You don't ask the easy questions. There will be very different answers depending on the belief systems people follow.
Animals as decorations? Go further - with Betta splendens, humans have spent hundreds of years breeding them to have oversized fins, deformed scales, and even twisted bodies. It's not just a commercial activity - it's a sort of art. There are more questions than answers.
Our hobby has a couple of main streams in it - one is ornamental fish, and another is learning about nature through fishtanks. They cross over, but the ornamental hobby is the biggest one.
Why do people make cruel videos? Money, a need for attention, ignorance, stupidity, celebrity culture, because they can, and did I say stupidity...
Never forget that Betta splendens were also bred for behavioural traits, and selected for increased aggression in the same process applied to many bird and dog breeds. Why? People like to gamble on fighting. The colours and fins were originally so they'd make a better show.
I think a lot of it comes back to our commonly held belief that people simply aren't animals just like fish, ants, rats and deer. We put ourselves on a pedestal, and act like the animals we are anyway. We're the last surviving species in a branch of a primate group, and we've largely lost our understanding of nature and our place in it.
I don’t know. I have often been wondering the same thing, like why do fish of the same size as betas need huge tanks and then betas can be kept in 3 gallons? For example the electric yellow cichlids is very aggressive, grows to 3 inches but needs a 50 gallon tank at least, so why don’t betas? I like how betas are allowed to be kept in smaller tanks because that would allow me to have one but it seems kind of unfair.
There are answers to that one. Ecology. Bettas are ambush predators that hold tiny territories in crowded natural habitats. They look up and wait for insects to land on the water. They come from swampy water in many cases, and their inner ear has evolved into a sort of lung. They breathe surface air, and have a tolerance to water pollution. Those bred with big fins have lost that because the fins get infected, but the short finned wild fish is content living in a small zone it can control, and breed in. They can move fast to escape predators, but they keep to themselves.
So a small home is not an issue for them. It's how they live in nature - in small areas of large swamps or marshes. There aren't many fish species you can say that about.
A Labidochromis comes from a huge lake where it inhabits rocky outcrops. It eats algae and the organisms living in algae, and it has evolved to move around in search of its food. It is very social - Bettas react to crowding by holding fairly rigid territories and chasing other fish off, while mbuna like labs hold their turf , but have to swim out to get food. Mbuna live in enormous groups, with thousands of individuals of different species thriving in their rocky underwater islands.
Always look up how a fish lives in its natural habitat if you want to provide it with a good home. Make the tank fit for your fish, and don't make the fish adapt to your wishes.
