Betta Fish: The Only Fish I Can't Kill

Hey y'all! This week, as I stood in my laundry room washing my betta fish's tank, I did some thinking as to how a betta fish is quiet possibly one of the best pets a person can own. But before I get into why you should own a betta fish, I have a somewhat sad pet fish history I want to share with y'all. The first pet fish I ever had was a goldfish I barely remember, and I'm pretty sure it didn't live very long, and I just detest goldfish in general (I'm not sure why, I just think they're gross). The second fish was our family's first betta fish, Dolly. She was a pretty blue color and lived for three years and survived a snowstorm we had when we lived on a mountain, which caused a power outage for five days. After Dolly we had Major Nelson, another blue betta fish who lived for around four years. Major Nelson died right as we were getting ready to move into a new house, so we didn't have any more fish for a while. Once we were moved in, I bought another blue betta fish named Flipper who lived for about two years. Once Flipper died, I decided I was tired of having betta fish, and I wanted to try a new breed of fish. I went to Petsmart and bought a new, large tank, new tank decor, a bubble filter, and new plants for the tank. I then purchased around six tetras, two ghost shrimp, a dwarf frog, and a snail. Everything was great for about five days, then the trouble began. My two ghost shrimp literally disappeared, my frog died, my snail died, and my tetras caught a disease called "ick". So I sadly returned my new fish tank and bought a new betta tank with a divider so I could have two betta fish in one tank. I bought a blue betta and a red one and put them in the tank with the divider. They both lived for a few months, but in the end I think they died because they kept trying to fight each other and would hit the divider, thus injuring themselves. A few months after my betta's died, I was shopping at Walmart, and I walked past the fish tanks, and to my delight they had one of the most bizarre aquatic creatures I have EVER seen. The creature is called a "Violet Goby" and I stupidly bought one on a whim without doing proper research. I got my old betta tank all nicely set up for him, put him in, and sat down to research the breed. I sadly discovered that violet goby's grow to be ENORMOUS, so I took my poor violet goby to our local pet store, and the kind owner let me trade her my violet goby for a new (you guessed it!) betta fish. I still have that betta fish, and I have decided to stick with the breed as they are the only fish I can't kill. Betta fish are ideal pets as they only need a small tank, rocks, a hideaway, a plant, and food. I clean my betta tank every week and a half, and it's very easy to do. I simply dump the rocks, hideaway and (plastic) plants into a colander in the laundry room sink, wash all of that, and then wash the tank with a washcloth. I do not recommend keeping more than one betta fish in a tank, as betta fish are territorial and will kill each other. I also do not recommend keeping any type of tank mates, as betta fish will kill them. With that being said, betta fish are fun to watch and easy to take care of.

My current betta fish