sirdarksol
- #1
Ok, so all of you have infected me with your love of bettas. A betta is going to be the sole fish in my planted tank experiment. I've been looking at stores, and have come to an understanding. I will not be able to purchase a betta from a store that has stacks and stacks of bettas in those little cups. I feel very bad for those little fish, and would love to save them. However, I cannot encourage the stores to continue keeping their bettas this way. I have found a few LFS that keep their bettas in their community tanks. Two just keep one in each tank, the other keeps them in little boxes that hang on the sides of the tank (breeder boxes, perhaps?).
They can't keep as many in stock, but the numbers that Petco and Petsmart keep in stock pretty much guarantee that a large number of the fish are going to die of toxic water.
Worse, Petco has signs by their betta cups that say something to the effect of "Did you know that bettas normally live in mud puddles no larger than the size of these cups?" and other things meant to make the customer feel ok with the way these fish are stored.
Then, when a customer asks how to keep a betta, the person working at the store tells them "Well, since they normally live in little areas, all you need is this little .5 gallon tank. They don't need filtration or anything because they can breathe air." Which makes absolutely no sense.
If you read the betta books that these stores sell, they say the exact opposite. They tell you what we know is true about wild bettas. That they live in rice paddies, that the little puddles they "live" in, occur during the dry season, and the majority of the bettas stuck in one of these puddles die. That they definitely need water that maintains a stable temperature, and that they will flourish if given filtration for their tank.
I would like to, eventually, be able to go to my local big chain pet stores and feel good about the way the bettas are kept. Even if they were kept in the cups, just in smaller numbers, so there was a greater chance of each one being sold prior to it getting sick and dying, and the sales people better informed people about how bettas should be raised, this would be a huge improvement. Several of the local stores treat the rest of the fish well, but they just don't know about how to keep bettas. If they are informed, it might make a difference.
Below are the "contact us" pages for petsmart and petco, two of the biggest pet store chains that I know of. If each of us takes a few minutes to type an e-mail, or even better, spends the $.40 to mail a physical letter, we will be letting them know what their customers want of them.
There is no need to be mean or hostile. I truly believe that the biggest problem here is merely a lack of information. They don't necessarily know what's best for the bettas, and they don't necessarily know how many of us feel about the way we are treated. I work in retail, and I've seen the results of a movement such as this first hand. As the customers, we are the ultimate bosses of the companies that we purchase from.
If petsmart and petco make the change, other, smaller stores are more likely to follow suit to "keep with the times," so it becomes an even broader success.
And if there aren't enough of us to make a difference, at least we will all know that we tried. There is no failure as long as you try.
Thank you so much for your passion for these fish, and for your time in reading my little rant.
They can't keep as many in stock, but the numbers that Petco and Petsmart keep in stock pretty much guarantee that a large number of the fish are going to die of toxic water.
Worse, Petco has signs by their betta cups that say something to the effect of "Did you know that bettas normally live in mud puddles no larger than the size of these cups?" and other things meant to make the customer feel ok with the way these fish are stored.
Then, when a customer asks how to keep a betta, the person working at the store tells them "Well, since they normally live in little areas, all you need is this little .5 gallon tank. They don't need filtration or anything because they can breathe air." Which makes absolutely no sense.
If you read the betta books that these stores sell, they say the exact opposite. They tell you what we know is true about wild bettas. That they live in rice paddies, that the little puddles they "live" in, occur during the dry season, and the majority of the bettas stuck in one of these puddles die. That they definitely need water that maintains a stable temperature, and that they will flourish if given filtration for their tank.
I would like to, eventually, be able to go to my local big chain pet stores and feel good about the way the bettas are kept. Even if they were kept in the cups, just in smaller numbers, so there was a greater chance of each one being sold prior to it getting sick and dying, and the sales people better informed people about how bettas should be raised, this would be a huge improvement. Several of the local stores treat the rest of the fish well, but they just don't know about how to keep bettas. If they are informed, it might make a difference.
Below are the "contact us" pages for petsmart and petco, two of the biggest pet store chains that I know of. If each of us takes a few minutes to type an e-mail, or even better, spends the $.40 to mail a physical letter, we will be letting them know what their customers want of them.
There is no need to be mean or hostile. I truly believe that the biggest problem here is merely a lack of information. They don't necessarily know what's best for the bettas, and they don't necessarily know how many of us feel about the way we are treated. I work in retail, and I've seen the results of a movement such as this first hand. As the customers, we are the ultimate bosses of the companies that we purchase from.
If petsmart and petco make the change, other, smaller stores are more likely to follow suit to "keep with the times," so it becomes an even broader success.
And if there aren't enough of us to make a difference, at least we will all know that we tried. There is no failure as long as you try.
Thank you so much for your passion for these fish, and for your time in reading my little rant.