Mythbuster: Do bettas really live in "tiny" puddles?

[Miyazawa]

Originally Posted by allilovesherbetta

i have my betta in a 2 gallon tank. i change his water 50 percent every week. i feed him 5 pellets. i use tetra dechlorer and i use attisons betta spa. i also have taught him tricks(:.... and i got him plants that bettas like to rest on... is this a good enviroment?.... ive had him for a year now

i probably would do 2 50% per week or 1 100% per week :D but if he's fine then don't change anything

[kfryman]

Thanks for this it is so annoying when people say that bettas live in puddles. -_-

[Virux]

Well, any pet that is sold to people is going to be subject to a great deal of "dumbing down" as far as how they should be cared for, and lots of lies will be spread about their keeping. This happens to most pets in the "childrens" or "cheap" category. Look at goldfish, bettas, hamsters, mice, rats, parakeets. There are people that will tell you that an adult jumbo rat can do "just fine" in a ten gallon tank with food and water, or that a parakeet will be totally happy in a tiny cage with plastic perches of all the same size, no toys, and food and water. There are people who will tell you to buy "Calcium sand" to use as substrate for your baby bearded dragon. These people populate pet stores with reckless abandon, especially chains like Petsmart and Petco. Same with Wal-Mart. I once watched an employee tell a woman to put a 2 in goldfish she had bought for her kid in a 1 gallon fish bowl with some gravel in the bottom. I had to run her down and tell her she should definitely not do that, and instead pointed her in the direction of the ten and 29 gallon tank kits, all while explaining that goldfish get very large and that the goldfish she had picked may very well outgrow a 10 or 20 gallon tank in time, and stressing that she should look up the nitrogen cycle on the internet to avoid killing the fish with its own wastes. The truth is that people are stupid an uninformed, and most are happy to be ignorant, and will not pick up a book or look up an internet article for the fear of actually learning something. Look at how many questions you see on forums of all kinds that could be answered by doing a quick Google search and looking at websites that are not trying to sell you something. I see people all the time on forums of different kinds saying things like "What kind of food should I fed my pet rat?" answer: Rat blocks, supplemented with some fresh fruits and veggies, and a touch of hamster diet here and there on occaision.

This kind of info is all over the internet, on the right sites. Keeping pets is not "Easy" but it is also enjoyable and fun, and gratifying to the pet owner to be able to provide happiness, health, and care to something living and see how it pays them back, perhaps with beautiful coloration, tame and friendly behavior, or in the case of some higher order chordates, affectionate pack or group behavior that may look a lot like "love." It all depends. Check my sig. I own all of these things and am very knowledgeable about all of their care, and not because I know everything, but because I don't own an animal if I feel I won't be able to provide it a suitable life, and therefore I do plenty of research on any animal I decide to get before I get it, and obtain everything I will need for its care, from cricket gut-loader and calcium dust to ceramic heat emitters to biowheel filters to high quality cat food.

Personally, I keep all aquatic pets in containers that give them enough space to move about. Betta fish are not lazy little guys, they enjoy having some space to move about. I have kept Bettas in everything from 1/2 gallon critter keepers to 10 gallon community tanks over the span of a few years, and I have found that they do best in an environment that gives them enough room to swim about. Some are bewildered by large spaces, but usually it is not the actual space that is the problem, it is the fact that the tank is too barren for the animal, and it feels insecure. Fish like to have some structure, some more than others. Just ask any good fisherman where the best places are to cast your line.

Case in point: Some people are not cut out to own a living being and care for it. I have heard herp enthusiasts say to one another, "That lady should get a fish for her kids, bearded dragon." To which I often say, "That lady shouldn't get a pet at all for her kids. If she wants her kids to be exposed to caring for a pet, she should get a cat or a mouse or a rat, and not make it one child's pet, but a family pet, where all family members care for and research the care of the animal, and adults are in the end the ones who check on its wellbeing." I suggest a mammal in these situations only because mammals, being able to control their own body temperatures to a greater degree and breathe the same air we do, require significantly less worry as far as the environment the person is keeping for the pet.

[aqua001]

Great articale! i sure wish everyone who thought betta's lived in tiny puddles would read this! like Sushi said, somtimes in the wild they do, but as pets, i agree, they should be treated equal.

[morla]

Thanks for sharing! That was very interesting to read!

[toddscire]

The real answer to your question do betta's live in a puddle is true some times of the year. In Thailand the betta roam the bug infested flooded areas around the rivers and in some case the rice fields are 6inch to 12 inch deep with water 5 months of the year. But in winter it dries out to only a trickle and a few puddles under a tree or bush and yes you will find betta there. some times 10 males in 2 ft circle of water all fighting for the same coke can. We often find betta and snake heads side by side in the same hole. The betta is one tough fish. It will live in 1inch of water and have a nest. We have seen betta fish in plastic bags and old tires and just about any place that water is still standing in the dry season. In the wet season they will move to the field where they can live in water that favors only bugs and is void of much O2. I think most of the books are wrong and only tell what worked for that breeder. As a rule if you give them water and food and a little room and keep your temp above 70 and below 90 you will be able to breed. To keep the nest and babies alive keep a top on you tank and open only to feed and only enough to get food to them. We find lower temps make a lot of females and hi temps more male. Also we have had a few night that were down to 60 and we do not use heaters and all was fine. In fact we had more nests the next week. But if you get up to the 90's the babies can drop to soon from the nest and have fin size issues. My wife has a few tanks that can get to the high 90's in the summer and she keeps her PK stuff in there all year. So the real answer is in Thailand you can find betta in a water bufflow foot print 20% of the time and a coke can 10% and all else is fair game for this hardy little fish. I do not think that the habitat is gone. But they are looking in the wrong place and say it is extinct. If they spend more time talking to the locals and asking for help they will get more done. But to just go on a farmers land and look for fish will get you in to issues in Thailand or shot. The big issue is getting your wife to go with you after the first cobra comes out of the water with a frog.
But yes mud puddle are fair game and we check them for fish. We have got some nice greens in a had full of water in old broken bottles. The books are from so long ago. The info is most times out of date and plastic tanks were a dream. Get a soda bottle and a shoe box and breed......

[toddscire]

One of the best breeders in the world uses bottles the size of your hand for years with no issue. I can say that there is not more than two cups of water in it and just enough room for the fish to turn around in. Water is changed 2 times a day and not one fish in 10,000 were sick. No meds and no vodo treatments. Just lots of food and water changed. I do not think it is kind to do this. But it seems to work well and the life span is not shorter. The fish are very calm and the fish seem to not be stressed out. They breed in 20 gallon high tanks and some show fish were in 4 gallon tanks but were very large. They sell a lot of fish and hold a lot of fish. I think Jay said the sales were in the thousands a week. We use .5 gal glass to hold for inspection but use small bottles for some to grow out custom orders that we need 90% of the same batch. If we grow out in larger vats the loss is around 30% and some times more. But bettas can do OK in smaller containers and live the same life span. I wish I could give every fish a few gallons of water to live in...But price is a issue.

[DeviCy]

Thank you so very much, just because an animal can live in poor conditions doesn't mean it should have to. I take the very best care I can of my Bettas even with a small budget.

[Bombalurina]

Originally Posted by toddscire

One of the best breeders in the world uses bottles the size of your hand for years with no issue. I can say that there is not more than two cups of water in it and just enough room for the fish to turn around in. Water is changed 2 times a day and not one fish in 10,000 were sick. No meds and no vodo treatments. Just lots of food and water changed. I do not think it is kind to do this. But it seems to work well and the life span is not shorter. The fish are very calm and the fish seem to not be stressed out. They breed in 20 gallon high tanks and some show fish were in 4 gallon tanks but were very large. They sell a lot of fish and hold a lot of fish. I think Jay said the sales were in the thousands a week. We use .5 gal glass to hold for inspection but use small bottles for some to grow out custom orders that we need 90% of the same batch. If we grow out in larger vats the loss is around 30% and some times more. But bettas can do OK in smaller containers and live the same life span. I wish I could give every fish a few gallons of water to live in...But price is a issue.

However, as breeders, they know how to treat sick fish, and keep the water very clean and very warm (usually by heating a room). They don't keep the fish like this for their whole lives, but sell them on to other breeders, and to pet owners.
Even petshops keeping them in small display tanks or cups isn't too bad, as long as the water is kept clean and warm. What is terrible is petshops selling tiny fishtanks with no heat or hiding spots as ideal homes to people with no instructions on care or cleaning.

[Cynical Fish Guy]

[quote=Lupin;122746]The point is people make the wrong impression that bettas are okay in small containers, even less than a gallon at that hence the purpose of this thread. Do you know how a fish feels when conditions are changing extremely when a person neglects his tank? No one is suggesting that you can put several males in one tank and make them even spawn when it is quite obvious that aquaria are an enclosed ecosystem in comparison to klongs and paddy fields.


The whole point of the above post Ma'am: THOUGH THE PADDY LOOKS BIG (Is perceived BIG by you) There are a ton of male fish in there (wild males with dull brown colors/smart fish brains) who have survived long enough to carve out a little teeny tiny territory. So in a since, Wild Bettas, do live in a teeny tiny area. The Bettas YOU BUY at the store have been conditioned in many cases to living in small environments and they are far from wild!!!!


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