I may have bit off a lot to chew on with six bettas. I remember in college, different girls on the hall bought betta fishes, keeping them in tiny containers of water and commenting on their chronic half-dead behavior and occasionally cleaning the bowls. I joined the club, but to be different I bought a goldfish. To be more different, I bought a black goldfish, which reminded me of a hammerhead shark the way its eyes boggled sideways. Ibble-ka-Dibble was a very peppy fish, who always wanted to fly out over the rooftops as seen below my dorm window. Or so I interpreted his headbanging in the direction of the window. (Once, while my roommate checked her email before we headed to lunch together, she heard me saying "I know you really want to fly out over the rooftops..." and responded, "I'm coming, I'm coming!" later explaining that she thought I was just giving one of my strange metaphors.)
Alas, Ibble-ka-Dibble was not the same fish when I came home from working at a camp the following summer. Having survived most of the summer in the care of my family, he got a little overneglected just weeks before my return, and they replaced him without telling me. His change of personality was the first thing I noticed. I gave him to my dad to keep at his office, but alas, nor was Ibble-ka-Dibble II long for this world.
That was my experience in fish-keeping, back in 2006.
Now when I recall the scummy fishbowls of Alpha Hall I shudder slightly. I would actually like to treat these six beautiful fish with kindness and dignity.
So I've given all but two of them luxurious 2-gallon homes
(what did two of them do to get 2-quart homes, you ask? Nothing....it's just what I bought. I am a little bit sorry.)
The plastic lids were dividers to keep the fish from seeing each other and getting angry and stressed out, but I've removed them now, and they don't seem to care.
But I mentioned the cat, Charlie. He sometimes wants to come meet the fish, and under supervision, I don't mind letting him.
And that is an introduction to my fish adoption.
