Here's to new friendships!

3rd April 2009:
I received my first ever aquarium in the mail. I was overjoyed - well, atleast until I opened the packaging, after that I was a little overwhelmed. It had a million parts and attachments! A filter, some filter media, an aquarium heater, a thermometer, and some plants. A little intimidated, I postponed the task of putting together the apparatus (yep, that's what it seemed like!) till the weekend.

4th April 2009:
Come Saturday, I sat down with the bunch of manuals that came with the aquarium before me. Thankfully, I had a (saner and probably smarter) friend help me out. I could not believe I was actually going through with this. I mean, I'd been researching and reading up about bettas for over a month now. Theoretically, I knew exactly what I needed to do and how, to keep it safe and healthy. But it kept coming back to me again and again - for the first time, I was going to be responsible for another living being's health and happiness. It was a big responsibility. I was a little apprehensive. What if I did the wrong things? What if I forgot to feed it one fine day? Or worse (and knowing me, more likely), what if I overfed it and made it sick? Trying to shun these thoughts away, I sat down to assemble this thing, so I could bring home my new friend on Sunday.
After about an hour of work (which included arguments, spilled water, some superglue, and a forever broken thermometer), the aquarium was all set! The plants (plastic, but great-looking nonetheless), the Greek ruins-like decorations, and the lights made it look amazingly beautiful. The filtration and the heating were up and running too! All the home needed now was someone to occupy it!

5th April 2009:
It was a cold, windy day.
At about 3pm, I set out for the Petco at Crossroads, Bellevue. I couldn't contain my excitement! I had a couple of concerns, though. How would I know which one to pick? How could I tell which one liked me, and wanted to spend the rest of its life in my house? Or did it not matter at all? Confused, I headed towards the aisle where they housed the bettas. There they were, in shockingly tiny containers they barely had room to move in. I picked up a bowl and looked in - it was a male red crowntail betta. At roughly 3 inches, he was huge. He barely moved. Maybe it was the tiny bowl, but I decided to look at some more. I picked up at least 15-20 more bowls, but was unable to zero in on one. I was running out of options. Would I have to go look in more stores? I didn't want to. I was anxious to take my pet home with me that very day. Thankfully, the friend I'd gone with spotted around 10 more bettas housed in a different aisle. My hopes sky-high again, I walked towards those. The first guy I picked up was an electric blue crowntail. He was a little smaller than the others, but what struck me about him was that he was swimming all about in his minuscule bowl. I think I saw him look up at me, but that could very well just be my imagination at work. I knew I wanted to take him home with me. But just to be sure, I looked at a couple more. In the end, it was either him, or a slightly bigger red crowntail. The choice was easy. Mr. Blue was mine! I hurried home with him. He seemed to be in a state of constant surprise - from the time we left the store till the time we got home - I guess it was the sudden burst of sunlight, and all the sudden jerks in the car on the way home. Well, he was in for a much bigger surprise! I carefully placed his tiny bowl in my 10 gallon tank, just so the water temperature equalized so he wouldn't be shocked when I put him in the tank. After about 20 minutes or so, i let him out of his bowl, into his new home. The first couple of seconds, he didn't seem to move at all. After that, he set out to explore. After his bowl, this probably seemed like the Pacific Ocean to him. He went up to each tree, the Greek structure, the filter, and the heater, trying to pick out his favorite spot. He settled on this tall tree - that extended all the way to the top of the water. He'd dart out every few minutes - sometimes to stick his tail under the filter (he seems to like the current), sometimes to feel the warmth close to the heater, and sometimes just for fun. That evening, I spent over three hours sitting by his tank, just watching him move about.

It's been a week since I brought him home now. He seems to have taken to his new residence rather well. He's comfortable in every corner, and he knows where his food comes from. Everytime I go close to his tank, he comes running (swimming real fast, rather :P) to his 'food corner'. He eats like a pig, seems to enjoy music (he seems more active when there's music playing - I've got speakers right beside his tank), loves human company, gets super-mad at his own reflection - because he thinks its another fish trying to take over his territory. He's a lot of fun, but he also needs to be taken care of like a little baby. During his first week with me, he's had an upset stomach (I had to feed him boiled peas to make him feel better :P), he's torn his tail a little bit - he keeps sticking it in the filter for some reason, and I had to cover the filter with this real thin piece of cloth so he wouldn't hurt himself again.

Having him around has helped me learn a lot about new responsibilities and how to handle them. In addition, I'm also learning a lot about fish. Besides, the aquarium looks great in my living room ;)

Hurray! I finally got myself a pet!

Oh, and by the way, I call him Nachos. :)