# Is it true?



## KellFish (Apr 7, 2011)

Is it true that petco bettas are inbred abominations?
That breeding the bettas from petco is bad to the breed?


----------



## emberdragon (Jan 27, 2011)

I don't work at petco, but I'm assuming they get their fish the same place we get ours a petsmart. Ours are shipped in from a breeder in Taiwan to a distribution center that then distributes them to stores where we change their water (poor things have probably been in the same water for numerous days) and then put on display. We have many people come in to get females for breeding that have great luck with them and they tend to yield some beautiful bettas, so I do not believe they are inbred, mostly because they do not do the breeding through the store.


----------



## Tisia (Mar 15, 2011)

well I definitely wouldn't call my little sven an abomination  and I think there's a certain amount of inbreeding even from show quality type breeders
think the biggest problem with breeding pet store bettas is you don't really know much about it. don't know how old it is, or what kind of genetics it may carry


----------



## KellFish (Apr 7, 2011)

Thanks guys. This helps, like, a lot.
I know that not all are abominations, sorry if any offense was taken from that. But I had heard that they are real unhealthly and inbred


----------



## Tisia (Mar 15, 2011)

it takes a lot more than that to offend me, lol
some of them can be very unhealthy, but I think that's generally more due to the people who work at individual stores than anything else. I've had my guy for 3 weeks now, and he's a super active, happy little dude


----------



## Luimeril (Dec 29, 2010)

that beauty i saw at Petco(a lemon meringue colored DTHMPK with sky blue dragon scales speckled on his body) sure didn't look like an 'inbred abomination' to me. he looked like the most beautiful fish in the world! he was stunning, and i regret not carrying more than $10 with me that day.


----------



## KellFish (Apr 7, 2011)

I _love_ this website, and u guys!! U help so much!!


----------



## 1fish2fish (Sep 10, 2009)

All bettas are inbred to a certain degree. Selective breeding and line breeding are how you lock in traits like fin type and color.

Many breeders do not advocate breeding fish from any pet store because you do not know the genetic background of the fish. With a breeder you can ask what genes a line carries and if there are certain undesirable traits such as rosetail that you want to avoid. But if you are willing to accept that you may have a very hard time finding homes for your fry and you could wind up with genetic surprises and you are mature and responsible enough to practice ethical culling then there is no real reason why you can't use stock from pet stores.


----------

