Bettas are mistreated...

FishForums.net Pet of the Month
🐶 POTM Poll is Open! 🦎 Click here to Vote! 🐰

What do you think?

  • Your right, bettas re mistreated and its horrible.

    Votes: 11 68.8%
  • pfff, what r u talking about. Bettas are fine in 1 gallons.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 3 gallons if fine for a betta, those websites are correct.

    Votes: 2 12.5%
  • Bettas do come from mud puddles, and who cares about tank size. Its just a tiny fish.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 5 gallons is a good amount for a betta, i agree with you.

    Votes: 5 31.3%
  • More than 5 gallons, 5 gallons is tiny for a betta.

    Votes: 3 18.8%

  • Total voters
    16
  • This poll will close: .

Obsessed with fish

Fish Herder
Joined
Sep 17, 2021
Messages
1,016
Reaction score
416
Location
Australia, NSW, Sydney.
Bettas are great little fish, they are easy to care for and can survive in rough conditions, but this does not mean they should be put in tiny tanks. If anyone looks up betta tank size it will say 3 gallons. Some websites say 1 gallon is fine, and that's just horrible. Myself has a betta in a 3 gallon, i found out they need 5 gallons so im getting a 5 gallon for him.

I often hear people saying that bettas come from mud puddles. This is not true. They should be treated like any other fish. It makes me angry when i walk into the pet store and see 1/4 of a gallon tanks on display as betta tanks. Just imagine living in a wardrobe your whole life, you can never leave the wardrobe. It would be horrible.
 
There is so much misinformation, especially in stores. I used to keep mine in a crappy little tank that advertised as self filtering. Then she was moved to one of those garbage tanks you get when you win carnival goldfish that are probably 1 gallon, then she moved to a 2.5 gallon where the filter was too strong. Then i did some research and went to get a 5 gallon. Shes been in it a couple months and its practically its own ecosystem, with snails and plants and everything. Shes gone through a lot in 3 years and if I had done my research she would have been a happy little fish from day 1. Bettas don’t belong in little plastic tupperware containers, 5 gallons or more is best and I wish stores and companies were honest and helped people get a real tank for the living creature they took responsibility for.
 
There is so much misinformation, especially in stores. I used to keep mine in a crappy little tank that advertised as self filtering. Then she was moved to one of those garbage tanks you get when you win carnival goldfish that are probably 1 gallon, then she moved to a 2.5 gallon where the filter was too strong. Then i did some research and went to get a 5 gallon. Shes been in it a couple months and its practically its own ecosystem, with snails and plants and everything. Shes gone through a lot in 3 years and if I had done my research she would have been a happy little fish from day 1. Bettas don’t belong in little plastic tupperware containers, 5 gallons or more is best and I wish stores and companies were honest and helped people get a real tank for the living creature they took responsibility for.
omg me to, my betta was in a tiny 1/2 gallon for a year, than i moved him into a 3 gallon, now im buying a 5 gallon, and my bettas 3 years old to, very horrible. The pet stores gave me the wromg imformation to.
 
Bettas are great little fish, they are easy to care for and can survive in rough conditions, but this does not mean they should be put in tiny tanks. If anyone looks up betta tank size it will say 3 gallons. Some websites say 1 gallon is fine, and that's just horrible. Myself has a betta in a 3 gallon, i found out they need 5 gallons so im getting a 5 gallon for him.

I often hear people saying that bettas come from mud puddles. This is not true. They should be treated like any other fish. It makes me angry when i walk into the pet store and see 1/4 of a gallon tanks on display as betta tanks. Just imagine living in a wardrobe your whole life, you can never leave the wardrobe. It would be horrible.
I had a colleague that had a beta in a vase of water with bamboo. Neither the plant or the fish seemed to be too happy. I found a five gallon aquarium at a garage sale and set it up in her office and made her give the little guy mote room. Her bamboo did not make it.
 
I had a colleague that had a beta in a vase of water with bamboo. Neither the plant or the fish seemed to be too happy. I found a five gallon aquarium at a garage sale and set it up in her office and made her give the little guy mote room. Her bamboo did not make it.
glad the bettas happy now in his 5 gallon.
 
Bettas are great little fish, they are easy to care for and can survive in rough conditions, but this does not mean they should be put in tiny tanks. If anyone looks up betta tank size it will say 3 gallons. Some websites say 1 gallon is fine, and that's just horrible. Myself has a betta in a 3 gallon, i found out they need 5 gallons so im getting a 5 gallon for him.

I often hear people saying that bettas come from mud puddles. This is not true. They should be treated like any other fish. It makes me angry when i walk into the pet store and see 1/4 of a gallon tanks on display as betta tanks. Just imagine living in a wardrobe your whole life, you can never leave the wardrobe. It would be horrible.
I love betta fish and I have to say with all the pain in my heart that before I became a good fish keeper, a lot of bettas died in my "care" (some of the worst are a veiltail that I had in a bare-bones 2 liters cylinder that died after a week and a royal blue double point crowntail that I named Poseidon that died after a few days poisoned by the not aquarium-safe gravel I used in its 1-liter bowl), and this was because of the lies I was told about their care that I believed without even looking further into it.
The whole mud puddle thing makes me so angry since yeah it is a 50-100 cm deep body of stagnant water but it is like 5 square meters area like come on, and even at that a lot of bettas come from rivers and straight-up lakes and wetlands, not some random rain puddle.
the problem is that people see them as living decor and not as animals, as such, they put as much care into their bettas as they do for a silk flower arrangement. My family is guilty of this behavior but I am trying to change that slowly, my mom and dad are already out of the fish abusing loop since I live with them and can keep tabs on all the fish-related issues of the house, in my mother's side of the family there is also no fish abusing problems since they currently don't keep fish and the members that want to do so in the near future already decided that they are gonna let me help and listen to what I tell them. The real problem here is my dad's side of the family mainly my dads youngest sister, first some backstory:
My dad is the oldest of 7 siblings and my problem aunt is the youngest daughter as such she was always the spoiled one and still is, she is kinda entitled, and if she does something it's guaranteed that at least one of my aunts and uncles will copy her. Now for the fish abuse (yay!).
She for a lot of time now has kept multiple bettas in the same ugly ass 10-liters flower vase that she only fills up to the middle, this flower vase has an area of like 10 square centimeters and the rest of the volume is from vertical space, she has clown puke gravel and no filter, heater or plants. she does these ugly water changes where she just dumps everything out and washes it with tap water (which here in Mexico has a mega load of chlorine). And whenever the fish dies she just buys another one, and as such she believes that bettas don't live more than a year, not that long ago she along with some other family members from my dad's side discovered that I breed fish and aquatic invertebrates and I used this chance to try and make her new betta's life as good as possible so while she asked me about the whole fish breeding thing I told her that the flower vase was no place for a betta and started selling the whole nano aquascape thing to her telling her it would be a better house for a betta and it would be a far better decoration piece than a flower vase with gravel, it all was great until I told her the best size would be a 20-litters (5 gallons) aquarium, then she said "you are crazy, that's way too much water, it is a full water jug", I then explained what a partial water change was and she seemed a bit more into the idea but not fully, i currently am still trying to get her 100% on board with a 5 gallon nano planted aquascape for her betta, and if i am lucky then the rest of the family will do as they usually do and copy her example (if we are mega lucky they will also ask for my help).

Bettas don’t belong in little plastic tupperware
I keep my 2 bettas in 15 liters (4 gallons) Tupperware but I do so because I don't have enough space to keep them anywhere else right now but I am in the process of buying and installing a rack system in my room, then I will buy some nice 5 gallon tanks and have them there with some more species only aquariums for the rest of my fish and invertebrates, their current house is wider and longer than it is taller which is something bettas like and I have it with sand, rocks, leaf litter and plants, they are doing fine and my male is happy enough that he made a bubble nest while my female became gravid, I keep up with my water changes and I feed live foods regularly so I think I am not doing that bad for someone with bettas on Tupperware, also their current homes are better than the 1-liter bottles with nothing in them whatsoever in which they were at before.
 
Last edited:
I love betta fish and I have to say with all the pain in my heart that before I became a good fish keeper, a lot of bettas died in my "care" (some of the worst are a veiltail that I had in a bare-bones 2 liters cylinder that died after a week and a royal blue double point crowntail that I named Poseidon that died after a few days poisoned by the not aquarium-safe gravel I used in its 1-liter bowl), and this was because of the lies I was told about their care that I believed without even looking further into it.
The whole mud puddle thing makes me so angry since yeah it is a 50-100 cm deep body of stagnant water but it is like 5 square meters area like common, and even at that a lot of bettas come from rivers and straight-up lakes and wetlands, not some random rain puddle.
the problem is that people see them as living decor and not as animals, as such, they put as much care into their bettas as they do for a silk flower arrangement. My family is guilty of this behavior but I am trying to change that slowly, my mom and dad are already out of the fish abusing loop since I live with them and can keep tabs on all the fish-related issues of the house, in my mother's side of the family there is also no fish abusing problems since they currently don't keep fish and the members that wan to do so in the near future already decided that they are gonna let me help and listen to what I tell them. The real problem here is my dad's side of the family mainly my dads younger sister, first some backstory:
My dad is the oldest of 7 siblings and my problem aunt is the youngest daughter as such she was always the spoiled one and still is, she is kinda entitled, and if she does something it's guaranteed that at least one of my aunts and uncles will copy her. Now for the fish abuse (yay!).
She for a lot of time now has kept multiple bettas in the same ugly ass 10-liters flower vase that she only fills up to the middle, this flower vase has an area of like 10 square centimeters and the rest of the volume is from vertical space, she has clown puke gravel and no filter, heater or plants. she does these ugly water changes where she just dumps everything out and washes it with tap water (which here in Mexico has a mega load of chlorine). And whenever the fish dies she just buys another one, and as such she believes that bettas don't live more than a year, not that long ago she along with some other family members from my dad's side discovered that I breed fish and aquatic invertebrates and I used this chance to try and make her new betta's life as good as possible so while she asked me about the whole fish breeding thing I and murky water told her that the flower vase was no place for a betta and started selling the whole nano aquascape thing to her telling her it would be a better house for a betta and it would be a far better decoration piece than a flower vase with gravel, it all was great until I told her the best size would be a 20-litters (5 gallons) aquarium, then she said "you are crazy, that's way too much water, it is a full water jug", I then explained what a partial water change was and she seemed a bit more into the idea but not fully, i currently am still trying to get her 100% on board with a 5 gallon nano planted aquascape for her betta, and if i am lucky then the rest of the family will do as they usually do and copy her example (if we are mega lucky they will also ask for my help).


I keep my 2 bettas in 15 liters (4 gallons) Tupperware but I do so because I don't have enough space to keep them anywhere else right now but I am in the process of buying and installing a rack system in my room, then I will buy some nice 5 gallon tanks and have them there with some more species only aquariums for the rest of my fish and invertebrates, their current house is wider and longer than it is taller which is something bettas like and I have it with sand, rocks, leaf litter and plants, they are doing fine and my male is happy enough that he made a bubble nest while my female became gravid, I keep up with my water changes and I feed live foods regularly so I think I am not doing that bad for someone with bettas on Tupperware, also their current homes are better than the 1-liter bottles with nothing in them whatsoever in which they were at before.
good to hear that your bettas are getting bigger homes. If i were you i would just fill the vase up to the top whle shes not looking like in the middle of the night.
 
At this point I’m not even suprised people like keeping bettas in 1 gallon tanks, Ive tried keeping a betta in a 10 gallon with stress coat quick start a bunch of plants and a betta log and that think still dies, while you have people sticking there betta in a one gallon with no conditioner and it going for like the betta living like 3 years. Sometimes I just want to get rid of my 10g and just go get a 1 gallon and stick a betta in it. Just so I can have a fish that will at least live longer than a month. I even try buying more things for these fish like test strips and api quick start but it seems to be like its never enough!!! I always need other stuff and it’s so annoying. Like I just want to have a fish and have a good time with it. And not having to be doing things and buying things every.single.day. And it’s not cause I don’t like my fish it’s just I want to get a fish and actually enjoy my time having it. Isn’t that what fish keeping is all about? Cause if it is then i sure don’t.
 
At this point I’m not even suprised people like keeping bettas in 1 gallon tanks, Ive tried keeping a betta in a 10 gallon with stress coat quick start a bunch of plants and a betta log and that think still dies, while you have people sticking there betta in a one gallon with no conditioner and it going for like the betta living like 3 years. Sometimes I just want to get rid of my 10g and just go get a 1 gallon and stick a betta in it. Just so I can have a fish that will at least live longer than a month. I even try buying more things for these fish like test strips and api quick start but it seems to be like its never enough!!! I always need other stuff and it’s so annoying. Like I just want to have a fish and have a good time with it. And not having to be doing things and buying things every.single.day. And it’s not cause I don’t like my fish it’s just I want to get a fish and actually enjoy my time having it. Isn’t that what fish keeping is all about? Cause if it is then i sure don’t.
Maybe the temps wrong or something. Probably something to do with water parameters.
 
At this point I’m not even suprised people like keeping bettas in 1 gallon tanks, Ive tried keeping a betta in a 10 gallon with stress coat quick start a bunch of plants and a betta log and that think still dies, while you have people sticking there betta in a one gallon with no conditioner and it going for like the betta living like 3 years. Sometimes I just want to get rid of my 10g and just go get a 1 gallon and stick a betta in it. Just so I can have a fish that will at least live longer than a month. I even try buying more things for these fish like test strips and api quick start but it seems to be like its never enough!!! I always need other stuff and it’s so annoying. Like I just want to have a fish and have a good time with it. And not having to be doing things and buying things every.single.day. And it’s not cause I don’t like my fish it’s just I want to get a fish and actually enjoy my time having it. Isn’t that what fish keeping is all about? Cause if it is then i sure don’t.
The biggest issue most people have when new to fishkeeping is not cycling their tank properly. You don't need tons of kit.

Tank
Heater
Filter
Test kit for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. See if you can get your local fish shop to test your tap water for PH and hardness as once you know this it's unlikely you will need to bother with it again.
Dechlorinator
Fish food
Ammonia source when cycling your tank.
Ideally some live plants.

Make sure your tank is cycled. The link below explains what this means and how to do it:

Seriously 90% of people that have issues with fish illnesses and losses is down to their tank not being properly cycled.
 
I want to get a fish and actually enjoy my time having it. Isn’t that what fish keeping is all about? Cause if it is then i sure don’t.
So I went for a long walk down the garden, accompanied by my three cats. Together, we enjoyed the Autumnal morning sunshine, whilst a robin heralded the day. A subtle mist draped across the nearby fell and we could hear a curlew calling from nearby fields.
I came back in and put the kettle on, had a nice sit down and a cup of tea and gazed into one of my tanks for a while.

Reading so far?

Okay...
No.
That is NOT what fishkeeping is all about.

It is about taking responsibility for a complete ecosystem of living things that you have brought into being. It is about taking care of those living things, sometimes at the expense of your own convenience and pocket.
Do all of this and then, and only then, do you get to enjoy the time having it.
 
The biggest issue most people have when new to fishkeeping is not cycling their tank properly. You don't need tons of kit.

Tank
Heater
Filter
Test kit for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. See if you can get your local fish shop to test your tap water for PH and hardness as once you know this it's unlikely you will need to bother with it again.
Dechlorinator
Fish food
Ammonia source when cycling your tank.
Ideally some live plants.

Make sure your tank is cycled. The link below explains what this means and how to do it:

Seriously 90% of people that have issues with fish illnesses and losses is down to their tank not being properly cycled.
Yes, its probably cycling problems.
 
....<drags soapbox out of hiding>

I do not give a rats behind as to the species of fish that you keep...whether it be a tiny tiddler or a mega money Discus

If you cannot or will not be bothered to follow instructions, do the cycle on the aquarium, buy an appropriate aquarium and research properly and accept that fishkeeping can be sodding hard work, full of financial and emotional strain....then DO NOT keep fish.

They are NOT "just fish"

They require careful care and attention, you cannot just plop a fish into a bowl and leave it to it

If you cannot spare the 30 minutes or so one time a week cleaning out and caring for the fish...do not get a fish (or any animal since they all need appropriate care)

Pure and simple...if you cannot or will not do it right, do not get ANY animal, let alone fish.

We humans are their voice and their guardian....if you cannot be bothered, don't have the time or the inclination then just do not have ANY pets.

I personally do not suffer fools gladly, if I see you stuffing it up I will tell you without a sugarcoat.....if you still stuff it up, I will not be helpful since you are not listening.

<puts soapbox away> .....
 

Most reactions

trending

Staff online

Back
Top