WAY to many times, it's just not right. They just care about making quick cash on the Oscars or fish they are selling. All they care about is the money. Aa fish store near me is fine, they are pretty knowledgeable compare to other places. They will tell you it's too much for a tank, I shop there a lot, their honest.
Local newspaper "bowls for bettas"
- Thread starter piggy67
- Start date
WAY to many times, it's just not right. They just care about making quick cash on the Oscars or fish they are selling. All they care about is the money. Aa fish store near me is fine, they are pretty knowledgeable compare to other places. They will tell you it's too much for a tank, I shop there a lot, their honest.
im not trying to start a flame war but i gotta speak up...having been a long time (20 yr)betta keeper i have seen these "enclouser size" arguments hundreds of times...and most "mob" mentality groups will say bigger, always bigger...
yes bettas in the wild swim around , seldom leaving there shallow little territory , but yes its true...but bettas in the fish trade are NOT like there wild cousins...selective breeding people..decades of it...bettas are the pugs of the fish trade...wild bettas will rarely sport the bright colors of there genetically altered captive relatives and almost NEVER have the fin length....1.5 gallons in a well maintained bowl...yes bowl.. (because flat walls seem to confuse and stress them in my experience)....and i will go one step farther and say MOST filters that create any current will stress a betta more than less than perfect water...why? because there fins are 4x as long as natural and they "kite" in current....i deify any of you to tell me a betta swimming in a 10 gallon tank dosent look like its thrashing through the water ... there not great swimmers...they dont like current ...and they only live in shallow water...normally less than 6 inches BTW..generally hiding on the surface between rice shoots waiting for a bug to hit water..im not advocating keeping them in tea cups but by your logic your 30lbs dog has to have an acre of land to run on...right?
the short list
Veiltail (non-symmetrical tail, only two rays)
(and honestly were extremely rare up till a few years ago, you had to know a breeder to get a crown-tail in the 90s)
ok start flaming me
yes bettas in the wild swim around , seldom leaving there shallow little territory , but yes its true...but bettas in the fish trade are NOT like there wild cousins...selective breeding people..decades of it...bettas are the pugs of the fish trade...wild bettas will rarely sport the bright colors of there genetically altered captive relatives and almost NEVER have the fin length....1.5 gallons in a well maintained bowl...yes bowl.. (because flat walls seem to confuse and stress them in my experience)....and i will go one step farther and say MOST filters that create any current will stress a betta more than less than perfect water...why? because there fins are 4x as long as natural and they "kite" in current....i deify any of you to tell me a betta swimming in a 10 gallon tank dosent look like its thrashing through the water ... there not great swimmers...they dont like current ...and they only live in shallow water...normally less than 6 inches BTW..generally hiding on the surface between rice shoots waiting for a bug to hit water..im not advocating keeping them in tea cups but by your logic your 30lbs dog has to have an acre of land to run on...right?
the short list
Veiltail (non-symmetrical tail, only two rays)
- Crowntail (highly frilled or jagged rays, extended spiny rays, also called fringetail)
- Combtail (less extended version of the crown tail, derived from breeding crown and veil tails)
- Half-moon (large tail fin that forms a 180-degree or larger circle segment)
- Double-tail (the tail fin is split into two lobes and the dorsal fin is significantly elongated)
- Delta tail (tail span is less than half-moon with sharp edges)
- Fantail (a rounded delta tail)
- Halfsun (Combtail with anal fin going 180 degrees, like a halfmoon)
- Rosetail (halfmoon with so much finnage that it overlaps and looks like a rose)
(and honestly were extremely rare up till a few years ago, you had to know a breeder to get a crown-tail in the 90s)
- Short-finned fighting style (sometimes called "plakat") is the closest to wild bettas but is selectively bred for larger size..
ok start flaming me
No azazal you got some good points in there, I just get tired of the people that constantly kill off bettas and then go get a new one because there $2 and up. My coworker was griping about going betta shopping with her mom again because hers died again. She had killed of 6 in under a year and was going back for more... I can't respect that kind of bowl keeper or person in general.
The dog in the acre yard is a great analogy, at some point you have to say "no, the fish is too small" I should of said that with my 2 yoyo loaches... I can't keep track if there healthy yet alone alive because inch long fish do not belong in 120+ gal of water. I ended up killing one by accadent cleaning alge up because I squashed the poor thing and used him on my scrubby pad... Talk about major guilt trip he swam away just fine to never come out again.
The dog in the acre yard is a great analogy, at some point you have to say "no, the fish is too small" I should of said that with my 2 yoyo loaches... I can't keep track if there healthy yet alone alive because inch long fish do not belong in 120+ gal of water. I ended up killing one by accadent cleaning alge up because I squashed the poor thing and used him on my scrubby pad... Talk about major guilt trip he swam away just fine to never come out again.
i just get frustrated with the "all bowl keepers are evil" thing.....its not the bowls killing the betta its the keepers...but i feel obligated to add keeping 5 betta bowls is more labor and time consuming than my 38g and 75g combined...and as far as the "its unfair to the fish " crowd goes, that argument could be used on ALL aquariums...after all we are all guilty of keeping WILD animals in captivity are we not?...never heard of a domesticated short finned house fish...if your so adamant about protecting fish STOP BUYING THEM...leave the hobby and join PETA.. i felt the same way about the Herp industry, so I got out of the hobby...i couldnt be a hypocrite and tell people they were wrong to buy iguanas because they would eventually need a 6x4 cage...and burms retics rocks and anaconda have no business being in a pet store..ive seen very nice large tank setups on this site with lots of very large fish and its ok...but scale it down to were 1 fish actually has proportionally MORE area and its a problem...i dont get it...
just saying
just saying
my betta is in a 1.5 gallon filtered tank. I would say anything is better than the small 4oz container he was purchased in and sat in for who knows how long.
^^ Agree, they sit in their filth. I have mind in a 3 gallon filteres tank and he is not bothered by the filter. I also have another one in a 35 gallon and he does not have swimming problems.
i agree
). 