# Post Your Betta Rescue Stories Here!



## Zenandra (Nov 14, 2009)

Hey all! I am working on a Website and I want it to be all about helping out bettas. There are facts, myths, a blog, and such. I'm going to add a "What you can do to help" section, and a section updating people on my quest to get bettas the respect they deserve.

I want to have a section where I can post people real life betta rescues or stories of going after a store or what not and getting them to change the way they treat their bettas.

Please post your name (or I can use your username on here) the bettas name, the story and a picture of the betta or bettas if possible! Thank you very much! 

You can view the site here http://www.bettahaven.webs.com I look forward to hearing your stories and your opinion of the site so far! Thank you!


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## SummerOj (Dec 29, 2009)

My name - Natalie
Betta's name - Joshy Wolfgang and Kyle

Picture of Joshy before in his little cup:
http://i387.photobucket.com/albums/oo318/Natalie12/DSC00082.jpg
And after in his new 3 gallon home!:
http://i387.photobucket.com/albums/oo318/Natalie12/DSC00121.jpg

I got Joshy and Kyle one day while I was looking for fish food for my goldfish. I always get sad when looking at the fish in Wal Mart, but I couldn't help but look at the bettas. There were probably 10 cups with dead bettas in them, floating in nasty water. It smelled so horrible >.< And I saw not even one employee around in the pets section the whole time I was there.
Anways, I saw a little bit of movement in one of the cups. I picked it up gently and saw a little guy swimming around. I put him down to go ask my mom if I could get him when I saw a fish moving in the cup next to his. Two out of 10+ bettas were alive. Who knows how long they've been there. I gave one to my cousin and kept the sickest looking one to look after in a heated 3 gallon home, where he is happily swimming free!


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## JamieTron (May 16, 2009)

I'm JamieTron
Bettas: Ichigo marble and JD yellow crowntail

In 2008 I saved two bettas from a petstore chain. They were held in tiny dirty cups that smelt like ammonia. I noticed they were small, not moving but still alive. I was not going to buy one but I saw one that looked so bad, but he was so beautiful, and then my eye caught another one even worst for the wear. I could not let myself walk out without saving them, and the friend who was with me saved three. I got home put them in small hospital tanks, both laid on the bottom of each tank, hardly moving. I lowered their water because I knew they could not get air. The marbled betta (Ichigo) took a few days to recover, I was so happy! but my yellow crowntail (JD) he was really bad...it took almost two weeks for him to swim and eat. I did not think he would make it...but I kept trying...and well they are both full grown and healthy now. Ichigo has a 2 gallon tank and JD has a 5 gallon tank. 

BEFORE: 







Ichigo the day I got him








JD the day I got him

AFTER:







Ichigo now 








JD now


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## DefyingGravity (Sep 23, 2009)

I don't have any stories as such. My brother found all of my boys, and while one of them was worse for wear, they weren't overly bad... but I just wanted to say:

JamieTron, the difference in your fish is amazing. They are both BEAUTIFUL!!!


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## veganchick (Jan 10, 2009)

"Rescuing" a fish from a store is just like buying dogs from puppy mills. You think you are helping the fish, but really you are just making the store continue to breed the fish and keep them in these horrid conditions. Go to craigslist or petfinder or a shelter (yes, they have them for fish) if you want to ACTUALLY rescue a betta


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## SummerOj (Dec 29, 2009)

veganchick said:


> "Rescuing" a fish from a store is just like buying dogs from puppy mills. You think you are helping the fish, but really you are just making the store continue to breed the fish and keep them in these horrid conditions. Go to craigslist or petfinder or a shelter (yes, they have them for fish) if you want to ACTUALLY rescue a betta


Yeah, from now on I'm just buying fish from a place that takes care of their bettas.


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## JamieTron (May 16, 2009)

veganchick said:


> "Rescuing" a fish from a store is just like buying dogs from puppy mills. You think you are helping the fish, but really you are just making the store continue to breed the fish and keep them in these horrid conditions. Go to craigslist or petfinder or a shelter (yes, they have them for fish) if you want to ACTUALLY rescue a betta


Yea, that's true, but it's still nice to grab a few up that look like are suffering. Petstore chains will never stop doing this to their animals unless people stop giving them service all together. I think there should be more enforcement of how petstore animals are treated and where they come from. I think they should also have to legally tell a customer exactly where the animals they sell comes from, because they often will say generally "a breeder"...well what breeder "uh a breeder from another province" like okay...

My local petstore (it's not a chain store) breeds their own rodents and don't carry cats or dogs or birds. They just carry fish and hamsters, chinchillas, rabbits and gerbils mostly. Sometimes the odd lizard, but not often. Their bettas are really well cared for and they keep them in tanks with other fish or themselves and the rest are in very large jars (better then cups). Their fish are NEVER dirty...I was really impressed, lol I pretty much used to live there. They were happy when my boyfriend bought me a betta from there and I told them that I own a bunch already and I wasn't going to put them in a small betta tank. The only thing I don't like is that they carry the small betta tanks and vases even though they say you should not use them.

The two I bought above are from a different petstore where I go to university


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## wallywestisthebest333 (Nov 30, 2009)

That's great! =] My sister got ahold of the pet managment and yelled at the walmart people when she got her betta and they actually cleaned up their act for a few months. then I think they started slacking again. >=/

But she did make the difference in the lives of the entire aquatic section in that Wallmart for a few months! =]


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## veganchick (Jan 10, 2009)

wallywestisthebest333 said:


> That's great! =] My sister got ahold of the pet managment and yelled at the walmart people when she got her betta and they actually cleaned up their act for a few months. then I think they started slacking again. >=/
> 
> But she did make the difference in the lives of the entire aquatic section in that Wallmart for a few months! =]


well good for her . Stupid Walmart people


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## veganchick (Jan 10, 2009)

SummerOj said:


> Yeah, from now on I'm just buying fish from a place that takes care of their bettas.


Yay! Time to get some happy bettas!


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## JamieTron (May 16, 2009)

wallywestisthebest333 said:


> That's great! =] My sister got ahold of the pet managment and yelled at the walmart people when she got her betta and they actually cleaned up their act for a few months. then I think they started slacking again. >=/
> 
> But she did make the difference in the lives of the entire aquatic section in that Wallmart for a few months! =]


Good for her :-D that's pretty awesome


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## Zenandra (Nov 14, 2009)

For me honestly it's not so much about getting stores to stop selling the bettas, it's about educating them about proper care. I always try to bring a stack of care sheets or pamphlets with me when I go to pet stores in case I run into someone who seems interested in buying a betta, or an employee giving out wrong info.


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## Dearka (Aug 22, 2011)

*Poor fishy, glad I has now*

Ok, here is a fun one (fun meaning one to make you mad.) I accasanaly go to pet stores (sorry for my horrible spelling) and if a betta is sick, they will 9 out of 10 times give you the betta free because they 9 out of 10 times they don't make it. Well today when I went to the shop, I found a betta the had SBD because he was constipated, and I asked the maniger (stupid me, should of asked the workers insted) if I could take him, he was floating on his side and we all know it can be faitle it not taken care of properly... Well she dissuaded to have an argument with me saying I'm just a kid and don't know what I'm talking about (I'm 20 and breed bettas for a living (but never the rescues)) so I knew what I was talking about. This all wasn't a big deal, what makes me mad and made me make her call the store owner is what made everything hairy. But the owner sided with me, the maniger said seeing he was sick, she was gonna put him in clorranated water and kill him so he wasn't gonna suffer! Needless to say is after I made her call the owner of the store and I got the fishy, got him hope and he took one big fishy "burp" and he was swimming around like nothing was wrong, he took his dump, so no more constipated fishy lol, but after that fishy "burp" getting all that built up air out of his swim blatter, it was if nothing had ever happened! It makes me mad that she was gonna kill him when there was pretty much nothing wrong with him, just had to get the air out and go potty!!!!


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## marmalade24601 (Sep 10, 2014)

sorry i can't get a picture but i want to share the story of how i got Percy.

i went in to my lfs to get food and a filter for my other betas and i couldn't resist looking at the bettas. it was awful! you could hardly see the fish it was so dirty i was about to walk away when i saw a bit of movement i picked up the half empty cup and saw 2 male bettas in the SAME cup one was dead and the other was percy, percy is missing his tail and has fin rot i couldn't leave him and he is now living in a heated and filtered 2.5


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