Hi, what's your name?

This little darling joined our family a little over a month ago. My son had some goofy science project where he had to bring in 3 living and 3 non-living things that exist together. (Of course, when he received the assignment, it was described with all the "scientific" words, but I like to put things at a kindergarten level!) We bought this little betta fish at the pet store, as well as a container for her, some type of fern for the bowl, and a snail to keep the bowl clean. His 3 living things were the fish, snail and plant, and his 3 non-living things were the bowl, the rocks and the little plastic plant that came with the bowl.

Isn't she pretty? I wanted my son to pick out a male betta fish, since they're the ones with the large, ornate fins. For some reason, my son insisted on the smaller female. But, we picked this one because she is the prettiest electric blue. The pictures don't do her justice.

Her other side. She really is pretty, isn't she? She loves swimming in and out of her fern.

I really like this container we bought. I don't know if you can even see it in this picture, but there are heart-shaped windows on both sides of the container. I didn't realize it until I got it home and took it out of the box to put the fish in it. The lid has a handle so you can transport your fish (the big selling point on the box) and there is a built-in light, which looks really pretty at night. If you look at the bottom of the bowl, you'll see the snail.

Here are the two little buddies together. They get along so well! The container came with this neon orange plastic gravel, but there wasn't enough to hold down the fern, so we added the glass stones, which used to be in the bowl of our last betta fish. Now that I look at these pictures, I realize it doesn't look so hot, but the fish and snail like it!

Well, part of the point of this post is to ask for some input from my friends. Despite being in our home for well over a month, neither of these little critters has a name. Sad, right? Although, if you consider that 90% of the time I call Buster simply "Dog," I guess it's not so bad. (Laura and KBL, stop cringing!!) Now we have Dog, Fish and Snail. However, there are those rare moments when I'm feeling "soft" and I think they should have names I can call them by. Any suggestions?

I little side story...this afternoon, while at our freakin' bi-weekly vet appointment, I bought my niece a betta fish of her own. Let me back up a minute and tell you that last summer, she had the wonderful opportunity to spend 5 weeks with my parents at their villa. The second day she was there, my parents bought her a betta fish at the market. She named him Armani. Originally, she wanted to get two fish and call them Dolce & Gabana, but the man at the market explained that you can't put two male bettas together because they will fight to the death. So, she settled for one, and took care of him for 5 weeks. Then she cried all the way home because she couldn't take him home with her. When my mom came home in the fall, she passed Armani on to friends of the family to take care of until my mother returns at the end of spring. They email pictures of Armani to my niece so she can see how well he's doing.

Ok, back to today. We picked out a fish that looked just like Armani, and she promptly named him Giorgio. His full name is Giorgio Armani Franco Curatolo Garritano. Now do you see why I feel bad for my little fishy?

***Update***

Well, my other niece, the little sister of the one I bought the fish for, is VERY upset with me, which I knew was going to happen once she saw that damn fish. I originally intended to buy one fish for the girls to share, but that older one, boy, she can be controlling! Now the little one is upset, so I told her that I wanted her to pick out her own fish, and that's why I didn't buy her one yet. Now I have to go back to the pet store tomorrow with the little one and let her pick out a fish. Kids!!! My sister wants to kill me, by the way! Ah, what are aunts for?