The blue water is a medication. It's not something terrible. And being veil tail has nothing to do with care. Were the fish healthy? Was the water clean? That's what good care is while in a pet store. If the only problem was the medication, then there is no problem. I don't like the medication either, but if the fish are healthy and clean, then it's fine.

Also each store differs on their treatment of the animals. I have been to good and bad examples of each store.

 

The blue water is dosed with malachite green which helps keep the fish from getting infected by the undoubtedly horrible water quality. Most stores are doing that nowadays because it keeps the fish healthy a little longer.

The color of the water has little to do with how good a care they're taking of the fish because the stuff that really hurts the fish (ammonia) is colorless.

 

I was wondering what the blue stuff was!!! When I got my fishie Sidonie and was acclimating him to his new water it stained the clothes pins blue! I thought they were dyeing the water to cover up the bad water quality!

I guess its a little better if it has a purpose at least...

 

the fish you'll find and how they're treated usually varies by the store.
My local Petcos take pretty good care of their bettas. They put them in slightly larger cups, keep their water clean, rarely see a dead one, and they have a pretty good selection. I've seen VT, CT, Delta, HM, PK, King PKs and Giant HMPKs there.
My local Petsmart does the blue water thing and doesn't clean the water as often. When i try to pick up a cup they are stuck to the "placemats" they place them on on the shelves. so I'll stick to Petco for my bettas in the future.

 

A mom&pop store i went to a bit ago was using cups that looked smaller then the average walmart cup and 2 of them had green water and a significant amount of algae growing in them.

How is that even possible?

 

I misspoke. The blue water is methelyne(sp?) blue not malachite green. Both tint the water however.

If there's enough ammonia and enough light algae will grow in the cups.

 

The Petco near me is pretty bad. I'd say about 15-20% of their selection is 'decent' and the rest look pretty bad. I could even spot a few dead Betta and the majority is just sitting and hard to tell if they are even moving anything. I'm tempted to just buy the Betta online at the auction website. At least then I can get a healthy Betta with the tail and color I desire.

 

i always wonder what that is...i went to PetSmart and got my fish, ALPHA...he was the only one that didnt look too sluggish or half dead...his cup was kindda cloudy...all of the fish cups were cloudy

 

There are two Petcos near my home.. one seems to have the best care and selection I've ever seen but the other is really the worst. The Petsmarts nearby fall somewhere in between.

 

Every place you go to you will most likely see ill fish- happens with all types of fish from all different places. Just the way it is with them..

Petco= all the bettas are veiltail

Xander says:
Nuttin' wrong with veiltails! Humph!
(don't anger the grumpy old man!)

 

The two Petsmarts around where I live are clean. They have big cups for their bettas and never stack them. All the animals there are active and seem healthy.

The Petcos around here I don't go to. They are dirty and dark xD Their tanks are not very clean but not disgustingly dirty... and they have like a whole section of bettas, but... I don't shop at Petco (unless they have the dollar per gallon sale....) because I bought 2 "male" gerbils from there and ended up with 20 more gerbils.

I would shop at a local ma and pa shop but all there is here is this place called Valley Pets. Crowded, small, very sad to walk into. All their bettas were dead when I went in and their big snakes were cramped into tiny tanks. They had two cute gerbils there but there was more poop then bedding...

So, the only good pet place around here that I have found would have to be Petsmart.

 

i just wanted to add that the petsmart i work at is supposed to only carry males for small animals and reptiles but sometimes we get females! luckily, it's only happened once as far as i know, now we have 4 adorable baby robo hamsters haha. but unfortunately sometimes the animals are so young its hard to tell their gender before they're sent to us. :[

 

I know this is a "poor little guys/low Q. thread" but I thought I'd mention: You can get fabulous bettas at your Local Fish Store sometimes. My lfs sells Bettas on occasion, but instead of "Cupping" them, he puts them in 1 gal bowls with some gravel in the bottom, no medicines in the water. When you buy one, he cups out some water, puts it in a bag, and then bags the Betta for you. No little cups at all, ever. So not all fish sellers are so bad, though the chain stores are usually pretty crappy.

Just thought I'd share.

PS: I did a water quality test on some of the bowl water from a friend purchase. Ammonia was almost zero. One color away. I don't have my little book out so I can't give you the exact number, but it was one shade away from 0 ppm.

 

i work at petsmart in pet care, and i personally change the betta water every few days. and the blue water is just a betta specific water conditioner. we don't like how it makes the water blue, so once what we have is gone we're switching to a different kind so that people don't assume they're sick or have them ask weird questions. one time a lady asked if the bettas were toxic because of the water. silly people. :]

 

Having medication in the water doesn't really hurt the fish unless they over dose. You're lucky that they take better care of their bettas. My PetCo has no medicine at all. Only my PetMart does. I prefer my PetsMart, though they don't have as big a betta selection, it means that they can take better care of the bettas they have.

 

My Petco's pretty good. The water is usually clean and the fish are relatively healthy for having to live in cups. I was actually having a conversation with one of the managers about setting up a ten gallon that I got for Christmas. He seemed to be pretty knowledgeable. My Petsmart's not as good but it's a much bigger store than the Petco is. They have more animals and less free time to take care of them :/

 

My Petco seems to be better than the Petsmart. I went to Petsmart today and there was a plakat male with a white growth on his head and a gorgeous blue butterfly male who looked lethargic and miserable. The butterfly was in a divided tank, probably about 1/2 gallon, with a dead plakat on the other side. They also had a bunch of fish labeled as halfmoons who were CLEARLY not half moons. There wasn't a single active betta there. There other tanks looked alright, but I didn't look too closely.

 

I stopped in my local Petco last night for the first time in awhile. The first time, months and months ago, I was not impressed. It was no better this time around. A third of the bettas were dead, the rest looked either starved or very clamped and lethargic. Filthy water. I don't think they had any care since they'd been there, likely. They had a few females that looked semi-okay, though very stressed. I wanted to take home a little Crowntail female something fierce. It killed me to leave her there. I may have to go back and rescue her.

My local Petsmart isn't fabulous, but they're not terrible, either. Several of their bettas usually have fin rot, or seem lethargic, but they also have some really nice looking fish on occasion. I wish they sold more than just VT females though.

 

you know, honestly, i feel so bad for the pets in the Petcos, PetSmarts, and other local shops that don't get the attention or treatment they need. unfortunately, the people that work in these stores don't always care enough to want to fix a problem of sick or dying bettas, and i've noticed that it's usually the stores that have been open longer with people who have worked there for years who have suddenly lost their love for caring for the animals.

i work at PetSmart because i love animals and i want to take care of animals for the rest of my life. so, i feel that simply, if you can't even fall in love with a betta and want whats best for it then you shouldn't work at a pet store!