Thursday, June 30, 2011

Updates on Squirt!

Squirt has now been with me for nearly a week. He seems to be quite happy. He is still very active swimming all around his tank. He is much more curious about me than Squirt the first. Squirt loves to swim right up to me when he sees me in front of the tank and when I walk past his tank he often follows me.


 He was scared of me for the first day, but now that I have fed him a few times he likes me quite a bit. He is quite athletic and loves to chase bubbles, attack the filter intake tube, and chase after his food. He also seems to like inspecting all of his gravel. He takes time each day to swim around and stare at the rocks. He also loves swimming through his cave and hanging out in the plants. He has also made his first bubble nest, and even spent a while guarding it. 


He does have slightly clamped fins, but they seem to be improving. I also noticed when I got him that he either has larger eyes than most bettas or popeye, which is a bacteria infection causing the infected fish's eyes to swell and if left untreated the eye could potentially burst and the fish could die.


 I am not sure if he really does have popeye, because his eyes aren't getting any bigger, and generally with popeye one eye would be bigger than the other and his are the same size. However, it is always better safe than sorry and since popeye is potentially fatal, I have medication that I am giving him that will deal with the popeye and should help with his clamped fins. 


He seems to be a very resilient fish. He did have one night where he was getting lethargic and lost a lot of his color, but by morning he was his usual bright red and back to be his usual active self and since then he has been doing very well. Hopefully his fins will get unclamped and he will be all healthy. 


I also noticed that he has signs of previously having fin rot or fin damage. Basically some of the ends of his fins are clear instead of red like they should be. The clear fins are basically new fin growth, which is a good sign and means he healed from the fin rot/ damage. They will eventually get red like the rest of him, but that takes a while. Since he healed from his previous fin damage, I am hoping he will be able to get over his clamped fins and possible popeye soon.



Friday, June 24, 2011

Pictures of Squirt!!!!

Here are some pictures of Squirt the second, my new betta fish. He is a red male double-tail betta fish. 



Squirt!


Squirt in his cave



I spy with my little eye... a camouflaged Squirt!





A good view of his double tail. It looks like a heart! <3



If you want to see videos of Squirt the second, check out my youtube channel. The link to it is under "Critter Corner's Favorite Sites" on the right.


Squirt the second!!!!!

I got Squirt the Second today!!!!


He is a red male (obviously) double-tail betta. Double- tail bettas basically have two tail fins or a split tail fin. 


He is active and seems very healthy, and he has NO CLAMPED FINS!!! Yay! He seems quite proud, he loves to fan out all of his fins. He loves the tank, he did a lot of exploring and he loves the newest silk plant in there. It has a lot of good hiding places and he likes to rest on the cupped leaves. He also for some reason likes to go and sit in the filter flow. Fortunately my filter is very gentle. 


I will put up some pictures and videos of him later today. 


I got him at Petco this time instead of Petsmart. I know I said before that I generally thought the Petsmart bettas were healthier than the Petco ones, but it seems they flop back and forth. Lately at Petsmart I see at least five dead ones when I go and a LOT of the bettas have severely clamped fins like squirt the first did. So I went to Petco and today they had a TON of bettas. My mom and I estimated that they had around sixty or more bettas. And what was very impressive is that out of all of them I only saw one or two dead ones and one or two unhealthy ones. Most of them seemed pretty happy and healthy. 


I am guessing that a lot of the bettas just arrived at Petco since they had so many and they all seemed pretty healthy.  They had a lot of cool varieties too. They had pretty much every tail type imaginable. They had veiltails and crowntails (the only two kinds sold at Petsmart), plakats, delta-tails, double-tails, and all sorts of beautiful colors. They even had mulit- colored bettas. I even saw a fuschia pink and purple betta. That is not a color often seen. I thought about getting that one but I really have a thing for the red ones, and Squirt the second looked very healthy and all fanned out. 


Oh yeah, they even had King bettas. Basically those are a type of male bettas that have short fins but they are HUGE betta fish. The ones I saw were a good two inches or more longer that my fish and mine has long fins. So those were some really big bettas. About four inches long. I had never actually seen a king betta before. I kind of felt sorry for them in the cups because the cups are small even for the little bettas, but for those giant bettas they are really cramped.


I am quite happy with Squirt the second. He is cute, and seems very healthy. He also isn't a maniac bubble nest maker like Squirt the first, which was cute but seemed rather odd. I hope everything goes well with this one.


I also had to buy a new cave, which was my fault this time because I was cleaning the tank and I dropped the one I had and it broke in half. So, I bought another one. I also bought some "biozyme" which is just another bacteria to try since my cycling process is not quite finishing. And I got some "ammonia neutralizer" because since the cycling process doesn't want to finish there is a small amount of ammonia (which I measured and isn't enough to stress out Squirt at the level it is at right now) but just in case I got the ammonia neutralizer which neutralizes the ammonia to prevent it from stressing the fish, but doesn't completely remove the ammonia (removing the ammonia would ruin the cycling process because the good bacteria feed on the ammonia).  I also have some salt in the tank now to help keep Squirt healthy. 




So I will post some pictures and videos of Squirt later today!!!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

new videos!!!

I just posted two new videos!!! They are of wild critters in my yard this time. Speaking of which we have a cute wild rabbit or hare that hangs around our house, but he/she is to quick for a video! I would love to catch him/her on tape though! Anyway if you want to see the videos go to my youtube channel. The link is on the sidebar on the right under "Critter Corner's Favorite Sites"

Enjoy!

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Shelter Pet Profile!!

Here is this week's shelter pet profile:


Peppermint Patty


Peppermint Patty is a 2-month old, female kitten. She is a grey and white tabby. She is very sweet, and very CUTE!!! (of course, there is no such thing as a kitten that isn't cute!) Peppermint Patty was brought to the shelter because her owner could no longer afford her, and was adopted recently, but was returned after just a few days in her new home. She is a sweet kitten, but she is a bit timid and will take time to adjust to her new home. She gets along pretty well with the other kittens and would probably be fine in a home with other pets as long as she can take her time about getting used to them. She is fairly cuddly and likes to her to be pet behind her ears. She would probably like a quiet home and someone who would be able to spend a lot of time with her. 


To see pictures of Peppermint Patty check out her petfinder page: http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/19884452
CAUTION! YOU MAY SUFFER SHOCK FROM A CUTENESS OVERLOAD!!! : )

Monday, June 20, 2011

AWESOME NEWS!!!! / updates

I have fantastic news that I have to share!!!!


This week at the shelter 24 cats, 4 dogs, a snake, a gerbil, and a guinea pig all were adopted!!! One especially awesome adoption was Creamsicle, a cat who has been at the shelter since November. 


Yay!!!




Updates!


I plan on getting Squirt the second soon! 


New videos will be up this week!


A new shelter profile will be up this week!

Monday, June 13, 2011

New videos!!!

There are two new videos up on my youtube channel! If you want to see them click the link to my youtube channel under Critter Corner's favorite sites on the sidebar on the right.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Just spreading the word!

I'm just spreading the word that June is adopt-a-cat month at the Kennebec Valley Humane Society! This means that all cats over the age of six-months have no adoption fee. Yep, that means they are free! The shelter does this, because it is summertime which means a LOT of cats are coming in, and they shelter is overflowing with cats and kittens and space is needed for new cats and kittens coming in.


So if anyone reading this is thinking about getting another cat, check out the Kennebec Valley Humane Society!





Updates and this week's shelter profile

So...

Hopefully tomorrow I will be putting a few new videos on my youtube channel! And I will probably post a few pictures up too. 

Fish tank update!!!

Still waiting... and waiting.... it's like watching bacteria grow. Literally. And it takes a long, long, long, time.  So I have a whole lot of ammonia in the tank, and I am still waiting for some bacteria to come along and eat it...

I did some more tank cycling research and found a site that suggests doing water changes every couple of days once there is plenty of ammonia. So I am probably going to try that, since nothing is happening yet. I did a small water change today because the tank was starting to get gross... and the filter needed to be changed. Hopefully the process starts to move along so I can get Squirt the second!

Shelter profile:

Remmie and Marty

Remmie and Marty are a pair of male, albino rats. Their age is unknown. They have been here for a while even though they are some of the best rats around! They definitely should go home together, since they are quite attached to each other (like two peas in a pod!) and rats do not do well living by themselves generally. They are very friendly boys and let me hold them and pet them. They are very curious and love to be involved in what you are doing. They love it when I clean their cage. They like to sit in the litter scoop, chase my hands around, and climb on the bars like ninja rats. They like having a hideout with a soft towel or blanket to sleep in and their favorite treats are yogurt drops for rats. 

To see pictures of Remmie and Marty check out their petfinder page:http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/19826698

(by the way I have no idea which one is Remmie and which one is Marty. They look EXACTLY the same. One of them seems to be more outgoing than the other, but that is pretty much the only difference.)

Oh! And Patches (the rabbit from last week's profile) has a petfinder page now so if you want to see pictures of Patches check it out: http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/19804876

Update: oops. I lied. No picture of Patches, although there is some information on his petfinder page if you want to read it. I don't know why they didn't put a picture on it, because I know they have some of him. You'll just have to take my word for it: he is super cute!!!!

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Shelter profile!

This week's shelter profile is a rabbit named Patches.


Patches is a grey and white English Spot with really pretty markings. He is two years old and probably weighs around five pounds. He seems to be very healthy and he is pretty friendly. He is a little shy right now and is still adjusting to his new surroundings, but he is definitely very friendly. He can be easily handled and lets me pick him up without struggling. According to the staff Patches is good with kids and reacts pretty well to other pets as long as they are supervised. I am litter box training him, which is going really well. He likes having a hide box to hang out in, and one of his favorite things to do is flip over his food dish and dump all the pellets out. He is a really great rabbit, and he is very good natured and friendly. He would be a great rabbit for just about anyone!


Patches does not have a petfinder page


I don't know if Patches is neutered or not. He is very good natured for an un-neutered male, but he does do some marking once in a while.