Rescuing Bettas to find homes for. (need advice on)

My wife and I came up with an idea of rescuing a sickly betta that most likely wouldn't get adopted from petco, nursing him/her to health, then finding a good home for the now healthy betta. We hit a setback when the 1st betta turned out to be a possible fish tb case and out went the q/h tank & all. We just got a new q/h tank setup (hopefully the 1st of 3) and currently have some otos in there for a few weeks of quarantine, then we can get another rescue betta. ;D

What we'd like to ask anyone who's done this is what's the best way to find a good home for the bettas when they are healthy again? as much as we'd love to keep them all, the tank is just a hospital tank and we'd like to be able to get another rescue betta asap once one is healthy. Thanks in advance.

 

hmm-- the key to your question is "Good Homes". That is the hard part, because you could run an ad in the paper, but you aren't guaranteed a good home. I suggest you first find the home and then rescue the fish. You could always stalk local fish store shoppers LOL!
I would get too attached to give them away-- that is just me.

 

Sounds like a good idea. I'm sure this is how petfinder and other pet rescue services got their starts.
I would say just starting a small website. With three fish at a time, you'd easily be able to keep all the info you needed on a free hosting service like Tripod.
One choice I foresee you having to make in this situation is if you are only going to be adopting out to locals or if you are going to be shipping. Shipping of course would be much more difficult, but would also allow for faster adoption turnover, allowing you to rescue more fish.

 

shipping is something to consider b/c it could stress the fish, and a newly recovered fish can relapse with a quickness. you should have a DOA disclaimer or a no warranty disclaimer to protect yourself.

 

thanks for the advice. ;D

yea, I expect that it will be almost as hard to send the recovered ones to a good home as to lose the ones we aren't successful with.

sirdarksol - A web space would be a great idea that I hadn't thought of. maybe at first, we could do local or the cities within 1/2 hour so that we could deliver the betta to his/her new home and in time (if we feel confident of our ability to ship a betta safely) we can do outside the area - with a disclaimer as you suggested Genie.

 

One more thing to take into consideration is that Betta owners have a tendency to be a bit picky about the looks of what they want in the little fish they want. The betta has to look like their idea of the one that suits them. The betta that fits the bill for you may be hard to find a home for because of the coloration or type of fins or one of any number of reasons unless it is really a stunner. Then you would truly have a hard time getting rid of it, I am afraid.

I so do applaud the idea, but I just wanted to point out the problem to you. You could be stuck with a bunch of bettas through no fault of your own and I have seen even the show quality bettas on eBay and AquaBid go with no bids just because they are not the popular colors or the popular fin type at the moment and they are healthy and beautiful fish that come with gaurantees.

Rose

 

Hmm.. that's a good point. I'm going to have to figure that out (or buy lots of 5 gallon hex tanks ).. not that my wife & I would mind more bettas but you are right Rose and we need a plan for that if we want to make the idea a success and save more bettas from dying in their cups.

Perhaps, creating a list of some kind on the web space that we would set up.. sort of a "I'm signing up for a betta & have these color prefs (or no prefs, just want a betta)" list? Then we could rescue fitting bettas. Sadly our petco has such a selection of sick bettas that wouldn't be too hard to do.
What do you think?

 

I think that is a good idea-- having people sign up. Your biggest prob will be impatience-- anyone can go to petco and find a betta that is blue or whatever. The question is will people who sign up be willing to wait or will they have already gotten a betta and not want another by the time you have healed yours. Ahh, sorry I am an aries, I tend to think of the problems. I am sure this is do-able, best of luck.

 

I think that is a good idea-- having people sign up. Your biggest prob will be impatience-- anyone can go to petco and find a betta that is blue or whatever. The question is will people who sign up be willing to wait or will they have already gotten a betta and not want another by the time you have healed yours. Ahh, sorry I am an aries, I tend to think of the problems. I am sure this is do-able, best of luck.

That's true, I can recommend that they use the waiting time to get a tank cycled for their new betta so it will be ready when he's recovered maybe.

 

I think that is a good idea-- having people sign up. Your biggest prob will be impatience-- anyone can go to petco and find a betta that is blue or whatever. The question is will people who sign up be willing to wait or will they have already gotten a betta and not want another by the time you have healed yours. Ahh, sorry I am an aries, I tend to think of the problems. I am sure this is do-able, best of luck.

This is why I wrote my post about writing to PetSmart and PetCo. If people get informed, there is more of a chance that they will start avoiding buying from the stack of cups. It's just like with Petfinder. Rescuing the dogs that aren't going to be bought/adopted from shelters is half of the battle, informing the public to reduce the amount of purchases from breeders is the other. Action and education are the two halves of nearly any solution. Once people start thinking of bettas as pets or companions rather than pretty objects in a glass bowl, the way they treat them will change. (Apparently, fish aren't pets. I've run into a few people who have said "I feel so bad about selling my fish tank. My fish have almost come to be like pets to me." or something like it)

 

I find it crazy that fish aren't pets to some people.. they do everything other pets do and it hurts to lose them too. maybe I can talk the shop next to petco to put a big sign in their window or in front of the shop saying "don't buy bettas at petco, contact us" the ironic thing is the store next to petco is a fishing supply store.

 

If you're serious about that, just make sure you don't actually use the word "petco" I think you can get in trouble for that. Unless you make a comparison, like "Petco keeps their bettas in this (include picture of a little cup). We keep ours in this (picture of one of your tanks)." I think a direct comparison is alright by US law, but I'm not positive. (I know that PepsI and Coke, McDs and BK do it.

 

It's something I'd like to do, but probably better I don't. It could bring the state into things and force us to buy all the licenses, insurance, etc. and it's really just a low-key thing we want to do out of love for Bettas, rather than a business. Someday though, when we can open a Betta shop, you can bet on us advertising the difference in our Bettas living conditions.

 

The key to this may be in offering aquarium kits as you say the 5 gallon hex with accsesories and a beautiful healthy fish for one cost.

 

The key to this may be in offering aquarium kits as you say the 5 gallon hex with accsesories and a beautiful healthy fish for one cost.

That's a good idea.. i'd have to work out the logistics on it in order to keep the filter & gravel in water until the tank could be setup at the destination, but it would be a real convienience thing for sure to prospective owners.. and ensure that our rescued bettas have decent sized homes (although we already decided to only sell them to people who'd get good tanks.) Thanks.

 

no problem and the more I think about it the more fun you could have with it. maybe partner up with a local pet store to push the idea of responsible ownership. a healthy fish will sell ten times faster than a wal-mart betta any day. Good Luck
Mojo

 

no problem and the more I think about it the more fun you could have with it. maybe partner up with a local pet store to push the idea of responsible ownership. a healthy fish will sell ten times faster than a wal-mart betta any day. Good Luck
Mojo

We've just got Petco in our town unfortunately. It will be fun though, if we can get some bettas that were sure to die, healthy and in good homes.