Tell me about your oldest betta

[starlight]

My oldest betta is named JD (Jim Dandy) He's a small graceful smoke plakat. He's considered a smoke but he's dark jet black. A friend of mine bred this male. I first saw him as a young juvie in Jan 2003 and I flipped over him. He was a keeper and my friend had many other sibling fry in the grow out tank. He told me I could have any of the others when they got bigger. I never heard anything again and figured the fry didn't work out. In May 2003 I was thrilled when out of the blue he handed me a bag and gave me JD. He was my first plakat.

JD first lived in a small bowl and then a planted filtered 2G. He went back in a small bowl and now he's back in his original 2G. He doesn't seem to mind where he is and I think if I put him in a 20G, he'd stay in the same 5" x 8" space that he always occupies.

He's a smallish male that doesn't like to see other males. Loves to chase the ladies (Jim Dandy). He's always been healthy but doesn't swim around much. He'll go through periods in which he's cranky and doesn't do much for days. Then all of a sudden he's zooming around (briefly) but is very feisty. He never misses a meal. The other day I fed all the bettas except JD. Well JD wasn't going to let that happen. He started zooming back and forth, doing the betta dance until it caught my attention. Then I realized that I forgot to feed him.

I can always tell how JD is doing by looking at his eyes. His eyes are jet black like his body. When JD is feeling good you can't see his eyes.

JD 2 years 8+ months and counting.

[Minaku]

Oo, good thread, starlight.

My oldest betta is Boris, short for Borealis, that I got from a PetCo last year. We've been through some troubles because of my poor fishkeeping skills when I first started, but he's toughed it out. He's a very plucky fish, and nothing short of old age will kill him, I think.

We've been through both columnaris and fungus. He's only recently fully recovered from the damage columnaris did to him - took him a roundabout 7 months to regain most of his gill, labyrinth, and mouth function. Before he was skimming the surface and building up enough speed to poke out of the water. Now he can breach the surface like any other betta, and skims only once in a while. He can also eat pellets now! I've tossed the flakes, and hope never to see them again.

Since he is Betta Emeritus at 18+ months old, he was the lucky fish to move into the new 5 gallon tank I got over the weekend. I think he deserves it as Head Betta. Although I guess he was nervous and took it out on his hornwort by stripping it bare...

[supersixone]

my oldest is Triton, a royal blue plakat male. in the summer of 2003, i got it into my head that i needed a female betta community tank. off in search i went for a store that carried females. these days, i can find girls almost anywhere, but back then they were a bit harder to find. i searched all the usual shops until i came upon a dark, smelly mom and pop shop that claimed to have female bettas. much to my horror, there were 5 tiny girls in a container likely no more than 1/4 gallon. one looked far too ill to accept, but i grabbed an employee and made him bag the other 4 for me.

i took them home, and one died within an hour. another was standing on her head, which i knew was a sign of illness. i brought both back to the store, posthaste. they didn't want to refund me for the dead fish and instead told me to go pick out another female, but by that point the remaining girl was also dead. reluctantly, they refunded me. they refused to refund the sick fish. since i was reasonably new to bettas, i didn't know how to treat her. i didn't care about the money, so i left the fish with them anyway. i knew i had no idea what to do with her, so i figured she'd stand just as good a chance there as with me.

i took my remaining two girls home and put them in 1 gallon containers. i had a tiny blue girl with red on her anal fin, whom I named BlueBelle, and a tiny brownish gray girl, who later turned out to be a nice red and was thusly dubbed Pepper. i then set back out to hunt for more females to complete the community. it was during that hunt that i discovered the abundance of gorgeous girls at my local walmart. i bought a lovely pastel girl, brought her home, and set up my tank.

things were fine for the first day or so, and then BlueBelle started terrorizing everyone. i posted a photo of her online, and someone pointed out that "she" had finnage that was shaped suspiciously like a plakat. i checked for an ovipositor and discovered "she" was a male plakat. he was rechristened Triton and relocated to a 5 gallon home of his own. he has since at least tripled in size, and not a trace remains of the red wash he once sported. he is a big, beautiful solid blue, very active, and healthy as a horse

[starlight]

In the past week JD's become much more active. I see him zooming around a bit each day. He even checked out his java fern which he never does. I have a cute young red bf female next to him. In the past he didn't want to see/play with her. This week I've let them see each other every day. For a couple of minutes he likes to flare with her. He even flared with Flash (male from my breeding) that was pretty surprising. He seems to be occupying around 1/2 of his 2G tank. I think JD somehow knew what I posted and it made him mad! When I approach his tank he starts biting the glass and carrying on and I can't see his eyes!

[Rachel]

Great thread starlight.

While most of my bettas have lived to be around 2+ years, the most notable betta was my first one. His name was Rudy and he was just a plain dark purple and red veil tail that I got at a really crappy pet store in town (that no longer gets my business). He had a strong thick body and fins that were nothing to brag about. To me he was a gorgeous fish though.

Rudy was sure in for a ride, lol. Being my first betta he got to deal with my learning curve, but he didn't care. For the first part of his time with me he went through having a non-heated tank, the same boring food everyday, me trying out different water change techniques, etc. He was always a friendly betta and as I started improving his care he really gained energy and became a feisty fish. His favorite flaring game was chasing a little remote controlled car back and forth on the counter.

He first started out in a small 3/4 gallon bowl, then was later upgraded to a 2 gallon Critter Keeper tank. He had his assortment of silk plants and his favorite place to hide out was in his plastic hamster tube. It was a purple decoration shaped to look like a little log. When I'd come home I'd see him stick his head out and then come to check out what the action was. He was a great betta for me to start out the hobby with.

Here is pic of him. It's certainly not the best shot, but it's one of the few that I still have.


Looking back this picture practically feels ancient at this point, even though I’ve only been keeping bettas a few years. For a while now I’ve used only live plants in my betta tanks, they’re all heated, and have a much more natural look to them with decorations and substrates such as sand. Rudy started it all for me though.