A to Z Challenge; A is for Adaptation

"Adaptation is the evolutionary process whereby a population becomes better suited to its habitat."

I decided to use a random word generator to help me come up with a word starting with "A" to base my first blog entry for the A to Z Challenge. After going through a few words "adaptation" came up and it instantly clicked. I'm constantly fascinated by how living things adapt to their environment. Such as fish to water quality and temperature. Plants to light and soil conditions. And so on and so forth.

Being a fish keeper I always read about how fish can adapt to their environment whether they're tank bred or wild caught. For example, Bettas are originally from rice paddies (read: paddies, not puddles) in a warm climate, yet look what they're sometimes kept in now. Small, unheated containers where they can barely move around and often live in their own filth. Those fish adapt to the colder temperatures, the smaller space, and the poor water quality than what they generally require. Now, I'm not saying that is by any means ideal, nor would I recommend that for anyone keeping Bettas. Keeping a fish in those conditions has it's consequences and I advise anyone to read up on those.

I have done mild experiments to note the differences in person on having Bettas live in different set ups. I have had 5+ gallon tanks set up, heated, filtered, and decorated, and I've had bowls ranging from 1/4 gallon to 1/2 gallon without heaters, without filters, and without any decor. From my personal experiences, I had happier and healthier Bettas in the nicer tanks (the happiest being the male Plakat in a 20 gallon with a handful of girls ;) ).

After taking a minute to go back and read what I wrote I'm almost appalled at myself because I had hoped to kick the Betta addiction for a while longer, but apparently I'm going to have to go out and buy myself a Betta. To wrap everything up, I think it's interesting watching how things adapt and to what lengths they'll go to.