Terrible Betta in shops?

[Masha]

I've been thinking about putting a betta in my old 8 gallon tank, so had a look at what's available round here. I've been to three fish shops in my area, and they all have some, but while their other fish are in ok to good condition, the bettas are just terrible.

Some are actually covered in white-spot, some look like their fins are ripped to shreds (but maybe they just look like that?) and all of them are males stuck right next to each other in little compartments so they must be stressed from constantly flaring at one another?

All of them look totally miserable and many actually look dead unless you look closely. Is this normal? Should I keep looking till I find a place that has a decent looking betta? Why do these fish get treated so badly - or is that just my perception and they are ok?

 

[bettaowner]

I have never found a store with bettas in great conditions. Due to their different care requirements, bettas are treated or housed like other fish

 

[Masha]

Bettaowner - where can I find information on proper betta care? Most of the things I find online are low on detail or aimed at kids?

 

[Mebbid]

I have 2 lfs nearby that have bettas in great conditions. One has separate 5g tanks for each betta (although they are expensive at $15 - $50) and the other keeps them in community tanks. Just keep shopping around or take pity on one of the sad ones.

As for care, 75 - 80 degrees, and 6-8 ph. I would say a 2.5g tank would be about the minimum of put one in.

 

[Mattyfelts]

Most of the time, I like to think of bettas as a "project" fish, as in you're gonna have to rescue and rehabilitate most bettas. I think its fine as long as your going to treat them right, I have my betta in a 10g with platy fry and hes happy as... well a betta in a 10g haha

 

[Masha]

I have 2 lfs nearby that have bettas in great conditions. One has separate 5g tanks for each betta (although they are expensive at $15 - $50) and the other keeps them in community tanks. Just keep shopping around or take pity on one of the sad ones.

As for care, 75 - 80 degrees, and 6-8 ph. I would say a 2.5g tank would be about the minimum of put one in.

Wow that sounds great. Wish I could telleport myself out there! There are some fish shops in the northern suburbs that have a good reputation -- but I've found that usually means they have lots of fantastic marine fish and not much freshwater, never mind betta.

My tank is 8 gallon, the ph is about 8, and my only challenge is going to be damping the flow from the filter. At the moment I've go two fluval 1plusses in there and they blast the water round quite a bit.

I've experimented with putting one inside a tiny round glass goldfish bowl inside the tank. That seems to work quite well as there's still plenty of waterflow to the filter, but the flow is sort of softened by the time it escapes the bowl.

I don't need both filters in there, just got them both going since I've got them both going.

Edit: Oh, of course, I've got a heater too, and a whole bunch of java fern. Am thinking of adding a tiny piece of driftwood. Funny thing, here in South Africa I've seen the aquarium people talk about adding rooibos tea to their water to help betta fins grow out fungus free. It's not really "tea" in that it has no caffeine.

Quite curious to try it

 

[Mebbid]

The flow requirement depends on the betta. For example the Betta that's set as my avatar has really delicate huge fins and they got shredded by the filter flow. I had to buy a canister with a spray bar to fix it. A veil tail however will be much more resilient to flow. To reduce the flow try raising the water level. If that doesn't work you could direct the flow into a large plant or decoration.

 

[Masha]

Raising the water level would reduce flow from a HOB, right? I've got an internal filter. If the goldfish bowl thing does not work, I'll try a sponge baffle, or as you say, redirect the flow somehow.