She ATE my Betta!

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

naughty Bluela, she's really in trouble tonight!! So it goes like this. I keep and occasionally breed betta fish. I always keep a male and a female in my snakeroom side by side in bowls on the table, for fun. The rest are in the dining room. The hex cage is located directly next to that table, and occasionally, when I am feeding those guys the two bigger females often will slide down onto the table to where the dish of salmon jello is and help themselves. I swear, they really do know to go there and get it!!! Well tonight, I was feeding those guys their salmon jello and they were extra excited about eating. I was trying to contain the male enough so that the salmon jello would not fly all over the place when he grabbed it because i already had enough of the stuff all over my hands, my face, my shirt and pants. (aggressive feeders and salmon jello do NOT mix haha). I was also at the same time trying to contain the two females OTHER than Bluela, my big florida blue girl, because they just would not stop trying to flop out of the doorway in their over-zealous attempts to eat. Bluela had just chugged down a huge piece and I saw her start sliding down for the bowl of food on the table, so i guided her head to it, and go back to dealing with the male who has now just grabbed salmon jello, rocket launched out of the cage and onto me and made a dash for the other side of the room, smearing salmon jello on the carpet the whole way.

So, I catch him, put him back in the cage and scold him for being so hyper, and then turn to see BLUELA with her HEAD in my female betta fish's bowl, SWALLOWING the female betta , salmon jello slop swirling all around in the water from her mouth. She did this all SO incredibly fast!!! She had to have used her vision to pinpoint and quickly strike the betta from the surface. A whole ten seconds and in that time she was able to decidedly ignore the salmon, a feat in itself for such a pig of a snake, and then shoot over to the fish bowl and scoot up and in for a gourmet snack. My guess is that the female betta picked the wrong time to display for the male and probably flashed around enough to catch her attention. So now I'm out a female betta fish!! I have others, but sheesh!!! Poor fish

[Jeff B]

Shannon,
sorry about you betta, but you have to admire your garter's hunting skills.
What kind of betta's do you breed? I bred black crowntails for awhile, it's pretty cool watching the males with their nests, and the babies grow so fast, but hatching the baby brine shrimp got to be a bit of a pain. I bet there are a ton of new varieties now.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Shannon,
sorry about you betta, but you have to admire your garter's hunting skills.
What kind of betta's do you breed? I bred black crowntails for awhile, it's pretty cool watching the males with their nests, and the babies grow so fast, but hatching the baby brine shrimp got to be a bit of a pain. I bet there are a ton of new varieties now.

Jeff,

I'm not really too sad about the Betta! I have a lot of them! IU just thought this was one of those stories I HAD to share. That was one heck of a stunt she pulled, and so quick! Right now I only have standard bettas, but I used to have a black crowntail, and I have kept crowntails in the past. I've used plain old fry food to feed babies in the past. I'm not doing any breeding ATM. (but I was kind of prepping that male and female)

[zooplan]

Hi Shannon,
shame on me!
I had to laugh when I read your story
On the other hand I´m imagining you "trying to bite your back" for that mistake.
Sorry for laughing, Shannon.
It´s a well written story!

[guidofatherof5]

Shannon,
Sorry to here about the fish, but you have a bigger problem. Think about it. Step back and look at this whole incident...... This was a conspiracy hatched up be your snakes. You were just a pawn. It was a precisely executed, well rehearsted plan. Imagine the time and planning that went into this. Late night meetings. Quiet whispers across the room as not to alert you. Notes passed while you weren't looking.
Oh, Shannon. This was no accident. Please be careful. You have fallen in amongst thieves. What's next! You wake up with your hands and feet bound with duct tape. Every enclosure open and the food stores empty.
This is only the beginning.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.

[drache]

Shannon
the whole scene is cracking me up - you with salmon jello all over you, the sneaky snake with the lightbulb in the thought bubble . . . .

[anji1971]

Yeah, sometimes it's very hard to believe they just go on instinct!
That really did seem like a well played out robbery scene..........."You distract her. I get fish. GO!"
Glad you shared that story, Shannon. Sure made me laugh!

[jitami]

Too funny Shannon Sorry about the betta... any idea if they contain thaiminase? LOL Kidding... just kidding

[bkhuff1s]

Does that mean I shouldn't put one in w/ my green tree python set up? lol

[gregmonsta]

one happy snakey ... maybe it was teamwork? .... she might be in cahoots with the male