Hey everyone!
So as you might know by now, I have been rescuing and raising baby bettas from Petco. Well one of my pity buys from about 2 weeks ago died night before last, so yesterday, I stopped by Petco on the way home to pick up a new one.
There were 2 dead baby bettast there.
I knew exacly which one I wanted as soon as I saw her. She has a gimpy pectoral fin on one side (whether it was torn, a birth defect, or just a mess up from poor treatment, I don't know, but I guess I'll find out when it does or doesn't grow back). But she has to do this awkward little wobble to get around. She is extremely skinny, colorless, lethargic (barely moves at ALL), and sickly looking.
Out of curiosity, I tested the ammonia in her cup. I was expecting 0.25 ppm, maybe 0.5 ppm at the most. This is what I got instead:
This is absolutely ridiculous! Her ammonia was in between 4ppm and 8ppm (and although it doesn't look like it in the picture, it was closer to 8ppm). What's more is that I would have guessed her tempurature to be *maybe* in the low 60's. It literally felt ice cold. And my hands were not warm because my tank at 82 degrees felt warm to the touch. And one more thing: they treat the babies at Petco like adults. As in they get fed exactly the same thing. Unhealthy PELLETS.
My mom and I brought her (and some other things for the other animals) up to check out, and the lady there started handing me a packet of paper. When I asked her what it was, she said it was a caresheet that I had to fill out for the betta. Umm, what? Okay, I could understand that if they actually treated their bettas like animals, but not the way they treat them. My mom just looked at her and said, "she takes these bettas home to raise them and save them from this store because they are dying here." Needless to say, the lady put the caresheet back without another word.
She is not doing so hot this morning. I acclimated her for about 45 minutes last night. I would have done for longer, but I had to go to swim practice. Please keep her in your prayers! I want the poor baby to have a chance and a good life. Anyway, sorry for all the babbling; here she is...(sorry for the bad pictures...my good camera was downstairs and I didn't want to go get it )
Yes, that's her laying at the bottom...and yes, I got photobombed by my impersonating balloon molly (long story) :lol:
Please, if anyone has any advice or suggestions for me, please, please help!
Thank you~
Meg
Edit: forgot to mention that I can't get her to eat a bite. And I feed my baby bettas all frozen brine shrimp and bloodworms. She won't even look at the food.
So as you might know by now, I have been rescuing and raising baby bettas from Petco. Well one of my pity buys from about 2 weeks ago died night before last, so yesterday, I stopped by Petco on the way home to pick up a new one.
There were 2 dead baby bettast there.
I knew exacly which one I wanted as soon as I saw her. She has a gimpy pectoral fin on one side (whether it was torn, a birth defect, or just a mess up from poor treatment, I don't know, but I guess I'll find out when it does or doesn't grow back). But she has to do this awkward little wobble to get around. She is extremely skinny, colorless, lethargic (barely moves at ALL), and sickly looking.
Out of curiosity, I tested the ammonia in her cup. I was expecting 0.25 ppm, maybe 0.5 ppm at the most. This is what I got instead:
This is absolutely ridiculous! Her ammonia was in between 4ppm and 8ppm (and although it doesn't look like it in the picture, it was closer to 8ppm). What's more is that I would have guessed her tempurature to be *maybe* in the low 60's. It literally felt ice cold. And my hands were not warm because my tank at 82 degrees felt warm to the touch. And one more thing: they treat the babies at Petco like adults. As in they get fed exactly the same thing. Unhealthy PELLETS.
My mom and I brought her (and some other things for the other animals) up to check out, and the lady there started handing me a packet of paper. When I asked her what it was, she said it was a caresheet that I had to fill out for the betta. Umm, what? Okay, I could understand that if they actually treated their bettas like animals, but not the way they treat them. My mom just looked at her and said, "she takes these bettas home to raise them and save them from this store because they are dying here." Needless to say, the lady put the caresheet back without another word.
She is not doing so hot this morning. I acclimated her for about 45 minutes last night. I would have done for longer, but I had to go to swim practice. Please keep her in your prayers! I want the poor baby to have a chance and a good life. Anyway, sorry for all the babbling; here she is...(sorry for the bad pictures...my good camera was downstairs and I didn't want to go get it )
Yes, that's her laying at the bottom...and yes, I got photobombed by my impersonating balloon molly (long story) :lol:
Please, if anyone has any advice or suggestions for me, please, please help!
Thank you~
Meg
Edit: forgot to mention that I can't get her to eat a bite. And I feed my baby bettas all frozen brine shrimp and bloodworms. She won't even look at the food.