Lincoln

[Bogertophis]

Well, my to you brave souls trying to get their water just right. Healthy tropical fish are so amazing to watch, relaxing & Zen, just as you said.

Funny you compared fish to hots, I was thinking along the same lines- but with hots, you're worrying about avoiding mistakes that kill you, whereas with fish, you worry about mistakes that kills them. Both are awful prospects. My sister & her family had an aquarium years ago, but after about a year, they lost all their fish to some sort of illness & gave up. That would be heartbreaking.

I do love to look at fish & aquariums but I've stayed out of trying to keep fish- they're just outside my comfort level I guess. I'd sooner take in a rattlesnake, lol- at least I have experience with that. Besides, I love swimming so much, I'd spend my whole day just being jealous, like that movie, "The Incredible Mr. Limpet". Anyway, thanks for sharing Lincoln with us...as with many other things here, I'll just have to enjoy yours. But I wouldn't be surprised if you inspire some others to try keeping fish.

[dakski]

Well, my to you brave souls trying to get their water just right. Healthy tropical fish are so amazing to watch, relaxing & Zen, just as you said.

Funny you compared fish to hots, I was thinking along the same lines- but with hots, you're worrying about avoiding mistakes that kill you, whereas with fish, you worry about mistakes that kills them. Both are awful prospects. My sister & her family had an aquarium years ago, but after about a year, they lost all their fish to some sort of illness & gave up. That would be heartbreaking.

I do love to look at fish & aquariums but I've stayed out of trying to keep fish- they're just outside my comfort level I guess. I'd sooner take in a rattlesnake, lol- at least I have experience with that. Besides, I love swimming so much, I'd spend my whole day just being jealous, like that movie, "The Incredible Mr. Limpet". Anyway, thanks for sharing Lincoln with us...as with many other things here, I'll just have to enjoy yours. But I wouldn't be surprised if you inspire some others to try keeping fish.

First, as you describe, hots and fish are both delicate hobbies, but the consequences differ. In that way, the are the inverse of each other .

However, I think you bring up a good point. Many people do not value fish the same way as other animals. We see that with reptiles as well, but I think it's worse with fish. It's also difficult, because within the hobby, many fish are valued less than others. After all, many fish are cannibals and eat other fish. So a "feeder" guppy or goldfish is regarded as food where as a beautiful Flowerhorn who eats them is a prize.

Even Bettas are bred to fight each other in some places and are not ornamental and valued for their beauty and charm like Lincoln is.

I know it happens, but how many people can feed a healthy live lizard to a snake or a snake to a snake. We somehow see more a connection there. I am also not saying it's wrong. Just making a point. After all, we feed rodents to our snakes and they are intelligent and innocent creatures more closely related to humans than fish are. However, nature can be cruel and such is life. In my younger years of feeding live rodents and live fish to fish wasn't analyzed as much. However, either I've grown a heart, or a healthy disrespect for replicating all of nature in captivity. I now value life more than I used to. I can't even fish anymore. Don't want to hurt the fish.

Of course, many people fish and hunt, etc. I do not judge at all, assuming it's as much for sustenance as sport. I admit I am not a fan of people who kill to kill. Snakes don't do that!

Secondly, if people put the same effort into fish keeping as many do into reptiles, and saw the parallels and not the differences, I think they would be successful.

Unfortunately, one of the parallels is, at times, doing too much too fast and starting over their skill level.

You probably wouldn't recommend someone wanting a pet snake to start with a rattlesnake. Nor would I recommend starting the hobby with 75G+ Flowerhorn tank or saltwater tank. However, this happens all the time. Again, not danger to the owner, but danger to the animals, and burnout is frequent.

As stated earlier though, and you admit, fish keeping and maintaining tanks can be very rewarding and relaxing in a different way.

I love Behira (female BI) to death. However, watching her for 10 minutes during the day is about as interesting as watching algae grow in Lincoln's tank . She sleeps all day. Big whoop. Having said that, the only real interaction I get with Lincoln is him either begging for food, or eating. I can't exactly take him out and interact with him. Behira is 100X more enjoyable in that regard. Worse even is Figment, Solana, and Shayna (2 corns and a female BP). They hide 97% of the time during the day and you wouldn't even know they were there. However, and again, they are very interactive outside of their environment and also when being fed.

I think Trinityblood made a good analogy in the thread for his/her saltwater tank. How fish tanks are ecosystem and with reptiles it's more about the animal than the environment they are kept in (I am paraphrasing).

In closing, I do hope I can inspire people to keep fish, if that makes them happy and they can be successful and see the parallels. I think other users here can do the same too.

P.S. Boger, I could pretty much literally swim in my 240G Frontosa tank. 8X2X2'. Also, they were very interactive fish. I watched them breed and they would eat out of my hand.

[dakski]

Ammonia was the same as +/- as last time at about 0.25ppm. Low and nothing to worry about. I did not see Nitrite and did not check Nitrate.

Katie continues to love Lincoln and he's a pretty good office buddy for me.

I am still working on cleaning the office, but do plan to move him next to my work computer. The office is pretty messy, but really, I've been feeling kind of bleh the past few days, and haven't exactly been killing the cleaning.

[Trinityblood]

Glad he's working out! Do you plan to do any aquascaping in the future?

[dakski]

No plans on aquascaping, Trinityblood. Keeping it simple.

It's day 9 and ammonia is still below 0.25ppm with no nitrite and nitrate yet. I added the Seed product for 7 days straight as instructed.

I talked to the fish store today and they said that's totally normal. One of the things Seed is supposed to do it keep ammonia low while the tank cycles. It looks like it may take a few weeks to fully cycle, but if ammonia and nitrites stay low, that's okay.

I plan to do a small water change today or tomorrow.

In the mean time, Lincoln is doing awesome.

I found two protein rich betta foods for him and got the first today and he loves it.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It has much higher protein than the common betta foods (55%+ vs. 38%) and fillers like wheat are the last ingredients, not the second. It's made with blackworms, fish meal, brine meal, etc.

I also ordered this:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0886Z5VPM...ing=UTF8&psc=1

I will report on how he likes it.

He gets frozen bloodworms every few days and loves those. I plan to get some frozen brine shrimp as well.

Also, still cleaning office and haven't moved him yet, but plan to when I do the water change.

I'll keep everyone posted and I'll post pictures again soon.

[Bogertophis]

"Bug Bites"? Gotta love creative names for products.

[dakski]

We offered Lincoln the Bug Bites flakes tonight.

He hated them. Spit them out.

He loves, loves, loves, the new betta pellets with the higher protein content. So that will be his staple food along with blood worms (frozen) every few days. I also plan to get some frozen brine shrimp and daphnia and see if he likes those as well.

I'll keep everyone posted.

[Bogertophis]

We offered Lincoln the Bug Bites flakes tonight.

He hated them. Spit them out...

No sense of humor, I guess?

[dakski]

Lincoln continues to thrive. I did a 35% water change today and syphoned up all the waste from the bottom of the tank. That should help keep things clean and not overload the tank.

Of course in that tank, that's all of about 1.5G of water.

I'll post video soon of him loving his food, but in the meantime, here are some more pics.

[Zincubus]

I love the colourful fake plants but they do kinda take your eyes away from your beautiful Betta ..

I’d try some plain green foliage instead to make his colours absolutely ‘pop’ ... you can easily swap back


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