Petco Now Selling "Baby" Bettas

[GeToChKn]

Originally Posted by wendyjo

But this is true with all their animals - none of them are in ideal conditions.

Not just petsmart, any animal we keep as pets.

Are turtles that used to having a 50,000 gal pond to live in, "fine" in a 55 gal tank?

Are snakes that have hundreds of square miles to roam "fine" in a 55 gal terrarium?

Are the fish and shrimp we keep that have ten's of thousands of gallons and miles of water to swim in "fine " in a 20 gal tank?

Are birds than fly 100 miles a day "fine" in a 3 foot cage and never get to really fly their whole lives?

I could go on with any pet out there.

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The fact is anything we keep is in no way even close to the way their live in nature and it all can be considered "cruel".

Most of the stuff we keep are inbred and selectively bred to have pretty colors for our enjoyment. Big fancy bright colors in most freshwater fish makes you a visible snack to another fish, bird, and other predators. Dull, blending in to your surrounding colors usually do best, but we don't like that look so we find one that is a bit bright in color, inbred the heck out of it and get pretty colors that we like.

If you're going to upset over a betta, you should be upset over 99% of the other pets people keep.

[Senior Shrimpo]

Originally Posted by GeToChKn

If you're going to upset over a betta, you should be upset over 99% of the other pets people keep.

Read your whole post, it was very poignant, but this is the point I'd like to take out of it because most people will say tl;dr and just read the end.

Change starts with one thing.

And to be honest while I'd love for change to happen for all those animals I don't think most of them are cruel, especially for bonding animals like cats, dogs and some birds which can thrive in the company of humans. They're the good "companion" animals. And I'm not actively searching for change; I'm just a lazy guy on a computer who has too much other stuff to deal with than to campaign for betta fish lol.

But by making that thread I was hoping for a discussion which could at the least inspire some people who might have been oblivious to what was going on. I'm happy if I did just that, because you never know who you help and who might eventually help you in return.

[Axelrodi202]

I went to my local Petco today and they didn't have any "baby" bettas, but the female bettas they had were pretty small.

[wendyjo]

In my store they are not kept right with the other bettas, but on their own shelf nearby.

[james1542]

The difference with bettas and all those other animals you mentioned is that the standard rearing practice that these National chains push on the customers is CRUELTY-a miniscule enclosure with no filtration or circulation-and they set an example to these customers by keeping them in even smaller cups at the store. THEY ARE MARKETING CURELTY TO THE CUSTOMERS!!!! Just because you can find food that will suit these juvenile fish that are still developing rapidly (or maybe they are permanently stunted from being kept in horrendous conditions for a few months) doesn't mean your not feeding the beast by buying them. The argument that well we do other bad stuff to animals so therefore we don't need to quit this practice of mass torture of bettas DOESN'T MAKE IT RIGHT!! It needs to start with those with knowledge-the hobbyists- to get the word out that this is wrong. Sadly people are not developing character in this society anymore, the majority of people views living things such as these bettas the same as they would the latest Ipod so it's not going to just stop on it's own. Hopefully if enough of those who know, can send a sharp statement to the walmarts and the petcos and the petsmarts who are behind this they will get the message that it is animal cruelty and cease the practice.

[DogFish]

QUESTION:

If tomorrow PetSmartCos would remove all Betta from the Deli Cups and place them each in a dedicated aquarium rack system were each Betta was in a min. 5gl of filtered, heated water would you buy a Betta for $29?

If if imports were banned and only domestic Betta were for sale and there were only maybe 4 -5 Betta per store, kept as described about, would you pay $59 for a Betta?

[Senior Shrimpo]

Originally Posted by DogFish

QUESTION:

If tomorrow PetSmartCos would remove all Betta from the Deli Cups and place them each in a dedicated aquarium rack system were each Betta was in a min. 5gl of filtered, heated water would you buy a Betta for $29?

If if imports were banned and only domestic Betta were for sale and there were only maybe 4 -5 Betta per store, kept as described about, would you pay $59 for a Betta?

Well just for myself, no because I don't really like bettas. I like dogs and shrimp haha. But the hypotheticals you posted sounds far superior to how they are currently kept. And it would probably keep people who view bettas as a cheap piece of entertainment for their kids from buying them-- $30 or $60 would deter a lot of people, and the people that do buy them would have more incentive to keep them alive because they're worth more.

[aokashi]

Seeing how easy bettas are to breed, I highly doubt it will go that high. besides it's just a question of inventing a divided tank that can accommodate many bettas at once. We have local breeder selling good quality bettas for $5.

[DogFish]

Friends it's not a question of plausibility. The Betta is used as that is the topic of the thread. One could substitute any fish/plant/invert kept in the hobby.

It's a question of ethics vs economy.

How far are you financially wiling to go to support your ethics?

[mitchfish9]

Do not fall into the social trap of thinking you are saving the bettas from the store. You are costing many more lives by doing that. Never buy livestock from a place you unless you think its the best quality you can get. Don't support people who dont care! It can even be argued that the whole fish industry is animal cruelty, like GeTo referred to. So be wise about choosing where you get your fish!

[mgood]

The last time I was in Walmart, I nearly threw up when passing the fish area. Even more sickening, was that a bottle of Ich treatment was still on the wet counter. Dead fish in every tank with live ones pecking away at them.

There should be some way of collectively complaining enough to get something done. I've seen this in other states too. I travel a lot, and I've seen the same things in at least four states-- just from happening upon the fish area at the same moment I happened to be at WalMart. Random times, random dates-- 'ya know.

[Jeffww]

Baby bettas make me laugh. Although I have paid 20 + for "designer" bettas I honestly don't really think twice about big box stores keeping bettas in cups. I rarely see them stay there for long. They, as products, sell like hotcakes. I have a problem with them selling permanent enclosures that are only a liter large.

[Axelrodi202]

Originally Posted by Jeffww

Baby bettas make me laugh. Although I have paid 20 + for "designer" bettas I honestly don't really think twice about big box stores keeping bettas in cups. I rarely see them stay there for long. They, as products, sell like hotcakes.

In my experience this is untrue. This past summer I helped my friend set up a small fish tank, and we went to Petco to get some basic supplies for the tank. When he was ready to get a betta for his tank over a month later, we saw a few bettas there that had been there during our first visit.

[wendyjo]

Just to clarify - I never ever consider myself "rescuing" a betta when I purchase it. That's just dumb. But I still stand by my opinion that selling the babies is not much different from selling the adults. With a bit of research they are not hard to care for. People should be doing that with ANY pet they buy anyhow.

As far as buying the best available - I buy the best I can find in my area. My petco keeps pretty good fish. Another pet chain down the street, however, kept their bettas in an absolutely awful barracks system, and I complained loudly about it both in the store and to the headquarters and refused to spend one cent there until the situation was remedied, which it eventually was. We as customers have to be the advocates and that is true whether you are buying a fish or a toaster.

[Jeffww]

Originally Posted by Axelrodi202

In my experience this is untrue. This past summer I helped my friend set up a small fish tank, and we went to Petco to get some basic supplies for the tank. When he was ready to get a betta for his tank over a month later, we saw a few bettas there that had been there during our first visit.

I suppose it depends on the locale. Just like there are bad mom/pop shops there are good big box stores. We also have a rather popular demand for them in houston.