r/Aquariums • u/DustyKiwiBirds7 • Apr 02 '24

My boyfriend very entertained with petting my bettas Betta

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2.6k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

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-59

u/OniMoth Apr 02 '24

Nothing about this is cute. Get his hands out the tank and stop touching the fish. Removing their slime coat, scales and introducing whatever on his hands into the water column. Stop this

22

u/Mzest Apr 03 '24

Look at your fish? Believe it or not, straight to jail.

24

u/DustyKiwiBirds7 Apr 03 '24

How hard do you think he's rubbing them lol? Scales are fragile, yes, but I don't think a light tap is going to remove them. I appreciate your concern but if you can't tell, the bettas are willingly allowing themselves to be touched. They are perfectly capable of swimming away. This is not an frequent occurrence and I don't suggest you get yourself all worked up over a three second clip you saw on Reddit of fish that don't belong to you. Take a rest, drink some water, move on and let your short attention span forget you saw this

18

u/walldeathflower Apr 02 '24

Touching the tip of a wet finger to a fish for a moment will not damage the slime coat. Touching a fish will not remove scales, if you’ve experienced this either you or that fish needs a doctor. If you wash your hands before interacting you are introducing nothing to the tank you wouldn’t be when doing regular in-tank scaping or maintenance.

If you have any proof that what I said is incorrect I would like to see it so I can keep up with best practice, but I have personally never read anything that indicates touching a fingertip to a fish is as extreme as you are suggesting it is.

-13

u/OniMoth Apr 02 '24

And a moment isn't what's happening here. Touching a fish for a moment is ur hand accidently bumps into it. Not ur physically rubbing the fishes back with ur finger. This is something ur taught is bad at like age 6. Ridiculous

12

u/walldeathflower Apr 02 '24

I understand you’re upset, but all I’m asking for is your source material for this claim. If you learned it at six, do you think you maybe missed some context or forgot the entirety of what you were told? Maybe things have changed in what we know about fish keeping since you were six? I genuinely want to know what you’re basing these claims off so one of us can do better.

0

u/OniMoth Apr 02 '24

Also me saying u learn something at age 6 doesn't literally mean I learned it at age 6 and never kept up with info like what? Are u fucking fr?

12

u/walldeathflower Apr 03 '24

I’m asking you to provide the sources you use to “keep up,” because I want to read them, since they have information I have not heard from anyone but you.

2

u/OniMoth Apr 03 '24

I'm not ur fucking keeper. Learn how to look up proper research like they showed us all in school. Ur comment history is all starting arguments. Stfu. Ur getting blocked

10

u/hunters83 Apr 03 '24

You seriously need mental help. You have no clue what you are talking about.

-5

u/OniMoth Apr 02 '24

How about the 4 years of aquaculture I took in school. Or idk a simple Google search with thousands of proof right in front of u. Pick up ur phone and use it. I'm not responsible for ur lack of information. Do some research ffs

8

u/walldeathflower Apr 02 '24

I actually did google it! Here’s one on handling, which touches on the slime coat. Unfortunately I was not able to verify any of your claims.

Of course you should not be grabbing or harshly handling your fish, you should never handle them with dry hands, and you should not be putting your hands in the aquarium all the time for no reason, you’re right! However, what’s happening here is not dangerous. Stress is significantly worse for the slime coat than touching the tip of your finger to a fish. Netting itself is more dangerous for a fish than what’s happening here. Like I said, you have some correct information, but what you know does not translate to this context from everything I’ve read in my life up until now and in my Google searches during this thread.

11

u/hunters83 Apr 03 '24

Honestly I wouldn’t even waste your time on that guy. He’s just looking to get you going as that’s what trolls do. He’s obviously has had a horrible day and is looking to take it out on someone. Lol

-3

u/OniMoth Apr 03 '24

You linked a website that has no reputable sources and was about catch and release fish when fishing. Has nothing to do with aquarium fish we keep as they are significantly smaller. Do better

10

u/walldeathflower Apr 03 '24

So you don’t have sources.

-1

u/BioSafetyLevel0 Apr 03 '24

As a former aquatics manager at two retail stores, Onimoth is absolutely correct.

9

u/Bimmgus Apr 02 '24

Listen bucko, you shouldn't even be looking at your fish. Even looking at them can and will stress them to death. You shouldn't even interact with them while feeding, this should be done 100% automatically by external, natural factors.

-17

u/OniMoth Apr 02 '24

Too bad it does damage their slime coat and can remove scales. It's literally the most known FACT of fish keeping. You don't fucking pet them. And ironic u mention washing ur hands because if ur washing ur hands with soap ur making it harder for the fish to breathe with the way soap reacts with water and fish gills.. everything about this is a giant no in fish keeping

11

u/walldeathflower Apr 02 '24

Like I said, if I’m incorrect I would like to read your source material so I can incorporate best practice. Where are you getting this information that touching a fish will remove scales? It seems like you have the correct base information but not how it translates into real life.

-13

u/OniMoth Apr 02 '24

Also he's not just touching with his finger tip, he's wiping down their backs. That's removing their coat and most likely scales

8

u/hunters83 Apr 02 '24

You need to chill out and take a damn breath! You just blew up on OP over nothing. They tapped the head of two bettas. They didn’t take them out and hold and pet them. If you really think what you say in the the extremely short video is going to harm the fish. Then you need to do more research lol. How you think breeders vent other fish. By the way venting is when you take the fish out of the water in your hands and flip it over to check the sex of the fish. So from what you just went on about. Those fish are now dead that get vented? 🤣🤦‍♂️. Oh you should just delete all your ridiculous comments and go get high and chill out lol

3

u/angelaguitarstar Apr 02 '24

the sorority isn’t the first thing you noticed? this is what bothers you? the slime coat will be alright, as long as the fish are healthy, and the water is clean.

it’s a sorority so i’m going to assume that “healthy” is not a word that could be used to describe the bettas

4

u/OniMoth Apr 02 '24

Yeah thats a whole separate issue but this is also asinine to touch them.

6

u/Routine_Mastodon_970 Apr 02 '24

K bud it’s not that deep cool your beans.

0

u/BioSafetyLevel0 Apr 03 '24

The approach is hostile (but that comes from commitment to the principles of fish husbandry and management) but Onimoth is 💯 correct.

4

u/SuumCuique1011 Apr 03 '24

Agreed. They're getting bombarded.

Fish aren't dogs/cats. They're not meant to be pet/handled.