What is wrong with me?

[jocelyn]

Ok, I know that question has many, many answers.

Anyhow.

The Fly has been on hunger strike because he\'s upset about what has happened to childrens\' television programming. So I decided to try live food, instead of frozen/thawed, to get him eating again. My local place didn\'t have any hoppers (mice who have just opened their eyes) available, so I got him a very small mouse instead thinking maybe that would work. Well, the mouse was too big for The Fly, so I put the mouse back in a cardboard box. I was going to give it to my cat (kind of sadistic, I know) but the cat wasn\'t around. Well, the mouse got out of the box, and I trapped it under a glass. Problem is, then I forgot about it, and went to bed. I woke up this morning, and remembered, oh shit, the stupid mouse. When I picked up the glass, the mouse was all wobbly and looked just terrible, probably from not getting enough oxygen/any water all night. Soooo I decided to keep the stupid mouse, because I feel really bad for putting him through so much hell. He\'s really cute, super tiny with gray and white spots and huge ears. I don\'t really WANT a mouse, but what else can I do? I feel like a monster! I haven\'t gotten a cage yet because I don\'t know if he is going to live or not. Right now he\'s in my cricket box, which has no crickets in it. His name is Stupid Mouse.

:mickey::mickey::mickey::minnie::minnie::minnie:

[peaches626]

Animal people are weird.

[derickw]

you named it....... you\'re all done

[phirehead]

I think that\'s sweet. I hope that mouse makes it. He\'s had a hard road.
We have a beta fish and I\'m trying like hell to keep it alive so it doesn\'t die on my daughter. She\'ll be so upset.
But it won\'t eat and it just keeps bumping into the side of the tank.

[FrankZappa]

you should keep stupid mouse until he\'s back to full health, then depending on the current size of the fly, feed stupid mouse to the fly as origionally intended or release him into the woods.

That has to be one of the strangest sentences I\'ve ever penned.

[SlimPickens]

LOL!!  Hysterical.

My mental picture of life in the Jocelyn household is quite trippy.

[derickw]

I think that\'s sweet. I hope that mouse makes it. He\'s had a hard road.
We have a beta fish and I\'m trying like hell to keep it alive so it doesn\'t die on my daughter. She\'ll be so upset.
But it won\'t eat and it just keeps bumping into the side of the tank.

make sure the water is warm enough

[freddiewaht]

<< chicken/phish only

[Gfunk]

<< chicken/phish only

You raise chickens Wah? I wouldn\'t have pegged you as the chicken farmer type.:rooster:

[jocelyn]

I think that\'s sweet. I hope that mouse makes it. He\'s had a hard road.
We have a beta fish and I\'m trying like hell to keep it alive so it doesn\'t die on my daughter. She\'ll be so upset.
But it won\'t eat and it just keeps bumping into the side of the tank.

Could be a couple of things. Could be too much use of aquarium salts (even those intended for freshwater fish like betas.) A sudden change in environment (temperature etc.) could also bother your fish. Make sure the temp is between 76 and 82 degrees.

It sounds like it could also be Swim Bladder Disorder. Other symptoms include bloating (can be hard to recognize) and swimming crooked/tilted. Your fish may seem to have lost his buoyancy, and/or he may become a "floater" stuck towards the top of his tank.

Try fasting him for 24-48 hours. (Fasting actually helps with quite a few ailments apparently.) After this, cook a pea and feed the inside to your fish (no skin/shell) on a flat-tipped toothpick. (This will probably take a few tries. I have done it before, it\'s difficult.)

SBD usually is pretty correctible. James\' fish seemed on death\'s door and we had him healthy within a week.

I also found out that your fish will be happier if you feed him a variety of foods beyond the pelleted betta food most people feed. Mixing in glassworms or bloodworms (get \'em frozen, scratch off a chunk, and drop in water) every once and a while is pretty easy and cheap. Avoid feeding brine shrimp often, however.

Hope your fish feels better....

:mickey: Also, Stupid Mouse has made a full recovery and likes his new home very much. He\'s active and alert and enjoying chewing on his hanging basket-house that he\'s supposed to sleep in, not eat.

[ds673488]

what a heroic tale of bravery and might

one of thse days ill tell you animal people about the miraculous frog in my basement story.

[jocelyn]

Oh, Amy, also, a great website with lots of information about beta illnesses is http://www.healthybeta.com

what a heroic tale of bravery and might

one of thse days ill tell you animal people about the miraculous frog in my basement story.

:lol:

Regarding the Frog Story, let\'s hear it! I love frogs! I have an awesome one named Nelson Compass. He has humungous eyes and red legs.

[bezerker]

damn joc that is a cute story

[ds673488]

Oh, Amy, also, a great website with lots of information about beta illnesses is http://www.healthybeta.com

what a heroic tale of bravery and might

one of thse days ill tell you animal people about the miraculous frog in my basement story.

:lol:

Regarding the Frog Story, let\'s hear it! I love frogs! I have an awesome one named Nelson Compass. He has humungous eyes and red legs.

from what ive heard so far, i picture your house being like ace ventura\'s with wild animals running around.

ill tell the frog story soon, i just cant now cause im studying for my last final.

one quick story though about bettas.  my family was given one in a bowl about 8 or 9 years ago.  Apparently (i didnt know this), their life span is about 2-3 years.  For some reason ours exceeded this by an incredible amount.  It lived for over 5 years.  and the best part about the whole situation is that we pretty much forgot we had it.  We rarely ever fed it...sometimes my mom would be like "dave has anyone fed the fish recently?"  and we\'d realize that we hadnt fed it in over 2 weeks.  We would go on vacations and just totally forget to tell anyone to feed it while we were gone.  We also rarely ever cleaned its bowl, it was so discusting at times.  But the fish somehow lived about double its life expectancy.  It just swam in a circle every day for 5 and a half years.  what a trooper.

[Lexington]

jocelyn, I have done this before as well. Bought a mouse from the pet store for fezzik and we had to keep it for one reason or another. I thought it was really cute and wanted it as a pet. Eventually I got sick of taking care of it and had Alexi feed it to him. I guess I just loved my snake more.

-Sallyalli