Betta Purchase Question, About Health.

[keithp]

I know some people here will buy sick bettas or bettas in poor health, and help them recover with meds or whatever is needed and have them as pets, I did this with one betta and it felt very rewarding to me.

But I was wondering that if you buy a betta in poor help, and it recovers, in the future could it come up with some disease years later from neglect earlier in it's life, like a compromised immune system? That's not the case for my betta but I was just wondering.

Also non-relevant to mine but asking anyway. I saw 2 bettas being sold, one missing an entire eye, and the other with what looks like half an eye and the socket looks sunken in, but not cloudy. Mabye it's a birth defect or old injury? Besides this issue the fish are healthy and active. With excellent care do you think they could live happy lives?

 

[fry_forever!]

I wouldn't think that they would have problems later in their life. I mean, I rescued a betta that was pretty much dead, and he's my most active one today. When I first got him, I treated him for external parasites, and I caught him just in time. Really, the only way they would have a problem later in life would be if you took bad care of him/her, and they got sick again, or if they had something bad with their genetics (ie. a really short body, which would probably cause early death).
That's the way I look at it, at least. But then again, that could happen with any betta, not just a rescued one.

And for your other question, I could see them thriving, if you took a lot of care with them. The eyes could be missing due to some sort of disease, (bacterial infection, parasite infestation) so you would obviously have to treat that accordingly.

Hope that helps a bit.

-f_f!

 

[soph_betta]

IMO I think as long as they are healthy they will be fine as I have had other small fish that have had an eye missing and it never affected them.

 

[keithp]

Oh ok good to know. I;m not sure if i'm going to buy another betta but if I did I was eying one of the special needs bettas.

 

[BethK]

In short, yes they can. LFS bettas tend to be farm brought, their genetic quality is poor. If a betta suffers from finrot (which is more likely to be the longer finned types), there is a high chance that it can return, no matter how well you care for your betta.

 

[fry_forever!]

Yes, I tend to lean towards helping a betta, rather than buying them online and such.

 

[MewMew42]

Just make sure that the eye socket is clean and well healed! otherwise you could risk him getting a secondary infection, fish with one eye can live a happy life, may be a little clumsy though

 

[fry_forever!]

Just make sure that the eye socket is clean and well healed! otherwise you could risk him getting a secondary infection, fish with one eye can live a happy life, may be a little clumsy though

That's true. What I meant (I sometimes have trouble wording things... ), if the eye is still there, but protruding, it could be a bacterial infection.

 

[keithp]

From what I saw eye is not swollen and Not cloudy. The fish with missing eye are more aggressive though probably due to being partially blind and must be tougher to make up for disability, they are small plakats by the way, not sure on sex hard to tell them apart. Being sold as females but looks like a mix of both sexes. Theres about 15 bettas all in one tank.

 

[fry_forever!]

Okay, that makes sense. I was assuming (silly me) that they were in cups. Well, in that case, it sounds like an injury.

 

[sampster5000]

I rescued a regular little corydoras catfish about 3 1/2 years ago who was missing one eye. The person at the cruddy little Petco fished it out for me and saw it had one eye and said, "Oh, it is missing an eye. We'll just throw it in the trash later." So she gave it to me for free and he has been my most active corydoras since then. He is thriving big time. I am so happy to have given him a great life! I've done the same thing with many sick Betta fish. I just cant go on knowing I could have saved a fishes life and denied it.

 

[fry_forever!]

I rescued a regular little corydoras catfish about 3 1/2 years ago who was missing one eye. The person at the cruddy little Petco fished it out for me and saw it had one eye and said, "Oh, it is missing an eye. We'll just throw it in the trash later." So she gave it to me for free and he has been my most active corydoras since then. He is thriving big time. I am so happy to have given him a great life! I've done the same thing with many sick Betta fish. I just cant go on knowing I could have saved a fishes life and denied it.

Have to agree.