The brain size and capacity of memory also comes into play. If you see a tiny jumping spider in a cup, yes it would be sad, but the brain is small and not as developed. Whereas elephants are super intellegent creatures. As you climb the rank in fish size, you will eventually get into larger memory, more stimulation, and more. If you put an intelligent creature in a space the size they are, they would get depressed and end up dieing, whereas the said jumping spider would just have a small home. That is the reason larger animals in small rooms hurts us harder than a smaller animal with a less developed brain in a small box. I’m not justifying animal abuse, by the way.
And we shouldn’t go on here to complain about fish cruelty, because it’s everywhere. At local fish stores, public aquariums, private fish keepers, school aquariums, and more. This is a place to acknowledge the joys of fishkeeping, not looking at the bitter version of fishkeeping. People are here to get help, and in return, educate others about the fish, inverts, plants, maintenance, supplies, and more. I see that you found these unhealthy fishkeeping methods, and dislike it, just like all of us. But in reality, it isn’t there fault. They know nothing about fish besides the little 3 page manual they gave them about fish. It’s the actual company itself, and the person in charge of transporting And keeping live animals.
Betta fish are one of the most misunderstood fish. I prefer to throw away the cheap fake decorations and try to keep fish just like they would be in nature. They shouldn’t be kept in .5 gallon tanks.
