new lady fish

Here is my paradise female.

Difficult to get a photos, as the tank is unlighted, in a dim room, but I tried anyway.  First few just a blur:

She spent most of the first day going round and round the perimeter of the tank, exploring all the boundaries I guess. Is now inquisitive and will cautiously come up to eye me through the glass.

I can tell right away she is much stouter in body than Perry, and more speckled than striped, and duller in color.

Charming in her own way, I think.

I thought she looked perfectly healthy in the store, but when I got her home, alarmed to see a white mark on her head- not fuzzy like fungus so I think it got bumped when the employee rather abruptly dumped her from the specimen container into the shipping bag. I hope she just grazed her scales- it does seem to be improving already on this second day.

I don't know if it is worrisome that the side of her head looks a bit reddish- I can't quite tell if this is part of her natural coloration or not. I didn't notice it until looking at the photos.

She ate flake on the second day I had her home, and then I gave her some mosquito wigglers. That made her colors intensify! She went about hunting them in the leaf litter, much more methodically than Perry ever does. Later I was using celery for dinner, so blanched a few leaves and minced them fine. Perry at his, the serpae tetras squabbled over theirs. I offer a few bits to the new female. She cautiously tried it, kept spitting out. I bet the flavor is new.

I should not get too fond of her already. The likelihood that my two paradise fish will just fight (or that Perry will harrass the female) is high- although the fact that she did not seem aggressive to other fishes in the shop tank makes me hopeful it will work out. Also having a tank with much larger footprint that they will both be introduced to at the same time. I really would like to find a second female- the chances of it working out are much better with a trio than just a pair- so Perry can divide his attentions- but this is the first I'd ever seen a female in person- so I doubt I'll come across another anytime soon.

Also, I also know she's already two or three years old. Some sites say the best to hope for a paradise fish is three years (I've never got past that with any of my bettas). Others cite five years as average, and eight with good care...

Oh, and she likes the clay pottery cave. She creeps into it, rests for a while, slides out again. So I'm probably going to move it into the home tank with her, it will be her own space.