Quick question: young bettas at Walmart

[Kamen]

Hello everyone!
This is my first post here, I will take the time to introduce myself here later but for now, I just have a quick question. My first betta died recently about a year after I had it and I was told that it may have been a year old when I purchased it from Petco. Of course, my care wasn't perfect, now I know more, but I'd still like to consider maximizing the lifetime of my next bettas. That is, if my wife still wants us to keep fish - she was quite saddened by the death of our first one.
I recently saw that they sell bettas at Walmart and was quite surprised to see that they also had really young ones. So young I could not tell whether they were male or female. My question is - is it a good idea to buy a young betta from them? Could I make sure it is a male (we have no intentions on breeding them)? Any other considerations against this? Thank you in advance!
Kamen

[leafgirl115]

Are you shur that they are young bettas? And not females? I would say go for it. Make shur you pick one that is active.

[Ringo]

Wal-mart... Doesnt exactly have the worlds greatest fish I would suggest getting a betta from your lfs.. Support them instead.

[Scuba Kid]

I agree with Ringo.

[Kamen]

Sorry for asking but ... what is an "lfs"?
Kamen

[Baby_Baby]

Local Fish Store :]

[gem]

I don't know about the Walmart near you but the one near me gets really nice Bettas quite often. Thier condition after about a week there, however.....I won't vouch for. I do also prefer to spend my money at my local Ma & Pa non-chain lfs as much as humanly possible.
Most of the Bettas sold at any store can be anywhere from 6 months to 1 yr old. Unfortunately sometimes suppliers will send older breeders, so you often can't possibly know how old the fish you're getting is. Longevity, once in your care, is based alot on water quality and feeding habits. If you're keeping your betta in an unfiltered environment without changing the water but once every couple weeks, as alot of people do...that can certainly shorten his lifespan. Overfeeding and feeding too much protein is another Betta killer. There is alot of great info on Betta care and diet on the web by simply googling "Betta Care".
This site is a good place to read up. http://www.bettatalk.com/betta_care.htm

[jdwoodschild]

****** isn't a place to buy fish from. Half of the time they are Uuber stressed, half sick, and partly dead. Either look to a fish store or a pet store specifically FOR fish and pets, or talk to private breeders. There is also the option of Aqua Bid ( www.aquabid.com ), but you probably aren't interested in purchasing anything from over seas (you have to go through a transshipper, and it will probably be more money than you are interested in), and that's what is manly on there. If you want, I'll talk to some people that might have some spawns going on, I know that we have 2 successful spawns from over the weekend.

What are you interested in? I'll look around and see what I can't dig up, or ask other people on this site that breed bettas. One spawn from what I have is opaque (will end up in pastel/white looking fish), and the other spawn was an orange pair. If you may be interested in a couple of monthes (gives you time to think about it, gives us time to let them grow out), email me at jdwoodschild@yahoo.com

[Dr_House]

It all depends on the store where you live. The Wall Marts near me are typically filthy and it's hard to find a fish behind the huge pile of dead ones in the tank. However, they stock pretty good plants, which I've bought from them on several occasions.

A lot of people don't like PetsMart, but the ones in my area are pretty much the best place to buy freshwater fish. I typically buy my bettas from them, as they tend to have a great selection.

I would agree that it's possible the bettas you are looking at are female and that is why they are smaller. If your Wall Mart is good, I would not hesitate to buy them. If you do not see a healthy fish department when you go there, I would find them somewhere else.

[manda]

my walmart is fine.

[leafgirl115]

My walmarts tanks always seem to be clean though very over stocked. Did not see one sick fish in it! Though they had was to many bettas today i would say over 50 in cups and some females...

[Kamen]

Thank you for all the responses. As I said, my wife and I have not yet decided if we will go through with committing to another betta. Our tank is a 2.5 G Mini Bow with a filtration system. We had been doing a full water change every 3-4 weeks. I understand that for best results the tank should be bigger and/or the water changes - more frequent. I also had made the mistake (in my Internet research I had not seen any info on this) to heat the tank with a lamp. Because of the varying temperature in my house (programmable thermostat) that produced slight daily variations of the tank temperature but most importantly, the light was always on (no darkness at night). I would not get another betta until I find a nice, thermostat-based water heater. Which would go nicely with a bigger tank. And more frequent water changes. Which is easily doable ... probably once the kids are gone and we are retired...
By the way, there really aren't any dedicated local fish stores around here, and where I work (different city from where I live) they have a large pet store but I'll just give you one piece of info about them: when I asked for advice on starting with bettas, they recommended a 1-quart bowl...

Thanks again for the suggestions, I'll keep considering my options.

Kamen

[anasfire23]

It is sad that most stores that sell fish, even specialist aquarium shops, are just interested in a sale. They don't care if the fish lives or dies once it has left their shop and don't care if you get attached to it as long as you spend money in their store and 9/10 a person is more likely to want to buy a betta if it isn't going cost the earth to keep it. I wouldn't completely rule out that large pet store, as long as you've done your research and know what you are talking about and tell them firmly what you want they are going to be more than happy to help you as long as you remain steadfast in your resolve. I've found the same problem with my LFS. They don't sell betta kits in anything over 1/2gallon and they have one set up that holds maybe 1/4 ga of water and it's $50 all up with the fish. It's just ridiculous. Gather as much knowledge as you can and just tell them what you need. They will help you. Don't rely on them to know anything though, as I said they just want to make a sale and most times staff are hired not for their knowledge about pets but for their retail and sales abilities.

Good Luck

[dangerk]

yeah females are very small compared to the males as there are very biger..

i got 2females betta

[Kageshi17]

Yeah, Walmart sucks soooo much. Hahaha. But the Petsmart here is REALLY cool, even better then I thoght it was! I mean, they have hardly any dead fish, some employees who know a bit about fish and most have aquariums, the tanks all have gravel and plenty of plants plus driftwood, the filters are constantly going and the water is clear, the betta cups are cleaned out and replaced twice daily with stress coat added, and they even have a sick tank in the back to see if fish will live and if they can be sold.

Thats the craziest part. Other pet stores dont bother trying to rehabilitate, they either flush the fish or freeze them. I really like the idea of a sick tank. I recieved my free no-eyed cory from them. He was born with no eyes and they gave him a chance in the sick tank for a week and then on the floor for another week. I adopted him and he is doing GREAT! Petsmart is really cool here in Salem, OR. Kudos to them!

[Kyoberr]

I probably wouldn't be sure that they are males. I have never seen (with my eyes) baby bettas sold before. They may have just been females. Females look smaller because they don't have very big fins (maybe you know that already). They are usually less brilliantly colored and have smaller fins.

[jdwoodschild]

Originally Posted by Kyoberr

I probably wouldn't be sure that they are males. I have never seen (with my eyes) baby bettas sold before. They may have just been females. Females look smaller because they don't have very big fins (maybe you know that already). They are usually less brilliantly colored and have smaller fins.

Females also if you look closely also have a little white dot right behind their ventrals (the two fins that hang down after the head of the fish). This is called an egg spot. Females also that are producing eggs will look like they are always just fed, or the ones that are heavier woth eggs look like they swallowed a marble.

[Cichlidsrule]

Originally Posted by Kyoberr
I probably wouldn't be sure that they are males. I have never seen (with my eyes) baby bettas sold before. They may have just been females. Females look smaller because they don't have very big fins (maybe you know that already). They are usually less brilliantly colored and have smaller fins.

I've noticed they're often striped as well...but not always...

[anasfire23]

Females are often striped when they are stressed, that's their stress colours. I'm currently trying to sell 7 of my baby Bettas but no-one is interested . All the LFS around my place have said I'd be better off selling them privately because they'd only pay wholesale price for them which isn't much at all.

I'm not sure whether people don't want to buy them because they are babies or because there just aren't any interested people at the moment. Maybe I'll wait until they get a little bigger and try again. They went through a patch where they weren't growing at all but in the past 2 weeks they have really taken off and some that I previously thought were female have turned out to be male. I've put them all near my adult female and all the males intensified in colour and started making bubble nests hehe good way to sex them if you ask me.

I don't see anything wrong with buying baby ones, just means you get to see them grown into their fins and personalities as well as the fact that you will be able to keep them longer!

Good Luck if you do decide to get a new one.