rescuing bettas

[alabaster]

Can anyone enlighten me as to what people mean by "rescuing" bettas? I know that it implies buying bettas from the tiny cups they are kept in at pet stores and providing them good care, but what else does it mean? And what is the idea behind it?
Know this may seem like a self-explanatory topic, but I'm interested in doing it myself, and I'm curious. Thanks!

 

[BettaMomma]

Beware - if you do it once, you'll never be able to stop! heh heh

I go around to stores in town and look purposely for bettas that are in bad shape, or that I know won't do very well in just *any* home.

For instance...
I was at PetSmart one day checking over everyone to make sure that nobody there was sick or dying, and I spotted a boy whose eyes looked kind of demonic, I guess. Well, I came home that night and did some research and discovered (as I had suspected) that he was blind. So, I went and got him. I had no idea how I'd feed him or take care of him, but I learned as I went. I could only imagine some bratty little kid getting him and getting ticked off because the fish didn't respond to them the way they had hoped.
Here's little Louis:

I was at WalMart one day, and I spotted a betta that had his tail completely removed somehow. Cut off at his body. Here he was in his cup:

And here he is now, about 2 months later...

Another day at WalMart, I saw a boy who had lost all his color and was laying on his side in very little water on the cup. There weren't many bettas left that day, and he was by far the least attractive, most unresponsive one and obviously very sick. I thought .... eh.. what the heck - nobody will probably buy him, and if someone else gets him they'll dump him into the water and probably never look at him again, or try to understand why he just lays there,and he'll die. Here he was in his cup when I found him:

With the help of folks on this forum and lots of research, I figured out that he had acute viral hemmoraghic septicemia. Well.... he has made a full recovery and here he is today:

These are just 3 examples - I've gotten ones who had nasty fungus, or just plain old finrot, or who were in such horrid conditions I just could not leave them behind. It's an incredibly rewarding thing - and makes you feel REALLY loved. Especially when you start to get so many tanks all over your house that you always have several eyeballs fixed on you no matter where you go.

I now have 16 of them, and I am compLETELY maxed out on room. I have been combining tanks and dividing things off, but I'm maxed. However... I have a couple of hospital tanks here should there be a DIRE emergency. I have gotten pretty comfortable, too, in pointing out sick fish to employees of stores. Eventually if you do that, you'll learn which stores will actually take them to the "treatment room" or which ones put them back out on the shelves after you leave.

 

[alabaster]

Thanks I completely love the idea! But do the rescued bettas usually have problems like that, or is rescuing just to save them from mistreatment and bad water conditions?

Also, do you think its a good idea to provide stores like Walmart etc. who don't care about their fish with your business (money)? I personally would buy a betta at Walmart if it was in bad condition, maybe even otherwise. But I'm just curiuos to know your thoughts on this.

 

[BettaMomma]

You have a very valid point.
However, in my case - I don't buy ANYthing except sick fish at their store. And I tell them about it. I call the managers when I see and buy sick fish and I make it VERY explicit that i have stopped shopping there, and that the sole reason is because of the way they treat their fish.

A lot of the fish at WM do have problems, and it stems mostly from what they go through before they get there. They're shipped in horrid, cramped conditions and then dumped in those horrid little cups and then they stare out at all the faces that pass by them every day until someone picks them up and takes them home. I have found that sometimes, going through all of that makes them stronger and more resilient, and in other cases, what they have gone through has just set them up to be sickly for the rest of their lives.

I have had 18 bettas pass through my life, 16 of which are still with me, and each and every single one of them is different - different personality, different strengths, diff weaknesses, eating habits, etc., and I think that their genes also help determine much of how they will be - healthwise - in the future.

And, my last point is that most times when I go to WM, the betta shelf either IS empty or is near empty. So, i figure my buying one of them isn't really going to matter much anyway- those fish will probably sell whether I buy them or someone else does.

I guess I forgot to respond to your question on whether or not "rescuing" them means just getting them out of the dirty cups, or if there is always something wrong with the ones that are "rescued". It depends on the person you ask. In my case, if I brought home every betta that needed to be taken out of the nasty disgusting water he was in, I'd probably have a thousand by now. I like to bring home the ones that I don't think other people would bother with. They're usually the ones that turn out to be the greatest pets in the world. As ridiculous as it sounds, I think they really, really do understand what you do for them and that you saved their lives, if that's the case.

I do know there are folks out there who have nice fish/pet stores in their area, so to see a betta that needs to be "rescued" just means that they are being kept in cramped, nasty cups and need some good clean water. In my opinion, that is also a rescue. It was the most deserving fish of a rescue that the person had access to. It's really a rewarding thing - they really are fabulous pets. You never have to walk them, they don't bark or go potty on the floor, they don't chew up your couches, etc. etc. They do require water changes adn some food and attention every now and then, but I really like having them around.