BettaMomma
Fish Aficionado
Last night we went to a wedding. On each of the 25+ tables was a betta in a bowl. Throughout the night, I saw people taking one from a table and leaving so I was actually pretty impressed when, toward the end of the night, only a few bowls remained on tables here and there. I wasn't about to leave any of them behind, so I made a walkthrough to make sure they all had homes. I walked up to one table where several 20-something year olds were starding around talking, laughing and drinking beer. There were 2 betta bowls on their table, so I asked one guy if they were taking those fish home. He said back to me "Ha! If they don't kill each other first..." Yeah, when I looked closer, they had dumped them together several hours before. After he got a death glare from me, I picked them both up and went back to our table. It was dark in there so I couldn't see what damage had been done, but I immediately separated them back into separate bowls. At this time, I had 3 fish that i had planned to take home. Another girl approached me as soon as I separated them and told me she was SO glad that someone did that because she hadn't dared to approach that table and do it. She then asked me if I would mind if she took one of the ones who had been put together home, so I gladly let her, and gave her some instructions on how to take care of him - and off she went. (she took the blue one of the 2, I got the red one) As we left, we saw the guy who had made the "if they don't kill each other" comment, and he said "Hey... by the way, that blue fish is probably drunk because we were feeding him gin all night too! haa haa haa!" The boyfriend just ushered me to the car before I killed someone. I would just like to point out that I did not make any scene whatsoever, and besides the one guy, no one at the party even knew I was upset.
I didn't get REALLY REALLY upset until we got back to the hotel and I could look at little Simon under the lights. His entire dorsal fin aside from 2 teeny little strands was ripped off, about 1/3 of his caudal fin is gone and his face is so mutliated about 1/4 of the entire side of his head is just gone and his skin was hanging there - wide open. This was now about 24 hours ago. He's still hanging on - we made an emergency trip to (of ALL places) WalMart this morning to get both the new boys (I also got a turquoise one - I'll mention him later) some of those little betta keepers, stress coat, salt and a silk plant for little Simon - we had a 7 hour car ride ahead of us and I wanted to try to make them as comfortable as possible. We got them into the clean water - and he has now lost most of his color - I'm pretty sure he won't make it thru the night. If he does, it will be quite the miracle. Honestly, I'm really pretty shocked he made it thru the car ride home. I have him in sparkly clean water with loads of stress coat, some salt and lots of colloidal. It's the best I can do for him. He's such a sweetheart - even though I'm sure it's horribly hard for him, whenever I peek in on him, he swims over to say hi. His wounds are completely horrendous looking - I don't think he can even open his mouth more than enough to get a breath. I tried dangling some frozen bloodworms in front of him and he just stayed there with them rubbing his nose and did nothing.
I hope to god I never see that litle bastard again who did this. They were laughing about it.
I also got another boy, Petey, who is a gorgeous turquoise green. He's going to do just fine - he's eaten everything I have offered him and he was even flaring. He has a pretty severe case of finrot, but that's at least something I know I can handle.
Why do people have to be so cruel? I am beginning to hate most humans. And I really don't like that.
I didn't get REALLY REALLY upset until we got back to the hotel and I could look at little Simon under the lights. His entire dorsal fin aside from 2 teeny little strands was ripped off, about 1/3 of his caudal fin is gone and his face is so mutliated about 1/4 of the entire side of his head is just gone and his skin was hanging there - wide open. This was now about 24 hours ago. He's still hanging on - we made an emergency trip to (of ALL places) WalMart this morning to get both the new boys (I also got a turquoise one - I'll mention him later) some of those little betta keepers, stress coat, salt and a silk plant for little Simon - we had a 7 hour car ride ahead of us and I wanted to try to make them as comfortable as possible. We got them into the clean water - and he has now lost most of his color - I'm pretty sure he won't make it thru the night. If he does, it will be quite the miracle. Honestly, I'm really pretty shocked he made it thru the car ride home. I have him in sparkly clean water with loads of stress coat, some salt and lots of colloidal. It's the best I can do for him. He's such a sweetheart - even though I'm sure it's horribly hard for him, whenever I peek in on him, he swims over to say hi. His wounds are completely horrendous looking - I don't think he can even open his mouth more than enough to get a breath. I tried dangling some frozen bloodworms in front of him and he just stayed there with them rubbing his nose and did nothing.
I hope to god I never see that litle bastard again who did this. They were laughing about it.
I also got another boy, Petey, who is a gorgeous turquoise green. He's going to do just fine - he's eaten everything I have offered him and he was even flaring. He has a pretty severe case of finrot, but that's at least something I know I can handle.
Why do people have to be so cruel? I am beginning to hate most humans. And I really don't like that.
to record the fact they attack each other. 
let us know how he is doing
What those people did was so downright cruel. Don't they remember the golden rule? Do to others as you would have them do to you? I would have given them a little reminder.... but good on you for keeping your cool.
What idiot puts these poor little fish out as decoration at a wedding where they know theres always going to be at least 1 drunken div that will do something like this, I would have a word with the wedding planner and i'd get hold of the people that supplied them. 
