Well...
First I bought a Blue Betta Fish from Petsmart in Morganton with a 5 gallon tank set up.
Then I bought 5 Neon Tetras and 5 Rasbora's from Tropical Fish for Sale... they were supposed to be good tank mates for a Betta. (I got them on sale which helped cover the over-nighting fee.) Around $100.
Then within a week, everything died except for the Blue Betta and 1 Neon Tettra.
So I ordered another 6 Neon Tetras, 5 Rasboras, and 2 Julii Cory's to help keep the tank clean. Another $100
Within two days, the Blue Betta was dead.
Within two more days, the 5 Rasboras were dead.
I ordered two female Bettas from Prismbettas.com... which were STUPID expensive. We're talking $38 each and imported from Thighland as show quality Bettas. I ordered females so I could have more than 1. Another $100.
Within 24 hours, both female Bettas were dead.
I'd effing had it at this point.
During all this bullshit, I'd bought a water testing kit, I'd read dozens of articles, tried to remember everything I could about raising fish... and couldn't figure out why nothing was working. Even though at times the 5 gallon was overstocked, the ammonia levels were still negligible because of water changes...
So after the gym one morning, I waited until Walmart opened at 6am, went inside and bought a 10 gallon tank kit(Which was only $34!!!) and some fake plants, some different food, and some other stuff.
Put together the new aquarium, put in the new plant decorations, and moved the 7 surviving and apparently invincible Neon Tetra's into it. And hurled everything else from the old tank into the trashcan in a righteous childish rage.
Two days later, they were still alive.
So this past Friday, driving back from Statesville, I stopped off at the Petsmart in Hickory and bought another Betta. (The one in the picture). This time it was like fish shopping at the pound. Poor things in little containers. Anyways, bought one for $10 with a 14 day guarantee!! (The $32 ones only had a 1 hour guarantee from time they arrive.)
I did everything right, acclimated him, put him in, and he's in there terrorizing the tetras cause it turns out he's pretty aggressive.
So what went wrong?
Simple.
When I bought my first tank set up, I let my daughter pick out the decoration. She picked out this godawful looking coral thingy... and I promptly washed it in the DISHWASHER.
And the dishwasher soap, especially the 'squeaky clean no haze' additives got absorbed into the decoration and had been poisoning all my fish the entire time.
So there's all the places I bought and murdered fishies from.
