Pet stores getting younger and younger bettas?

[Bambi]

Same here kinda, it's mostly the crowntails that seem to be underaged.

[HatsuneMiku]

all of the petsmart bettas around me get pretty much get fry's that have probably just been cupped .. some of them were so young they didn't even get their coloring's in yet .. which i think .. is probably very bad since they are being jarred so early .. betta dad probably didn't get a chance to even cull the one's that needed to be .. @_@ so you might end up with a very sick betta .. or underdeveloped one ..

[Tikibirds]

I have gotten some females from petco that I think were still fry, they were tiny and colorless. Kinda transparent

Walmart on the other hand, has bettazillas. Even the females are HUGE

[HatsuneMiku]

lol !! bettazillas ... =P

[mjoy79]

I'm confused on aging betta. When I bought Joey on Aquabid, in the listing it said he was 3.5 months old. Does this guy look too young to be in stores?


When I was setting up my sorority, I had purchased 2 tiny girls - Kate and Claire. They were so young and they didn't last longer than a day after I brought them home. I assumed they were too young and small and couldn't handle the stress - I learned to make sure all my girls are about the same size.

Are the aquabid sellers lying about the age of the fish?

[purplemuffin]

No, many of them are just very good at 'power growing' their betta. If you watch the breeder section of the forum, you'll see that one person's two week old bettas will be the same size as one person's one month old bettas. It all has to do with water quality and food. The fry give off hormones that cause the other fry to stay small, so if you don't keep the water clean enough, they stay TINY! Thai breeders have a lot of space and time and the added benefit of being where bettas originated, so it's easier for them.

I think the problem with them going to stores when they are so small is that stores don't take good care of them--so after the stress of shipping(which alone can kill even a healthy betta) they are put in a place with cold water and cold air and the water is allowed to get filthy!

The tiny tiny ones at stores look like they are even younger than the 3.5 month old guy there. My guy was 3.5 months old and was still tiny tiny. Not as small as these guys at the store though!

[dramaqueen]

I've never seen fry at my Petsmart. I've seen some tiny bettas but I wouldn't call them fry.

[mjoy79]

These girls I picked up at Petco several months ago. Not sure they're fry but they are young. How old do you think they look?
By the way - both of these girls died within 1-2 days of me bringing them home

[Sweeda88]

At PetCo the other day, I saw a girl who was literally this big -----------. Maybe a bit bigger, it's hard to remember. But she was TINY. I couldn't believe it. I would have gotten her if I wasn't already giving 6 of my fish away because of my medical issues.

[freeflow246]

Sushi was pretty small when I got him (a day ago). Not fry-sized, but too small to be on a shelf imo. Not to mention that he had pretty bad fin rot and was pale as a ghost. It's the same store I rescued Jalen from, actually.
My nail polish sucks. :'(