Just beginning

[Banicks]

G'day all, I have been reading the forums for about a week and finally decided to register and begin my road towards betta ownage.

There are some very informative articles and people here, so much that I felt comfortable heading out to a local pet aquarium armed with above basic knowledge and begin pricing up.

When I went into the local aquarium it was rather crummy, all those poor marine and tropical fish in their tanks but I finally found the betta fellas. I was so off-put to see them in such small containers, further to my disbelief was that the poor fellas had less than half of the container filled with mucky, cruddy water.

I would say the container was the size shown below, and only half of it was filled :( - if they were lucky.



The owner walks up to me and says you after some bettas, I nod and he shows me one, turns the container on its side to get more water around him and shakes it to get him upset and flustering around.

I wasn't too happy about that, this is supposed to be a guy who cares about fish! Seemed rather cruel to me to do that, one certainly doesn't pick a puppy up and shake it around in a cage when looking.

I said I was just looking for now, and he asked if i wanted a package, so I asked him to put one together for price ideas. He did so, the package was alright I think (12 litre tank [3 US gallons], some fancy German heater with a 5 year warranty, betta, water conditioner (generic name) and free 'betta gems' (wouldn't have used because they looked like razors all over). Also said that he guarantees his fish for a month if i get all the things from his store.

I was just so off-put by the fellas current housing and treatment! I'm still going to be shopping around for now, but I just feel I shouldn't support his store based on what I saw :S

On a side-note, he kept going on at me about how one of them was a black betta, apparently these are unsual/rare. Is this so?

[Tikibirds]

HI

Almost all bettas sold, at least in the US, are housed in those little cups that are about 1/2 full. I went to a petstore today to get chinchilla food and looked at the bettas and one of the cups was so icky, it had mold or something growing in it. Everytime i have gotten a betta from this store, I check the ammonia level in the cup and its always between 2.0 and 4.0

There is a local fish store in town, I have never been too but the reviews for it online are HORIBLE. Plus the owner was in one of my uni classes and he is a cocky b*stard. I couldn't stand him.

[LittleBettaFish]

You have a few good fish stores up in Sydney. Aquaristic is the first one that comes to mind. Not sure if they sell bettas, but if you're not comfortable supporting the LFS in your OP, they might be an option.

I think your heater was probably an Eheim. Eheim Jagers are one of the best heaters on the market in my opinion. However, most stores way overprice dry goods (heaters, filters etc.), which is why I purchase all of mine online.

http://www.aquariumsupermarket.com.au

http://www.guppysaquariumproducts.com.au

http://www.aquariumproducts.com.au/

Those three online stores have a great range and competitive prices. I order most of my stuff through there

[Banicks]

Tikibirds - That is very upsetting to know it is common practice to look after, or rather sell, these guys all over the world :(

LittleBettaFish - Thanks very much for those links and info, I'm going to take a look at them now. Good to meet another Aussie here :)