HELP! - Co-worker has Betta Vase

[Emerson]

I just can't understand her, because her guy is so pretty...a sort of light aqua-blue. You'd think she'd want to show him off in a nice tank.

I even offered to take him "off your hands" if she no longer wanted him. She just giggled and walked off. I did give her my extra bottle of AquaSafe when she told me that she doesn't add water conditioners (she supposedly uses bottled water), but she later returned it saying she planned to buy her own. I also gave her a copy of the Betta Care Sheet from this web site.

It's not that I think I do such a perfect job of taking care of my own Bettas -- I'm still very much a novice myself. But I just wish she'd just show a little more care and concern for his well-being.

sef

[jedicat]

just you wait until she takes a day off!!

i'm currently working on my friend's roomate. she had her betta in a pint vase, and only changed the water and fed him (bloodworms) when she remembered to. right now, he's in a 1/2 gallon (donated by my friend) but he'll most likely be moved into a 1 gallon drum (donated by me.) she now has access to a bunch of different foods, bio-gold, betta bites, freeze-dried tubifex, and when i buy them, live foods. (my friend is the one who adopted dash, so i gave her baggies of all the dried stuff i have on hand.)

it was pretty cool, a week or two ago, she was asking me questions about his fins and behavior (flaring and establishing dominance, bubblenests, etc.) at least she seems somewhat interested in the little guy.

[Emerson]

Good for you! I just don't think people "get it" when it comes to fish. People who wouldn't dream of leaving a cat or dog in cramped, filthy conditions for days on end think nothing of it when it comes to a Betta.

sef

[Betta MVP]

I've had a hard time convincing my mom to get bigger bowls for her bettas. She has them all in betta hexes and dual betta hexes plus a few 1 quart fish bowls. She has 7 bettas and has had them in these setups for over a year and surprisingly enough, they are in good shape, no fin rot or anything. Of course, since they aren't sick, she uses this argument when I tell her they need more space and cleaner water.

She usually changes their water once a week and sometimes goes even longer if she doesn't feel like cleaning them out. I've tried over and over to tell her that they need more room and she needs to change the water more often but she just blows me off. She has well water and doesn't need any tap water conditioners, but I did give her a bottle of Amquel and explained to her that it would help with ammonia but she still needed to do water changes.

I was going to get her some bigger bowls, but she tells me she doesn't have room for them. I've though about getting her a 20 gallon long tank and making dividers for her but I'm not sure if she would do weekly water changes on it. I would force her to do a fishless cycle though, no ifs ands or buts on that one!

How do you convince a stubborn 60 year old woman who used to have 10 aquariums going when you were a kid, that she doesn't know how to take care of her fish??? BTW, she said she never vacuumed the gravel in those tanks she used to have, she just stirred up all of the gravel and let the filter suck out the crap! OMG!

[Emerson]

Betta said:

She has 7 bettas and has had them in these setups for over a year and surprisingly enough, they are in good shape, no fin rot or anything. Of course, since they aren't sick, she uses this argument when I tell her they need more space and cleaner water.

The lady at work said she had a Betta for two years prior to this one. Since that one apparently did well in a Betta jar with infrequent water changes, she continues to do the same.

BTW, she said she never vacuumed the gravel in those tanks she used to have, she just stirred up all of the gravel and let the filter suck out the crap! OMG!

Ack! That's pretty scary. My parents had an aquarium when I was little -- mollies, platys, swordtails and zebra fish. I don't know the size (it seemed huge to me at the time, but was probably 10 gallons), but I remember that every so often mom would dump out all of the fish, gravel and decorations; hose down the aquarium; fill it back up with what I believe was distilled water, and then just dump everything back in. No wonder the fish were always sick...!

sef

[jedicat]

sef said:

The lady at work said she had a Betta for two years prior to this one. Since that one apparently did well in a Betta jar with infrequent water changes, she continues to do the same.

::sigh:: There's a difference between "luck" and what's actually good for the fish.

I don't even know HOW many people I've heard of who kept bettas in jars that didn't live longer than a few months. And they always chalked it up to something else: "He was old enough" "Fish die a lot" (this one pisses me off SO MUCH) "He must have been sick to begin with" (What?? If he was sick, then why didn't they notice before he died or do something to help the fish?) etc. never stopping to think that maybe it was something they did.

[Emerson]

Well, I was at work Saturday and decided to walk over to that co-worker's desk to see how her little guy was doing. I hadn't seen him in a while; she doesn't really sit near me (fortunately). Anyway, he was still there -- he had actually grown and his colors were starting to turn a very deep blue. Very beautiful. When I walked up to his jar, I found him just staring into space. Despite my sending her a very friendly email about silk plants, this girl has done nothing. No plants, no decorations other than marbles on the bottom. Anyway, the blue boy immediately perked up when I came over. He started dancing and looked happy to finally have some attention. I felt so sorry for him, but was relieved to see that he actually looked healthy and was even blowing a bubble nest!

So I guess he's okay; she seems to be keeping his water clean, at least. I just feel really bad for him being all alone over the weekend with nothing to do, and am amazed by this person's total lack of concern.

People.