#this one pictured took 2.5 hours but talking to my friend distracted me and added to my time

[proteuus]

notebook I made tonight, I think it turned out really nice :-) !

[plantanarchy]

so I saw @drowsymanatee‘s fish timeline and saw a few other people do theirs as well and since I have a similar “started from the bottom” type timeline, here we go

Under a cut because large images lol

Age 5+

My first childhood fish and first real pet was a comet goldfish won at a fair when I was very young. Obviously the care was mostly in the hands of my mom and she did decently well for the fish, I think. At first, he lived in a small one gallon tank with another goldfish and a bunch of guppies (not the fancy kind... just regular guppies). I have a picture of that somewhere but can’t seem to find it currently. But eventually, he got moved into a 55 gallon with various other goldfish and it turned out he was actually a decently fancy veiltail and he turned completely white and lived ~8 years and maxed at ~8 inches long in the body, nearly a foot with his tail included. He should have been in a pond and the tank was way overstocked with fancies and single tails with nowhere near enough filtration.

Age ~12?

I also had a fish that was “mine” for a while who lived in a 10 gallon tank outside my bedroom that I called “Neighbor Fish” that I think was actually a silver dollar. My mom had tried to set up a tropical community with fish her friend didn’t want anymore and Neighbor Fish was an asshole to the other fish (I don’t blame him) so got separated and lived in the 10 gallon until his heater malfunctioned one day and cooked him. No pictures but I technically was in charge of him for a while and would feed him (but didn’t do water changes) Poor dude.

Age 19

In the beginning of my sophomore year at college, my ex and I decided to get two betta fish together. We kept them in one of those terrible 1/2 gallon “tanks”. They were named Michael and Lucifer because we thought we were clever lol

My suitemate who kept a betta in a heated, filtered 5 gallon told me it wouldn’t work longterm and I’d need a heater at least, so I got one of those but didn’t get a bigger tank. Yeah, needless to say, Lucifer passed within a month and Michael looked like this:

He clearly has fin rot in this picture and is underweight, stress stripey and just awful looking but I had no clue. I was distracted by my friends and by my relationship and I did do a 100% water change every week or so, but mostly I didn’t pay attention to Michael at all... eventually, I got him an “upgrade” into a 1 gallon tank with a bubbler from Petco that was on sale... and then second semester sophomore year, my friend went abroad, my ex was busy with rushing a frat and I had more free time... and that’s when the special interest level of fish research began.

First “real” tank, February 2014

I upgraded Michael to a heated, filtered 2.5 gallon after reading a lot on betta forums. I was taking a break from tumblr at the time but I eventually came back on tumblr that summer and discovered fishblr.

Soon, Michael looked like this:

I was really getting fond of him and the difference was incredible. 

Second tank, March 2014

Within a month I got a 5.5 gallon tank and a second betta named Kaiju. It was hideous and had bright blue gravel and didn’t have a lid for a long time.

First divider attempt, 3rd fish

So yeah, like an idiot, I tried to divide the 5.5 gallon tank with a craft mesh divider. Didn’t go so well, both fish were very stressed and I returned my third fish, Kenway, but actually went back and rebought him a few weeks later. 

And promptly panicked thinking my parents would hate me for having three fish tanks (lol in retrospect this is hilarious), so Kenway lived with my boyfriend for the summer and got less than stellar care.

Third tank, 4th fish

So as soon as I got home for the summer, I promptly got a third fish anyway... I had never seen a plakat betta in person before and the majority of fish I’d seen were not that interesting color-wise either and Odysssey was just... a dream. He lived in a 1.5 gallon Tetra cube which I actually really liked the look of... but was far too small.

Also, Kaiju got sand and a lid and his tank looked no longer super awful except it turned out the sand I got was too fine and developed some wicked anaerobic bacteria smell and it was awful. I replaced it with black sand within a few months lol

Age 20, Junior Year 2014-15

So I went back to school with three fish, plus Kenway who I took back not long after coming back. Michael passed in September and not long after, I got my first female betta, Wyn.

These were my tanks at this point:

And Wyn, when I first got her:

Divided 10, January 2015

So I found a $5 ten gallon at Good Will over winter break and divided Wyn and Odyssey (which was dumb) with a DIY mesh divider (which was not safe) and lit it with an under cabinet light ducktaped to the wall (which looked hideous holy shit)

Second divided 10 gallon

Found a $15 10 gallon with an Aquaclear filter (my first HOB) and a hood so I upgraded Kenway and Kaiju to an equally unsafe and ugly divided 10 but at least it was slightly less ugly. 

Then, that summer I took all my fish on an 8 hour road trip to NJ to be babysat by roommate while I was in Europe? I’m not sure why that was necessary but ok

First single betta 10 gallon, July 2015

About a month after returning from Europe, Odyssey unfortunately passed away. I decided to keep Wyn by herself in the 10 gallon because she loved the space so much. And I got an actual light. Wyn had grown into a beautiful lady fish and she was the best and most precious thing in the world to me.

No more divided tanks, Octoberish 2015 idk

Kaiju developed a tumor sometime in the beginning of my senior year of college and as his swimming began to deteriorate, I moved him into his own 10 gallon. Despite his tumor, he actually outlived Wyn, who passed unexpectedly after a year and one month with her.

Kaiju just before I put him to sleep:

And my Wyn’s resting place:

I cried for days after Wyn passed and didn’t really want much to do with the hobby. I still had Kenway but mostly just maintained his tank and didn’t do much with him. He was pretty slowed down by his big fins and was going blind.

Age 21, February 2016

After a few months, I brought home Durriyah, a new lady betta and put her in a HIDEOUS 10 gallon by herself ft. return of the awful blue gravel

Age 22, still 2016

I graduated and came home with two bettas in 10 gallon tanks. Towards the end of the summer, Kenway passed away, and I got Zazzle. And then a month later impulse bought Buzz and set up the third 10 gallon and got a rack. My ability to not make tanks look like garbage had improved significantly.

March 2017, Planted, Community Tank and Exponential Tank Increase Begins

So this is getting long as fuck but ok, in March I got ~employed~ so decided I had money for trying out planted tanks. Bad mistake, 10/10 do not recommend for the sake of your wallet. I also got into a bunch of fish Youtubers and tried out some DIY shit and became way more present in fishblr but also branched out more

I also added a small school of 8 ember tetras in my 10 gallon tank with Zazzle

They did pretty well together!

One month later (after some rearranging and some plant death)

20gal community, May?? Idk what is time

So then the next big fish thing was my decision to upgrade the planted 10 to a 20 and start an actual tropical community.

Planted 20 when first set up:

Most recent picture of the planted 20 ft. dwarf gourami, harlequin rasboras, ember tetras, and horned nerites. I am very proud of this tank today and though I’m currently dealing with some illness and lots of algae, it is eons better than my beginnings.

Some other stuff happened with my tanks within there but all that feels too recent to really talk about. Currently I have six bettas and 8 tanks overall. I continue to learn constantly, especially about plants, filtration, and fish illness. My fish opinions have changed SO MUCH since I was a wee baby betta blog back in 2014 it’s ridiculous... and I thought I knew shit back then and would attempt to give advice like a dumbass. 

Important fish thing to remember: you are ALWAYS LEARNING ALWAYS. There is always something you don’t know or haven’t encountered. Most of the advice you’ve heard/give others will turn out to be bogus. RESEARCH ALWAYS.

 And it’s also ok if your tanks are hideous because pretty tanks can be very very expensive and I feel you, I was cheap as fuck for a long time. Your fish doesn’t care that you have rainbow puke gravel and ugly tattered plants. Your fish just want food and clean water and not much else. 

Take risks, do your research, and branch out. Keep what you love, not what other people love. My favorite tank by far is my snail tank full of pest snails lol My favorite fish is my ugly, plain looking female who hides 99% of the time. I have been keeping fish for over four years and have made MANY mistakes and had a lot of ugly tanks and setbacks and times I almost quit. 

I have spilled a lot of water on stuff I shouldn’t have spilled water on. I have ended up with lots of sand in my bed and on my floor. I have gone through more towels than you can believe and blown a lot A LOT of money on nice pieces of wood and weird sponges and rocks. I can no longer sleep without the sound of a whole bunch of air pumps and filters. I wouldn’t trade any of it, even though I started off a bit rocky and almost quit after losing Wyn and would have way more surfaces and more money if I didn’t have fish. I can’t even imagine it though. My fish got me through a bunch of rough patches in college and tank maintenance has both caused me a lot of stress and eased my anxiety at the same time. 

Whew this is long please do not read this whole thing lawd