RandomWiktor
Rabid Betta Activist
((Re-post from a diff. forum so it might make references to other rescues I haven't talked about here))
Oct 22
Thought I'd pop in with the stories of Vlad, SpEd, and Rórn - three Petco bettas from a shipment of decidedly "defective" bettas. Its a little sad, for anyone who wants to avoid reading something unpleasant and anger-inspiring.
Three days ago, I went in to Petco to pick up cockroach bedding, and noticed an awful lot of floating and/or ragged looking bettas. So, having just cleared out all of my hospital tanks by moving the boys within to their new 5g homes, I thought I should go check it out and make sure no one was in serious need of help. It became apparent immediately that something was desperately wrong with the new shipment; at least 5 fish were tail-biters, about as many had SBD, one was missing ventrals, and others had kinked spines or other abnormalities. Two bettas, however, were especially bad off. One was lying on its side with cloudy white pupils, and I assumed it was dead. But it struggled to the surface and gulped some air while I watched it. Another was missing his dorsal and one ventral, had a slight spinal kink and had bloody streaking in his fins suggestive of early stage septicemia. I knew both fish had lousy chances of getting help, and since both seemed sickly, purchased both with the intention of later being refunded since the store allowed the allready disabled fish to get into such poor condition.
At any rate, I put both males in hospital tanks. The blind fish I gave an aerator to since he had trouble surfacing and would benefit from more dissolved oxygen in the water. I also started treatment for both, even though the one fish's blindness COULD have been genetic, not an infection, because he was very pale and breathing a bit heavily.
By the next morning, the male with the clouded eyes had taken a slight turn for the worse. His gills were looking inflamed, and I didn't like that his activity level had lowered. He'd been lying on his side since I purchased him, but swam to the surface and around the tank periodically. That day, he only surfaced a few times and was considerably less active. The male with the missing finnage and septicemia had allready started responding to treatment and was happy as a lark, eating well and active. I am pretty certain he will make it.
This morning, I checked in on both fish and found that the blind fish had made it up into the plant to rest, but was not doing well. Within hours, he very peacefully passed away, still resting on the plant. The other fish with the septicemia had even less streaking today and is still behaving well, but he still has a bit more work medication-wise to go before he'll be 100% out of the woods.
At any rate, I checked my receipt and found that the store had overcharged me, so decided that between letting the poor blind fish get into such a state, and leaving so many sickly disabled bettas on the sales floor, they deserved to get slammed for two $6.99 crowntails, even though one fish was an incorrectly charged VT and only one actually died. I haven't yet buried the crowntail with SBD that had also died from a different store just days earlier, so I used his body and that of the blind fish to get a refund (taking the bodies back to bury them at the end, of course!).
This is where things got really horrid. I went back to the store and, in addition to finding some dead females and a ton of fish with SBD, had a shocking encounter with the employee doing my refund. You can read about it on the betta talk board ((Sorry guys; different forum!)). The condensed version is that she informed that bettas are not tropical fish, do not need dechlorinator, should only be kept in distilled water, and shouldn't be kept in a tank as "big" as 2.5 gallons - which I only use temporarily to cut down on medical costs during hospital treatments! She also looked at the IDEAL hardness reading in my water sample and said it was way too high.
This explains so much about why Petco's bettas are always sick. Distilled water has none of the vital minerals fish need, has horrid buffering capacity (which equals fluctuating pH), and has horribly oxygen content, which may account for the high incidence of diseases since most aquatic bacteria prefer a low oxygen environment.
At any rate, I got back $14 for the "two" dead fish, which they were going to just toss in the trash until I grabbed them back and said I wished to bury them (earning some funny stares at that). Then, using a $2.00 off coupon, got a finbiting red VT for $1.49 who was very thin and looked like he'd been in the store forever. Not surprising; at the end of the week, there's always a pile of sick, dying red VTs because they aren't "in fashion" any more for the morons who keep them in vases as living decorations. I knew he'd never get sold with that ragged tail and plain coloration.
The real kicker is the lady at the register argued agressively that he was female because he "had a short tail." Considering the fact that this store seems to think you can keep 5 females in a 5g tank, and keep a group of females with one male, I cringe at the thought of how many times they've probably told someone a shorter-finned male was safe to throw into their sorority tank.
Petco's manager AND corporate are getting phone calls and letters about this, because I am thoroughly disgusted. I am also going to start ordering all of my fish supplies from online providers, because I am sick and tired of funding these idiotic stores that profess to be experts to customers then give misleading advice while simultaneously exploting and abusing countless animals. I've just plain had it.
Anyways, on the brighter side, both of the VTs rescued are doing nicely. Vlad, whose name stands for "ventral (left) and dorsal" since those are the fins he is missing, is eating well and recovering very quickly from the septicemia. Clean water and a little medication goes a looong way if you catch it early. Rórn, the new tailbiter VT (whose name means "hot" in Thai. I was thinking red-hot since he's a beautiful bright red) is acclimating nicely and I suspect him to do just fine once I determine what his biting trigger is. And SpEd (Special Ed, because his name was Ed and he was special needs) will be burried today along with the un-named male CT. I am deeply upset by their passing, but I am glad that, in their deaths, they both helped me save other fish and take profit back from a store that exploits and abuses bettas. Out of those two males, I have been able to rescue two finbiting VTs (Rórn and Reefer, who you can read about in another thread) and get additional money back from stores who have cruelly mistreated fish.
Update - Oct 23
Vlad is improving steadily; there is almost no streaking in his fins today. He is very jumpy though - seems like a good candidate for one of the 5g bins instead of 5g aquariums as the cloudy walls offer a little privacy that shy fish seem to enjoy. Rórn is eating ravenously, not surprising since he's pretty thin, and has not attacked his tail since the car ride home. He is spending a lot of time hiding from me in his plant, but seems active and in good color. I reckon these guys won't need a long stay in the hospital tanks, and I intend on using part of that $14 refund to cover two 5g tanks. There's a nice deal at a local SUPPLIES ONLY place on Acrylic 5g's with lids for 11 bucks a pop. I really am digging the thought of having rescued two fish, given one fish a peaceful death, taken back any profit the store might have gotten from abuse, and being able to put the refund money towards proper sized homes.
Oct 22
Thought I'd pop in with the stories of Vlad, SpEd, and Rórn - three Petco bettas from a shipment of decidedly "defective" bettas. Its a little sad, for anyone who wants to avoid reading something unpleasant and anger-inspiring.
Three days ago, I went in to Petco to pick up cockroach bedding, and noticed an awful lot of floating and/or ragged looking bettas. So, having just cleared out all of my hospital tanks by moving the boys within to their new 5g homes, I thought I should go check it out and make sure no one was in serious need of help. It became apparent immediately that something was desperately wrong with the new shipment; at least 5 fish were tail-biters, about as many had SBD, one was missing ventrals, and others had kinked spines or other abnormalities. Two bettas, however, were especially bad off. One was lying on its side with cloudy white pupils, and I assumed it was dead. But it struggled to the surface and gulped some air while I watched it. Another was missing his dorsal and one ventral, had a slight spinal kink and had bloody streaking in his fins suggestive of early stage septicemia. I knew both fish had lousy chances of getting help, and since both seemed sickly, purchased both with the intention of later being refunded since the store allowed the allready disabled fish to get into such poor condition.
At any rate, I put both males in hospital tanks. The blind fish I gave an aerator to since he had trouble surfacing and would benefit from more dissolved oxygen in the water. I also started treatment for both, even though the one fish's blindness COULD have been genetic, not an infection, because he was very pale and breathing a bit heavily.
By the next morning, the male with the clouded eyes had taken a slight turn for the worse. His gills were looking inflamed, and I didn't like that his activity level had lowered. He'd been lying on his side since I purchased him, but swam to the surface and around the tank periodically. That day, he only surfaced a few times and was considerably less active. The male with the missing finnage and septicemia had allready started responding to treatment and was happy as a lark, eating well and active. I am pretty certain he will make it.
This morning, I checked in on both fish and found that the blind fish had made it up into the plant to rest, but was not doing well. Within hours, he very peacefully passed away, still resting on the plant. The other fish with the septicemia had even less streaking today and is still behaving well, but he still has a bit more work medication-wise to go before he'll be 100% out of the woods.
At any rate, I checked my receipt and found that the store had overcharged me, so decided that between letting the poor blind fish get into such a state, and leaving so many sickly disabled bettas on the sales floor, they deserved to get slammed for two $6.99 crowntails, even though one fish was an incorrectly charged VT and only one actually died. I haven't yet buried the crowntail with SBD that had also died from a different store just days earlier, so I used his body and that of the blind fish to get a refund (taking the bodies back to bury them at the end, of course!).
This is where things got really horrid. I went back to the store and, in addition to finding some dead females and a ton of fish with SBD, had a shocking encounter with the employee doing my refund. You can read about it on the betta talk board ((Sorry guys; different forum!)). The condensed version is that she informed that bettas are not tropical fish, do not need dechlorinator, should only be kept in distilled water, and shouldn't be kept in a tank as "big" as 2.5 gallons - which I only use temporarily to cut down on medical costs during hospital treatments! She also looked at the IDEAL hardness reading in my water sample and said it was way too high.
This explains so much about why Petco's bettas are always sick. Distilled water has none of the vital minerals fish need, has horrid buffering capacity (which equals fluctuating pH), and has horribly oxygen content, which may account for the high incidence of diseases since most aquatic bacteria prefer a low oxygen environment.
At any rate, I got back $14 for the "two" dead fish, which they were going to just toss in the trash until I grabbed them back and said I wished to bury them (earning some funny stares at that). Then, using a $2.00 off coupon, got a finbiting red VT for $1.49 who was very thin and looked like he'd been in the store forever. Not surprising; at the end of the week, there's always a pile of sick, dying red VTs because they aren't "in fashion" any more for the morons who keep them in vases as living decorations. I knew he'd never get sold with that ragged tail and plain coloration.
The real kicker is the lady at the register argued agressively that he was female because he "had a short tail." Considering the fact that this store seems to think you can keep 5 females in a 5g tank, and keep a group of females with one male, I cringe at the thought of how many times they've probably told someone a shorter-finned male was safe to throw into their sorority tank.
Petco's manager AND corporate are getting phone calls and letters about this, because I am thoroughly disgusted. I am also going to start ordering all of my fish supplies from online providers, because I am sick and tired of funding these idiotic stores that profess to be experts to customers then give misleading advice while simultaneously exploting and abusing countless animals. I've just plain had it.
Anyways, on the brighter side, both of the VTs rescued are doing nicely. Vlad, whose name stands for "ventral (left) and dorsal" since those are the fins he is missing, is eating well and recovering very quickly from the septicemia. Clean water and a little medication goes a looong way if you catch it early. Rórn, the new tailbiter VT (whose name means "hot" in Thai. I was thinking red-hot since he's a beautiful bright red) is acclimating nicely and I suspect him to do just fine once I determine what his biting trigger is. And SpEd (Special Ed, because his name was Ed and he was special needs) will be burried today along with the un-named male CT. I am deeply upset by their passing, but I am glad that, in their deaths, they both helped me save other fish and take profit back from a store that exploits and abuses bettas. Out of those two males, I have been able to rescue two finbiting VTs (Rórn and Reefer, who you can read about in another thread) and get additional money back from stores who have cruelly mistreated fish.
Update - Oct 23
Vlad is improving steadily; there is almost no streaking in his fins today. He is very jumpy though - seems like a good candidate for one of the 5g bins instead of 5g aquariums as the cloudy walls offer a little privacy that shy fish seem to enjoy. Rórn is eating ravenously, not surprising since he's pretty thin, and has not attacked his tail since the car ride home. He is spending a lot of time hiding from me in his plant, but seems active and in good color. I reckon these guys won't need a long stay in the hospital tanks, and I intend on using part of that $14 refund to cover two 5g tanks. There's a nice deal at a local SUPPLIES ONLY place on Acrylic 5g's with lids for 11 bucks a pop. I really am digging the thought of having rescued two fish, given one fish a peaceful death, taken back any profit the store might have gotten from abuse, and being able to put the refund money towards proper sized homes.
I love what you do, you're so knowledgable, I can't wait until I have a place of my owns and the means to rescue tons of poor bettas that no one else wants.
