Connor, Warrior Fish

So I got a fish.

Thumbnail: Connor side-view

A Siamese fight­ing fish, or Betta, named Connor to be exact. I want­ed some­thing live­ly in my room, since I spend so much time in it. When I went to the store with Pat and Jen, they noticed that one fish was con­stant­ly flar­ing and swim­ming in cir­cles, almost like he was pac­ing. The fish in the cup next to him (to keep them sep­a­rate or they fight to the death) kept set­ting him off, so nat­u­ral­ly, he was the one. As a clown­tail vari­ant, his fins are extend­ed long like a comb.

I also got some live plants with which came a tiny snail, so small that he was trans­par­ent at first. After a few weeks, he grew con­sid­er­ably big­ger, and sur­vived a cou­ple hours out of water while I was clean­ing out the tank. Bronwen named him Humphrey, but he has since died, found dried up at the top of the tank one morn­ing.

Bettas are fun­ny crea­tures. Supposedly, they have per­son­al­i­ties (for fish), but I can nev­er tell with pets I can’t touch. Sure, he swims towards me every time I turns on the lights or enter the room, but for all I know he could think of me as food. I can only tell that he’s very aggres­sive, flar­ing out his body and swim­ming back and forth when­ev­er some­thing gets near enough. It’s like he’s a caged glad­i­a­tor, rest­less about his next bat­tle. Dolly likes to sit in my chair and watch him go.

Thumbnail: Connor flares
Thumbnail: Connor flares
Thumbnail: Connor macro
Thumbnail: Pale Connor

I named him Connor, after the immor­tal Connor MacLeod from Highlander, because THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE (Betta in a bowl at a time).

10 comments

  1. I miss Humphrey…:(

  2. Teehee. I love the nam­ing the­o­ry. He’s extreme­ly pret­ty but I’ve nev­er been able to iden­ti­fy with fish (which isn’t real­ly sur­pris­ing).

  3. He’s in great shape too! All our bet­tas look chewed up down here.
    I had black and white mol­lies once in one tank. I saw them in the store in one tank and thought they were trav­el­ling in beau­ti­ful waves. I did­n’t real­ize till I got some home that they were chas­ing each oth­er in a life and death strug­gle.… thanks a lot, Petco.…

  4. @Bronwen — So do I. Snails, being noc­tur­nal, only move around at night. It was fun to see where he would end up in the morn­ing. Since I nev­er got to see him move, it was like he mag­i­cal­ly trans­port­ed around.

    @Bean — The great thing about Bettas is that they’re cheap, hardy, and can still look rel­a­tive­ly unique. I’ve nev­er been able to iden­ti­fy with fish either though.

    @Xibee — Actually, a lot of pet stores here sell sick­ly ani­mals. I gen­er­al­ly don’t trust pet stores (mall stores espe­cial­ly), and pre­fer to buy from a breed­er, but Bettas seemed like a safe bet. I hear some peo­ple actu­al­ly feel com­pelled to “res­cue” (buy) fish from stores like Walmart because the con­di­tions are so bad.

    @Jono Cono — Thanks! Fish pho­tog­ra­phy, with all the poor light­ing, reflec­tions from the bowl, and jit­tery swim­ming, is a lot hard­er than I ever imag­ined.

  5. that’s a darn good-look­ing fish. I’ve been want­i­ng to have a pet fish (and a cat).

  6. @Aaron — Of course you love the name. It’s Scottish!

    @guili — That’s the great thing about Betta’s. They’re cheap, they’re hardy, and they’re beau­ti­ful. You have to be care­ful with the cat and fish com­bo though…just make sure the bowl is heavy enough that the cat does­n’t knock it over.

  7. Awwww… he is (was) very good look­ing! Far more than I imag­ined. Definitely inter­est­ing. Sad where he end­ed up.… in a toi­let. What a shame.

    At least he’s moved on from this crazy tech­no world. I will keep him in my prayers today.

    • Yes, he was quite a feisty and attrac­tive fish. I sus­pect that he may have been in pain before pass­ing on, some I’m just glad that he’s not suf­fer­ing any­more.

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