Rescued 2 more betta boys

[sandyd]

Went to walmart the other day and saw 2 boys in very little yellow water, it looked like urine. The water was filled with so much feces, you could barely see them in there. I opened their tops and noticed that most of their finnage was gone. After complaining to management about their conditions, i brought them home. I did an ammonia test on their water and it was so high it was off my chart. Made me very sad for them. I devided a cycled 10 gallon and put them in, they were and are so happy now i cannot tell you. I cannot even tell their colors on their fins yet, as they are that bad. One of them has purple fins i believe, with a very pale red and tan body. The other is also very pale looking, almost beige, with very little grey fins. They are the same body size as my other two, so i would guess they are not babies, but in really bad shape.

If I had not taken them home, i would bet they would not be alive now, as most people will not take a betta that looks like it was beat to death. I have had them now for 3 days, and they started eating yesterday. The first day they would try to eat only to spit it back out. I wanted to get some females, but these guys looked like they needed more help, so home they came. I have been keeping a close eye on them, and have added novaqua to their water to help with their slime coat. I was wondering if anyone else has any suggestions on what i could to do help them recover. They are eating pellets and bloodworms, although they have only eaten bloodworms 1 time so far. Thanks Sandy

 

[canis_lupus]

aw that's sooooo nice! i've seen sooooo many bettas that need help but my mom threatened to flush them if i got another betta .......i don't know what can help their recovery cuz i'm very inexperienced in fish care but i just wanted to say congrats on the new boys and good luck with their help......good 4 u for saving them

 

[KnuckleHead]

Just give them lots of love and attention. A dab of melafix to help heal their fins wouldnt be a bad idea. No less then a 1 gallon container (just my opinion here) and high quality foods is really all they need to be happy. Of course you know the deal with water quality so i wont need to go into that. Congrats on the new additions.

 

[wuvmybetta]

aaawww it's almost as if they were your destiny , you even had a cycled tank ready & waiting , & your right....they probably would have died
most of mine are wal-mart refugees too, with the same fin problems & I agree with knucklehead , good food & some love really shows it's affects in about a week
I bought one awhile back that had such a small amount of water that he had to lay on his side in his cup just to be covered with water, he was severely hump backed and just laid on the gravel in his one gallon for about a week and now a few months later he's my most diligent bubble nester and SO beautiful

I found another one (two at the same time actually) at a wally world in another town that had nothing but nubs for tails and they're almost grown back in completely now, it's been about 3 months for them

And the most deplorable conditions I've ever seen was with one of my babies...I found a bunch of betta cups along the back row at the same said store and there were two dead rotting corpses in every container, I was raising heck to the manager and then I saw these tiny eyes peeking out of the murky water in the container I was holding, he'd been trapped in there with the betta he'd obviously fought and killed some time ago, I told the manager to clean him up and bag him and she refused to touch him , but another employee intervined and I brought him home to a 2 gallon , he had mouth rot, cloudy eyes, shredded fins but a little melafix & colloidal silver (and of course love & food) did the trick, ok I'll stop.....I could talk bettas all day

Have fun & congrats on your new boys!!!!

 

[Kossy]

If there aren't any bottom dwellers with them like cories then a bit of a salt bath would do them good. That was extremely nice of you.

 

[aernympha]

i dont understand why wlamart put them in jars in my lfs they put them in with livebearers and they get on quite well not guppys just platys mostly i think... also with other peaceful fish i saw some really koll coloured male yesterday i really want one!!!!

 

[Alien Anna]

I suspect betta cups are illegal in UK, as I'd never even heard of them until I got on the Net. OTOH, bettas aren't so popular and aren't so well-known here - its the goldfish and koi that get all the glory (and cruelty).

I don't even have goldfish but I seem to spend my time rescuing them. I usually persuade pond owners to take them - even if they get eaten by a heron, that's better than spending their short lives in a bowl.

Well done on rescuing those poor fish, but I think you should try to do something to stop this cruel practice. Some of those stories could make me cry!

However, bettas in UK don't always do so well either. Because they aren't kept in cups, or even bowls (most people are under the impression they have to be in a heated tank, which is probably correct, given our climate and draughty houses), bettas are often dumped in a community tank in the LFS. Sometimes they're kept in a breeding net or with a glass divider, but often they're just left to the mercy of their tankmates. My last two were in tanks with baby plecs or corys, which wasn't a problem, but my most recent purchase was initially in a diamond tetra tank (got bitten to shreds!) and then transfered to a dwarf gourami tank, next door to another, bigger betta. He was displaying till he dropped

 

[sandyd]

Thank you for all of your replys, i woke this morning to find them both swimming happily, and when they saw me they both came to the front of the tank to eat. I fed them both pellets and they raced for them. So happy for them now. They are happy in their devided 10 gallon i think. Their plants are growing in, so they will have more places to hide if they want. I do not have anyone else in there, with them, so i will look into the salt bath, i just dont want to do much with them, since they are just coming out of that ordeal. Very sad. I think i will try it tomorrow, and see how it goes, that way they have been in there a few days, and i know how they act, if that makes sense.
I have complained at this store more times than i can tell you, but it seems like the only time anything is done is if i am standing there. I wont even begin to tell you what goes on in their display tanks. I get so angry about it, since the fish cannot stand up for themselves. I will keep you all updated on how they are, i also need to find them names. LOL
Sandy

 

[minh]

nice of you to save them two.


but after reading many posts in this betta section alot of the ones bought from wal mart or big corporate stores were done on sympathy... could this be what is actually making the stores still sell them as poeple like you who want to give good homes to poor fish keep buying them?

 

[sandyd]

I guess you could be right about that, but today i went there and they had gotten a new shipment of bettas, they all looked quite well, and i really wished i had more room for some.
I actually went the other day looking for some females, not that i was planning on breeding, i just wanted to try to take care of one of the girls and see how they are with personality and such. All 4 of my boys are rescues, only because they were the last cups left, and in such bad water conditions, i could not walk out and know that they were living like that.
I know that many people say they live in not such great conditions in the wild, and that they are ok in those cups, but my personal oppinion is that we, as people, take them out of their natural habittat, we, as people, are responsible to make sure they are taken care of. As bad as these guys were, i could not see them making it through the day, and it made me very upset. So home they came, now they are happily swimming and above all, ALIVE.
Sandy