Betta Bowls?

[CluelessScot]

Hi all,

Today i was at the LPS and i saw they had "betta bowls" for sale at £14.99. Its a glass bowl, round yeah... a few hours later i was in tescos and the same "bowl" is in there for £2.49. For use as a vase, ornamemtal or some use but dunno, Whats the diff between them? Is the bowls you get in pet/fish shops treated or made of special galss or would the bog standard glass bowl from tescos do the same job (once cleaned?) Well, just something that made me think...

Kev

 

[nino]

Really should be the same thing. A lot of people use old food containers (for pretzels or something) as betta containers. As long as it is decently sized (1 gallon+) and well cleaned you could probably use the cheaper one.

 

[Synirr]

They're the same thing, but if you buy a bowl meant as a vase you'll need to be careful about the thickness of the glass... if it's too thin it's likely to crack on ya. Most bowls are ok, though.

 

[Lynden]

Some vases that look like fish bowls can shatter with a flick. Go ahead and buy it, I encourage you to save money, but be warned.

 

[Dorkhedeos]

you can get any container you want to house a betta as long as its big enough. i use a cashew container for my betta.

 

[CluelessScot]

i dunno if im gonna buy one, it just made me wonder why one was so expencive and if it was treated...

 

[solidshark55]

I wouldent keep a betta in a betta bowl its quite simpily to small

 

[OohFeeshy]

Unless its a big bowl, in which case it's not.

 

[CluelessScot]

thought anything over 1.5 gallons was ok?

 

[solidshark55]

should be but for extra freedom id suggest a 3 to 4 gallon

 

[SnowyzMom]

You can certainly keep fish in interesting containers, even plastic, but very often one can find much cheaper versions of the higher priced pet store bowls, pebbles and so on, in the garden section, like in Walmart. We found ornamental river pebbles once, about 1/4 of the price of the fancy bagged aquarium pebbles...just as polished, just as nice....and just as safe. Just make sure any bowls you buy are sufficiently thick glass and you should be fine. I admit I couldn't put a betta in under 2 gallons. Tropico loves having the 5 gallon all to himself and once he grows abit bigger it will truly be just the right size for him. I think a Betta in a small bowl is a terminally bored Betta...but that's just my opinion. Give them a few ever present guppy fry to hunt, chase and munch on and wheee! One happy Betta.

 

[Paul_MTS]

price difference is also the ol' thing of bulk buying. texco's probale bought thousands of those bowls then distributed them between there stores costing them pennies. the LFS would of bought maybe 10 at a go so it's going to cost them a lot more.

 

[Teelie]

I've seen light timers for $12 at one of my LFS' here and they're like 2 for $6 at Walmart so the shops often do overprice their supplies a tad. The only difference between the two? One was "specifically" packaged for use on aquarium lighting but otherwise identical to the typical, average timer you can find for a quarter of the price.

 

[Ethos]

I know at my LFS bowls are pretty expansive, I can buy the same thing at Michaels half the price.
WalMart has some nice betta bowls though, lol.

 

[Vegan Peaches]

I never understood "betta bowls" as a 10 gallon glass aquarium is cheaper at my LFS... might be different at other places, but at the PetCo here, 10 gallon aquariums are $9.99 and bowls start at that and by the time they hit 2 gallons, they have almost doubled in price. At the LFS that isn't a chain, 10 gallon glass aquariums are 12.99 and their bowls are a little cheaper than PetCo's, but still in the 8-15 dollar range. Why not just get the cheaper aquarium and let your betta have room to swim? ^^