Trying to write a letter about the Cup Bettas on display in pet stores.
Any notes would be welcome and also like… where to send it?
An open letter to pet stores.
I am writing on behalf of the Betta Fish shelved in cups on display.
I have visited pet stores all my life for supplies for my cats and dogs, birds and fish, and rodents throughout my life.
I have seen the cats and dogs enclosures change then disappear as more protective laws and care requirements came into effect.
Yet still I see a shelf of cupped betta fish.
Beautiful fish reduced to not even a gallon of space, no filter, no heat source.
I see gill rot and fin burn, I see bettas with fins tucked close in stress with their environment.
Several times at my local pet stores I have had to call on an employee to hopefully move a particularly bad off betta into a recovery tank if available.
This is terrible treatment of an animal being sold to people as pets. These fish are handled in a way that causes shortened lifespans, illness, as well as permanent fin and scale damage.
I write with concerns but also possible solutions.
The first solution is to set up small filtered and heated tanks for each betta fish in the store much like the tank wall that houses the other fish species.
These tanks can then be sold with the betta and included in the price. So a betta fish is sold with its territory. This would help reduce stress, increase lifespan, and improve the environmental health of the animal.
This process also serves to ensure the home the betta is purchased into has a suitable enclosure for the animal.
This also allows for bettas to be sold without the territory when proper home environment is proven when fish keepers are restocking an already set tank.
A second solution is for stores to work with local betta breeders. They can list a breeding pair and have down payments for the fry batches on a set schedule. Then unsold betas from the fry batch could be showed in the store for sale in tanks set up and cared for by the betta breeder.
This would work something like how my local petco works with an adoption agency called The Pixel Fund Rescue. Where they bring in kittens and cats into a window enclosure. Rotate the animals through different locations, do not keep them long in the enclosures, and are responsible for their care.
The only difference would be that the pet store location would be responsible for the sale of the betta fish in store.
In the end I hope to encourage better care of these beautiful fish. Bettas are hardy fish but in order to thrive and have a healthy life they require suitable territory, filtration, and stable heat in their enclosure.
Thank you for your attention to this systemic case of neglect and for your actions in finding Betta friendly solutions.
