Many children spend months, sometimes years, attempting to convince their parents to let them get a fluffy puppy or kitten as their first pet, only to land a slightly lower maintenance companion like a fish or guinea pig.
Yet as a child I opted for the later, desperately wanting a betta fish for my first pet.
Technically, my first pet was a goldfish named Goldie Fish Stick that I won at the county fair, and who resided in my parents' fish tank filled with a variety of guppies, tetras and an algae eater. But I wanted a pet to care for on my own (minus the task of siphoning out the water and cleaning the tank).
Maybe it was my childhood obsession with Finding Nemo and The Little Mermaid that made me particularly akin to caring for a fish rather than a furry critter, but the pearlescent, vivid scales and elaborate, fan-like tail fins of bettas always caught my eye when I'd stoll through the pet store. They seemed like creatures straight out of a fairytale.
When my parents finally agreed to let me get one, I chose a lovely half-moon betta, named so for the 180-degree, moon-like shape of their tailfin.
Moonlight was teal with red scales dispersed throughout. Unfortunately, at 8 years old my photography skills were bordering on nonexistent, and my only very grainy images of Moonlight are buried in a mass of indistinguishable photos on my burgundy Nintendo DSI.
That said, I remember Moonlight very vividly even over a decade after he died at 4 or 5 years old. Betta fish are known to recognize their owners and get excited to see them, swimming to the front of the tank and dancing around the water in your presence.
Every time I'd enter my room or walk near the fish tank on my desk, Moonlight would rapidly swim around the tank and plant himself at the front glass pane, intently watching me as I would excitedly greet him.
Betta fish are playful, and I recently discovered you can teach them to jump through hoops. While Moonlight unfortunately never learned that, he loved to explore his tank, and upon that realization I moved him into new tanks twice throughout his life. Each time Moonlight moved into a larger tank, he'd swim around exuberantly for days, exploring every inch of water and darting under new resin sculptures I'd buy him with my allowance money.
Betta fish are also known as Siamese fighting fish due to their origins in Southeast Asia and their intensely territorial nature. They're known to viscously attack other bettas, hence their solitary nature. The species has been bred for their decorative, color-saturated scales since the 1300s, and for a time bettas were made to fight for entertainment, which is thankfully now illegal in many countries.
Even though I knew they don't tolerate other fish, I recall reading that bettas coexist well with some other freshwater species, resulting in a desperate desire to get Moonlight some roommates. He never got any, which may have been for the better, but Moonlight is the reason betta fish remain one of my favorite animals.
And upon writing this piece, I discovered that the Inlander used to be the home of Woodward, the office's bright red betta fish with a blue tail stripe.
Maybe it's time for another betta fish to join the Inlander team. ♦
