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[betta fish] THIS IS ALL SO MUCH MORE DRAMATIC AND TRAUMATIC THAN I SIGNED UP FOR
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so
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I got two new children recently
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there is a male named Tsubaki and a female named Opal
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Opal has been very interested and personable and feerse and will ATTAK when there is food and always swam over to say hello whenever I came over
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tsubaki is one very stressed little fish who has spent most of his time hiding, refusing to eat, and who has a bad case of fin rot
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his poor tail is basically gone
beachcryptid
aw baby
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I've been doing everything I can for him tho and hes hanging in there
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so
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last night
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I went up to check on him
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could not find him in his tank
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began double checking everywhere, becoming increasingly concerned as I did
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he had jumped right out
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and I found him lying on the floor covered in dust and dog hair and, I felt, probably dead and I was shocked and upset but scooped him up immediately. he seemed like he moved a little and actually fell out of my hand and into the dog bowl as a result of this, but I scooped him up again and out of a sort of hopeless kind of hope I put him back into his tank
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he drifted softly down to the bottom still covered in dust and dog hair and I watched as his gills began to work as he slowly gasped for air
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this happened last night and had me deeply concerned about the fish
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so after making sure he seemed to be recovering, I made my way up to bed at like midnight
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woke up at like 5 am, worried about the fish still, and made my way back downstairs to check that everyone was where they should be
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well Tsubaki was still in his tank
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and I had covered both fish tanks as well as possible (opal has an actual lid but unforch theres a plastic thing you can cut to fit the hardware but I have not cut it so it is only mostly covered by said lid, but I put some cardboard over most of the rest of the gap)
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opal, however
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was now nowhere to be found
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so I checked the tiny little gap she could have tried to leap through and found her lying on the counter with her poor little fins all dried out and this time i was convinced that she was dead
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but I scooped her up and placed her back in the tank all the same, and after gently drifting to the bottom she also started to gasp for air
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and so I stayed up for like an hour to make sure she seemed to be slowly recovering, which she was
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tho her colors are duller this time today than they were yesterday and shes still favoring one side a bit and her fins and scales look a little more ragged than before
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so I go to work
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and spend the whole day massively concerned that after several weeks of doing nothing of the kind my fish suddenly are making a break for it and if I hadn't been worried and woken up so early opal would almost certainly have died, I think she was on her last legs when I found her because she was pretty dry
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everybody stays in their tank as they should for the workday
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once work ends I drive to 4 seperate pet stores to find the correct sized lid for tsubaki
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finally did, got some fish medicine (to go with the stress coat + and aquarium salt I already have)
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get home, put the lid on, notice that it has the same problem re filter that opal does but attempt to make sure everything is safely covered, add the fish meds to the water to try and heal her from her misadventure and him from that and the finrot
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AND THEN HE MAKES A BREAK FOR IT AGAIN
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I found him much faster this time but this time was like ????? BUD
E.S. Levi
Tsubaki, you are not a flying fish...
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so now I've covered the pieces that are not covered by the glass with plastic cling wrap
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since this is at this point all I can think to do
E.S. Levi
Doing a little research, they might be unhappy about the water?
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I've done a lot of research
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heres the kids before their misadventure of yesterday
E.S. Levi
Bettas are dramatic little feesh!
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his fins seem like they are clamping less, I added some driftwood to get some tannins in there to help hopefully get the ph down because I live in an area with HARD water
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and I think hes starting to look a little better
E.S. Levi
Maybe that's what they're pitching a fit about, too.
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opal is looking a little more ragged than in the above but she seems to be recovering well
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they're in seperate tanks!!
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I HAVE NO IDEA WHY THEY BOTH INDEPENDENTLY DECIDED TO START JUMPING FOR IT LAST NIGHT....
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and tsubaki has been very shy and stressed out since I got him. opal was doing great by comparison
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I think she was constipated for a while there and maybe still is a little, tho after her misadventure she took a MASSIVE dump so I guess at least theres that
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like a colossal fish turd
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so maybe being dehydrated and then rehydrated helped loosen up the pipes or something idk
CricketMomJenn
Oh my god CHILDREN WHY
CricketMomJenn
It might help if you get something like Seachem Prime for your conditioner if you're not already using that. But whyyyyy, children
CricketMomJenn
It's also quite possible she saw him jump out and decided to try herself
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I have a box between the tanks so hes not even more stressed out
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and no I've got api stress coat + and api aqua essential
CricketMomJenn
Damn, uh, hmm. My only jumper just tried to get out to cuddle with his favorite stuffed animal, so I don't have experience with stress jumping
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yeah idk I'm doing everything I can think of sksjdn
CricketMomJenn
Man API is pretty decent, too
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well
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poor opal has lost most of her fins after that trauma
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which I feel like is ultimately not really surprising
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all considered
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like they were dried against her and stuck to her and stuck together so. yeah that checks out
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other than that she seems to be doing pretty well
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shes not keeping one of her little side fins still like she was for most of yesterday and no longer seems to be favoring one side as she was
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not quite as lively and engaged as she was yet but I'd say pretty close, and she is still recovering
CricketMomJenn
Yeah, poor girl
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also, and more imporantly
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I did not have more escapes during the night
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so either the cling wrap worked or they've learned their lessons
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this is where her poor little fins are rn
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shes lost like half her length
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and shes got a scale on her head that looks sort of rough and raised
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and that black spot on her eye that I'm wondering if it's a bruise
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but on the whole she is doing good
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tsubaki seems to be doing a bit better, maybe, hopefully
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we shall see how it goes
beachcryptid
poor babies
CricketMomJenn
Oh I'm so glad the cling wrap is working