Unhappy Homes

[FlareBettaGuy]

Bettas are currently being kept in Peace Lily Vases and small plastic dinky cups filled only halfway up.

WHO THE HECK CAME UP WITH THIS??!! It's like they're taking advantage Betta's ability to breathe air directly, and using their own adaptations to harm them! Some people keep bettas in Lily Vases anyway, even though knowing that it is no good. They're like: "Hey! Who cares?! It's just a fish! It's just decoration. When this one dies, i'll just get a new one! They're cheap!" UGH!!

When I went outside to go shopping there were all these stores lined up, like a night market. There was this store selling bettas. They were in TINY cups, no taller than your middle finger, and no wider than your pinky. And each had a single betta. And each had the water filled less than halfway. JEEZ! If you're going to keep a fish in a cup, you could at least fill it with more water!! The fish looked so sad, swimming around in really tight circles, occationally taking a gulp of air. And even that is hard because the water level is so low. They even sold little glass containers (and I mean SMALL!), and they said it was especially for bettas! A lot of people were crowding around, screaming "HEY! THAT FISH IS PRETTY! I WANT IT!" and just buy it with little or no directions of how to keep it. And who has to suffer for this? THE FISH! If I could, i'd buy all those bettas, and release then into the rice paddies where their natural habitats are. I know what you're problebly thinking right now....you're thinking "whew! good thing that's not MY betta!" Well, it could have been! In fact, any betta in the world could have been "your betta". If you just happened to stop by some other fish store, you might have some other betta sitting on the table right now. Yours was just picked out randomly. What about the other ones? And in the market, there were SO MANY. The cups were lined up line by line. And each of those had a chance of being "yours", or "mine".

Ah, well, that's the way it is. Some people just don't give a care.

 

[Cian McLiam]

Yeah, Ive heard of the vase thing, I even heard some people on the Betta Yahoo! group saying the people who sold them were telling people the fish would live off the plant in the vase and didnt need to be fed!
I think it is cruel to keep them in the cups, but I have heard stories of bettas building bubble nests in them, so maybe they dont think its so cruel themselves!

Ken

 

[Gabe]

I've totally seen on decorating shows a designer putting bettas in a vase with a plant saying that the fish will eat the roots. Every time I see something like that I yell at the tv "No that's not how it works" and my hubby kinda smiles and shakes his head, b/c I do it every time. Not only does the designer think he knows what he is doing, the homeowners prob don't have a clue and they prob die a short while later. I feel really bad for those fish, I really do.

Gabe

 

[caz27]

I think it is so cruel... how would they like to be stuck in a 6x6 room with a little window opened so they can get a gulp of fresh air....

 

[FlareBettaGuy]

Yep. This is to everyone: When you get a betta with a peace lily vase, put the betta into another large container and give it some food immidiately. The little guy could be starved already! The vase by itself is fine, but is inconvinient for going to the surface to get air. (and the roots of the plant make it even harder) Put some gravel in the other container, get some pellets, and get some live plants and you'll be fine.

 

[FlareBettaGuy]

Yep. This is to everyone: When you get a betta with a peace lily vase, put the betta into another large container and give it some food immidiately. The little guy could be starved already! The vase by itself is fine, but is inconvinient for going to the surface to get air. (and the roots of the plant make it even harder) Put some gravel in the other container, get some pellets, and get some live plants and you'll be fine. Also, take the peace lily, and put it in a pot with soil and water it. Peace Lilys are not water plants! They are soil plants! (can you believe it?!)

 

[White Whale]

Sometimes you might get lucky and actually get a betta bred for show in one of those stupid vases. If I ever come across one, I'd buy it no matter what the cost, give the plant and vase to my mom, and keep the betta for myself.

A few days ago I was at my LFS looking at the bettas considering a 4th (I'm looking for a chocolate betta). Anyway, this lady comes up to me and says that these are pretty fish. I agreed. She said she got one in a vase for a gift and was so happy because she said it looked like a really nice gift. I didn't realize it then, but my face turned really serious. I told her that she should take the betta out of that vase before it dies. She said it was okay, that's the way they come and it eats the plants. I told her no, that these fishes are carnivorous and require meat such as worms. She said there is a lot of plant for it to pick on. I told her that plants are not part of its diet and it is starving. I was just flat out cold telling her that she'd eat a roach if she were starving. And that these fish need to go to the surface to breathe. The plants are in the way and I told her to expect that betta to die in a few days. She got the point. Sort of. She tried to be all intellect about it and told me all they need is tap water and they're fine. I told her they needed conditioned water, not just plain tap. The chlorine and chemicals put in New York City's tap water would give the fish an agonizing death. I may be a newbie, but I take great pains to keep my bettas happy, even though I don't have an 'automated' (filtered) system. I'm reading everything I can about bettas. Then she picked out a little betta and told the clerk that wanted to keep it in the same softball jar. With the crap and all, nonetheless. She was clueless. I winced. I had to walk away. There was a health risk, and it wasn't the betta that was about to be injured.....

Must.... Control.... Fist..... Of... Death......

 

[KimmyFishy89]

You can shove a person into a closet and as long as you feed them and poke a whole for them to breathe they will live. But will they be happy?

 

[FlareBettaGuy]

Nope. If there were a TV in it, maybe.

My point is, you should give fish something to do other than just swimming around. You'd be bored walking around in circles all the time at the same place every single day, wouldn't you? Add stuff, but be careful what you add. Be creative. You can add rocks and plants, or add little cups into the gravel so that they can hide in it. Be creative! Heck, you can even cut the front of a small bottle of water out and call it a cheap hidey hole for small fish....

 

[KimmyFishy89]

Thats a great idea!

Hidey holes for my fish are always like 15+ dollars Now I can just make my own!

-Skips off to find a water bottle-