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

427

u/Junkeii_ Apr 02 '24

absolutely beautiful fish! where did you get them?

458

u/DustyKiwiBirds7 Apr 02 '24

They're all from either PetSmart or Petco. I don't like supporting them but I can't help taking home ones that are sick or have been there for months. They've become very beautiful and healthy little ladies and I'm so proud of them

148

u/Junkeii_ Apr 02 '24

I'm the same way-- I hate supporting petco/petsmart but the fish is going to die without any help. thank you for being a kind human and saving those girls 💙

168

u/Affectionate_Bat_680 Apr 03 '24

I stole half my sorority from PetSmart. I don't like supporting them but I feel so bad for the fish. One was a little sick dumbo for $25 there was no way anyone was going to buy a sick fish for that, even I couldn't. So I slipped her in my Fanny pack 😂 oh also she's doing better now.

23

u/Imaginary-Access3567 Apr 03 '24

Yep! Fuck those guys. I wish I had room in my purse, jacket, etc. for all 40. As it is I've "reallocated" up to 3 at a time. Although not all have made it. Now I have 9 tanks 😆 I also got one of my boys for $4 cuz they WOULD not give him to me, and demanded one from Pet Supplies Plus that visibly had fungus on him and both eyes popped out. They tried to "knock 50% off" when I asked if they do rescue. Anyway, I'm sad about it but he didn't make it. He had a nice life for 3 days though.

15

u/asdfghjjbffgh Apr 03 '24

chaotic good

71

u/Memekana Apr 03 '24

👑 you dropped this. That's amazing though. Fish smuggling via fanny pack is incredible

26

u/[deleted] Apr 03 '24

I now need to buy a fanny pack.

21

u/arya_ur_on_stage Apr 03 '24

I did something similar 3 times. I don't feel remotely bad about it.

20

u/Fabrycated Apr 03 '24

If they cared there would be security tags on them.

16

u/Taran966 Apr 03 '24 edited Apr 04 '24

Stealing anything else is a no-no, but stealing live, mistreated animals to give them a better life I think is good. That said they will still likely replace them, but at least they don’t get money/encouragement from that sale?

Edit: I also empathise with those who steal food during desperate times, depending on circumstances.

5

u/[deleted] Apr 03 '24

So Jean Valjean deserved 9 years of jail for stealing a loaf of bread? There are many things that are ethical to steal, because them being behind a paywall is theft to begin with. Food is a human right, so are many other things.

4

u/Taran966 Apr 04 '24

Nobody deserves 9 years in jail over bread. And I wouldn’t be annoyed at someone for stealing if they were desperately hungry and stealing something as harmless as bread. Might’ve worded that poorly.

4

u/longulus9 Apr 04 '24

this is the only way I support Petco livestock is if they're stolen.

4

u/mcdisney2001 Apr 03 '24

I support this shoplifting.

Every time we "rehome" a fish from them by paying for it, we teach them that they can sell sick fish in abusive setups.

1

u/candleelit Dec 10 '24

You’re doing Gods work.

-5

u/Adribelle156 Apr 03 '24

As someone who works in a petstore this doesn't help anyone. U guys actually get all the employees in the store in trouble. Corporate blames the employees so ur actually hurting ur fellow working class people.

3

u/[deleted] Apr 03 '24

That's what the owner class wants you to believe. They are the only ones responsible for their cruel practices, not us.

0

u/Adribelle156 Apr 03 '24

But they blame the employees. So it REALLY isn't a win/win for anyone.

54

u/xlr8_87 Apr 03 '24

Whilst that certainly seems like it could be the right thing to do - all that does is flags to them that people are buying them so they should stock more.

90

u/flyingbugz Apr 03 '24

And thus we are put in a moral dilemma, choosing between: allowing something to suffer for the greater good or saving an individual now and condemning future individuals to the same fate. Either way one of them pays in blood.

I hate this timeline

48

u/[deleted] Apr 03 '24 edited May 27 '24

truck treatment office humorous aware agonizing worm observation offbeat jobless

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

2

u/dosenwurst-dieter Apr 03 '24

Wow I googled betta in cup, do they really sell fish in small plastic cups? Thats crazy. How much does one betta cost in a petshop?

3

u/RemoteAcadia Apr 03 '24

Yeah, you must not live in the US. It’s awful. The bettas usually look sickly and are just lying on the bottom. Even my local non chain pet store which does a lot of things right compared to big box stores still sells them in cups unless they are the most expensive bettas.

1

u/dosenwurst-dieter Apr 04 '24

Oh wow thats crazy. No Im not from the US but I thought that you have pretty much the same pet keeping standards as we do (Im from Germany).

It sure was different when I was a kid cause the rules are very strict right now but Ive never seen a betta in a cup. Do they feed them? How can they breathe in such a small volume of water with barely any atmospheric air? The only thing resembling it I have seen so far was a video from betta breaders (?) in south east asia and they had a clothesline with small plastic bags hanging on it where they stored every betta in an individual bag. 😭

2

u/RemoteAcadia Apr 05 '24

I just looked up the law in Germany and it looks like all aquariums have to be at least 54 liters (about 14gal). Do people usually follow that? We don’t have any law like that here as far as I know. It’s common for parents to buy fish bowls that are about one gallon for a betta or goldfish. Fish are seen as a trial pet for young kids before they get something bigger like a dog. Side note, goldfish or hermit crabs are sometimes carnival prizes for kids. The goldfish come in a bag or with a tiny bowl and the crabs come in a little plastic travel size carrier.

I’ve never seen them feed them but they probably do. There are little holes for air in the lid of the cup. Of course they can only get away with it for bettas since they have a labyrinth organ. Less common, but I’ve recently seen African Dwarf Frogs in sold in tiny containers with no filter since they also surface for air (look up the disgusting company Froggy’s Lair). Unfortunately the bettas in cups are not a rare thing, this is in any pet store you walk into in the US. They probably range from about $5 to $25. The cup is not meant to be permanent but many of those will live in a bowl or a small 2 or 3 gallon tank. I’m really curious to learn if fish keeping is treated totally differently there.

1

u/dosenwurst-dieter Apr 05 '24

Ah yes this law, its for vertebrates, you can keep invertebrates in much smaller tanks. Its quite strictly followed if you sell animals, many things changed in the last 20 years as I can remember. When I was a child we had 3 pet stores in town, now there is only a gardencenter with a pet department left. If you want to buy something you have to ask an employee first and they ask you several questions, mainly if you know what you are doing, how long is your tank up and running, what is in the tank right now and so on. Once I was at the store and the employee denied selling fish cause the potential buyer (a family with children) hadnt even a tank running, but Im pretty sure there are black sheep everywhere. The smallest tanks they sell at this store are around 20l I think but you can get 10l cubes for shrimp and snails online everywhere, but no normal store would sell a 1 gallon tank or something like that, Ive seen them only on sites like Wish.com so far. Bettas are most often kept in smaller tanks, like maybe 20-30l and they are always kept alone (and I think in the gardencenter they only sell males). Goldfish for example are strictly sold as fish for ponds and Ive never seen someone having a fishtank with goldfish but Im pretty sure they are out there. Getting animals as a carnival prize is a big no-no, never heard of that before and Im pretty sure that would be highly illegal. There was this wave of micro tanks (everthing under 54l counts as a micro tank I think) the last couple of years ago, people mostly kept colorful shrimp and snails in their tanks but some put fish in them like a single betta or some tiny boraras. I had my betta in a 30l (~8 us gallons) tank before too.

I dont know if this is a thing in the US but here its quite popular to order aquatic animals online. This shop also has a mini fish category despite the law that fish are only allowed to be kept in 54l tanks. If you click on any fish youll find informations about tank size down below. Vertebrates get only sent by special courier but you can order invertebrates thru normal mail. The biggest shop for this is I guess Interaquaristik.de if you want to take a look. The prices are vastly different, at our gardencenter one red cherry shrimp costs 4,99 whilst online you can get 10 for 10€ sales all the time and maybe even get 1-2 on top.

I looked up Froggy’s Lair and they really sell a 1 gallon tank for african dwarf frogs? I thought this is impossible, I always thought the animals get stressed as hell and just die within a couple of months. What does a frog do in a 1gallon tank? Huh, I dont know what to say.

1

u/RemoteAcadia Apr 07 '24

There’s definitely way more of a focus on capitalism here than on the animals well being. Fish have less rights compared to other animals like cats and dogs so that is part of it. Some employees of pet stores ask questions like that but most don’t. Goldfish are sold in normal pet stores for tanks all the time. For some reason they have a reputation of being the ultimate beginner fish for kids even though that is far from the truth. I think the average person who is not actually into aquariums as a hobby just assumes that fish only live for a few months. You can order aquatic animals online here too but people usually don’t bother to do that unless they are looking for something specific. The pet store near me has a huge range of really cool types of fish anyways.

Yes, I’ve seen the Froggy’s Lair 1 gallon tanks in person, but in a tourist shop, not an actual pet store. It’s like they are being sold as a toy instead of something living. They probably do get stressed and die in a couple months. The instructions that the company gives says to feed them an amount that basically starves the frogs which I guess keeps the ammonia from building up as quickly. I have 4 African dwarf frogs in a 20 gallon long and they use all of that space. Froggy’s Lair is 2 frogs to a 1 gallon tank.

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u/[deleted] Apr 03 '24 edited May 27 '24

frighten seed hard-to-find many tart reply summer like rotten whole

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3

u/Bool_The_End Apr 03 '24

Billions of animals are suffering and killed daily for meat and dairy and fish industries, the fact is most people simply don’t care enough to change their behavior to stop it.

1

u/yuhyeaye Apr 03 '24

And in the weirdest place I’m forced to ask again if the ends justify the means

1

u/Adribelle156 Apr 03 '24

It also gets the employees in the store in trouble, which leads to them getting docked hours and pay... unfortunately someone's getting hurt either way.

13

u/intotheirishole Apr 03 '24

Petco execs taking notes furiously: inhumane conditions sells more fish!/

5

u/TruthSpeakin Apr 03 '24

Damned if you do, damned if you dont....

5

u/tepel-streeltje Apr 03 '24

Petco new sales strategy be like: poison the fish so they look unhealthy and weak so people buy them faster.