petblr sideblog

atomic | 24 | he/it | aquarium hobbyist and cat-owner

[atomicpets]

hi everyone! I honestly forgot I had this blog. A lot has happened since I made my first posts: first off, I graduated college! yay lol. Secondly, amity is 3 1/2 now, and we adopted a second cat last may that we named Loomis (Loomi, Lumiere, etc). He's about a year and a half currently and is a big boy (the vet said he was healthy though). Additionally, I'm not sure if we had her at the time but I included a few pictures of my snake Townes Van Zandt (townes for short). She's almost two years old and is a ball python. This picture was from about an hour ago. She is currently in a 67 gallon tank that's designed to be wider than taller since she isn't an arboreal snake.

I have some other tanks, as well as pet mice (not for townes, she eats frozen thawed rats) not pictured. I have the 55 gallon still, a 10 gallon Betta tank, and 3 5 gallon Betta tanks- one of which being Dior's.

Over time dior has developed a tumor and other health issues so I will not be posting pictures of him. We believe that his issues are from breeding because his water is changed once a week and kept at near perfect parameters. If anybody has any suggestions on how to keep him comfortable I would appreciate it! He doesn't seem to be in any pain and does normal fish stuff but we still worry and are keeping a close eye on him to know when it's time.

Overall all the other animals are doing well! The mice in particular are now over a year old. They are in a 40 gallon reptile glass tank and spend most of their time digging around or running on their wheel. We started off with 5 female mice, but 3 of them have passed from old age by this point. The other two are living it up in mouse city though lol.

This is kind of a long post but I love sharing pictures of and talking about my pets. I really enjoy taking care of a variety of animals and creating the best habitats for them. I hope to share more soon, and possibly get some good pics of the fish tanks too (they just tend to zip around too quickly to get a good shot).

[atomicpets]

sad news, I had to put down Petal today. She grew a large growth almost over night and stopped eating and drinking. Talked to the vet and we concluded it was most likely cancer, and I opted out of further diagnostic testing. It just would have been too much stress on her, which the vet agreed with.

She lived to be 3 despite all odds, and outlived her last sister by over a year.

I hope she has all the millet and pumpkin seeds she could want.

[atomicpets]

Loomis and his bath mat he's obsessed with

[atomicpets]

Night time snacking!

[atomicpets]

Picture dump of Loomis and amity yesterday!

[image id: 4 pictures of a large orange cat and a small brown tabby cat cuddling. /End id]

[atomicpets]

Townes shed today! She did a really good job, and all that's left is that little spot between her eyes. I measured her shed and she's roughly 3' 6" (1.06m) give or take an inch. She's now 3 inches wide at her largest part, and is around 3 years old (a few months older but we weren't told her exact bday).

[atomicpets]

Thank you! I wasn't aware of this. She's definitely over 3' though. Her full name is Townes Van Zandt. She's not a *huge* fan of handling, but I'm sure she'll enjoy her rat this weekend ^^

[atomicpets]

Townes shed today! She did a really good job, and all that's left is that little spot between her eyes. I measured her shed and she's roughly 3' 6" (1.06m) give or take an inch. She's now 3 inches wide at her largest part, and is around 3 years old (a few months older but we weren't told her exact bday).

[atomicpets]

Petals new set up! She's in an old 10gal since her tank broke but I added a ladder for her to climb and turned her one hide into a climbing ramp as well. I would like to give her more climbing space but this is the best I can do right now with my money situation.

[image id: small grey mouse in a new cleaned tank. Against the near wall is a green hide and a log ramp. There is a colorful ladder leaned up against the long wall with the water bottle. On the far side is a large running wheel. /end id]

[atomicpets]

PSA

Make sure to check your rodents water bottles frequently to see if there's any leaking, especially during this cold front!

Last night, I got home after a 9 hour shift and discovered Petal in her nest, shaking and lethargic. Turns out that her water bottle had a leak in it, and I had refilled it the previous night. The bottle was entirely empty and her bedding was soaked through, so I did an emergency bedding change, moved her tank away from the exterior wall, and surrounded her tank with warm blankets (covered the entire top with a fleece pillow case except for about an inch and a half so she got air).

I didn't know if she would make it through the night, due to her age and the condition that she was in. She seems mostly better this afternoon, but I'm still keeping an eye out.

Here's a pic of her munching

[image id: a small grey mouse eating a piece of unseen food /end id]

[atomicpets]

[video description: a small, grey mouse eating millet /ene description]

picked up some millet for petal! moved her down to half a millet since she's in there by herself.

[atomicpets]

Hi everybody, sad update. Last night Sylvie (the black and white mouse) passed away. We knew the time was coming as both mice were at least a year and a half old, and she hadn't been getting around super well for a bit, but its still a sad time. We're planning on burying her at my roommates mom's house this afternoon.

So, now it's just Petal left. I'm not sure what to do, as I know that mice like to be in a group. Her and Sylvie did pretty much everything together and were inseparable. I can't get any more mice, as the new apartment I live in doesn't allow them (we decided to keep the mice we had until the passed but to not get more). I'm not looking to start a new nest of mice, and regardless, their nice tank broke during the move.

I'd take any suggestions on how to keep her as happy and comfortable as I can without getting another mouse. Ive seen tips for getting her enrichment items (which I have) but I'm worried about her getting lonely.

The first two pictures are pictures I took of both of them before we moved, and the last one is a picture I took of petal this morning.

[atomicpets]

Update on Díor's tank: we added leaves to add tanins to the water for him (don't worry his water isnt dirty, the added tanins make it a tea color). Now we just need to order the plants, get him a new cover so we can use his new light, and buy his main décor piece.

[atomicpets]

the story of sir googly eyes bait

the first picture is a picture of bait when we first got him. my roommate and i were looking at potential fish to stock our tank with when we had seen him in the tank of assorted rainbow fish. he was extremely skinny and in generally poor health. we asked the people there how long he had been like that and they said he had been like that for around three weeks since when they had first gotten him in. my roommate and i have taken in several rescue/end of the line fish since getting our tank, so we decided to purchase him and see if we could nurse him back to health. we figured it wasn’t a parasite or something like that, because the rest of the fish in the tank looked fine and he was also surprisingly still alive despite his terrible conditions. the person at the store sold him to us for $2.50 despite the fish in the tank being listed for around $10. I decided to name him bait because he looked like those fake anchovy lure baits for fish hooks.

the second and third picture were a few months later. we’ve been feeding him a diet of spirulina flakes and various frozen thawed fish foods. he’s doing much better now, and we’ve finally possibly id’d him as a rainbowfish. he has a lot of personality, and will follow your fingers on the tank and keeps trying to flare at our black molly, cropsey (which is pictured in image 3). we aren’t sure if he’ll ever get to full size potential since he was in such a bad state for so long, but we’re happy with the progress that he’s made.

[atomicpets]

introductions:

hello there! my name is atomic, i’m a 20 year old college student. i’ve recently (as in in the past year) got into fishkeeping as a hobby with the help of my roommate who is much more knowledgeable in the subject.

the first two pictures are of the tank that we have dubbed “frogmorten.” it is a 5 gallon planted betta tank. the betta in it is a platinum betta named Dior (after the high elf king from lord of the rings). we’re currently waiting for his new light and live plants to come in. we were going to wait until we had all the plants in, but we saw him and he had swim bladder so we wanted to try to give him a better life then the cup he was in.

the middle picture is our main tank. It’s a 55 gal and currently houses 20 fish (3 black mollies, two of which are the first one’s babies; an upside down catfish; 5 regular neons; 5 black neons; a mystery fish presumed to be a rainbow fish (which is another story all together); an endler guppie; 2 lyretail guppies; a micky mouse platty; and a highfin platty). we’re currently in the process of restocking this tank and have had it established since December 2020. getting pictures of the actual inhabitants is difficult, because unlike Dior they don’t really seem to like to stand still long enough haha.

we also have a 10 gallon hospital tank, which is not pictured because it is currently re-cycling and doesnt’ have anything in it besides gravel and a few decorations.

the final two pictures are of my roommate and i’s cat. we adopted her back on February 16th, and she was so tiny when we got her. she was only a year old and pretty underweight. she’s put on a little bit of weight since then -- we have her on a very strict healthy diet of mixed and dry food so we make sure that she’s getting the calories and other nutrients that she needs. she loves anything string related and will run around the house chasing toys if you throw them. when we first brought her home she was so clingy and shy, but now she’s a little ball of personality. she’ll let  you know when it’s feeding time by meowing loudly and meows to announce her presence when she enters a room. really, she meows loudly at all times, and if you meow at her she’ll meow back.

that’s all about myself and my pets for now.