Post Your Betta Rescue Stories Here!

[Zenandra]

Hey all! I am working on a Website and I want it to be all about helping out bettas. There are facts, myths, a blog, and such. I'm going to add a "What you can do to help" section, and a section updating people on my quest to get bettas the respect they deserve.

I want to have a section where I can post people real life betta rescues or stories of going after a store or what not and getting them to change the way they treat their bettas.

Please post your name (or I can use your username on here) the bettas name, the story and a picture of the betta or bettas if possible! Thank you very much!

 

[Knox213]

Well. The First betta i ever kept Died within a week Of starvation ( I Saved him from A LFS. But he did'nt eat and eventually. Died. )

Second betta i saved.

He was in a coup with barely ANY Water. They where being starved to death and half of them dieing/sulking.

There i met Nero. my Second betta for my 60 Litre.

Got him home. Cared for him. Looked after him. He gained weight ( alot of weight ) And flared at me when i entered the room ( and swam around the tank in circles at first sight of bloodworms He even Let me Stroke him.

But then we found a dead Guppy. Tail chewed to bits. After that. A Neon. Bit in half. Another Neon. Eaten alive. Then the other two guppys. Murdered by Nero.

Two neons suvived the attack. Nero Some-what got dropsy after my Stupid freakin Ex put her Hands in my tank and chased him! Then after a week of stress and suffering. Dropsy got him.


I Did what was right as he's friend and Owner. And put him out of he's misery.

RIP Nero.

You was one Heck of a betta. Best so far. Last year i swore i would'nt get another betta until i knew i could look after one proberly. This Year. I Will make that Promise Reality.

 

[Amberleaf]

Well, I rescued Tropica from a school project by getting her after the project was done!

And, also, all my female Bettas except for Queenie and Metamorphix have been rescued from horrible little cups at PetSmart.

And I can't really say that I 'rescued' any of my male Bettas, as they're all from Big Al's, and Big Al's actually takes fairly good care of their fish. But then, after all, they ARE a store specializing in aquarium fish, so....

The only thing that you could remotely say that I rescued Libra & Midnight Moon was because they were in little cups. But that's only because they were in cups. But the cups were rather large, and actually VERY clean. And you could only remotely say that I 'rescued' Midnight Moon was because his cup was only half-full. But he's a tiny Betta, so it didn't affect him in the least....

 

[sanka101]

My one betta Emanuel i got him from pet smart ive been told that the blue water in the cups is medication but i also saw purple and pink and they tried to tell me it was medication but medication isnt usually pink
Anyways the lovely little guys tail was all nipped to bits and he was missing a few scales and his water was bright blue, with poo and food on the bottom. He could barely turn around and the water was only 2" deep... I felt awful she was trying to cram him self as far away form everyone as possible. some of the bettas werent bad but those sat in the front he was behind the others . I took him home and put him in his temp. home it was only a 1/2g but he got 25-40% daily watter changes and 100%x2 with a bubbler and a bridge that he loves and a fake plant. he still has the bridge in his new 2g filterd/heated tank. but anyways as soon as he was there he stretched his fins and swam around a bit but i notice something he could barely swim it was like he had no musclesit looked like a lot of effort to even move. but as i had him he got stronger but also he went from an blue and pirple color to a purple and red. I knew they lyed to me and he must have had an aful time there ashe was afraid of food he hid from it for the first week or soo. Hes so healthy and vibrant now i just love my little baby.

 

[Zenandra]

Do you guys have pictures of these fish that I can post?

 

[Knox213]

I Have a picture of my first ever betta?

Anywho betta lovers.

Im Off to sleep.

Catch you all in the morning..

Or if your american

10 hours

 

[sanka101]

Heres a pic a my new betta Zanucchi and what they had him in! hes only in a 1g right now but thats temp. till i divide up a ten g. for my three boys

Just for size id say that plastice plant is ruffly 5" if that. they gave it to me with him

 

[Amberleaf]

Wait a sec Sanka; that looks smaller than 1g?

 

[Knox213]

Wait a sec Sanka; that looks smaller than 1g?

It dont matter for now

he's getting it a bigger tank. so Alls good

 

[Amberleaf]

Hehe.... I guess.

 

[Zenandra]

She said that's the bowl he came in He's in a 1gal now

 

[Amberleaf]

Oh, whoops. Got confused....! XD

 

[Assaye]

I have rescued four fish in ill-health, two from bad treatment at the same store.

However, I only consider one to be a true rescue as he is the only one I got for a substantial discount.

The stories:

Orion - he was the first fish I rescued. The store kept their bettas in small cups of cold water. He had been there for about three weeks. Each time I went in, I checked to see if he was OK. He was always at the bottom of his cup, hardly moving. I had to look really closely to see if he was alive. Eventually, I couldn't take seeing him there anymore and bought him for full price. I tried to argue the manager down on the basis that he was clearly in ill-health but the manager just said "he'll be fine".

He stayed with me for three months until he died of dropsy. He never fully recovered from the illness he had in the shop and had bouts of poor health every so often. Eventually it got the better of him. My second betta - I was gutted when he died.

The cups -

Orion -

Ffinsan - this is my real rescue. He was from the same store as Orion. They had been keeping him in a tank with dwarf cichlids and he had been torn to shreds. I told the manager I was taking him home and I was NOT paying full price. He tried to tell me Ffin would be OK, I think you can see from the picture that the manager was clutching at straws. He recovered (although his fins hardly grew back) and did very well until, like Orion, he died of dropsy. I miss that little guy so much.

Ffin when I got him -

Ffin weeks later, with his fins healed (if not grown back) and full of life -

After I got Ffin, I followed up with a letter to the local council and the store telling them about betta care and why I was making a complaint. The store was inspected by the council as a result.

The other two were Marble and Nightshade. Marble, inexplicably, died after two weeks. He had been at the store (where I work) for several weeks and had suddenly gone off colour. His fins had disintegrated and he was very inactive. I bought him with my staff discount and tried to nurse him back to health.

Nightshade is still with us. He had awful fin rot that was starting to eat away at his body. I had been nursing him at work for two weeks and eventually gave up and put him in my hospital tank. He recovered in a couple of days and is doing very well now.

As I said before, the only one I consider a true rescue is Ffin. The others were purchased as full price and as a result, their purchase did not adversly affect the store. These fish were sympathy purchases, because I felt sorry for the fish.

Often when fish are "rescued" they simply make space on the shelf for more fish to be treated badly.