My Betta's Gone (coco)nuts!

My blue boy has a rich lifestyle with his 3 homes here is a picture of him leaving his coconut, the next is in the java moss (right behind his coconut) and finally he has a fancy little spot between the glass and amazon leaf at the top of the tank. A- NO ONE is allowed more than a few seconds near his homes, B- he uses all 3 regularly and C- he looks dead in all 3 places when he sleeps and I have a mini heart attack every other day for months now

 

Very cool - I miss a good beta..

 

I'd like to have 3 homes as well.

 

Bettas have a personallity of their own. Playing dead is one of them. At least they don't lie on their sides like some loaches do

 

Schoonraad">

...or sink to the bottom and curl up in the corner sleeping like my puffer does! LOL I know that feeling.....

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In April I got my brother to look after my fish and I forgot to mention that my Betts is a heavy sleeper... Needless to say I got a very panicked phone call one night because he thought he killed my boy

 

from our combined experiences, I'm coming to the conclusion that fish are jerks with a very dark sense of humour

 

Totally with you on this one.

I have a female Betta who death stares me on nights I don't feed. So I usually feed every other day due to having quite a lot of live stock and on nights I don't feed the one female parks in the corner of the tank and gives me death stares while I sit on the couch. At first I thought it was coincidence but then I showed my wife and she made a mental note to check out the Betta daily. After about a week she concluded the same. Hard to describe but it isn't the usual look she has when she's been fed or when just casually swimming around the tank. Only ever sits in this corner on nights I don't feed and if I move from the couch she moves with me so as not to break the stare.

Evil little witch fish?

 

@Slade Out of Interest how did you clean-out the inside of the coconut shell?

 

@David Kusner
found this link: https://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/threads/how-to-make-coconuts-into-caves.3999/

 

Ha ha ha "Evil little witch fish" thats an accurate description.

Out a small hole like I made AND wanting to eat the white flesh? With great difficulty! @top dog 's link he posted is the basics but for me the hardest part for me was the the inside bit, with a sharp thin knife cut "V's" deep into the flesh, right until you're scraping the shell, the V width should be about a tablespoons width, then with tablespoon or the knife you can tear the chunks out. To be honest it is easier if you want half shell caves (instead of a small hole like I made) and next time I'll be doing halves myself. If you don't want to eat the flesh then once you have a hole in the shell, boil it until there is a lot of tannins in the pot, the flesh becomes much softer and mostly dislodges from the outer shell.

 

@Slade, yup I made the hole with my diamond he saw the one you use to drill tanks it came out nice and clean with smooth edges, LOL I also spent hours digging out the flesh but it was nice. I have boiled it now and I think I got it clean. I hope my plecos appreciate all the hard work that went into their new diggs!!!

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How long does it take to boil it properly?
And where do you find coconuts? I remember pick n pay used to sell them but I haven't seen in a while

 

@David Kusner that hole makes me feel like throwing away mine and restarting and scooping the flesh out I found quite therapeutic, watched a movie at my brothers place and we all ate it as we scooped the 2 coconuts

@T. Guppy I got mine at fruit & veg, the one by me has coconuts most times in the year, else just randomly check in by P&P/Checkers/Spar, all of them should stock when its cheap enough for them to buy. As for boiling, its like driftwood, boiling is just to get get rid of tannins and help it sink, if you don't mind heavily tinted water or using something to weigh it down then you don't even need to boil.

 

Last night was time to sleep on the sword leaf so before lights out time I took a pic. He's wedged between the glass and the leaf and will spend hours sleeping like that with no need to swim, just lifting his head for the occasional gulp of air.

 

@Slade he is gorgeous and sounds like quite the character! Enjoy

 

Clever guy trying to blend in with the leaf. LOL.

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BTW here is the finished coconut,


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I've had to take care of eels a while ago. And one of them buried itself upside down under an ornament for 3 days. I thought it was dead so I was trying to net it out and it started darting all over the tank. So fish just like messing with you.