The Betta that won't die!

[Steves55]

I've been into fish for 40+ years, currently w/ a reef tank, several FW tanks & a planted tanks. I'm big on testing & water changes.

4 years ago, that's right- 4 years ago, wife comes home w/ a small 1 qt clear vase complete w/ Betta & some sort of pond plant stuck in the top of it- roots extending to the water. This is her fish, so I steer clear of it & let her deal with it. It's in the sunny window- water is probably 90+ during summer, cleans it every 4 months or so, whether it needs it or not, tops it off w/ tap water full of chlorine, even replacing all the water at 4 month intervals w/ tap full of chlorine. Her idea of maintenance is removing the plant to trim the roots- I've seen this bowl so full of roots- Betta looked stuck in 1 spot!
Last night- we got into an arguement about her bowl- while I'm cleaning my tanks BTW. Last time she cleaned it was before Christmas! It's so green & nasty, hard to see in the bowl, detrus is an inch thick mixed w/ marbles. No air stone, no filter, no water movement. I tell her she killing that poor fish & he shouldn't be subjected to such torture! She disagrees, so I whip a little water testing on her!
I'm horrified!
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrites 0ppm
Nitrates barely readable
PH 7.2
Temp 87 degrees
Phospates 0ppm

Whhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhat?
She's grinning ear to ear & I'm never gonna hear the end of this one!
Unbelieveable!

 

[TomK2]

My wifes betta gets the tap water treatment too. This guy is about 4 years old, has been dropped on the floor, several trips down the disposal, horribly manhandled getting him out of the sink disposal, taken on vacation and in the middle of nowhere the bowl breaks, takes 20 or 30 min to find a replacement container and water, And it keeps on living!

 

[Steves55]

I felt so bad for the Betta, I was gonna stick it in my planted community tank- but it would probably die from the shock! Her water parameters are better than mine!
Hmmmmm, I'm turning the filter off- moving the tank right in front of a sunny window, throwing all my buckets-gravel vacuums- filters- etc away & let the detrus pile up!
Who need stinkin' water changes anyway?

I can't even imagine the grief I would have gotten if I stuck her fish in one of my tanks & it died!

 

[TomK2]

My wife and I had this debate in december, when I set up my tropical tank. We laughed so hard reminiscing about all the misadventures of "Mr. Jaws" that we couldn't bear to take him from his spot in the kitchen, by the window of course!

 

[Mazdaman]

I was in a lfs and over heard an employee talking about what her betta had been through... ...the "funniest" thing is that she came home one day and her daughter took the betta in the bubblebath with her for some company... ...as her mom frantically raise to get the fish out of the bath she dropped it in the toilet. Once retrieved from there he was placed back in his tank and survived the whole thing.
It went from hot soapy bath water to cold toiletbowl water back to regular water all within about minutes and survived...

 

[Fishyfanatic]

And here I was scared that my Betta would die in my 5 gal hex tank beacuse it doesn't have a heater. It didn't have a light for several days because it broke so it was room temp (which is usually in the 60's because we leave the windows open all the time). It seems like he's happy though. A nice big 5 gal tank with his own personal maids (ghost shrimp) and fun little sticky guys (snails). I wish I could do water changes more often though. We always do the other tanks on schedule, but it seems like the 5 gal gets neglected because it's the only tank upstairs. What a pain it is to carry 2 buckets (1 full of water, 1 empty) upstairs with a gravel vac. We just never think about it.

 

[oldshell4481]

i had a betta that i neglected (shame on me) when i was 9 and didnt know anything about having fish, and steves description of a tank was similar to mine, i had a tank that was green in water and was full of spider plants and poop(bettas of course) my mother took care of it after she saw the green water, and after 3 years i got a 10 gallon tank, and a year later i got a 55 gallon, and my betta still had his bowl, i felt bad for it so i put him in the 55 gallon, much cleaner than his green tank, and he died a week later. i guess he missed his green water tank.

 

[FishLover14]

Sorry to tel you this but the tank has manually cycled using the fish, and the nitatres are plant fertilizer, i fell sorry for the porr guy, cut the roots and give him some space, the algea is due to being in the sunlight. My adivce buy a 3gal bowl and put him in it no filter is fine, as bettas take ioxygen from the air directly.

JMHO

 

[CoreyB]

BEtta's are some tough fish. They can go over 2 weeks without bieng fed.

 

[fishplay]

LOL... I am getting a chuckle out of all these post. We currently have a betta that has survived my son and now is surviving my daughters bad treatment. I try to help out, but with all my own tanks, I really don't have time. I do check it every so often and the tank is always gross and fish food everywhere . I figure when my daughter gets tried of it, I will put him in one of my tanks, but then after reading all these post, he will probably die . Just talking about it makes me want to go and clean his tank....

 

[Guest]

Maybe its a true "fighting" fish that keeps on "fighting" for its life?
I had a betta that got a pwc about once every 3 months or so, just kept toppin it off with fresh water that evaporated. It lived for almost 4 years.