Saltwater & Reef

Fishyfanatic · 03-06-2006, 06:08 PM

I am a member of a wedding planning board and this afternoon a thread started that absolutely appalled me. A poster is using Bettas as the centerpiece for the tables. She is putting them in a regular vase with a bouquet of daisies and lilies on top. She said that she will get the fish a few days in advance to set up the center pieces.

Most of the posters are discouraging the practice, but she says that she doesn't care what people think. She is going to do what she wants. THEN, she said that she is going to put a 20 gal tank in the lobby with a 10 gal tank inside it. The 10 gal tank will be where people put their cards. In the 20 gal tank she is going to have 6 or 7 goldfish. She said that she thinks it would be "cool" to watch the fish.

I can't believe that people actually do this with fish. I have never seen this practice before and hope that I never do. Has anyone ever been to an event where this took place?

shawmutt · 03-06-2006, 06:13 PM

Tell her that with that amount of bettas in a wedding chances are that one or more may be dead when their guests sit at their tables.

Nothing puts people in more of a happy mood than a dead fish. You could even stretch it a bit and talk about the lovely smell of dead fish.

**Zagz** · 03-06-2006, 06:20 PM

I agree it is horrible! Shawnmutt has some good advice. You could also add that probably several of the guests would be appalled at the thought of dead fish at their tables not to mention the cruelty towards the fish.

donttaptheglass · 03-06-2006, 07:35 PM

I went to a wedding once with a "tropical" theme at a country club in North Carolina . . . .no live fish were used, but they put an $10,000 extremely rare royal blue parrot on display (no cage, just sitting on a perch near the entrance to the ballroom) . . . as it turns out, this bird is also quite particular about who touches him as well, and had to be removed when he attempted to remove the eyes of a young drunken gentleman who tried to get to friendly with him.

$1.50 fish or $10,000 bird is immaterial . . . .its wrong either way.

My wife is good lookin', but I wouldn't rent her out for display . . . .besides . . . she'd succeed in the eye removal thing

BeGiNeR_7 · 03-06-2006, 07:57 PM

One of the fish stores near me actually advertises party betta centerpieces. They will provide and set up everything for them. I have also heard of people using them for their wedding and giving them away to one person at each table. I personally prefer to see a fish bowl with colored marbles and a candle floating in it not a fish. I don't know where this trend started but I thought it had gone out of style. Guess not and that's just sad.

Fishyfanatic · 03-06-2006, 09:23 PM

Think about it though. Lets say one person from each table takes home the fish. Around here, after the reception the guests usually hit the local bars. So the betta will sit in the bowl in the car for a few hours in the cold. Not to mention being sloshed around in the backseat of the car. OR, the loud music, dancing, lighting, etc.

Hopefully she will discourage the people from doing this. It's so sad.

Devilishturtles · 03-06-2006, 10:00 PM

Where I work, this gentlemen tried to get me to sell him a dozen feeder goldfish to put in individual bowls for a party he was having with his friends. He said that afterwards, he'd "just flush them or something", or thrown them in a pond.

Needless to say, I tried to talk him out of it. I guess he got annoyed because he left and came back later to get them when he thought I was gone, but I saw him leaving with them.

There is also a Church who does this annual "treasure hunt" throughout the city with teams of teenagers. One of the things they have to bring back to the church on their hunt is a fish, because it was God's food, or something. I "hear" from the kids that when they get back to the church, someone has to eat the fish in order to symbolize taking food that was a gift from God.
Now...when the first team said this, I didn't believe them. When the second or third team came around that day, I read their "rules" paper, and sure enough...when they completed the "hunt" it wasn't over until someone ate the fish.

Poor fish.

DeFeKt · 03-06-2006, 10:09 PM

did my post not get posted due to an outage? (not sure on who's side)

Matt

lyquidphyre · 03-06-2006, 11:14 PM

You could always tell her to get those glass floating fish http://www.gelstuff.com/fish-floating-on-a-bubble.html

That way she either either keep him in memory of her wedding
She wouldn't have to worry about dead fish
And if she or her guests kept them, they would last forever instead of dying a few days later.
And it might even be cheaper.

Also, tell her how tacky it is =oP

sdellin · 03-07-2006, 02:15 AM

Okay, I see two things right up front that point to the fact that some people are just plain stupid (hope that didn't offend anyone)...

1- Obvious, the idea itself is selfish and stupid.

2- Bettas usually just sit there. How much fun is that to watch? Let's go to a wedding, a happy, lively event, mind you... get drunk... sit around the table and watch a betta "just sit"??? Oh, I can't wait, it'll be so fun! Maybe later we can have snail races!