Availability?

[AyalaCookiejar]

Anyone have troubles with local availablity of fish, accessories, plants, products, etc..?

I want to make my new ten gallon into a sorority tank, but female bettas are not very available around here. I know I could purchase them online, but I feel like that's a lot of unecessary stress on the fish's part. Opinions? I was thinking about maybe contacting the closest petco or petsmart to see if they could possibly get more female bettas in? I can't imagine that more males are born than females, but it seems that's all they have. What do they do with the females?!

Also, many products and plants are not available around here and I end up ordering a lot of my products online. Where do you guys get your fish, products, and live plants?

I'm trying to get everything planned for my new tanks, but I'm thinking if I must order plants and fish online, I might as well wait until it gets warmer. :/ I'm really just not that patient.

[registereduser]

I think petco would order them for you but you might not be able to get the colors you want, I don't know.

I ordered 6 from a breeder who posts here and I was VERY happy with them. I will PM you the info if you like.

As for stress, they get way more stressed in the tiny bags of water from the breeder to the store. When you buy privately from a breeder they do a much better job of packing them up for travel.

[AyalaCookiejar]

Did the breeder you ordered from include a heating pad in the box? It's getting well below freezing here now. I'd also like to know the prices and maybe just be able to chat with a breeder about ordering females for my sorority. I have heard that generally females from breeders do better in sororities because they are socialized more and aren't separated right at birth. I won't be ordering them soon, though. I don't want a specific type of female, but a little variety wouldn't hurt and I absolutely love yellow females for some reason, lol. I think getting them from a breeder, they may know more females better suited for sorority life, as in pet stores they really don't know about their personalities.

I would really appreciate more opinions on shipping them as well. I live in Nebraska and don't really want them to go through a very long shipping process. Also any suggestions for a breeder I could talk to and order them from would be appreciated through a private message. I guess maybe I should post in the classifieds on that particular subject, lol.

[registereduser]

Originally Posted by AyalaCookiejar

Did the breeder you ordered from include a heating pad in the box? It's getting well below freezing here now.

no because it was summertime but all breeders ship with heat packs in winter.

I guess maybe I should post in the classifieds on that particular subject, lol.

That's a great idea.

I have seen the way Petco's fish arrive and it is horrible the tiny bags they are in! Here is a photo of the female in my avatar the day I brought her home:




Breeders do a much better job!

[AyalaCookiejar]

Thanks so much! I messaged him for a bit of information. I told him though that I won't be purchasing any fish until my tanks are fully set up and cycled. I would love to have this opportunity when setting up my new tanks. Thank you!