So Frustrated

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LauraFrog

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Queensland, Australia
I am getting SO SICK of that DUMP in the city that calls itself a pet store. Every time I go in there, there is something else wrong with it. I have seen fish with obvious ich being sold, people walking out the door with a new tank in one hand and 3x the number of fish it can hold, in bags, in the other (their first tank) and possibly the worst, one male betta in a 1/2 gallon jar with another male betta that had obviously been dead for several hours. No fight injuries - somebody just thought the jar was empty and chucked the new fish in it without even changing the water.

Yesterday, three bettas dead in shelved jars and a mixed group of males and females in the same tank. I pointed out the males and females in the same tank to the staff. They are bred by the manager's boyfriend... both she and her boyfriend, in my opinion from what I've seen of them, know a LOT less about fish than they think they do. She wasn't there making trouble yesterday, so I pointed out these unfortunate bettas to the staff, and they said 'well he breeds them and he'd know what sex they were'. So I mentioned that i was also a breeder, I had fourteen bettas at home, and then I pointed out the obvious anatomical features like the fins that were still longer and curving (veiltails) than the females, the long ventral fins and absent ovi spot. And they STILL couldn't take them out because 'he doesn't like people interfering with his fish'. I absolutely could not believe my eyes. And on top of that, several bettas in the tank had such serious deformities that any responsible breeder would have culled them... one of the males, the most badly beaten up, had an L-bend in his caudal peduncle and was crammed under a log trying to avoid the other males that he obviously could not match up to.

I didn't take him, because there were signs of ich in the tank and I can't afford to bring home a disease like that, especially when I think about the unfortunate Edward and Ramjet and what they've been through lately. But it shouldn't be the responsibility of concerned hobbyists who are already out of space to run around rescuing everybody else's culls. To be honest that particular fish would have been better off dead, because he couldn't swim except at a 45 degree angle in the water. I also noticed topline deformities and major fin faults in several of the females, and the only reason people buy females is to try and breed usually... I guess we should be grateful that hardly any of them succeed when the females look like that. To me the whole thing reeks of a major bloodline bottleneck... I mean, they're veiltails for heaven's sake, an outcross wouldn't kill him.

[insert spack here]


I have to confess though, I DID come home with another rescue. THe fish on the side shelves were just hanging in the water looking lethargic, several dead and most of them obviously dying. The ones out the front were slighly better, so I thought they'd probably be taken. Turned my attention back to the side ones - I wasn't planning on rescuing anything but you know how it goes. This little purple and white fella was lying on the gravel, and when I looked at him his eyes flicked towards me, and he sort of hauled his head off the gravel, and hauled his fins up and chucked a half-hearted little flare at me... and then he slipped back onto his side and stared at me. Well what the hell else could I do? He's about the same size as Thor, who I found under similar circumstances, but very differently marked... I think my pair-of-overgrown-veiltails will make good neighbours once i get him a bit healthier. He's in a QT cup at the moment, not much bigger than the pet store one really, but I've plied the ammo-lock and the Hikari pellets and the difference is amazing. The cup is on the shelf next to Raven's tank and I've had to card them... Raven couldn't give but this new boy of mine is making up for lost time.
 
That's so sad! It just makes me sick when people don't take any advice or even consider doing something different. :( Good job saving one, I know some people think that will just allow the owners to keep up their horrible treatment, but at least you saved one! I think that counts for something. Good luck with the little guy! :good:
 
i would call the animal rights people in your area!!

and i would have seriusly slapped that workers face, got a net and fished out all of the males into their own tanks!! or culled them if they were deformed!!
 

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