Recently I took a vacation to Maine and while I was up there I decided to check out what I was told was a bomb independent fish store – Vance’s Aquatics.

It was a small but well stocked fish store with both common and unusual fish. It’d just gotten in a small group of bettas that morning which were swimming around various plant-filled community tanks rather than languishing in cups like most bettas these days. Honestly this made me love the place. I tried to find each betta but most were pretty standard until I spotted Henry here whose ENORMOUS yellow tail had me so dazzled that he had to come home with me.

And so for the extremely decent price of $12.99 this very robustly healthy and seemingly docile boy came home with me. From here he had to put up with living in a Mason jar for a few days as I finished my vacation to Maine and Rhode Island.

His reward is his own tank and maybe someday a choice of girls. He’s eating well, his colors are crazy vibrant and he seems smarter than my previous male bettas.

And here he is under exceptionally poor lighting – Uncle Henry himself.