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Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V6 #138





	Re: fish in a fruit jar -- worse off than fish in a barrel
	

In the following, Scott , you mention the practice of keeping betta's in small containers versus keeping them in a more normal aquarium setup. It would seem that your not happy with the way the poor betta's are kept in some of the fish and pet stores. My two cents worth on the subject is this. As long as the water is maintained in good quality and the temperature is kept in range and stable, then the size of the container is not as important for the fish in the labrinth family, of which betta spendens is one. They have a primitive lung that allows them to breathe from the atmosphere providing them with the oxygen they need in these small glass containers they are often displayed in. I do not approve of the practice in any way, but it does not do direct harm to them if it is not carried out for long periods of time, as in many days or weeks. Secondly, I wish to make a comment on this posting. Last time I looked, this was still the Aquatic Plants listing. Although I imagine m!
ost of us do have fish in our plant tanks, there are other forums dedicated to fish only topics where this discussion would have been much better suited.

Walt Wilson





Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 10:18:30 -0700 (PDT)
From: "S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>
Subject: Re: fish in a fruit jar -- worse off than fish in a barrel

Robert H wrote about a recent FAMA article that described
how to store a betta in a cramped jar.  He also mentioned
that Gene Lucas, who wrote in the same issue of FAMA should
speak out against it.

I'm no betta expert but I heard Gene speak at the NEC
convention last March and if he isn't a state of the art
expert on bettas, I'll eat my hat.

Storing in jars didn't come up during the talk -- probably
because only folks interested in keeping bettas were there.
Surely doesn't sound like the kind of thing a betta
fancier would fancy.  My betta is in a 15 gallon tank but
he must share it with some other fish -- he's the boss of
the upper two inches of the water.

I've heard it explained that wild bettas sometimes must
live in a drying up river bed and be crammed in a small
handful of a puddle -- so they  survive in small
containers.  I don't know how much truth is in that (sounds
fanciful but I don't recall the source), but I will say
that when I was high school age I sometimes rode in my
brother's 26-year-old clunker of a car -- I survived it
several times but that doesn't mean I'd ever do it if I
didn't sort of have to.

Scott H.

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