ebbandflow

I was talking to the owner of one of my local lfs's about getting a few (3 or 4) female bettas and putting them in a tank. He told me that 60% of female bettas die if they dont breed because they need the male there to push out the eggs from them or else the eggs rot and kill the female. Is this true? I've never heard it before and hes also a bit of a (insert nasty word here). What do you all think? Have you heard or experienced anything like this?

chickadee

My information was that the female who doesn't breed will discharge her eggs and it will form a filmy surface on the water that can be removed with a good water change. I would also suppose that if the surface is kept in constant movement that the film would possibly be removed by the filter media.

I have never heard of a female dying in this manner, but there are others I can check with. Give me a day or two OK?

Rose

0morrokh

What the heck never heard anything like that in my life. Considering he's just a store owner and whatever nasty word you planned to insert there, I wouldn't really trust him on anything...
You know, this is far fetched, but maybe he's telling people that to get them to breed Bettas because he knows he'll probably end up with the fry.

chickadee

I checked with the people in stores around here and in all the books I have and cannot find anything like that. I would think if it was a definite problem, something would show up in ONE of the Betta books about it.

Rose

0morrokh

Yeah, you'd think so...I have done a bit of research on Bettas too (though not as much as Rose) and never came across anything like that. If you want some female Bettas, go ahead, forget what the people at the store say. :

ebbandflow

Ok great... cuz that freaked me out. I wonder why he said it? And I dont know about the fry hypothesis cuz he wasnt saying breed them he was just saying dont buy them. Whatever, its actually the store I got Satin from and when I got him I was getting along with the store owner. But since then hes really been mean every time I went there. I think I asked him too many questions or something. You know how some people are... you never want a buyer that is too informed.

chickadee

He may have felt threatened by his lack of knowledge and realized he couldn't keep up the facade for long. If he could put you at arms length, you wouldn't be able to find out how LITTLE he actually knew about what he is doing with his job.

But to tell someone something so blatant, he must really be desperate. It would be broadcast all over the information network wherever Betta enthusuiasts are if this was the case. Someone in the know would be mentioning it so the newbies wouldn't make a bad mistake. But there is NOTHING. So just disregard this and do what you want. (and perhaps consider finding a different fish store unless you just want to liberate your little friends from this man)

Rose