Not that shocked anymore!!!

Went to an Aquatic store today in Maidstone to see what little fishes i could maybe buy, Gary pointed out the female bettas straight away...there where lovely female CT's in the tank, its then i noticed the skinniest little female with clamped fins, i just stood there and starred!!

There where 3 or 4 small tanks full of females with clamped fins, skinniness and looking very unhealthy with the odd dead fish in there.

The male bettas where just all chewed up VT's, it does annoy me but i really dont expect 5* care for these poor little bettas...i do have to say though iv never seen females treated as bad as they where today!

Hoping for better luck tomorrow when we go to Canterbury to check out a big aquatic store there! Fingers crossed if there are any they will be kept a lot better than the little fishes i saw today!

I've come to the conclusion that some of the time it just boils done to plain old laziness! Of course its could be a lack of knowledge by the clerks and/or uncaring ownership.

Happy hunting tomorrow and hope you find conditions better there!

Poor girlies

I went to a branch of MHA today and the tank of females was mostly male and they never believe you when you tell them

Wouldn't it be nice if people could admit they don't know instead of pretending
they do. Not just when comes to Bettas either!

F.Banks wrote:Wouldn't it be nice if people could admit they don't know instead of pretending
they do. Not just when comes to Bettas either!

I agree, i really feel for the little bettas when i see them as bad as i did yersterday...id never seen a feamle CT forsale in an aquatic store as back home mine only tend to sell the VT + PK females so was nice to see a few CT females would've bought them but never know what diseases they may be carrying or poor health problems

Yet again, disappointed no females at the aquatic store though, the males where at deaths door though!
I was disgusted more than shocked today, the boys had their own living spaces with no other fish BUT had been left in their own filth!
The 3 CT males where at deaths door, thin and chewed up, there was 1 decent VT boy orange with red dots on his fins very nice.

There's 1 more lfs i can try but im not getting my hopes up, its no wonder im always looking on ebay!

Shame they're in such poor quality in the shops down there

Sounds like a bust Nat, bettas seem to get the rawest deal in most lfs's. It's a horrible feeling leaving all the shredded sickly fish probably to die, but as you said, if you take them home you don't know what illnesses they may bring to your other tanks. I hope you have better luck tomorrow. A nice yellow male perhaps? :-)
I went into an lfs I'd never been to before last week, and they had a some nice VT males, but I asked for females and they said they never get females in, because whenever they order female bettas, they just get sent "short finned male fighters" ..so I looked at the tank he was pointing at and it was full of female bettas. So I told him that's what female bettas look like, and he was so patronising (even thought I said it nicely and politely) and told me that they were actually a different species of betta that could group together without fighting. So I said no, they're female siamese fighters who can often live grouped together...he thought I was making it up! So I bought one of these 'short finned males' and took it home and sure enough it's a female and she lives happily with my other female. It's madnesss!

and then in other stores, you find short finned males in with the females. I've bought two like that. Yay for me, 'cause I get a male betta for $2 less than they usually cost, but seriously! Take today, I went into the lfs, 'cause I know they get their shipments in on Tuesdays, so I usually give it a day for the fish to settle and then go in. I went in looking for females as I've lost 2 recently to bacterial infection (tank all treated now). So I'm watching the tank and sure enough, there's a VERY male short fin in there. He's very pretty and I'll post pictures soon as I"m not sure what his tail type is. But I pointed out all the things about him that made me 99% sure it was a HIM to the clerk (body shape, fuller tail, FULL beard, aggression) and he made some comment about hermaphrodite fish. Still got him for $3.48, so not complaining.

These lfs's think they know what they are talking about but just dont they dont even have the sense or knowledge to just look after themnever mind sex them!

Well today im going to the small lfs round the corner, im not getting my hopes up as im usually disappointed!

To bad they don't have to be "Betta Certified" before they obtain permission to sell Bettas. Even a one hour class would help make a difference!

Hope you have better luck with this smaller shop hun

The smaller shop iv been to before, its small but you can see the bettas are cared for. I went and they had 3 VT boys and a super delta boy which was priced up as a HM but you could clearly see he wasnt, as he would flare at the boy in the tank next to him.
The VT boy where lovely but not what im looking for...they had 2 solid reds and 1 cellophane...the super delta was white if he had been HM i would have bought him!
Even though i didnt buy anything i was happy to leave the boys in the care of the staff if you know what i mean!!!
Even the female bettas where looking good lots of pretty colours a little nipped but nothing major like i saw in the 2 other stores.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now im back home im going to buy a tank for spawning tomorrow, as im planning on breeding Night fury with Satsuki both CT's but Satsuki is a double ray. Garys taking me looking at bettas tomorrow as iv sadly lost 2 girls while iv been away i think he's hoping to me up, im just dreading telling Bethany tomorrow as one was hers now she has none it was her birthday friday though so i could buy her a female and say its a birthday present i know it would her up a little!

It sounds like you should buy her another one. Happy hunting!