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A better Life?

7K views 117 replies 29 participants last post by  ChoclateBetta 
#1 ·
I decided recently to rescue 12 Betta's from my local walmart and petsmart. I was shocked at how terrible the Betta's are treated at walmart. They are all shoved way up under a dark shelf where no one can see them, and those little cups they come in were barely half full with water. I saw 2 dead Betta's, that had been dead at least 3 or 4 days, because the water looked like milk and the fish had started disintegrating. Really made me sad, and mad at the idiots who allow that to happen to the fish and never check on them. I took some of the Betta's to the sink and gave them more water. I am going to have a conversation with a manager about that soon.

Anyways, all of my 12 Betta's are in gallon sized bowls, tanks, and critter cages. They all have gravel and a small decoration or plant. A few of them have an LED light. But unfortunately, I don't have the funds to provide them with a heater or filter. But, I feel that I am giving them a much better life than they had in the pet store. They now have more water and swimming space and a plant or decoration to play in. Maybe one day I'll have the money to get bigger tanks with heaters and filters, but right now that is the best I can do for them.
 
#2 ·
12 bettas in 1 gallons is going to be a lot of upkeep. maybe if there is anyone you can trust you can give them a fish or two? As for the heating problem try and keep them in the warmest part of the house. If you have the space and can afford it I would also look into getting a ten or twenty gallon that can be divided. A ten gallon could be divided into 4 spaces while a twenty gallon around 8ish. And you would have less water changes. For heaters just buy one at a time as you get the money. Eventually you should have enough for all. Though if you can get a larger tank that can be divided you only need like 1 heater per like what 4 fish. (if in 10g.)
 
#3 ·
Wow..I commend you for being so courageous!! I want to do the same ..I.. know I cant at this timeI can only imagine how difficult it was too see that..It would be best to put those feelings in writing in regards to what yu witnessed in walmart..it will be a bigger impact..I wish yu well in yur rescue efforts..sounds great so far..and when the right time comes get what you can..and go from there:)Good Luck..when yu get a chance show us some pix of yur new family:)
 
#5 ·
Good on you! As long as there happy! Bettas are some of the hardiest fish alive. When I was younger and didnt know a thing about keeping bettas, I kept them in 1-gallon bowls and did water changes every few weeks and they had no heaters and I kept them alive for a year or more.. even through winter! Man was I stupid! But you learn ;)
 
#7 ·
Bettas are tropical fish... they need warm water to live comfortably and stay healthy, thus they need a heater. While your heart may have been in the right place, the situation they are in is still not a good on.

I, for one, am not going to support people buying Bettas and then KNOWINGLY keeping them in poor conditions simply because the place they were in previously was worse.
 
#9 · (Edited by Moderator)
I have rescued my share of fish from Walmart and improved their living conditions at few stores. I did this without supporting the cruelty (got them for free) and without keeping them in substandard conditions.

What do you think is going to happen at that store? 12 new Bettas are going to take the place of the ones you bought. 12 more Bettas are going to suffer the same fate because guess what? The store didn't learn any lesson.

When you choose to bring an animal into your home, it is your job as caregiver to make sure they are getting proper care. Whether or not their previous conditions were much worse is irrelevant. That is like buying a puppy from an awful pet store where it was suffering, then keeping it outside in a small crate during winter. Oh but it is okay, because now he has a toy and he isn't going to die tomorrow. His health will still suffer and the conditions are still bad.

There is a bigger picture we must take into account here.
 
#11 · (Edited by Moderator)
This is an open forum. You will get all kinds of opinions. Why would I be supportive of actions I do not support?

Please do not twist my intentions. I never said you should steal anything.

When I see awful conditions like you saw, and believe me I have, I ask to talk to the manager. Then I raise hell.... take pictures, video, and say I will be contacting corporate. I tell them that unless conditions improve, I will not longer shop at their store, neither will my friends or family.

9/10, in my experience, conditions will improve dramatically.
 
#12 ·
Well, I am not a free loader. I'm not going to raise hell and threaten a manager just so I can get a free fish. I paid for my fish. And as I said in my first post, I was going to have a conversation with a manager, probably over the phone, about improving the conditions and the treatment of the fish they sell.
 
#15 · (Edited by Moderator)
Well, I am not a free loader. I'm not going to raise hell and threaten a manager just so I can get a free fish. I paid for my fish. And as I said in my first post, I was going to have a conversation with a manager, probably over the phone, about improving the conditions and the treatment of the fish they sell.[

You missed my point ENTIRELY. I didn't say I do all of that so they will give me a free fish... I do all of that so I do not support the cruelty by paying for abused fish and to EDUCATE the store employee's and managers that neglecting the fish is unacceptable.

Being a vegan or vegetarian has NOTHING to do with it.
 
#13 ·
While you may have been trying to make a difference in those fishes lives, which is admirable, but you are not helping them in a good way.

My advice is to put these fish up for adoption on craigslist, and ask for people to adopt these fish, but first ask questions to ensure that you are giving them to PROPER homes.

Right now, although you tried to help it wasn't the best.

These fish are TROPICAL and NEED heaters.

Rescuing is taking an animal out of a situation WITHOUT encouraging it to occur again, as well as providing the care the pet needs.

Unfortunately, you have encouraged this to happen again, by paying for these fish. The best way to save fish is to stop paying for them. Yes, fish will die, but in the long run many MORE fish will be saved. Look at all the wal-marts that have stopped selling fish because no one was buying them anymore. You can not say you do not approve animal cruelty when you are in a way 1. encouraging it (even if indirectly) and 2. doing so yourself.

By keeping those fish in 1 gallon containers without heaters (if your air temps do not keep the water at a proper temperature), than you are being cruel in another way to those fish. Yes, they may have warm water, but they are also freezing cold.

If you can afford to, I would by a space heater and use that to up the air temps in the room you keep the fish in, or as I said before, put them up for adoption.
 
#20 · (Edited by Moderator)
Putting them up for adoption would defeat the purpose of me having them in the first place. I wanted the fish. If I wanted people from craigslist to have a Betta fish, I would just post an ad saying, "Hey people, go get a Betta fish from Walmart".

"They may have warm water, but they are freezing cold"? That didn't make any sense, sorry.

I'm guessing you are also a vegetarian or a vegan? Because if you eat meat, then you are encouraging more animals to be slaughtered so we can eat them, therefore, you contribute to animal cruelty. Don't be a hypocrite.
Ok, so if you want the fish, you should also take the responsibility. And that means providing clean water and heated water. Because they are tropical. I suggested putting them on craigslist to find them homes where they could get the proper care they need. You are not providing that right now. Right now, you should focus on the ones you can provide heaters and clean tanks for.

Sorry, I meant "They may have clean water, but they are freezing cold".

I am not a vegetation or a vegan, nor am I a hypocrite.
Meat I purchase is raised for the purpose of being used as food. They are not being raised for pets. I see nothing wrong with animals being raised for food; humans eat animal meat for a reason; we need the nutrition it provides. But I am not going argue about that.

I'm not going to waste my time arguing with you. I provided you with 2 helpful suggestions, as well as valid reasons for those suggestions. In no way did I insult you, but you reply with aggression to myself as well as Lioncallie because we do not agree with you. You will not last long on forums if you become so personally offended by those who do not agree with you; that is what forums are for - discussion.

I'm not going to commend you for doing something that isn't worthy of praise, either.
 
#16 ·
Okay, everybody, let's please stop arguing...
Peoples opinions are important, but you can't force your opinion onto others, so let's stop... The word "rescue" is sensitive around here so let's stop using it as well...
Honestly, let's just focus on getting the fish into better conditions.. 12 betta is a large number, lol. I'd start looking on craigslist, or freecycle (google it for your town), to find larger tanks.. 5 gallons+. This will give you the option to divide a tank, which means only 1 filter/heater per more fish. If you have some females they can share a 10 gallon+ tank turned into a sorority.
You did put them in a better life, but as a fish keeper you want it to be the best life. :)
Posted via Mobile Device
 
#23 ·
couldnt have said it better myself!

I don't think it's right to flame people for trying to get them in better conditions while working on saving for getting better tanks or heaters. You can find them in yard sales, goodwill, freecycle, and craigslist. The fish wont drop dead without a heater, no one has yet to ask what temp the room is that they're housed in. I live in south florida and my bathroom never drops below 74-76 ( its jungle hot down here LOL) and some of the tanks in my bathroom have no heaters, they stay at a constant temp because I do check my thermometers daily. I think before we scold people we should try to educate them and help them do it the best way they can. Personally I'm happy someone who actually cares took them rather than them dying on a shelf with no one to love them. If that makes me cruel, I'm sorry.

I hope we can actually be a little more positive because when I first joined I was scolded and almost wanted to return my fish because instead of helping most people yelled at me for "not knowing anything" and told me to return all my fish because I was going to kill them anyways.
 
#18 ·
Well, I do have an empty 10 gallon tank that I had used before for other fish. But the fish kept dying, and the tank turned brown and green within a week from algae and looked disgusting, so I put the remaining fish in my turtle tank and broke down the 10 gallon. I had a filter and heater in that 10 gallon, but it didn't keep the fish alive.
 
#22 ·
Thank you for your suggestions.

But don't tell me I am contributing to animal cruelty.

An animal getting shot in the head and chopped up with an axe sounds much worse to me than someone having a fish without a heater in its tank. You are delusional if you think otherwise.
 
#24 ·
Thank you Anita, I'm glad there are friendly supportive people like you on here. Olympia also had a good point. These are the kind of replies I expected on a fish forum. I'm disappointed and saddened that other people attack and scold any new member that comes along. I guess that makes them feel better about themselves. So be it.
 
#25 ·
I just recommend that you try to get heaters, Its easiest if you look online for large tanks, I like divided tanks because it saves space and you can use one heater per more betta (like was previously stated) I found my luck on craigslist and also sometimes petco has the dollar per gallon sale, where you can get brand new big tanks cheap like a 40 gal =$40 and so on but the smallest would be a 10 gal. Adjustable heaters are best. I would scrub down that 10 gal you had, divide it 3/ or 4 ways, (i've done 4 you just have to keep up water changes and some people think its too small it gives each one about 1.5-2 gals ) and use your heater with maybe an air bubbler to circulate water if you don't want to buy a filter.

All suggestions that help. but for the long run if you don't want to rehome them,
(I've done that on here, the people are nice and your betta's will go to great homes I recommend it if you can't buy what you need for them) you should start looking/saving for necessary supplies to keep them happiest and healthiest

I think its more people get so fed up with seeing betta cruelty they try to stop it ASAP rather than actually wanting to attack you. Just comes off that way :-(

I wish you luck and I hope your betta's do well!
 
#26 ·
110% agree with LionCalie.
 
#77 ·
Air bubblers can be turned into nice sponge filters (google them to see what I mean). They are much cheaper than regular filters, but they come with the side-effect of constant noise. You can even run multiple sponge filters from one bubbler. They are great in divided tanks, tho. If you put 3 males in a divided 10 gal, you could get away with 4 tanks instead of 12. Or you could divide 20 gal long tanks 4 ways and cut the number tanks down to 3.

I would feel a lot better if walmart would just put all the fish out in front where people can see them and make sure the containers are full of clean water and make sure the fish get fed. But as I said, I will have a conversation with a manager or someone about that. Hopefully it will help, but like Shirley said, managers only care about money.
Hmm. Maybe you should start doing that for them. Every time you are in there, move all the worst fish to the front. Make sure their cruelty is visible for all the store to see.

Also, if a Betta fish is captive bred and born into cold water, the cold water is what will be normal to him. A wild fish living in Thailand is completely different from a captive bred fish born into a tank in America. People need to understand that, before they say ridiculous things like, "You're cruel to animals because you didn't give the fish a heater".
I think what they need, is nothing more than an opinion. Every site I find online gives a different temperature for Bettas to live in. I've seen anywhere from 70 degrees to 85 degrees. Which one is right? Which one is wrong? It's all a matter of opinion. Good for you if you raise them and keep them in 80 degrees. *claps hands*
Eh. Not exactly. Temp requirements aren't a matter of opinion. Fish are poikilothermic which means their body temp is regulated by their environment (like like most reptiles). Temperature plays an important role in the activation of enzymes within the body. If the fish's body isn't at the proper temp, these enzymes won't function properly. The same thing will actually happen in humans; it's a process we call hypothermia. The body actually shuts down because it is too cold. The only difference is mammals can regulate their core body temp and keep it from getting that low except under extreme duress. Bettas are just really hardy and can take temp swings that a discus (which have similar temp needs) couldn't.

I may be a little late in this thread, but welcome TurtleMan84! :)
 
#28 ·
An airstone doesnt contain the surface area for a useful biological filter.
 
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