Additions to the Family

About a month ago, K.C. and I found out we would be having some new members added to our small family. I am very excited to introduce you to the new little boy and girl that have joined us.

Meet Male

(Sorry he is hard to see against the background, but this was the best picture showing his fins and colors)

and Female

Ha ha! Maybe I tricked you into thinking we were expecting, but probably not. Just thought I'd have a bit of fun with the scenario while I could. :-D

Since moving into our apartment here in Logan, some things I felt were very needed was a pet and a plant of some sort. On campus housing only allows fish, so a fish is what I wanted.

K.C.'s Mom, Kathy, remembered the desires I had expressed early in the summer, and surprised me with both of those things for my 20th birthday. (I'm so old now! ;-)) I don't know what type of plant she gave (looks like some sort of palm), but she have me a male and female beta as well. I had a female beta once when I was younger and all she did was sit there - trés boring. Needless to say, I was worried these two fish would be the same way. Luckily, it has been the complete opposite! Both are very active and are constantly swimming around their small homes. When we get home from class or work, they both frantically swim toward the door, going crazy to see us. It is nice always having someone waiting at home excited to see you again. :-)

You may have noticed, or even expected, that they are kept in separate fish bowls - they are Siamese Fighting fish after all. Originally we had them in the same bowl thinking they might mate and give us lots of baby betas - what fun would that be! After 24 hours with them swimming around together though, we realized that was simply not going to work. Definitely not love at first sight. The female must have gotten fed up with the male strutting around and showing off his big fins and brilliant colors. After just a couple hours, she started beating up on him! One time we walked in to see their jaws locked together in a death grip! I tried to implement a form of "timeout" on her but the effect did not last long. Sadly, the male's flowing fins took the brunt of her jabs and quickly fell apart.

After doing some research, we found out that fish fins will eventually grow back, although they will probably never match their original grandeur. If you look closely at the pictures or video you'll see where the ventral fins have been slowly growing back. Because of what she had done, those first several days I told myself I wouldn't care if the female died. Now that the situation has passed, I am very glad she is still with us.

Next to the male's bowl we have situated a small hand mirror. If you hold it up next to the glass so he can see his reflection, he will get very prideful and fan out to show off his beauty. It probably gives him anxiety every time we do it, but he looks just so cool! Check it out -

On a side note, we still have not come up with names for our fish - we simply just keep calling them "Male" and "Female." If anyone has some ideas they would like to share, I'd be up for any suggestions!