Small Betta fish

You go to the pet shop and you buy a betta. All the other fish are in proper tanks, but the bettas are in cups swimming in their own poop! Most of them are dead, some of them are half dead, the other ones are grossly sick. Most pet shops out there tell you that they can live in tiny places like bowls. You put your fish in a bowl because the pet employee told you so, but bowls will make them miserable and most likely die and not live their full life expectancy.

Bowls are a very harsh place for ANY fish to live in. Imagine yourself in an automobile, but with all the seats removed and you have nowhere to go to the bathroom but the floor. You poop, then the waste starts making you sick, and it’s ice cold.

For betta fish, without a heater, the water is ice cold to them. Now, imagine living there for your whole life. It’s like that even with your weekly water changes. Now, think about your betta in its pretty little vase with a cute little plant in it. How you would feel in the car... that’s how your betta feels now. Dying a painful, slow death; burning from ammonia poisoning.

Bettas should be kept in the minimum of 5 gallons, yet only one could only go in there. Now, why do people sell betta fish in cups? So it takes up the least amount of space possible instead of providing a 5 gallon tank for one betta each. And, it costs the least amount of money to ship bettas, so they ship them in tiny, tiny bags. Most of them die before reaching their destination. Many pet stores mark them as a low-maintenance fish, but that’s not true. Remember, buying them in a cup doesn’t mean that they can live in small spaces, and it doesn’t mean that they will live a healthy happy life in a bowl just because it’s larger than a cup. I once rescued a betta fish from Walmart to give it a healthy, happy life.

Above: My betta from Walmart

We are their only voice, let’s protest and stop this fish abuse, before your possible lifelong finned friend dies out there because because of this treatment in a pet shop.

FISH AREN’T JUST FISH. THEY’RE LIVING THINGS, THEY FEEL PAIN, THEY FEEL FEAR, THEY ARE OUR FINNED FRIENDS.