Growing up I had a few different bettas over the years from pet stores and admittedly they were always kept in a stereotypical fish bowl with some gravel and a fake plant or a piece of aquarium decor. These bowls didn’t have anything fancy (no filters, heaters, lights, live plants, etc.), were obviously too small, and were often filled with tap water that had just been sitting out overnight.
Now as an adult I’ve done a lot more research and have put a lot more time, energy, and resources into setting up tanks more suited to their needs. I spent a lot of time talking with people in local fish shops, scrolling through tons of Reddit feeds about best practices, made sure the tank was properly cycled, and religiously checked water parameters to make sure everything was in balance before adding a fish.
My question (or I guess my observation) is that the bettas I had growing up seemed to fair better/lasted longer than the bettas I’ve had the tanks I’ve set up as an adult… has anyone else had similar experiences or does anyone have any ideas why this could be? Obviously each fish is different so it’s possible I just got lucky with some extra hearty fish as a kid but I’m just curious.
I do want to emphasize that I’m just sharing my thoughts/observations in hopes of maybe sparking a conversation around this as I’ve been thinking about it a lot. I am not suggesting keeping bettas like I did as a kid is better by any means nor do I intend to ever keep a fish of any kind in a small bowl ever again. Again, just looking for thoughts on the topic!
https://i.redd.it/5eio3o42yqpg1.jpeg
Posted by Icy-Tiger1555
2 Comments
ive noticed this too as someone who always had bettas, and i really think a lot of it has to do with genetics just getting worse over the years. ive never had a betta with as many issues as my long finned male.
They’re just so so so overbred. Petco/petsmart throws out probably thousands daily if not more.