pimudh
New Member
It's a question that has been going around in my head since my betta died in the start of July. I've finally decided to write about it here. I kept him in an 8g (cycled) planted tank. After a few days I noticed he had a funny swim to him, which I had not noticed at the fish store. There was a kind of bend in his spine, which ended up being caused by dropsy. At some point he went more and more into hiding and became extremely bloated as well. Before I knew it, he had passed away.
That was the 3rd betta I kept, with the previous ones not even coming close to the supposed average age of bettas. The first one seems to have died the most 'natural' death, at around 1.5 years old. It started getting lethargic and slowly became less and less healthy without any visible signs of sickness, except of course for the inactiveness and color fading slowly. That was a 'basic' red veil tail I got at a very small local fish store. Back then I was a bit inexperienced with fish so that may have been my fault, but out of the 3 it was by far the healthiest, I'll come back to that later. The 2nd betta I bought was at a big chain store here in the Netherlands called Intratuin. (recently went back there and was shocked to see the state of the fish) I'm never buying fish there anymore, that's for sure. Anyway, back when I still thought they were alright I ended up buying this beautiful and very feisty blue/red/turquoise crowntail. It lived for a few months before mysteriously and quite suddenly bursting. One day it was fine and the next it had died with its organs hanging out of its hind end.
So now for the question, could bettas at this point be so overbred that there is a very high risk of losing them without necessarily doing something wrong? Coming back to that betta from the small store being the most healthy, it makes me think that it could be an issue with big breeders just pumping out fish to keep up with demand of these fish. In a similar way to puppy mills I guess. No hate on the store where I bought the 3rd betta though, since they are amazing for their fish and actually have healthy fish and spacious, clean tanks for them. Just the bettas coming in from bad breeders is what I'm thinking.
So I was curious to hear the opinions on this from other people on this forum. And ultimately I may keep a betta again, but for now I'm leaning more to the side of not buying any bettas anymore, ever.
Note: All of them were kept in the same 8g tank, with being empty between getting the 2nd and 3rd betta and changes to hardscape/plants and at approximately 78.8F.
That was the 3rd betta I kept, with the previous ones not even coming close to the supposed average age of bettas. The first one seems to have died the most 'natural' death, at around 1.5 years old. It started getting lethargic and slowly became less and less healthy without any visible signs of sickness, except of course for the inactiveness and color fading slowly. That was a 'basic' red veil tail I got at a very small local fish store. Back then I was a bit inexperienced with fish so that may have been my fault, but out of the 3 it was by far the healthiest, I'll come back to that later. The 2nd betta I bought was at a big chain store here in the Netherlands called Intratuin. (recently went back there and was shocked to see the state of the fish) I'm never buying fish there anymore, that's for sure. Anyway, back when I still thought they were alright I ended up buying this beautiful and very feisty blue/red/turquoise crowntail. It lived for a few months before mysteriously and quite suddenly bursting. One day it was fine and the next it had died with its organs hanging out of its hind end.
So now for the question, could bettas at this point be so overbred that there is a very high risk of losing them without necessarily doing something wrong? Coming back to that betta from the small store being the most healthy, it makes me think that it could be an issue with big breeders just pumping out fish to keep up with demand of these fish. In a similar way to puppy mills I guess. No hate on the store where I bought the 3rd betta though, since they are amazing for their fish and actually have healthy fish and spacious, clean tanks for them. Just the bettas coming in from bad breeders is what I'm thinking.
So I was curious to hear the opinions on this from other people on this forum. And ultimately I may keep a betta again, but for now I'm leaning more to the side of not buying any bettas anymore, ever.
Note: All of them were kept in the same 8g tank, with being empty between getting the 2nd and 3rd betta and changes to hardscape/plants and at approximately 78.8F.
. Itās all those line breeding and I forget whatās that other method they call it. I donāt do those. I breed now but I only select the healthy ones to try to better them. None of that in line bred stuff. I only select the healthy ones with no genetics defects observing all the way to their siblings and parents before I pick and if they donāt meet the health standards they donāt get to breed. I doubt commercial would ever not breed bc it would hault their production. Often times id see a video on breeding but the bettas has a tumor while they are breeding it and Iām shock bc I always said Iām not backyard breeding leave it to the pros that knows what theyāre doing. Yet I have seeked breeders for quality fish and for yrs I experience bad blooodlines.
so if you find one thatās good itās usually worth the wait if you are patient to work with them. When I started buying from breeders instead of big chain store I notice a big difference. When I started buying from reputable lfs where breeders drop off, not a chain, it opened up another world for me. I hope this helps you navigate the market in your area.
