This Is Why You Have Lids

[K.J.]

I only feed the bettas every night. Today my window was open and I'd left Kari and Mary's tank open because it was sweltering. So tonight I come to feed them and I look into Kari's side and I see this big, wasp or hornet or honeybee waddling around with her chasing after it and biting it. I run to my mom and scream so she has to take it out. Do your bettas do this? And would a sting've killed them?

 

[Amunet]

I thought I was going to read that one of the bettas had jumped out of the window! rofl... not that that would've been funny though

But yeah.. that is pretty scary. I'm sure a sting would've most definitely had killed the betta.. or at least it seems it would.
I know Ive stepped on a wasp before barefoot and the bottom of my foot got SO swollen.. looked like I had half of a tennis ball stuck under my skin, that's how much it puffed up... so just think what a sting would do to a betta.

 

[Miss Dib Dabs]

That's just scary. So lucky the lil thing wasn't stung.
So saying my Ollie had no real lid for a long time. Almost a year past before I bought him a proper one. Loved him so much, still miss him. So much am getting a tattoo of him on my arm next month.
P.

 

[K.J.]

Needless to say, she now has a lid. Damn pet store tanks don't come with lids but do cost 30$! Maybe it couldn't sting underwater? Perhaps I need to feed them more...

 

[The_Dude]

A wasps venom is especially geared toward OTHER bees and wasps, and if a bee gets a hit, they die. I've seen spiders take multiple hits from wasps and they lived! So it's going to hurt A LOT!!! Possibly even cause temporary paralysis. I'm not too sure if it'd kill a medium sized fish though. I mean I've seen Firemouth cichlids take them under and tear them apart before, and archer fish eat them all the time and no negative effects are seen. But a bettas size, compared with the relatively high toxicity of wasp venom (neurotoxin, kills nerve endings, the reason why wasp and bee stings hurt even after said bug was removed) would most likely paralyze the betta, then asphyxiate it by stopping all movement and creating the inability to breathe. Oh and wasps CAN sting underwater, because their stingers are mini-needles. They work like the dorsal spines of scorpion fish, apply pressure and they inject.

 

[zippa]

mmmmmm k you know way too much about wasps and what they can kill and cant. im a lil bit worried now. lol

 

[The_Dude]

I'm an ametuer entomologist. I know almost everything they is to know about them bugs, Yes I paraphrased a line from Forrest Gump. Bubba: "I know everything they is to know about the shrimpin' business." Yeah, I kinda have to know what bug is which and what it can kill because I live in the middle of a forest. Yes there are still forests in the US. I love it.

 

[K.J.]

I'm pretty sure it was a honeybee, though. Wasps around here only stray a few feet away from the coloney.

 

[mommyof2bettas]

well, if I'm correct, when honeybees sting their stinger gets left in the skin, then they fly away and die so it probably didn't sting your fish if it was a honeybee... but I'm no bug expert!