Meet Aurum

          This week, I thought it would be a nice change of pace to take a break from tank-setups to introduce you to a new addition to my Betta babies. This week, I’ll be discussing his personality (believe it or not, Bettas have personalities...and big ones!), as well as where he came from. Meet Aurum, named after the Latin name for gold. 

 

From Where?

            Aurum is actually a rescue from Petsmart, which my mother had brought home to me. She told me she was at Petsmart shopping for cat-toys when she noticed a woman was arguing with one of the faculty in the fish department. The woman was holding this betta up to the man who worked there and was telling him that the fish was sick and had tuberculosis, which would spread to the other fish unless he disposed of it. The man took the betta from the woman and was walking toward the back-room when my mom stopped him and said she would take it home to her daughter (me) who is a betta fanatic. My mom paid the full price for him and brought him home to me. He looked very sickly, but it was definitely not tuberculosis (thankfully).

            His cup was filled with his own waste and his gills were inflamed from a bacterial infection. I didn’t waste time to take photos of him in his cup (I never do)…but he did look pretty rough. I got him into a quarantine tank with fresh water and a bit of aquarium salt to fend off the harmful bacteria in his lungs. I was worried he would not make it through the night, but I woke up yesterday morning to find an active and healthy betta. His gill coverings are now lying flat instead of sticking out, and his colors are now vibrant and beautiful. Compared to how they were when I first moved him into the tank. In the picture below, you can kind of see how his gill coverings are sticking out, just a bit, from his body.

 

          His colors in this photo are also very dull compared to how he looks now. I’m very happy that he is doing better; I’ve always wanted a yellow betta and never have been able to find them before.

Personality/Hobbies

Aurum is obsessed with his pink, plastic plant.

 

         He loves to rest on the broad leafs, and hide between the branches. When I have a Betta in a quarantine tank, I do not put them with real plants, in order to protect the plants from possibly being infected. Once his two-weeks are up in the quarantine tank, I will move him to a larger tank with real plants for him to hide in and rest on.

 

          Aurum likes to spend most of his time watching people outside of his tank as he swims past…mostly me.

          Aurum gave himself a bit of a scare when he saw another betta looking in on him, it took him a while to discover that it was just his own reflection and he had no need to flare. You can kind of see how red his gills are on the inside, they should actually be pink. It will take a little while for his gills to heal from the bacteria damaging them.

 

          Aurum finally discovered that he was only seeing himself, and he is now obsessed with his own reflection. He also enjoys staring into his thermometer to see himself; it is pretty amusing watching him cross his eyes in order to see his shrunken reflection in the bowed glass of the thermometer. I think he knows he is a pretty boy (lol). I really love this photo; his fins are very beautiful and graceful looking.

         **Well, that is all I have for you today, no lessons this week, just casual posting! I hope you enjoyed it regardless of the lack of a lesson!**