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I am new and isolated


rainbowfish

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Hi,

I have joined up here to learn and hopefully find some new friends! I have just had a very upsetting start to Betta keeping...

I am 30, female and possibly the only person who dosn't know anything about iphones lol I sort of live in the bush... I don't watch much TV I just sort of live in my own world. Im an artist I do wire scultpure, garden art, paint and draw a bit I might paint some betta's... or make some betta wire sculptures. I never knew how many colours shapes and sizes they came in I was amazed and just had to get into it :) I live surrounded by animals I have 3 ponies... I ride one he is a skittish stressed out boy who was a bit traumatised by some little bratts and loves to run flat out and not stop lol took off with me a couple of months ago in a football field long story lol. another smaller one that is old, he was a rescue case never been ridden he was scared of people he is now known as Big dog and he is a lovely albino and I take him for walks into town and he carries stuff home for me sometimes. I have another baby colt who is called Chevy but everyone calls him little dog because he acts like one.

I have a cat that hangs out with the ponies... and has a craving for bird seed if a parrot drops a seed on the floor or under the aviary he is onto it and the chickens chase him he sometimes rides on the horse with me and sits on my shoulder. I have 2 dogs, a dingo x and a maremma sheepdog who loves the cat and the birds and gaurds them with ferocity. I used to breed chinese silky chickens but got out of it they are really hard work and the climate is too damp here for them so now I just have a few left. I also have old english gamefowl that run free and raise their own chics one of my roosters will chase you for miles and try to mate with your shoes and legs or attack you depending on his mood. I also have ducks...they were dying in a pen nearby with a pair of peacocks living in horrid conditions, I took the parent ducks and the babies that were half dead when I got them... and they turned out really pretty. I had geese once... everyone was terrified of them and I am now banned from having geese on the property. I do a lot of gardening I like unusual plants and growing things. I have 3 fish ponds, a small one that has no fish its for frogs. Another 150 litre with goldfish on the deck... and a big 600L in the garden that was here when I moved in but it has a crack in it somewhere and leaks so its out of action for now. It is also too far from a powerpoint to run a pump.

I also breed some parrots I built some suspended aviaries I have 4 pairs of indian ringnecks pastel violet, pied, albino, blue and 2 pairs of alexandrines. One pair should breed this season they have a 4m long suspended aviary I built them. I have a pair of Java finches and some budgies most of them are tame and latch onto you like leaches lol noone likes my birds, their scared of them or hate the noise. We also have a talking rainbow lorrikeet and I have a 9 year old scaley breasted lorrikeet female and a sun conure they are pets not for breeding. I havnt gone 'out' to a job much in years so I am home all day most of the week, I suffered depression and anxiety for many years I have some other health problems and just couldnt face the world anymore. I tried for years but it was doing me no good. I get panic attacks in the city I just couldnt live there anymore. I quite prefer the company of animals to most people unless they are a bit different like me and love animals too.

I live down south about an hour and a half from wollongong, and don't drive, have only a few buses a day to the closest train and it takes an hour and a half to get there... then another wait for the train, another hour to wollongong and I have about an hour or so there before I have to come back because the last bus leaves the train at 5pm... sucky big time lol I basically only go to town when someone else is driving there and there is little in the way of good places to buy fish especially Betta's. So I looked into buying off the net, and found out that AAE don't do my area or whatever courier they use so I couldnt pick up or get the fish. I don't know any breeders down here so I ended up going to 2 pet shops and bought a CT male from one shop that appeared healthy, and another pair of CT nice ones I liked them I think the colour is cambodian pale body red fins with a bit of blue... anyway I am new to Betta's but have done a lot of research but have only ever kept cold water fish.

I had a quarantine tank set up for arrival with a heat pad, mulitple jars for water changes to put them in while I cleaned the tank, I have another 50L tank set up and beggining to heat up and cycle I have the heater set to 26c. The quarantine tank I raised very slowly and its up to 24and a half now. My fear was that the pet stores had them in cold water small jars and a sudden change of temp and tank size might shock them. So I adjusted them slowly... I had 2 breeder nets in the tank for the males and the female free swimming it was working great for 24 hours till the males started... sitting on the nets. Anyway I will save the rest for another post in the right place... I joined up here to try and find other people who breed and raise them the right way to source good stock from and talk to about bettas and learn about tropicals. I will just say my first experience has been upsetting... and my PH is 7 on the mark straight out of the tap... drops to 6.7 - 6.8 after 24 hours I usually have to add PH up after 3 days or it drops quickly .

You see I have noone to talk to about these things... I think I have driven my friends and family nuts. , I live on 2 acres the only reason I put up with being stuck in this area are my birds and my horses I just can't afford to move. I spend so much time alone when I start talking I cant shut up and people get cranky lol maybe if I talked about celebs and TV shows that would be fine but I don't care about those things. I do have aspergers... its a form of autism and once I get going about a subject of interest I can't stop lol

I will end by saying if you just read all that and would still like to get to know me and welcome me here rather than run screaming in the opposite direction then I would be really happy :)

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JHA - you're a great welcomer!

Welcome madam rainbow fish, you have come to the right place....

We're just a straight forward helpful bunch of people who are also pretty fish-mad and will quite happily talk about fish until the proverbial cows come home (which it sounds like is more probable at your house than it is at mine)

There's lots of information on here, and no problem you have is likely to be a new one, so use the search engine function, and ask as many questions as you like.

We're gluttons for photos, so perhaps think about setting up a photobucket account and sharing images if you have some - of any or ALL of your animals.

You must have your hands full looking after all those pets!

I struggle with one dog, one ferral pigeon one horse, 3 housemates & eighty fish....

Anyway - welcome, we look forward to getting to know you.

-Ness

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Welcome to the forum Rainbowfish! Plenty of fish nerds on here to keep you busy talking all things fishy. Don't be afraid to ask any questions, there are alway people on here willing to answer/help. As Ness said, we all LOVE photos!

Hope to see you around the forums!

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Hello and welcome mate! This is a lovely friendly place to hang out and make friends :hug:

I can definitely relate to a lot of your situation, with anxiety and stress disorders; I have PTSS (post-traumatic stress disorder) and know nothing at all about iphones and similar technology! We have 40 acres out 'woop-woop', milk our goats, have all sorts of furry, feathered and finnie house-mates, and love just having a few friends who are as left-field as we are.

You will find we are a real mix of folk on here, and you will fit right in if you love finnie-people, especially bettas :fish:

smiles,

Deb

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hi rainbowfish, welcome!

Sounds like you've got a nice range of animals up where you're at. I wish I could have a few more but I don't have enough space. One day I'll get myself a nice plot of land out near a deserted beach somewhere.

Why were people terrified of the geese?

How did you come across the peacocks?

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The peacocks a man from up the road stopped in one day and asked me if I wanted them, they were his wifes and she couldn't be bothered looking after them so I said ok lol I had chook pens already so I joined them into one big pen clipped the peacocks wings and raised the fences they can fly up a 30M gumtree otherwise or take off down the road. I am hoping for babies this summer.

The geese were very aggressive and chased everybody and a few times flew at my mother and attacked from above, and attacked the dog, AND took over the garage and moved into the store room under the house one year to make nests I found dozens of goose eggs after none hatched but they went bad lol and they wouldnt let us go in there! A grown male can do you some damage. I had muscovy ducks too I used to show them they were called mammoth which are really big I had a male bigger than a goose and he was vicious too. A big muscovy attacked my friend and my father and my father ended up falling and breaking his ankle. Big birds... lol

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