"The Life of Riley"
I didn't wait as long as I had thought I would before finding Riley... My daughter named him Riley the moment I mentioned maybe we'd get another betta.... she named him Riley after a horse she rode on for her birthday.
I got Riley from a private individual who breed bettas. I just didn't trust Pets at Home to be the source of my next betta. I had gone in to see about a replacement or refund and the lady working there couldn't even find the bettas she said were there... then basically shrugged and said their next shipment arrived Wednesday and I could come and get one then. I took the refund instead.
Riley is about 3/4 of the size that Jimmy had been... so I imagine that makes him just a bit younger than full grown. Riley is.... full of beans... ... I think that would be a good expression to describe it.
Time for a photo!
Riley is a blue pearl betta.... I swear he isn't pink... well... he sort of is... at least, I have yet to figure out how to take a picture of him to show that he isn't pink....
His scales are like blue pearl... but the thing is... I think it is more a sheen and often the light hits it a certain way (and apparently every time I take a photo as well) and he seems to get a bit transparent and you see the pink underneath. So... if you saw him "live" you'd see his color sort of shifts and dances on him rather than remains the same... if that makes any sense!
Riley is endlessly looking at something and noticing things...
Look! A snail!
And for the first 3 days... he flared nearly constantly at shadows on the wall... he is mellowed a little bit now and only does it occasionally. Surprisingly... it was really hard to get a picture of him flaring as he relaxed every time I came to take a picture.... so this slightly blurred picture is the only one I managed.
I bought him a ping pong ball yesterday.... well, I bought a pack of 12 but he only gets to have one... so we shall see if he figures out what to do with it. So far, when I put it in, he followed it around for a minute or so and went back to watching shadows.
Anyhow... I am quite nervous the second time around with a betta since Jimmy went downhill so fast and I'm not entirely sure why.
I'm hoping "The Life of Riley" will be a long one.