Betta cruelty

The other part of Betta cruelty that I hate is the new (well 2yrs old now) "War and Peace" plants. People take a glass vase, put some marbles in the bottom, then a small pot with marbles in it that sits in the neck witha peace lilly in it. They then put a Betta (actually advertised as a siamese fighting fish) in the vase. The lilly's roots grow through the bottom of the pot providing the betta with "all the food it will need". As I see it, the only difference between the vase and the bowl is that the vase is slightly larger.

I had a friend that did this and I "guilted" her into buying a five gal for Charlie. I also told her that he needs more than plant roots to thrive, so she got some Betta Bites as well.
 
Yeah, the guy in the cubicle next to me at work has one of those. At least he feeds his, but hes bad about changing the water and stuff. Been trying to convince him to put him in a regular tank, hopefully he'll get off his butt and do it at some point. :rolleyes:
 
:idea2: I've got an idea. When he leaves his cubicle, start putting little pieces of trash in it. When he finally has had enough and says something about it, you can tell him you didn't think he would mind, after all, that's how he's treating his fish. You know, golden rule and all that.:idea2:
 
Toss Vase - Get 2 1/2 Gallon Aquarium

If he has room on his desk you should ask the guy in the next cubicle to consider tossing the vase and putting in a 2 1/2 gallon aquarium. The traditional rectangular kind are pretty cheap at the LFS. Tell him to take the vase home and put flowers in it. Also, I like the idea of leaving trash in his cubicle.
 
Yeah, I'm not shy about it, I tell him almost daily that it looks like crap and is horrible for the fish. I've ended up changing the water in it myself a few times when he's not in (which is often) just because he's so darn lazy about it. He claims he has a small hex tank with a filter kicking around his house that he'll bring in for it, but I don't see this happening anytime soon.

Really you'd have to know this guy to understand, the term flake doesn't even begin to describe him. Gotta love some of the people that somehow hang on to state jobs. :sick:
 
Originally posted by Grassguy
:idea2: I've got an idea. When he leaves his cubicle, start putting little pieces of trash in it. When he finally has had enough and says something about it, you can tell him you didn't think he would mind, after all, that's how he's treating his fish. You know, golden rule and all that.:idea2:
Click to expand...

That's AWESOME!!! I would definitely do that. :D :joke:
 
This is true. I felt really bad about those fish being kept in such horible condidtions. i went on the internet and got a few sientific papers and read them. i went to my LFS and told the dealer about my research. he considered my results. i built him beariers out of acrilic to divide an 80 gallon set-up in his front window and on a saturday afternoon we transfered all the betas into there own little section. they are doing fabulasly and they encouraged people to want to buy them becuase there so active and beutiful in there new set up. by the next shipment he's sold out usualy
 
Well all I can say is that I got into this hobby because of a Betta I bought at Wal Mart. I had him in a 2-3 cup of water bowl and thought it was ok and he'd be healthy I moved up to a 10 gallon but it was to late and I knew to little... Now I hate the fact that most people think that's ok. I know a hell of alot more now then I did back then thankfully . I have one now and I built a 29 gallon tank arround him. He does use all the space he has and as such I'm REALLY happy to have spent the time, effort and cash to have a setup like I do. Thing thing is I was taught that this was best for him and I learned that because "I" did my research!

As far as PETA goes they're extreamist misguided fools in my opinion. I understand their cause and at one point I actually agreed with them, but let's be honest they really don't know what their they're doing. Here are afew examples I've read over the years about PETA groups and their activities. One group released a large group of minks from a farm... Most got killed on local roads and the ones that servived reaked havok on the local ecosystem (introduced species). I've read of many groups releasing cattle from their pens to only have them return to the barns at night after blocking roads and causing general grief over the day. Personally I had respect for PETA as a well meaning group untill afew idiots backed by PETA's BS came after me personally. See I'm a manager at a fast food joint. Well one night I had a customer complain about some pictures taped to the menu board in my drive thru. So I went out and found afew pictures of dismembered cow heads and such with the PETA logo on them. Of course I took them down and went about my buisness not thinking much of it after making ammends with the customer. Two days later it happened again, so as before I took them down and passed a fax to my DM about it. The next week two people came in and got in my face about how slaughter houses kill their cows, they caused a big scene, put me on the spot and blamed me in whole for the mistreatment of said bovines. I had to call the cops to get them out of my resturaunt which I'm sure was just fine with them. At that point I wrote PETA off as a bunch of single minded idiots following an extreamist idiology. Harsh words I know but I take PETA with a grain of salt now days. Force won't change a bad system., but teaching people what's wrong with said system will PETA doesn't do that. Really what was I supposed to do? Quit my job? Fire all my employees? Become a vegitarian even though we evolved to be omnivores? Honestly coming after a fast food manager in Wisconsin proved nothing and gained nothing. It never hit the news it didn't gain PETA anything. Well that's about it. If you want to do something about how bettas are kept and how people think they can be kept. Teach them! Teach people what conditions are best for a betta! Don't go on recue missions and buy a fish ANY fish from a store that you think isn't keeping their fish correctly. Hell I'd never go any where BUT the Humane Society for a cat or a dog even though they put alot of pets to sleep because they can't find a home for them. They do it because in some cases they have no choice in others they just can't adopt out the animals, Yet they have many programs that support responsible ownership of pets and many more that take animals out of abbusive homes. Sorry I'm ranting here but in basically I'm saying little steps change a large system not big radical movements.
Rant mode off...
-Neo Sithlord
 
When it comes to bettas you have the whole abusive industry to contend with. There was an article in FAMA (June 2004) where the writer visited a betta farm in, I think, Thailand. I hope you don't think each of the fry, once they are sexed, gets a nice 10 g aquarium.
The bottles in the picture, the author guesses about 100,000 are "flat sided pint sized whiskey bottles." Each holds 1 betta and they make up the floor of the tent.
When the water is changed "The operator could quickly load about twenty bottles into the rack. The rack was then closed with the wire mesh cover..The entire rack of bottles was then inverted and the water spilled on the ground. The mesh allowed the water to drain without the fish falling out. The rack was then turned upright, the lid opened and the bottles returned to their place in the floor. The bottles with fish inside were then re-filled by means of a plastic hose. Since Bettas can breath air for a brief period, several racks of bottles could be dumped before filling had to commence. I had seen similar practices before and I imagine they could dump several racks before they needed to start refilling them."

untitled-1.jpg
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom