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feeling: better and... sleepy
listening to: Maaya Sakamoto - Hemisphere
I am going to memorize every word of this song if it takes me my life.
Anyway... here's a funny and very long and probably boring story. :P
Way back about 4 weeks ago, I noticed my betta, Phoenix, was acting sluggish and itchy (rubbing himself on things) and had his fins all closed up tight. Knew he was sick, but didn't know what with. One of the foremost possibilities was velvet, an external parasite that looks like a fine golden dust all over a fish, usually only visible with a magnifying glass or under a flashlight. I couldn't see any velvet, but I started medication for it anyway, because it is often fatal if untreated. So for 9 days I used this stuff called Maracide that's supposed to kill pretty much all external parasites. But it didn't work, so after consulting with betta expert I decided he had ich, another external parasite that's tougher to kill (I guess). We decided I needed Rid Ich, which is stronger, to cure it. Well, by then it would've been day 10 of Maracide - this was Wednesday - and I was to come home for winter break. Parents came to pick me up, and we left Phoenix in my dorm, intending to come back for him after doing some shopping. Eventually we went to Aquarium Adventure, where I bought Phoenix, and I had some water tests done but they didn't have Rid Ich, so we went on to a little crummy pet store around the corner. They didn't have Rid Ich either. Finally we went to Petco. I don't like that place much, but I knew they'd have Rid Ich, so in Dad and I went while Mom stayed in the car.
Now the fun begins. On the way to the fish supply aisles we passed by the bettas, and of course I had to stop and look. There's all the usual red, blue, turquoise etc. bettas you see for sale everywhere, in those evil little cups of doom, flaring at each other. But then... standing out above all the rest was this GORGEOUS fish with a body color I couldn't begin to name - lavender, pink, and red all layered on each other, I think - and fins that were red and white marbled. I'd never seen coloring like that, except at professional betta breeders' websites under a color strain called Apache. Also, it looked like both a combtail and a delta tail, which means its fins were almost show quality compared to the standard veiltail bettas local pet stores sell. Anyway, this creature was gorgeous. Even my dad thought he was pretty. THAT is a sign from the heavens. :P
So... guess what?
I bought the fish.
Knowing full well that I had nowhere good to keep him.
Well, we left the store with the Rid Ich and the new betta, and as we returned to the car I asked dad to slap me, but he wouldn't. He was terribly amused by the whole thing, I think. :P So then when we got back to the car, Mom slapped Dad for letting me buy it. 9u9;;
And then we went on to Media Play, where my parents intended to let me pick out at least part of my Christmas giftage. Sadly I had to leave the new betta out in the car, in the freezing cold, wrapped in my dad's insulated coat. Fortunately that was enough, and he wasn't a fishsicle when we got back. And after that Dad wanted to get dinner at a nice sit-down restaurant. I couldn't leave the fish outside again... so I brought him inside with me. *~* Hey, he stayed warm and the waiter didn't say a word :3
Sooo, finally, a couple hours later, we got home. I realized all I had to put the new betta in was the vase Mitsu lived and died in. It had been nuked with bleach, so I dechlor-ed it and set it up. I didn't wanna have to use that thing again. It's too small and it's a pain to keep up because of the narrow top. -_- But I had no choice... hopefully before break's over he'll be in his own 2g tank like Phoenix. He seems all right for now, though. But he still deserves better. He's gorgeous. I just made him flare at a mirror for the first time, and HOLY FARKIN' CRAP @__@ I tried to take pics with my webcam but they all came out crappy T_T... I must keep trying... this guy is WILD *ultraswoon* and he deserves to have his pics hawked all over the internet *o*
...also :P, this afternoon I started Phoenix on his Rid Ich treatment at last. 10 hours later, he was already looking more active and had his fins more opened up than I've seen them in weeks. ^^ Naturally I am encouraged, for the first time. Understand, this has been going on for I think well over 4 weeks - a month or so - and for the last half of that period, every time I looked in his tank I expected to find him dead. He looked that pathetic. Now suddenly, within half a day, I see this much improvement. Pardon my rejoicing. :3~
Ok, that ends my long funny story. I'm gonna go to bed now.
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dragged from Becky's stream of consciousness at 12/13/2002 12:57:00 AM
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