The Partly Sad History of Abbie's Betta Fish

I first became interested in keeping fish a couple of years ago while living in Salinas, CA.  I started, as many uninformed people do, with a single male betta fish in a fairly small "tank."  It was only 1/2 gallon and unfiltered, and I did full water changes on it when it seemed to need it.  Naturally such a small tank got dirty and smelly quite often, but I didn't realize at the time that betta fish needed a larger space, indeed, I had heard that they prefer small spaces.  When I left California I had to give my betta away as I had no idea how to transport a fish all the way to Georgia.

After a few months in Georgia, I bought a 2.5 gallon Aqueon Betta Bow filtered tank with a divider in the middle with the thought of putting two betta fish in it.  Wouldn't you know, the very next day a beautiful blue betta fish was found abandoned on a desk at work in a filthy vase.  Upon hearing someone suggest that the fish was about to make "the journey" I volunteered to take him home and decided Journey was a good name for him.  I put Journey in one side of the tank and a dragonscale betta from pet smart in the other side.  The dragonscale I named Sengsungnim, which roughly means Honorable (Dead) Fish (the kind you eat), figuring my cat, Lilu, would approve of the name since she seemed so interested when she discovered the tank.  Sadly, Journey only lived for a couple of weeks before he died and made "the journey," possibly because of the conditions he had lived in before.  Sengsungnim lived for several months until he got some sort of a tumor, and died a month or so after that.

About this time I figured it might be a good idea to stop giving my fish prophetic names.  I bought a new blue betta fish and this one I simply named Indy - short for Indigo.  He currently resides in the 2.5 gallon tank with 2 apple snails and natural plants.  One thing about Indy, he really doesn't like ghost shrimp, or perhaps he likes them too much.  In any event, any ghost shrimp deposited in his tank soon becomes snail food, which can be quite handy if I'm trying to get rid of ghost shrimp.

I also have now a male half-moon double tail plakat betta named Sumo which I got a couple of weeks ago for my repurposed Aquaview 360 3 gallon planted and filtered tank.  He shares his tank with one apple snail.  He is a very unusual color, kind of a dark green, and seems quite happy with his tank so far, as long as I keep the bubbler off.  He doesn't eat too much yet, perhaps still acclimating to all the extra swimming room, but he made the largest bubble nest I've seen yet.