So I finally got a Betta on Monday night, did one day of searching and fell in love with one (well, technically two, but I wanted a red so I could call him Sweeney, and the other fish I loved was a huge blue marble. I tried to go back for him the next day, but someone else bought him ). I love the butterfly coloring/effect (maybe I have the terminology wrong, but I mean the white/transparant coloring at the edges of the fins). Plus I liked the quality of his fins compared to the other bettas (short and cute, lol). He's so cute and energetic and I'm having a blast watching him, watching his personality come through. He was shy the first day, but now he's flitting through his plants (he loves them, I can tell, loves looping around them like they're caves). I put one of those makeshift (plastic bottle) filter killer things up, but whattdya know, this guy likes going for rides . Goes into the tunnel through one end, goes sailing out the other end, and just hangs there and looks back. Then he goes for another ride. Weirdo. lol. No bubblenest yet, but this morning he actually came up to the front of the tank when I walked up, and didn't scurry away when I lifted the lid and my ever-scary hand hovered up above with food.

It's a bad pic, as my battery charger apparantly is on the blink, so I had to use my sister's camera phone. I think this shows his tail well, though.



I really don't know enough about Bettas to know if this guy is young (he's pretty small, at least compared to that big blue marble that I liked) or that he's a fancier veiltail that just still needs to grow. Or maybe he's a fin nipper (I did once see him spin in a circle, trying to get at his tail, and he did, though that was not long after I brought him home). Or heck, maybe the ammonia in his little betta cup burned his tail *shrug*. Personally, I can't tell the difference between a Delta and a Super Delta, but I think he kind of looks like one. Really, I wouldn't mind getting insight from more experienced Betta owners, but whatever he is, it doesn't matter. He's cute and fun to watch, I just want a name or term that I can call him.

He's in a 3 gallon, but I have a 5gallon that I was going to move him into until I changed my mind when I saw him flitting around so happily in his 3gal. So the 5gal will wait for the next Betta (BTW, y'all are right: Bettas ARE addictive. I was surprised to feel so BUMMED when I found out the blue marble Betta was gone)

This post has been edited by Aussie_Dog: Feb 19 2008, 01:32 AM

Congrats on the new Betta! He's pretty! Your boy looks like a delta. A superdelta would be closer to a halfmoon, but not quite 180°

PS: Cute Aussie you've got in your avatar! I'm a herding dog fan myself.. I've got two Shelties and a Malinois.

This post has been edited by OhMyDog: Feb 14 2008, 11:03 PM

Looks like a round tail.... or young SD...
the pattern is butterfly hes a beauty!

Lookin at the pic i would say he is a Delta tail. Nice boy, looks like an unusual colour too

could be a delta but the rounded edges pointing toward eachother usually signify a vt or a "roundtail"

Looks like a veiltail to me... as his tail grows, you will know for sure. Since he's small and the edges of his tail look smooth, he's probably just young rather than having fin damage. And yes, he's a butterfly... a really pretty one too! Enjoy your little guy.

Looks to me like a Beautiful butterfly Veiltail male.
Nice find
Beware. The betta bug is approaching....

Thanks guys! Yeah, it doesn't really matter to me what he is, as he's just a pet (no breeding in this house, that's for sure! lol). It's killing me that my battery charger is broken, though, as I haven't taken pics with my camera since... oh, what's it been... Since November or so? Maybe even earlier? And I take LOTS of pics so this is murder on my soul.

OhMyDog: hah, yes, that's Jake, my lovely Aussie-Border Collie mix. He'll be 10 this summer, and I still can't believe he's been alive for almost a decade. Jeez, where does the time fly? He'll be getting an extra special birthday this year as it's an extra special age.

Roundtail

All right, so I finally got some batteries for my camera (and then found out that they still wouldn't work, so I figured my charger was broken, so I bought a new charger... Still didn't work, and have now determined that the memory card is too old now, so I'm now using a teensy backup one that'll only let me take a smidgen of pics before I have to upload them to the computer so I can take more). And oh boy, it really IS hard to get pics of fish! I'm favoring videos now, lol



(I tried without flash but Sweeney moves so fast that I couldn't get worth shnit, even with the room lights turned off, so this is the best I could get, lol)

And here's a few videos put into one, though to warn you, I have a clip from a song from the Sweeney Todd movie in the background, if you don't want to listen to it (don't like it, or just don't want spoilers), so here's your warning to click the mute button, lol
http://youtube.com/watch?v=uGXIocE07Xk

he's a long finned roundtail, he hasnt got enough pinch to the center of his tail to classed as a spadetail, if he was a short finned round tail he wouldnt have as much flow to the end of his tail.

Unfortunately I woke up today to find Sweeney's tail in tatters. He must have been chewing himself during the night, as I can't figure the filter flow could have done it. Bummer. So now I wonder, what do I do for it? I put aquarium salt in the tank the other day (maybe that triggered it? I just wanted to make sure he had all the advantages for warding off illness), but now I figure I need something else to prevent infection. I saw Melafix the other day, and I know there are two others at Petsmart, but I can never remember the difference between the two (one is stronger than the other, which is sometimes good and sometimes bad)

Sweeney never stays still, he's always swimming swimming swimming, like the energizer bunny. Back and forth, back and forth, sideways, upways, downways, diagonally. I think he can see his reflection, even when all the lights are off. I've turned his tank light off right now, in the hopes that it'll calm him down. I just didn't expect to find his tail like this today. I'll upload a pic (or video) tonight, as I've got 10 minutes to get out the door and off to work.