Friday, June 21, 2013

A Blish by any other name is still a Blish

Hello - I am the newest in a long long long
line of Blishes - Old Blish who you met some weeks back is still happy in his retirement tank.

Now for those that do not know I am a Betta Splenda of the CrownTail variety. In days of old I use to be called a Siamese Fighting Fish as Siam (which is now called Thailand) is where my species originated from. Can you believe our kind lived in rice paddies - of coarse those far distant relatives are no where as fancy as me or as colorful - they are mostly a reddish brown.

I am also what is called a labyrinth fish - which means I have lungs - teeny tiny ones - but yes lungs - and I breath air which means I prefer shallow tanks and lots of plants to rest on as it is tiring always popping up to the surface for a gulp of air.

Another amazing fact about my kind - is when we breed - we males build very special bubble nests that float on the surface. We secrete a sticky substance that holds the bubbles together.   Our kind lay eggs and when our lady friend is ready - we will wrap ourselves around her and squeeze out one egg at a time. As she drops the egg we catch it in our mouth and then blow it into the bubble nest. We do that over and over again - 50 times or more. (Most good breeders do not allow more then twenty eggs at a time though as it is very exhausting for the females).

Of coarse there is also a reason we are called fighting fish - we don't like other males. Do you know in some places they fight us on purpose and make bets on the us - THE HAND says it is a terrible practice akin to rooster and dog fighting .....as we fight to the death. THE HAND says it should be banned! We do not even like to see ourselves reflected in our tank glass or a mirror (a game many children like to play with us - but it is a stressful thing to do to us) Our fighting instinct is so strong it kicks in when we are only a week old  and all the babies have to be separated into individual containers so as not to kill each other!!!! At that age we are about the size of a mosquito larvae and already willing to take on the world!

If you are wondering why I don't have any gravel in my tank - there is a reason for that. You see one lone little fish like me eats very very little and food would fall into the gravel and basically rot there making my tank water all yucky - so THE HAND prefers to keep my tank and water nice and clean for me. I do have a filter in my tank but it is very gentle as our kind do not like moving water very much.   We can actually do okay in a community tank but often find other fish like to nibble on our fins - so a solitary life is just fine for us.


By the way  - my tank has been reverberating with the thud thud of those fuzzy waterless things that I keep seeing swishing by my tank. They even make my water shimmy when they make that evil barking noise. I hope THE HAND does something about them or I may have to pick a fight with them!

Here I am in all my glory - and yes that is my real color - you can ewww and ahhhh now !


19 comments:

  1. WOW Blish we gotta say this... you are ONE HANDSOME GUY fur SURE.
    We know a FEW of the facts about your kind... butt WOW.. there was a LOT we did NOT know and we THANK YOU very VERY much for educating us. We of Blogville Love EVERY Species.. except SQUIRRELS. THOSE are EVIL creatures. LUNGS... you have LUNGS. AMAZING !!
    THANKS Beta... ooops we mean BUDDY.

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  2. You are beautiful. We've only seen the reddish ones. We knew about the fighting, but not the other stuff. You are intriguing.

    XXXOOO Daisy, Bella & Roxy

    But remember...a dog's gotta bark.

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  3. YOU are extremely handsome, Blish!

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  4. What a very handsome fish you are your got the most beautiful blue colour. From Milo & Jet

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  5. That sure is interesting stuff
    Snuggles,
    Benny & Lily

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  6. You are beautifuls!! Ummmm, I mean HANDSOME!! If you were in my house, I would come and stare at you too!!
    Kisses,
    Ruby ♥

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  7. Blish you are incredibly beautiful.
    Blessings,
    Goose

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  8. Blish thank you for telling us all about your kind. That was fascinating. Wow you guys are very territorial at such a young age. Baby Ninja killing fish. We enjoyed that.
    Have a super Saturday.
    Best wishes Molly

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  9. You are sure one beautiful fishie and we loved getting to know you, Blish!

    Love ya lots♥
    Mitch and Molly

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  10. You are really interesting! Thanks for sharing all that information. Who knew fish had lungs?

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  11. Hey Blish!
    Wow, you are astounding! What a gorgeous color of blue and I really enjoyed all of those fun facts. Betas are very good parents right from the start.
    BTW: Hey Reilly, thanks for joining my Water Mania event today, my furiend!
    Grr and a Wet Woof,
    Sarge, Water Mania Host

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  12. I have kept a Beta for more than 20 years now...There's been a long line of them, the oldest lasting about 2 years...and you taught me something today...I never knew that about their lungs...One question - do you use live plants or artificial?

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  13. We have seen those in the fish shop, they put a mirror in the tank and they fight their own reflection, beautiful fish xx00xx

    Mollie and Alfie

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  14. Wow how interesting , I had no idea they breath air. Very cool fish.

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  15. We have a betta living with us too. (we always have at least one) But I didn't know some of the facts you shared, thanks!

    BTW - our betta looks similar to you!

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  16. Oh, I am so excited! Another of my kind is blogging! I haven't yet blogged, but I want to! I'm a female crowntail Beta, and my name is Cleopatra. I have a friend, who is called Pippin, and he's a Red male Double tail male. -Cleopatra.

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Thank you for woofing at us - we read each and every one of them