A story about the power of Bettas.
My 8 year old son has been in the hospital for 7 months now due to intenstinal organ failure. We have had so many release dates taken away from us due to various complications arising. He's celebrated a birthday and ALL holidays in the hospital. Christmas was hard, suicidal ideation was getting to be intense. My husband and I called it a good day if our son only wished he was dead 3 times per day. A common thing he said was also "I have no purpose"
To be clear, we are so creative. I could create a subpost on all the different things we have done to keep him going…but nothing worked like a Betta.
To give him purpose I snuck a Betta fish into the hospital. He named her after a character in Zelda BOTW – Mipha. I don't know if he realises the depth to his name choice, but the fact that Miphas Grace revives Link isn't lost on us. My son has purpose. He hasn't wished he was dead since Mipha came into his life. He has a schedule he feeds her with/lights on and off etc. So I just wanted to share this uplifting story.
Small note: please don't tank shame. It's 3.5 gallons with a mix of real and fake plants. I went with the biggest tank I could sneak in and thought I was doing 1 gallon more than the min since the PetSmart guy told me 2.5gallons was enough. I have since learned better. Mipha will absolutely get a bigger tank when we go home.
https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1qgpa1m
Posted by ComprehensiveRest965
3 Comments
Did u cycle the water? Because if u didn’t that beta will die soon
Sad or not this beta will not make it home if u don’t cycle the tank the plants are gonna die because not nutrition and id get the water test strips to see the water hardness and other stuff
I think this is awesome. 3.5G is totally feasible while they are still in hospital, just a bit more work. I would make sure you have a small heater and a sponge filter to keep Miphas as healthy as possible. Something to test the water with as well. Liquid test kits are most accurate, but might be to unwieldy in the hospital for now, so strips might be the more practical choice. Liquid test kits also have chemicals that are not safe for kids to handle. You might want to do two small weekly water changes to keep the ammonia down without disrupting the stability too much.
Very happy that your little one is enjoying having a fish! People can be a little short on here – don’t love the tone, but much of the advice is indeed helpful in the longer term when you go home.