ur when you upgrade their conditions. I just bought a beta and I only put him in a one gallon tank but he’s like a whole new fish😂
Thank you for saving that deserving baby
Fish too deserve the best life since they are captive
He is so so beautiful and I really do love the plant bowl.
Thank you! :)
If you got a micro bubble wand and more plants the water would be more oxygenated. It would stay cleaner and clear, but the water will still be calm enough for a beta. If set up properly. Liquid CO2 and plant fertilizer will help achieve this as well. Happy plants, happy tank.
That’s so adorable!! I love how ziggy loves his new home!
I love rescuing betas from the store, this one I got recently, named scar (for obvious reasons) and even had fin rot. He's doing much better now, it's so cute to see how excited he when I come over to the tank to feed him.
That and watching him nap in a shit glass is EVERYTHING
Aww, he is so cute! He looks exactly like my beta, so colorful.
Awww look at him flourishing....go Ziggy💖💖
You did a fantastic job making him more comfortable and healthy.
His color is MUCH brighter. Didn't know it could change SO much! ❤❤
So glad he is doing better!!❤️
❤ That puts love in my ❤ that you incorporated his bowl in his new home.
the best thing about these kind of betta rescue videos is that youre teaching so many people about them. now that i know more, i feel a stab of pity and guilty every time i see them in Petco. i wish i could help but im glad there are more and more people like you openly doing this and talking about it. Go Ziggy!!!! he's so beautiful 🥺 i also never knew betta get fin fatigue like that! thats something i never knew nor considered!
RIP to the bettas of my childhood 🥺🙇 none of them lasted more than a couple weeks. im glad my mom only let us have three before saying no more fish. 😔 i hope theyre enjoying betta heaven 💜🌹
At one point I had 7 female bettas 1 males betta all living together as a family, and they were happy and all played with each other. Now only three live on, but man what fun these fish are. Yours is beautiful take good care of him, he’ll love you for it.
lucky male lol
I absolutely love the fact that you named him Ziggy 🥰🥰🥰
A perfectly wonderful habitat and he is enjoying it! Great job!
Thank You!
I had two of these when I was little one red and the other blue I loved them ❤️
makes me miss my Arno even more.... he changed colors 9 times in the 6 years I had him. He was the second betta I had that would swim between my fingers while cleaning his tank. My first was a red one I named Smaug.
my current one, I named Opal, due to his teal colored tail and mica colored gill plates.. he doesn't like me in his tank much but seems to enjoy having some ghost shrimp with him. beautiful fish bit nothing like my Arno...
That's so great that you did all that for that very pretty fish. Excellent. You're a sweet person
So beautiful 🥺❤️🥲✨
I Love that you put his old bowl in there!!!
YOU ARE ONE OF THE ONLY PEOPLE I'VE SEEN TAKING PROPER CARE OF THEIR FISH!!🤍🤍🤍🤍
I have mine in a five gallon all to their own and they ab love it! My male dances and runs around like there’s no tomorrow ❤
He's really beautiful and kudos on your great refurbishment of the tank.
My bettas like a glass cup for plants I had in the aquarium they always used it as a bed and would sit in it to rest
He's gorgeous. Of course he wants to be seen.
You gave me a great idea on what I should do with our betta! Awesome thank setup and Ziggy is adorable! 🐠
I was going to say he seems more vibrant and happy! Excellent!!!
One of my eight betas looks just like this... Beautiful fish and I love the idea for the tank. I might just look into that idea myself lol. Thanks!
How sweet of you to give him a better life
What a great fish....glad he has a great space to live❤
thanks for the update, I've had Betta's before, but if I ever get another will copy your decor!!
I love betas. We had one for like 3-4 years. We discovered they tend to jump! My mom found him laying on the floor and quickly put him back into water. He was very cute.
They don't tend to jump. They jump when their living conditions are unsuitable like ammonia poisoning or PH burns
Edit: It's the equivalent to a human being on a boat in the ocean: the boat catches fire, so the human jumps into the ocean where he will drown, but at least he doesn't burn to death. That's why your betta jumped unless he had neurological problems, which statistically he didn't.
This is so good!!!!
He's looking ALOT better now! Good on you for realizing something was wrong and fixing it!
Love seeing people being good to animals
It looks like soggy really loves his home!
Glad you him and have him a great home !!!
He looks like a super hero with the way his colors mix 😍
I love ❤️ successful rescues.
Pls make this a dark water tank, they really thrive with the tannins.
That was my next step. I went with the no filter tannins habitat I’ll do an update when it evens out
Living the life!! ❤
He's BEAUTIFUL!! GORGEOUS fins!!👍🙏💜
You make me want one but then I remember I’m too lazy for that lol I’ll just keep looking at your videos
His coloring is Beautiful 🥰🥰🥰🥰
I treat my beta well also!!! It's descusting how they are treated!!!! Thank you for posting this🙏
He completely opened up and became vibrant again, I was worried he wasn't going to make it.
So happy his color is so beautiful
How sweet for you to care enough to give this precious fish a bigger better home!
😊 Thank You
As long as he has a filter I'm happy! Even though they are lung fish they're from miles long rice paddys that are a few feet deep, plenty of fresh flowing water filled with plants. You've got the plants and I trust you've got a filter in there. Keep it up!
He looks so happy
I did t know this about their fins!! Thank you for the information!
The beta is so beautiful!!!!! It's awesome!
Oh my he's so beautiful!
Reminds me of those tassel baits I always see in fishing videos.
It is so refreshing to see someone who knows how to properly keep beta fish. They are not a fish you keep in a small bowl.
The only time I ever owned a beta was in my teens going to the fairgrounds they had a bunch of them swimming in a kiddy pool for a ring toss game. Parents joined me in playing and we end up to our surprise winning a prize of... one of the betas. They scooped one out and in a tiny cup it went. We told the guy running it that we didn't have a tank and they said its fine they can live in the cup! >.>
Once home I found the best alternate I could find, a large glass vase that held just under two gals. It was better then the cup and would have to do until my parents would get me a tank like I asked them for (had to research betas and showed them what they need). Three days later we got a 10 gal and some caves and real plants for it, heater, the whole works.
Everything would have been fine if not a week later parents come back to surprise me with a damn bag of 5 goldfish, a 'pretty' normal, two fan tails, a bubble eye and one with the weird spongy crest on the head. All to add to the tank. That was too much for a 10 gal and betas need to be alone... but nope, they thought the beta was lonely and all that space it had... they felt it was a waste for a 10 gal and wanted to fill it up.
Yeah... the beta was dead after two days and the goldfish very quickly overwhelmed the filter I had for the tank. Thanks parents who think they know best and didn't listen when I pulled up research on betas and showed them info just to get them to get a tank and not keep the beta in the vase.
Beautiful fish!🎉
Thank you very much!
I had my boy Max for 3 years and I swear they are like puppies...I love the tank and all the space Ziggy has to do as he pleases. Funny enough, I recently got a puppy and her name is Ziggy 😊
So beautiful thanks for all your videos!
Imagine shaking your booty to move lol so fun to see him go ❤
💜💜💜 he looks happy!
I love the blue and the red colors on that fish is really pretty
That is one stunning wee fish.
He is beautiful and looks so happy in his new environment! ❤
Woah, that Betta is gorgeous!
He is beautiful.
Aww, such a beautiful boy. I was absolutely broken hearted when I lost both my Betta Boi’s this past summer, due to what I strongly suspect was stress. Everyone in town & surrounding areas had to evacuate twice due to the wildfires here, and the first time I just didn’t have the time to get them prepped for leaving, so I had to resort to slow release food & just pray that they would be ok.
Even though our home didn’t burn either time, I lost my favourite “Bawb T. Betta” during the first evac (a beautiful Dragon scale butterfly, whose colours were almost identical to your new boy - who also knew how to do several little tricks btw. Only Betta I’ve ever had who was so darn smart he was clicker-trained!) and my spicy boy “Percy” a short time following the second evac. 😔😭 Percy’s name came from his peacock colouration (he was a glorious iridescent green, gold & turquoise dragonscale crown tail). I am almost 100% sure he passed due to travel stress, as there was plenty of time to prepare for the second evac, and there was absolutely no damn way I was leaving a single member of our family behind, be they scaled or furred.
First thing I did after coming home to find out I’d lost one of my boys (after burying Bawb under my rose bushes of course) was go down to the store and get proper packing materials for transporting Percy, as well as a smaller, temporary 5 gal acrylic tank with a filtration system as well as the big 15L jug of pre-treated water I always kept on hand for water changes.
I don’t regret taking Percy with us as we weren’t allowed to return for a full 2.5 weeks that time, and he definitely wouldn’t have had enough food to last. My husband says he thinks Bawb died of loneliness…I’m not sure if that’s possible, even though both my boys clearly knew exactly who I was (aka: their food and treat dispenser, lol) and without fail, both would always quite literally follow me as far as they could in their tanks every time I walked from one side of the room to the other.
Both of them would come to the surface of their tanks anytime I stopped to talk or play with them…sweet Bawb would always instantly just shoot right up to the surface the second I got near his tank, but Percy tended to take a bit of a more scenic route, lol. He was not as smart as Bawb was, and although he did know a few tricks as well, it was nowhere near as large of a trick repertoire as Bawb’s. (He also took far longer to teach).
I was gifted both my boys a couple of years apart by a very dear friend who breeds bettas, back when each were between 4-5 weeks old. Bawb was the older one, being 4.5 yrs old at the time, with Percy being barely 2 yrs.
The stress of the wildfires & evacs also cost me my dog as well. She was a cancer warrior who had recently been placed on palliative care 6 months prior. She didn’t have very long left, bless her, but up until after the second evac any pain she might’ve had was well controlled, as were her symptoms. She immediately began a downward spiral not long after the first evac, which only worsened after the second.
She began showing her first signs of pain on the last day of July & I made the heart-shattering decision that the time had come to let her rest. With the assistance of our vet, (who also happens to be a very dear friend as well as our agility/dock diving teammate), my beloved “Little G” passed peacefully in my arms & surrounded by all those she loved the most on August 2, 2023.
2023 was a year of hell and loss for me & mine. I also lost a very dear friend from childhood, as well as my uncle and one of my cousins & I was not sorry to see the back of it.
I greatly appreciate anyone who has bothered to read this stupidly long comment. Thank you & Happy New year - onwards we go! ❤❤❤
He's Beautiful !
Awwwe, thank you for rescuing him ♥️
He's so skinny. Can't wait to see his progress.
What a handsome betta I want it.
He’s beautiful! I think he loves his new home!
💙💚💙
What a beautiful water beast! Sweet animal 😍
woow...he is definitely MUCH more vibrant!!
You should get a friend for him! Ziggy seems so happy but little lonely!❤️❤️
There are very few other aquatic species that Bettas will get along with, they’ll kill or fight most.
Looks exactly like the one I had when I was younger!
I really like the bowl idea. I might implement that myself!
Ziggy is gorgeous. Great job ❤️
Love this! They are such beautiful fish!
He's so awesome, I'm think about getting one, my other one lived 5 years.