Rescue Life Expectancy

[AlexJordan]

So on the subject of Walmart fish, here is my latest rescue.

It's truly unfortunate how long these fish stay in cups, but this poor guy. He had no color, his fins were a quarter of the length they are now, and he was sitting at the bottom of the cup. I'm a sucker for a poor baby and had just recovered my five gallon, so I picked him up about a month and a half ago.

You have to wonder, though, when a betta's life expectancy should be around 2-10 years, how long they can last even in a filtered, heated environment with room to breathe. And just in general, when they are exposed to high ammonia/nitri/ate and are placed in a healthy environment, how long they can last. Poor Calypso, a betta in a similar state who was a translucent blue when I got him (and then grew into the healthy boy in my avatar), but passed when I made the move. I don't know, I was wondering what y'all's experience with that kind of thing is.

 

[Tyler_Fishman]

My Bettas are hardy, my female red veil tail, who I kept out on my deck during the summer; there was a rainstorm and I was away, jumped 9 feet onto concrete and probably stayed there for a good 10 mins, her swim bladder was damaged and it only took her a WEEK to recover! Incredible, she died rather pathetically when it got too cold for her and passed, which is why heaters are so nessacary for bettas, my parents used to keep a red veil tail in a 1 gallon critter keeper for four years, with zero anything in it, no plants no gravel No heater I was only a few years old so I didn't no smack with Bettas, four years in a little plastic container, depending on the fish NTS (new tank syndrome) can be fatal, to others it's usually beneficial I

 

[AlexJordan]

It really does say something about bettas' hardiness when they're able to survive such conditions. When I was in sixth grade, my sister got a betta from a science fair. It's a wonder the poor thing stayed alive in a bowl, with no heater or consistent water changes, but he stayed alive for at least a year.