06/23/03 Part Two

(…Continued)

I played musical fish last night. I was looking in my fish tanks and realized something was wrong. You see Arthur, is a very large fish. He’s full grown and I had him living in a one gallon fish tank. Albert on the other hand is a juvenile and is still very small. He’s about half the size of Arthur and I had him in the 2 gallon. Albert seemed a bit stressed in the 2 gallon. You see, bettas require more space than most people think. Betta hexes for instance, are way too small. They need at least one gallon to really live. One gallon is just right for small bettas. Larger bettas should really have 2 gallons or more. Some bettas though can get stressed out if they have too much territory to patrol. That’s what was happening to Albert, he went from a tiny little cup in the store to a 2 gallon and that was just too much for him to patrol. He was stress striping and hiding. When they get really big they’re usually okay in big tanks. Anyway, I swapped them out and went to bed. Albert is much happier in the one gallon, he was flaring and playing with his neighbors and Arthur looked like he had enough room. My little girl betta is doing great, she’s awful funny. They’re quite different from their male counterparts. She seems to like Larry but she spends most of her time poking around in her marbles. All my fish do that though, they poke around in their marbles like they’re going to find a tasty morsel but I don’t know where they get that idea because I feed them floating pellets and they always eat them before they sink. I’d really like to breed my bettas but as it stands I don’t have the time to take care of and/or sell my babies. I dunno though, I doubt it’d be all that hard. I’m thinking more seriously about studying up on betta genetics and breeding them. If I were to do it right and sell high quality fish locally and over the internet I could make a pretty penny and possibly put myself through college that way. High quality bettas can go for between $20.00 and $200.00 a peice depending. Considering they have between 50 and 100 babies that’s a pretty penny!! I’d have quite a bit of studying up to do but it might be fun. Even without making money off it, it would be a really fun hobby. Every empty spot in my house would end up filled by a fish. *Grin* I’d drive hubby insane.

I haven’t done a Sara update in awhile. She’s a pain in the butt. Goldens are puppies for the first two years of their life so I hear. Everyone so far has said patience is something you’ll need the first two years of your goldens life. Well, we’re almost 6 months through the first year! lol She’s adorable though. She only really drives us insane when she’s pushing her limits. Like the other day hubby was trying to get her to give up her greenie so she could go outside to potty and instead of giving up the greenie she squated where she stood. She’ll also try to outsmart you occasionally and when you tell her to crate up she’ll act like she’s going to and then dart in to the other room. Those damn greenies brought out the worst in her though. By god she’s not crating up, she’s going to continue laying on the floor chewing her greenie. My moms golden will back her in to a corner by the treat cabinet. They’re smart dogs and that’s part of the problem. They’re going to push their limits and try to outsmart you and/or dominate you.

It’s getting close to time to get Sara spayed. I’m not really looking forward to that because I don’t like leaving my pets anywhere. Dogs are easier though, god, I was a wreck when we had to leave our cat Kenny at the vet for his neutering. He’s so clingy and the vet had us take him downstairs to put him in the cage. That was, BY FAR, the hardest thing I ever had to do. Put him in the cage with all those unfamiliar animals and smells and walk out without him. The look on his face nearly killed me. I felt like he thought I was abandoning him, I couldn’t work that day, I just sat there anticipating the call from the vet saying he’s ready to go home and dammit, we left work as soon as they called. I love my animals more than anything in the whole world.

*sigh* Anyway, I’ve been sitting here typing for an hour and a half. This entry has gotten way longer than I ever expected it to. I don’t have anything to do so maybe I’ll go do some research on betta breeding and some various other things. 🙂