bettas in plastic cups

An old friend of mine summed up this mentality in people very well once
when he said...

"Fish are furniture."

He was joking with me at the time, but it seems to be the way a lot of
people view that goldfish or betta in a bowl.

James

"IDzine01" wrote in message
ups.com...
I hear this all the time. "I can't upgrade from 1 gallon to 5 gallons
because I can't afford it." While I fully appreciate not having a lot
of spare cash to spend I have little sympathy for someone who can't
dish out $5 to care for their pet properly. Whenever the discussion
arises I do what I can to point the person to money saving options.
Let's face it, few home aquarists are independently wealthy. Because of
this, however, there are dozens of brilliant money saving ideas out
there. $1 aquariums on Craigslist, free tanks on Freecycle and lots of
giveaways or auctions at local fish clubs. Let's not forget all the
do-it-yourself ideas generated by savvy hobbyists. The fact is, many of
these people aren't interested in a cheap upgrade. I give them 10
options and they have a reason why each one won't work. I don't know if
it's laziness or they purely don't care if their pet lives or dies.

The problem is too many people don't view fish as family pets to be
nurtured and cared for. If I went out and bought a horse I couldn't
afford you can bet the whole neighborhood would be in an uproar and the
police would be knocking down my door. Although, I suppose no one would
sell me the horse in the first place. I guess that goes back to the
problem with LFSs.

Wow. $15 Australian equates to about $11 US. That's still expensive. I
wonder why.

My experience with putting a betta in a community tank wasn't a good
one. I had been told that a single male betta would be fine in a community
tank, so I moved my betta to the community tank. He seemed pretty happy at
first, but by morning he'd been beaten up pretty badly by the other fish (I
suspect most of the damage was done by a gourami.) I moved him back to his
little 1.5 gallon filtered tank and he recovered, though his fins never did
grow back completely. I had the fish about 3 years total, about half of
which was after his visit to the community.

Oddly enough, I haven't had another betta until just a couple weeks ago.
My girlfriend decided that my various tanks weren't sufficient and wanted a
fish of her own, so I dug the ol' 1.5 gallon out of the closet, cleaned it
up, added a new bubblestone and airline tubing for the UGF, and it now
houses "Pinky."

James

"Steve" wrote in message
. ..
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

IDzine01 wrote:
Wow. $15 Australian equates to about $11 US. That's still expensive. I
wonder why.


Bettas cost between £5 and £7 sterling over here depending on the
quality of the fish. Females are a bit cheaper....

Gill

$3 - $4 is typical here in the US (USD obviously.)


"Beano" wrote in message
oups.com...
Did someone say something about bettas costing $3 ??? In Australia, it
costs $15 for a male veil tail. Very expensive for a fish that only
lives for 2 years and are reasonably old when purchased. The females
cost about $10 here.

"NetMax" wrote in message
.. .
I'm not saying that this is a widely applied corporate policy, but saying
stores legally have to sell something is not true, at least to the best of
my understanding in Canada.
======================
Here in the USA you can be sure a lawsuit would soon commence...... :-(
--
Koi-Lo.... frugal ponding since 1995...
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://bellsouthpwp.net/s/h/shastadaisy
~~~ }((((o ~~~ }{{{{o ~~~ }(((((o

"Beano" wrote in message
oups.com...
Did someone say something about bettas costing $3 ??? In Australia, it
costs $15 for a male veil tail. Very expensive for a fish that only
lives for 2 years and are reasonably old when purchased. The females
cost about $10 here.
=============================
Regular bettas in my area cost $2.99 to $4.99 each (TN USA). The fancy ones
cost about $2 more. Most are not old from what I see in the local stores.
Females aren't always easy to find. They will run $1 or so less than the
males.
--
Koi-Lo.... frugal ponding since 1995...
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://bellsouthpwp.net/s/h/shastadaisy
~~~ }((((o ~~~ }{{{{o ~~~ }(((((o

Koi-lo wrote:

"NetMax" wrote in message
.. .

I'm not saying that this is a widely applied corporate policy, but saying
stores legally have to sell something is not true, at least to the
best of
my understanding in Canada.

======================
Here in the USA you can be sure a lawsuit would soon commence...... :-(

This rule also applies in the UK...I believe it has something to do with
the sale of livestock rather than any other law...my local stores will
totally NOT sell fish unless they can be as sure as possible that these
pets will be properly cared for....no lawsuit in the UK would win
against a retailer refusing to sell anything alive to an unsuitable home

Today, I have seen in the press that our largest supermarket chain has
refused to sell a certain brand of chocolate to someone as it went
against their quality principles....maybe it's time that there was some
legislation in the US protecting livestock (and chocolate - being
flippant) being sold into unsuitable hands....

Honestly, I think if you cannot provide a proper home for a pet you
should not be buying it....I don't discriminate against a mammal, bird
or fish in this....if you can't provide a proper home it is cruel...part
of pet owning is responsibility for the creature you are giving a home
to....I don't care what it is, I don't care how much money someone
has...if they buy it they need to provide the care for it and if they
can't afford to house it suitably they shouldn't be buying it in the
first place...end of story...

and goodnight
Gill

"Gill Passman" wrote in message
.. .
IDzine01 wrote:
Wow. $15 Australian equates to about $11 US. That's still expensive. I
wonder why.


Bettas cost between £5 and £7 sterling over here depending on the
quality of the fish. Females are a bit cheaper....

Gill

$4 to $6 cdn, so North America seems to be in sync. At £5 to £7 you
might be paying the most.
--
www.NetMax.tk

"Gill Passman" wrote in message
.. .
Koi-lo wrote:

"NetMax" wrote in message
.. .

I'm not saying that this is a widely applied corporate policy, but
saying
stores legally have to sell something is not true, at least to the best
of
my understanding in Canada.

======================
Here in the USA you can be sure a lawsuit would soon commence...... :-(

This rule also applies in the UK...I believe it has something to do with
the sale of livestock rather than any other law...my local stores will
totally NOT sell fish unless they can be as sure as possible that these
pets will be properly cared for....no lawsuit in the UK would win against
a retailer refusing to sell anything alive to an unsuitable home

$$ In the USA you'd have to have PROOF the home was unsuitable. People here
sue for the least little thing. One woman got rich suing McDonald's because
SHE spilt hot coffee on her own crotch! Surely you heard about that one.
How do the stores in your country make sure the home is suitable for all the
pets they sell?

Today, I have seen in the press that our largest supermarket chain has
refused to sell a certain brand of chocolate to someone as it went against
their quality principles....maybe it's time that there was some
legislation in the US protecting livestock (and chocolate - being
flippant) being sold into unsuitable hands....

$$ I wish there was - there isn't. People who are seldom home buy cats to
live in virtual isolation. They buy huge dogs to languish in tiny
efficiency apartments. They buy expensive birds and hang their cages by
open windows or above air conditioning vents. They buy a bag of koi for 100
gallon unfiltered preformed ponds.....

Honestly, I think if you cannot provide a proper home for a pet you should
not be buying it....I don't discriminate against a mammal, bird or fish in
this....if you can't provide a proper home it is cruel...part of pet
owning is responsibility for the creature you are giving a home to....I
don't care what it is, I don't care how much money someone has...if they
buy it they need to provide the care for it and if they can't afford to
house it suitably they shouldn't be buying it in the first place...end of
story...

$$ There is no way to know how they will care for it once they leave the pet
store or breeders facilities. That's probably the reason we don't have such
laws here.

and goodnight
Gill
--
Koi-Lo.... frugal ponding since 1995...
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://bellsouthpwp.net/s/h/shastadaisy
~~~ }((((o ~~~ }{{{{o ~~~ }(((((o