Koi-lo wrote:

"Steve" wrote in message
. ..

With all the betta discussion lately, can someone tell me about bettas
in plastic cups? Why are they offered for sale this way?


## Because they can't mix bettas together in one bag as they do the
other types of fish. It's the most economical way to ship them. There
doesn't seem to be an laws or rules regarding the care and welfare of
fish. There should be but there isn't from what I can see. The real
abuse comes in when they reach the stores or pet-shops where they are
not properly cared for or fed. They sit in their filthy water until it
evaporates and they die, or the toxic waste in the small container kills
them. Wal*Mart stores carry them in much larger containers but they're
just as filthy and foul smelling. The female I bought a few weeks ago
was literally in a cesspool of filth.

The losses must

be great and the fish don't look attractive for purchase.


## This is true in some chain-stores where the workers are either
clueless or couldn't care less. About 10% of them were already dead in
a store I visited yesterday. Some were already decomposed in their
filthy containers. Talk about cruelty. Those in PetsMart were in pretty
good shape but in very small cups.

Also, when do the fish go into the plastic cups? Is it for transport,
or are they raised in there? Thanks for any information.


## That would depend on what breeder they got them from. They must be
separated at some point to keep the finnage from being marred so the
breeders have to house them in something. I'm sure the big breeders
have some type of flow-through systems now. No one is changing the
water in thousands of small containers or jars. Those I saw years ago
utilized all types of glass containers. Most held no more than 2 cups
of water. They were "bagged" the day they were taken to the stores.
The stores in that area put them in those small ivy bowls that hold
about 8 oz of water. If the betta was lucky his new owner put him in
something larger. Unfortunately I saw people buy the same tiny ivy bowls
to keep them in - no gravel, no plants. I always felt the fish was
going to his death. But I've had people tell me they had bettas live
several years in such small bowls. Now I believe most bettas are
imported. So they're probably in those small cups for a few days by the
time they reach the pet stores. One store here puts the bettas in a
filtered betta tank that has partitions and a flow-through filter system
of some kind.
I stopped breeding them back in the late 60s because there wasn't enough
of a market, nor did I get enough per fish to make it worth while, plus
I had a full time job - so I gave it up. I enjoyed it while I did it
though. :-)

Thanks, that's informative. As mentioned to another poster, I haven't
had great success with bettas. The single male bettas I kept in approx
15 gal community aquariums with other small fish each lasted about 9mo
to 1 year. The one I recently kept by itself in a heated, planted,
unfiltered 2 gallon aquarium lasted about 1.5 years. This raises a
couple of questions:

Are bettas relatively old when shipped, and expected to live only
another year?

Are bettas healthier and happier when kept by themselves?

Might a male betta make a wise addition to my planted 90 gallon
aquarium? I suspect not, because it has two male blue gourami (possible
fighting?) and some fast swimmers such as zebra danios, dwarf neon
rainbowfish and one large "miscellaneous" rainbowfish that came in with
the dwarfs.

Steve