Sad to see so many bettas kept in bowls :(

[BettaChick84]

I have never been a fan of fishbowls but especially not for bettas! They are TROPICAL fish & need their water to be kept at a constant temperature between 74-80 degrees Farenheit. I know petstores will tell you that they make a fantastic desk ornament in a tiny cup or vase but it is NOT ideal conditions for them to live in! Bettas need to be in a minimum 3-5 gallon tank that is cycled, filtered, and heated. It's all a big myth that bettas live a good life in bowls. They need space to swim & grow. It's also a myth that they lived in little rice paddies. The truth about those paddies is that they're enormous bodies of shallow water, and the water is in constant movement, thereby constantly eliminating the toxic effects of the ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. They jump from paddie to paddie in order to find a more suitable home.

So please don't get sucked into the fad! Give your bettas a heated, decent sized home!!!!

 

[echoofformless]

I used to agree with this...but you know something - experience has told me otherwise.

As long as the bowl is a minimum .5g and the water is constantly changed from the same source so the parameters remain the same, the bowl is kept in a place where temperatures are at least 70 degrees and steady, your betta will live a more than happy existence. I have been a betta enthusiast for quite a long time - keeping them in all manner of environments, and to be honest I see nothing to indicate that a betta is at all unhappy or unhealthy living in a properly and consistently maintained bowl. In fact some of them have done better in bowls than in tanks, as is the case with my own crowntail. We thought he was on his way to fishy heaven a year or so ago, so we took him out of his tank for some desperate hope that temporarily keeping him in a hospital bowl - where we could change 100% of the water and not have a substrate to gather sediment - would either get him healthy again or at least give him comfort away from the currents while he was so weak...and guess what?

He made not only a full recovery, but has never been happier than in that bowl. You might find this ironic - but I haven't the heart to take him out of there and put him back in the tank. He just seems so much healthier.

This is one of those cases where the conventional wisdom holds a nugget of truth. The problem isn't the bowl itself - the problem is that, like you say, the betta is sold under a bill of lies like how they live in puddles of dirty water. So these people who know nothing of fishkeeping think, "Oh here's a pretty fish that I can just keep on my desk and not have to take much care of." That is the real problem - people don't change the water or feed them properly. They keep them in places that are possibly too cold or where the temperature fluctuates. Then they come on here asking what is wrong with their betta. So yeah...those are my two cents on this topic.

 

[BettaChick84]

That's great Echo. I think the petstore workers should be shot for how they 'educate' people on keeping bettas. Poor things...

 

[echoofformless]

Very much...and look at the example that the stores often set - keeping the poor things in shot glasses.

I remember this one time at Petco when geekrockgirl85 and I saw, to our horror, those cups stacked one on top of the other so as to not allow any oxygen exchange so the bettas would surely suffocate. There we stood, steadily moving them all around until there were no more stacked. Oh the sufferings of the bleeding heart betta lover...hehe

 

[BettaChick84]

LOL I would do exactly the same!!! haha! Where they get their ideas from I will never know. You would think they would hire people that actually like the fish rather than there for the money!

 

[Katie217]

why would a petstore do that? they wouldnt, because they know that ppl will properely educate their customers and therefore less sales because the average mom who comes in with her 2 kids wants a 2gal goldfish tank for 4 goldies. to the petstore thats a constant buyer of new goldfish. petstores can be really...stupid

 

[FishWhisperer]

Thank you to Echo and geekrockgirl! I do the exact same thing when I am at Wal-Mart. I move the containers off one another so the fish can breathe. I am sure they get tired of my once a week visit to check on the fish but who care. I am the exact same person that gets my own fish because no one comes over to help, even if they call an employee to the fish area over the intercom. Keep up the good work!