Welcome Angelina

Angelina

Last weekend we got a companion for Armando, our sole remaining fish. We originally bought Armando as a companion for the late Big Red, because siamese fighters look depressed if they don't have another fish to threaten and/or strut their stuff for. They both suffered some kind of neurological damage that I originally attributed to my use of expired water ager, but the same problem occurred when I bought new water ager and used it in Brisbane tap water, so I can only attribute the problem to some kind of change in the water. The water wound up smelling like photography chemicals and Big Red (who was really old) eventually died. Since then I've been buying (low chloride) bottled water to put in his bowl, and Armando perked up a lot but still struggled to feed well and move around properly. He hadn't lost his zest for life as fish seem to do when they're sick, but he wasn't moving around very well and I figured I'd be looking after a 'handicapped' fish for the rest of his little life. I didn't buy him a companion to replace Big Red because I didn't want to stress him.

Armando 2 weeks after we bought him, with Big Red.

Luckily he's taken a turn for the better- he perked up even more as the summer weather took hold and although I still wouldn't say he's 100% he's probably well up in the 90's. I thought it was time to get him another companion- he used to love 'pimping' himself and showing off, so we checked out the female fighters at the pet shop. They were all very drab compared to our previous females, and all in fairly good condition (we usually make a point of buying the most bullied-looking female with the rattiest fins). This could be because they're still quite immature. I almost went for novelty and got a very roly-poly fat little female, but Gam pointed out the smaller of two very similarly coloured females, so we got that one.

We've gotten into the habit of giving our male fish rather ostentatious names (hence 'Armando', 'Hugo' etc. etc.) but our females often wind up with descriptive names when we run short of ideas ('Finless', 'Big Red'). This time I wanted to name the fish immediately rather than leaving it too long and reverting to a boring descriptive. It had to suit 'Armando', and Gam suggested 'Angelina'. He's not a fan of the actress of the same name, so I'm not sure if naming this drab little fish after her is a poke at her looks, but 'Armando and Angelina' has a nice alliterative quality. We're hoping we can eventually get them to breed- we were successful once: suave Hugo produced a fine crop of young'uns with Finless, transforming into the doting dad who carefully tended to the eggs before promptly eating every single last baby as soon as they started to swim (we slept in one morning after having left Hugo with a bunch of motionless hatchlings overnight and when we woke up they were all gone!).

Even if they don't breed, Armando is having great fun 'pimping' himself, while Angelina seems unagressive and uninterested in anything but food (unlike our previous females, who thought they could match it with the boys).