Need Betta Help FAST

[BettaMomma]

[quote name='Karah's_Mommy' date='May 21 2005, 04:37 AM'] This was at Petsmart in Gulfport, MS. And yes, there were at least a half a dozen like that. Like I said, I would have bought them all if I could afford it, and tanks for them. 228-539-9722 [/quote]
They will be hearing from me, and they will wish they HADN'T.
I am going to see what I can do to get a humane society or SOMETHING to take a trip over there soon to see what is going on with them. That is complete animal cruelty. PERIOD.

Thanks for showing us - I hope the little guy makes it.
He's lucky you came along and took him with you.

 

[BettaMomma]

One thing you might consider doing - if you have pellets for him, soak them for several minutes in dechlorinated water before you give them to him. If he hasn't had anything to eat, his tummy's gonna need all the help it can get to get back to normal, so that might make it easier for him.l

Poor little guy

 

[OrkyBetta]

makes me want to rescue one. Too bad i'm in new york, can't drive, and have no money.

 

[alabaster]

Agreed.

 

[Karah's_Mommy]

He ate a couple of the soaked pellets, but has since thrown them back up. I gave him a tiny bit of boiled egg yolk, since I've read it's excellent for fry, but he didn't even touch it. He's not looking very good right now. I'm going to leave him alone for the rest of the night and hope he makes it til I can get him some live food tomorrow.

 

[GSD]

omg its just like a twig i hope he makes it

 

[SPLiSH]

Poor baby... if I lived in the USA that Petsmart place would be certainly hearing from me!

Hope he pulls through, you did a great thing by rescueing him.

 

[BettaMomma]

You could also try some super smashed and pureed cooked peas... He might go for some of those.

I'm off to call that place RIGHT now.

 

[wuvmybetta]

One word of caution, keep in mind that fish with TB will literally starve themselves and they become very thin like that, so whatever you do...keep him in quarantine!

 

[BrookeLea]

I can't comprehend how people can do that kind of thing. It's so terrible and it makes me so sad and so angry. Ignorant people...

 

[BettaMomma]

Wow...
I just got off the phone with 3 places - PetSmart, the Humane Society in Gulfport, and the fish farm who supplies PetSmart with all their fish.

I had a really long conversation with the manager at PS - he has only been there a week, but from what he said, he knows his stuff about fish and was stunned to hear the story I told him. He actually asked me for the address of this forum, said he wanted to come and check it out for himself and respond to some of the comments we were making here. Hopefully he will follow thru on it, and then really see just how much we all really do pay attention and get riled up over this stuff. Anyway - he said that he was going to go make a run thru the fish department, check on the bettas and head back to the "quiet room" so he could have a look at the fish that are like yours.

He also gave me some really VERY encouraging news - he said that PS has developed a new way to keep their bettas in their stores. He said that all new stores are doing away with keeping bettas in cups, and they're going to be kept in barracks from now on. And, he said they'll be going back to retrofit how the old stores do it too. That's VERY exciting - if you ask me!!! Apparently all our complaining has done some good. YAY!

Now... on to the next party I called. the Humane Society of Gulfport. I don't think I could have gotten ahold of a better person - she is a fish keeper herself, and she said that the HS takes dogs over to PS for grooming on a regular basis, and in fact - someone is going over there today, so she was going to request that the person that goes over makes a run thru the fish department, and that they have a discussion with PS about it. She said that because they (the H.S.) deal so much with them, and are affiliated with PS that it reflects badly on the H.S. when PS isn't taking care of their fish. She's going to also visit this forum - she said that she will probably become a regular member here on her own time, and that she too will start checking in at stores like PS, much like I do. (I've created another monster!!!! )

The third place I called was the fish farm where the manager from PetSmart told me they get all their fish from. After wuv's post about how TB works - I really got to thinking about it, and can you imagine how damaging it would be to a fish farm if there was a TB outbreak? yikes. I got the answering machine at their place, but I left a message and just let them know what I heard about the fish they delivered to PS. They'll probably ignore it, but ya never know.

PS - the fish that were on the shelves were all delivered to the store on Thursday night, so apparently they came from the farm that way.

Anyway - I did what I could today - so off to feed my fishes I go.

 

[Karah's_Mommy]

Good news ! He made it through the night. Now I'm off to find some live food, and get him his own tank. My dad offered to let me put him in a breeder net in his 30 gallon aquarium, but I don't know if he's sick on top of being starved. I'll update again when I have some live food, and see how it does with it.

 

[BettaMomma]

I'd get him his own tank - if he would happen to have TB, it's definitely not something you wanna share with the other fish in your dad's tank.

Good luck!

 

[alabaster]

What state is Gulfport in?

Good luck with the live food!

 

[Karah's_Mommy]

My search for live food wasn't successful. There aren't many pet stores locally, and I wasn't going back to Petsmart. I did get him some freeze dried bloodworms, and he's eaten a few. I got him his own tank, a 1 gallon UGF and have it set up and running. I'll start acclimating him to it shortly.
I went to Walmart to get his tank. And as always, I was looking through the bettas, and found 2 males that had been put in the same cup. You could see that someone had taken the lid off one, and dumped him in another cup. One was just shredded, pieces of his tail were all over in the cup. I immediately went and found the guy that works the department, and told him what I saw, and what he needed to do. He seperated them, and added some fresh water and some stress coat. He put them back on the shelf while I was unstacking the cups and telling him why I was doing so. He was greatful for the help and advice, and listened to everything I said.
Needless to say, I now have another rescued betta. He is just shredded. His new tank will be set up shortly, with lots of stress coat. Poor fellow. I'm going to name him Shredd. I haven't decided on a name for the first guy, guess I'm afraid of getting too attached until I know he's going to make it. <sighs>