Why do they do that to bettas?!

I walked into a pet store the other day and I was so angry!!! They were keeping male bettas in PACKETS!!!! All of them floating together in one tank so they could see eachother! I asked the shop assistant why they did this and she said they are fine and that they put oxygen in there every day... bettas are fish too, they need a tank. There is this common perception that because they can barely survive in small spaces they are happy there. I have never kept a betta in anything less than a 5 gallon. Inexperienced people walk into a pet store and buy one betta, a TINY tank and some food and they are told this is fine, then their bettas die! I just makes me sick as to how badly they are treated!!! :cry::cry:

 

I know EXACTLY how you feel. SO MANY fish shops have them in little see-thru plastic bottles - some even standing ON A SHELF NOGAL with massive bright hot lights above them !!!! - some where the water is even cloudy in the bottle. You can just see that the poor fish is so unhappy - just 'hanging' in the water. It is a disgrace to keep them like this. Surely little baskets suspended in a large tank where the water is circulating and aerated would be better would it not
:cry:

 

have also seen it at a certian lfs in boksburg/benoni area aswell, and the shop assistans know nothing about fish, they just care about making money at the end of the day....

 

I feel all your pain.It's scary to see how many shop assitants dont have a clue what is going on in the aquarium world.Everytime I walk into a lfs and I see the bettas I just want to buy them to give them a nice big aquarium and the correct food .....ect but it is unfortunately not possible.So sad.

 

Pet stores just want to make money, the people there know almost nothing about fish!!! They tell you what you want to hear and you ignorantly buy the fish on their advice, and they make money!!! IT is insane!!!!

 

when people see they cannot sell fish that way (without caring) they will have to change or go out of business.

until that happens there will be shops try to get away with murder.

 

Well then I will strongly suggest you guys don't go travel in the east. When I was in Thailand I poped in to a pet store in a back street on the island of ko samoi were I kid you not they had about 400 Betta males all stacked in a pyramid to the roof in little cups, so I asked the shop keeper how they did water changes and she threw me out the shop.

 

I wonder who is the guilty party here? The guy who keeps and sells them in small containers, or the uneducated customer who does no research before buying a live animal, and thus creates the market?

 

@Wickets , I think the pet stores are largely to blame but the customers should also be held responsible. If u are going to get a pet then you should do a bit of research!! @jpvd007 that sounds AWFUL!!!