Choosing A Healthy Betta

It's a tricky one.
The P@H one will require a lot of care and will quite probably not make it. If you had kept bettas for years and had several tanks with them, then I'd say risk it as you would have enough experience to know how to help him. But as a newcomer to bettas, I don't think I'd risk it.

As for the other shop, that unfortunately is a common way of displaying them. After all everyone knows they live in puddles in the wild  You could try asking them when their bettas arrive and see if they'll let you buy one straight away. It would be no harder on the fish that being allowed to settle into one of those cups before buying one.

I have bought betas from the internet before; the only downsides are not being able to see their behaviour, and the postage costs. If you don't want to pay for a 'thoroughbred' betta on a specialist site, there are less pretty, more run-of-the-mill ones on Ebay. You would have to read the feedback very carefully though.



PS Isn't Finz & Tailz the one that has more choice on their Facebook page? I may be thinking of a different supplier as I'm not on Facebook......

It makes me really angry to see bettas kept in that way but even the fish shop I go to which I consider to be a really good shop does it. Bettas have really individual personalities so often the best looking betta isn't the one that will be the most fun to keep as it might not be as interested in you as another more plain betta. That's the only reason I would advise you to pick one from a store. In saying that though, I'm not sure how much personality a betta can display when it's trapped in three inches of water

The easiest way to avoid buying an unhealthy Bette is not to buy one at all. All of these fish are essentially genetically compromised through generations of inbreeding. Why people buy these poor fish then leave them to live a lonely and pointless life until they die, just because they look attractive (though not to me) is beyond my comprehension. I think I should start a "boycott Bettas" campaign 

Look at the Seriously Fish site to see what a wild male Betta should look like, much more attractive to me than the distorted monstrosities on sale.

I'd say the same for some other fish, such as guppies and "balloon" mollies, and other pet animals including certain pedigree dogs and cats. If people didn't buy them then breeders would stop passing on these genetic mutations which often seriously compromise the quality of life and the life expectancy of the animal. Those who just want an ornament should buy something inanimate, not a living "designer" animal.

Well, that's my twopenn'orth ............ must be the autumn gales bringing on the Mr Grumpy" season.

I also take Richard's point. I'm of that opinion with cats and dogs. I have 2 cats and 1 dog – all are mongrels!
As far as the Bettas are concerned, it's more the personality side of things than the looks that interest me. I don't know of any other fish that interacts with humans as much, apart from Oscars and they're much too big.
I do have a bigger community tank (180 Juwel Rio), but wouldn't put a betta in there. As far as female Bettas are concerned, neither of my local stockists (1 of which is P@H) stock them.
It was the fin thing that got me considering plakats. They are more like the wild fish to look at; I just don't know where I'd find them up here. I also contacted a betta breeder further south in Scotland than me and I asked him if he knew of any breeders up here, but he doesn't.


PS, the Betta that I do get (if I get one now – don't want to be cruel to anything!) will have a nerite snail in the tank with it. The tank I've bought for a betta is 61x20x20cm (22 litres), which I thought would be more like a natural habitat - length of swimming space, but shallow. Sue seemed to think it would be OK, but maybe I should rethink the whole Betta thing?

I think that I'll just hold fire for now and look at my options for a bit longer. Thanks for all the advice everyone

There are a remarkable number of Betta species with more new ones discovered every year. However, very few are usually available and most are true soft/acid water specialists. I read that for one species, the local collectors and exporters only send males, reasoning that if they sent females as well someone would start to breed them and then they would lose their trade.

Plakat means "biter" and the name originally applied to the varieties used for fighting in Thailand. As I said, I'm not a Betta fan but at least the Plakat type is closer to the wild type and must surely be able to behave more naturally than the others. My particular objection is to the Crowntail type that not only looks weird but seems to have great difficulty in making basic movements.

Most fish which still look like the wild ones will have been outbred and will be much less likely to suffer from genetic defects than the showy fish which will certainly have been inbred to "fix" the desired characters which are always down to recessive genes, so breeding father with daughter is very common. That's why I prefer the more natural looking species.

True we should all look after our fish as well as possible, but one of the main criteria for assessing the quality of life of any captive animal is that it can exhibit natural behaviour. I don't think any fish kept alone in a tank can do so as it will be unable to interact with members of the same species. Maybe a lone betta bonds with its owner because  that's the only stimulation it gets.

However, to get back to the original question, apparently a good way to find out if a betta is healthy is to take a small mirror and let it see its own reflection. A healthy fish should immediately flare up and look as if it's ready willing and able to kill its reflection.

Hi Diz1,

Lots of really interesting points made in this thread.  I have a male betta which i got from MA and i chose him because he was straight to the glass when he saw me and flared at me constantly while i was chatting to him. I tried keeping him with minnows but realised quickly they were wholly unsuitable as they bit his fins and tail every chance they could!!!!

He lives on his own now in a 21 litre tank which is planted up as best it can be with broad leaf plants for him to rest on and lots of hiding places to explore and i use rain water or RO water mixed with tap to keep his water on the softer side.

He is amazingly friendly and comes when i call him, feeds from my finger and generally likes to know what's going on. I do some times think he might be lonely but theres not much else i can add to the tank that would be suitable. He has a few snails to keep him company!!

I would personally avoid P@H like the plague. In my opinion their welfare standards are shocking, their stock is always diseased and dying and their staff know nothing about fish. But that's just what lil old me thinks!!!

From the sound of it i would not buy from your lfs either. Keeping bettas in weeny amounts of water is cruel and can in no way be good for them, plus you are not getting a decent chance to interact with them and decide if they are what you are looking for.

Just because i'm a proud parent here is a picture of my boy (Stanley) doing his best flare!!!!  Incidentally don't make bettas flare for too long as it is a defence mechanism and so therefore triggers their fight or flight drive which can be stressful if done to excess.

FC76

Good luck on your Betta hunt Diz1! Whilst I do know where everyone is coming from, I still love my betta and would buy him again without hesitation!

Thanks Jesnon. Not surprised you love your Betta, he's gorgeous! Do you have a name yet?

Still no name, poor little guy I feel like a terrible owner! I just haven't found anything that quite fits with his looks and personality yet!