The Puffer Forum

Went into Wal-Mart today and was lucky enough to catch the fish lady unloading the bettas. Really nice lady. I was able to take pictures. I don't know how the bettas survive this!

First they come in a cooler.




The bettas are individually bagged. Their individual bags have about 3 tablespoons of water. The individually bagged bettas are then put into a bag the size of a bag of potato chips and then their cups and lids go in the same bag. So on one side are the cups and lids and the other side is about a dozen individually bagged bettas.




Then the lady sets up the little bowls and adds tank water to each cup. The individually bagged betta are put into the cup to adjust to temp for a few minutes. Then the lady cuts open the bettas bags and pours them into the cups containing tank water. They are then given lids and put on display.




So this is how the big box stores ship these guys. I can imagine the ammonia in 3 tablespoons of water. I always assumed they weren't shipped well...but I had no idea!

Although that is bad, its a betta. Not downplaying the species but they are survivors. naturally they live out in shallow still rice patty waters and thrive. Kinda like to see them as roaches of the freshwater world but much prettier.

They also dont need water to breath. They can breath air outside of water through their mouth

Just because bettas and gouramis have a labrynth organ, keeping them like that isn't in the best intreast of the fish. I really hate seeing bettas kept like that and especially otherwise good LFS showing them in tiny cups and trying to sell equally tiny fancy tanks for them.

It seems most LFS treat them as disposable pets which owners will re-buy once the orginal is dead. And sice the LFS are making money from them, there is no push back to get them treated more humanely.

Thats the word, labrynth....it sounds so metal

very heavy.....metal..

....no bueno

Couldn't she at least fill the cups?

Bettas are the poster children of the disposable live pets parade.

LFS do use them to promote horrible "living" conditions for "showy" live pets. Comparing any captive situation to a rice pady is specious. There are no such fish as fancy bettas in the wild. As with goldfish, they are purely captive bred and selected fish. To me, that makes any comparison to wild conditions absurd or at best ridiculous. Rice paddies may be comparable to other seasonal situations (like seasonal flood plains) and multitudes of fish may well perish as the flood condition recede in the wild. But enough make it back to the streams or lakes which hold the next year's breeding stock until the next flood stage. Some even have drought-resistant eggs which hold until flood/wet conditions return. Fancy bettas, colored and distorted bodied goldfish, most albino fish varieties and long-finned versions of other tropical fish are man-selected are artificial. Without human intervention - and for goldfish, koi, and other genetic freaks would not reproduce persistently in the wild other than short-term. Man-made critters should not be compared to wild forms any more than horses and cattle are. They are not wild animals, have not been exposed to the wild with natural selection in many generations. They would not be elected by Mother Nature for success. They are man-made and require artificial life support along with massive selection to maintain their selected forms.

Do not fall into the trap of nodding agreement when a LFS sharpie starts babbling about bettas living in footprints in the wild. Hold up your hand to stop them and ask how many offspring those bettas have survive. A footprint is one heck of a long way from a rice paddy. That sales pitch is for idiots. Don't be one about your live pets.

FWIW

RTR wrote:Bettas are the poster children of the disposable live pets parade.
<snip>

Do not fall into the trap of nodding agreement when a LFS sharpie starts babbling about bettas living in footprints in the wild. Hold up your hand to stop them and ask how many offspring those bettas have survive. A footprint is one heck of a long way from a rice paddy. That sales pitch is for idiots. Don't be one about your live pets.

FWIW

I so agree...Heck..the fry can repeat bilingually all the cons of keeping bettas in the unfiltered, unheated fancy-smancy teeny-weeny show tanks LFS try to palm off on the unsuspecting shopper.

My now genre-savy LPSs no longer ask me as an experienced fish-slave to recommend/agree with bettas as a starter fish in small containers. Local bred bettas would no more survive in a rice-paddy than they would in the frozen lake at the end of my street.

My LFS (owned by a long-time friend) rarely asks me to talk to novices. I talk too many of them out of keeping fish, especially the ones whom I invite over to see my fish. I show tem my retirement collection of over 20-year-old fish and they decide not to buy the kids a ten gallon tank.

LOL, the LFS said they'd NEVER hire me. I'd think everyone is too stupid to keep fish alive!

Haha, I too would probably get fired/denied a job as a lfs employee. Makes me sad to see people who dont cut corners for beloved pets, but wont spend the extra cash to keep a fish healthy/happy. As for bettas, one of my lfs insists that every fish needs a filter except for bettas!

I assume I'm not the only one who grabbed some customer after the "expert" was done helping them and actually helped them l0l? I had to stop some teens from buying a gsp for a community tank, and help a mom pick out a filter for a tank when the employee was trying to sell her one that did not work for what she wanted at all.. *sigh*

My lfs is better then most though, they list gsp as brackish fish along with other fish that are brackish instead of saying they are freshwater. Unfortunately, I still believe they sell too many gsps that end up in freshwater or worse... fish bowls (aka death-bowls) Whomever invented fish bowls should be stoned XD

I have no clue what GSPs "really" are in the wild. They cover too much territory and I have (personal) doubts that they really are a single species - but I am no taxonomist. The suggestions we give here for GSPs are pragmatic - they are techniques which work well in captivity long term - this may or may not match the condition under which they do best in the wild. Captive husbandry is not necessarily the same as optimum wild conditions. I hope yhat everyone is aware of the differnces.