Betta's Natural Environment

[JRM]

I work at a Pet Shop with a few uneducated employees who believe they know best. They believe bettas live better in a small container due to it replicating their natural environment. I was in there today and this employee explained how her 3 bettas have all died and she has given up. So I asked what they were kept in and she said a small bowl. I said that they probably died due to being in such a small bowl which caused poor water conditions and I said she would be able to get a betta to live happily if she got a proper tank with a filter/aeration and it was then that she said that they don't like big areas because they live in rice fields in small puddles in malaysia. Now I know that they are able to, but my question is, do they only live like this during the drier times of the year when they have to, and is there any other environment that they live in apart from these rice fields?

I know that 90% of the employees at my work know next to nothing apart from what they are told at work, and at work we are told what the manager wants the customers to know so they buy more. I think I would be one of the only employees to have researched all of the animals we sell and their basic needs and I just want to be able to explain to the employee the proper care requirements of a betta. I have been unable to find the information I wanted on the internet so I thought you betta enthusiasts may be able to help me Thanks

 

[jollysue]

I assume that we are talking about VT Betta splendens which have not been in rice paddies for hundreds of years! LOL VTs and other fancy Bettas are nothing like their wild counterparts or even the Thai fighting fish. They are domesticated. And while they are labrynth fish that can breath some air, it is still not healthy to live in ammonia. If their water is not changed frequently, then they are floating in filth/sewage. Even if they were the same fish that live in rice paddys (which they are not) they would not be able to tolerate the conditions that some fish keepers keep these beauties in.

In addition, even these domestcated Bettas can survive long enough in poor conditions to breed and multiply. But Betta have short life spans if they are not kept in optimum conditions. It's dollars out of their pockets to not take good care of their pets. Would they keep their dog in feces and filth and expect a healthy and happy pet?

What a Betta can tolerate and what is healthy for a Betta are not the same thing. If Betta conditions are poor, they die, rice paddys or bowls make no difference. (Although rice paddies are probably cleaner usually.)

Good luck!

 

[Liam]

Maybe they don’t know the difference between a rice bowl and a rice field. Wild betta species are equipped to live in shallow very warm, slow moving waters with low oxygen content but they still mostly live in volumes of water greater than a swimming pool. You wont find much living in puddles except a few mosquito larvae and micro organisms anywhere in the world. Good luck with educating them.

 

[catxx]

indeed. thai rice paddys may only be 5-6" deep, but they are enormously wide, and being the "wild" theres natural filteration with the plants and the mud and the rains. all bettas appreciate at least some room to really swim! mine love to do circuits around their tanks (i keep my 3 in planted, filtered, heated 5 us gallon and two 7.5 us gallons) despite having long tails.

a wild betta splenden:

there are many other species of betta, they range from living in mountain rivers, marsh bogs (with insanely low PH!), and lakes.

 

[JRM]

Thanks for all your replies I have work tonight so I will talk to her about this