So those three really are discontinued? The Amiibos have been out for what, a month or two? What is this nonsense.

I love my kindle! I have the Paperwhite, and it's great. I got it solely because I had too many "real" books and was running out of space. (Well, the fact that it has a backlight so you can read in the dark doesn't hurt either!) I find that I still end up buying quite a lot of physical books, just because they're only a dollar or two more expensive than the Kindle versions in many cases. But I have quite a large collection of Kindle books that I got cheap or free. The Kindle is very easy to use, easy to adjust settings, all that good stuff. It's also fantastic for trips, because you don't have to haul multiple books with you to ensure you won't run out of reading material before your trip is over

I find that the battery doesn't last as long as advertised, however. If it's just in sleep mode, sure, it'll probably last you a month, but if you're doing regular reading, I find it lasts less than a week. It just all depends on how you use it, if you keep the wifi connected (I tend to, which I'm sure does bad things to the battery), how high you have the lighting turned up, etc. This isn't a big deal for me though, I just charge it overnight every so often.

I definitely recommend a Kindle even if it's just to mess around with, or to collect cheap e-books to supplement your paper library with

Aquariums! I love aquariums! I have three small, simple aquariums and I love them! Two of my tanks have betta fish. One is about 7 gallons and one is, honestly I have no idea, maybe 6 gallons? They both have sand as the substrate, and live plants, and they're great! I used to have a bunch of silk plants too, but I've uncluttered them quite a bit, so just the live plants and some mopani wood for now. A little more plain than they used to be but this is easier for me. The tanks are heated and filtered and require little maintenance, just partial water changes weekly. In the past I've also had mystery snails in with my bettas and they've been awesome. Something extra to look at, since you can't really put any other fish in a small tank with a betta.

My other tank is a little 3 1/2 gallon tank with opae ula, or Hawaiian red shrimp. I'm actually just moving them from a 2 1/2 gallon tank. These things are awesome. They're itty bitty, about the size of a grain of rice. They require brackish water. That's IT. I drop them some spirulina pellets every once in a while and top off their water as it evaporates, but that's literally all the maintenance they require. Super super easy, they're very hardy. Not nearly as flashy as a betta though.

My recommendation is to get a betta, but do it right, with a nicely sized tank and a heater. With proper care they'll live 3-5 years. I've had dozens and dozens of bettas over the years, and they're fantastic Good luck with whatever you choose!

Here are my bettas and their tanks.

Hallow, my double tail plakat:
visitors can't see pics , please register or login


Jack Frost, my plakat:
visitors can't see pics , please register or login

(Water is yellowish from the tannins in the driftwood)

And my little shrimp colony. They'd just been moved from their old tank, so they're more transparent than actually red, if you can even see them...
visitors can't see pics , please register or login

Thanks everyone!

Moonbeam, if you could check your Ikea next time you're out you'd be my hero!
The lamp didn't look that big, would shipping really be that killer? Either way it's better than what they're going for online, I'm sure. It'd be fun to get for my brother since I think it's something he's not expecting to get due to the total lack of Ikeas in our area.

Next time something like that happens, try contacting customer support and explaining the issue! They might not be able to do anything, but I've found that often sites will try to make things right, even if it wasn't really their fault. I had almost the exact issue with a Hot Topic sale one time. Missed the deadline to use a coupon by just a few minutes. Contacted customer support the next day, and they gave me the sale price anyway. Never hurts to ask!

*Rages* Because there aren't enough horribly unsuitable tanks being marketed as it is?? I've kept dozens and dozens of bettas over the last several years, so the whole tiny gimmick tank issue always gets me.

I can't imagine putting a living creature in something like that. I just bought a new betta a few days ago-- he was an impulse buy and I don't have a permanent tank set up for him yet, so he's in a 1 1/2 gallon unheated tank for now until I can dig a bigger tank out of the shed and my heater comes in the mail, and even THAT seems tiny and inadequate. My other two are in heated, filtered tanks, a 7 gallon and a 10 gallon, and they're so much happier.

 I think a lot of people think their tiny tank setups are fine, because they're the ones the pet stores push for fish like bettas and goldfish, and because their fish survive in them for a while. You don't really notice how inadequate those setups are until you see the behavior change in the same fish when it's moved from a small, unheated bowl to a larger, heated aquarium.

Plus moldy teddy bears, eww

I missed out on Diancie too, boo! Add me to the line of people hoping for an extra code!

Does anyone else have Petal yet? I thought I got a defective one, because the majority of her hair was short (the purple) and the strands of other colors were the regular length. But I was at TRU again today and they had another Petal in stock, and her hair was the same way. Are they all supposed to be like that...?