Wierd Story

[ikermalli]

I was on msn today and this girl was like I am going to get a fish on the weekend. I asked what kind and she said same as yours. I said a betta? and she was like "yeah". So I asked her what she already had and she said she had a one Gallon bowl and some gravel and decorations and food. I told her you need new food and a water conditioner and i would suggest a bigger tank unless you will do water changes about every 2-4 days and she said "eww no! i do changes every week or more!" and then I said do you use water conditioner and she said "well.....I have it, its just I don't use it." And then I sent links to her about all this stuff she needs and she was like why do you care? and I said cuz I want your betta to be healthy and she was like "STOP BEING A FISH POLICE!" I was like "jeez i was just trying to help and make sure your fish stays alive and she was like "well I'm keeping him in a 1 gallon bowl and he better like it."

Don't you ever feel frustrated that people buy such beautiful fish and treat them like garbage? Also they do not even keep them in good water conditions as soon as they get them. In my opinion if I knew that somebody at the store wasn't going to take care of their betta I would tell them to just leave it there because it deserves a better home (unless it is at walmart anybody could treat a betta better than walmart) I just wish I could do more to stop this

[ikermalli]

ARGHHHHH!!!!!!!!! why do people do that!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

[FinnFan]

Sadly, not everyone is really ready for the responsibility of a fish or any other pet.

[Baby_Baby]

HAHAH
That reminds me of a user we had on here a few months back.
Oh I wont say any names, but oh gosh.......

Some people were raised in caves I do suppose.

[shade2dope]

I tryed to help someone like that before and they told me they dont have water conditioner in the wild.so i told them that your useing water that has chlorine and stuff in it not the water that they come from. they went on to say some stuff that had nothing to do with what we were talking about. some people just dont want to be helped or just admit that there doing it wrong

[Salsafish]

Don't I know how uninformed people can be! I have goldfish. You only have to go on youtube to see how badly people treat them.

[Dr_House]

A person's actions are dictated by rewards and consequences. In other words, I do what I do because it works for me. In order for me to stop doing something, there will have to be a major negative affect of my action. People often see fish as disposable pets. If the only consequence is having to go buy another $3 fish in a few months, there will be little compulsion for that person to change their actions.

Think of 99% of the people you know in the hobby. Most of them started with a 10 gallon tank and loaded it with a bunch of incompatible fish, likely ignoring a great deal of good advice along the way. It wasn't until the tank crashed and they started losing a ton of fish that they became open to hearing the advice they were being given all along.

When someone has closed their mind to the wisdom of fish-keeping, the best you can do is present the information and hope that someday they will wake up and be ready to listen. And yes, it is incredibly frustrating in the meantime.

[ikermalli]

Think of 99% of the people you know in the hobby. Most of them started with a 10 gallon tank and loaded it with a bunch of incompatible fish, likely ignoring a great deal of good advice along the way. It wasn't until the tank crashed and they started losing a ton of fish that they became open to hearing the advice they were being given all along.

couldn't afford a ten gallon but I came on here right away

But she had a betta before and she treated it the same way and it died after a month and now she wants to get another one and treat it the same way, it's like she cannot absorb the information!

[fishbguy]

I have a wierd story too. A lady came into the lfs i work at the other day to get more neon tetras, because one died from unknown causes, and the other died because it played in the bubbles so much, it wore out it's gills. did you know fish could do that??? lol Then she wanted little ones, so the one she had at home could be the boss of the little ones. you know kids. Since when are fish like kids? talk about uninformed..lol

[ikermalli]

It depends on what you mean by "kids" a lot of people take amazingly good care of their fish and say "here is my baby". Other people just want one fish to be the boss. I was hoping I could help her but her head is thick

[fishbguy]

by kids, she was comparing her fish, to real human children. There is no way, a person who loves their fish so much as to say that they are their kids, would think that they could actually wear out their gills. and she just didn't seem like that kind of person. neon tetras, since when is one in charge. I kept telling her that the little ones will grow, and they'll all school together, but no, she wanted little ones so the big one could be in charge...

[ikermalli]

some people are just like cavemen these days

[fishbguy]

*geiko comercial flashes through mind*

it's so easy a cave man could do it...pssh...yeah right.

[ikermalli]

i wish people would think about fish compared to themselves, 1 Gallon for their whole life is like living in a small room for their whole life

[kbjunior8]

yep dont forget to quote me on that one ikermalli jks i have so many friends at school with bettas that leave them in small vases and their bettas eat the leaves is eating the leaves unhealthy for the betta

[ikermalli]

that is so sad

[Bettaman]

It does suck how some people could care less about the life of their pet fish. I was at the cashier of Pet World buying a new baby female betta when the lady in front of me was saying how her Betta dies every week but she buys a new one the same color so her son won't know the difference. I told her that she must be doing something wrong if they keep dieing on her that fast and her reply made me sick. She said, "who cares thay are so cheap anyway." I told her she was digusting and read her the riot act while begging the cashier not to sell her the Betta but they did.

[gemjunkie]

Face it. We live in a throw away society and people don't care. Look at the animal shelters. These same people buy the puppy or kitty for Xmas/birthday and once it's not so cute any more, tell their kids 'it ran away' after stuffing it in the cage outside the shelter in the middle of the night. Or worse, tie it up outside or leave it out. Do you really think they'll care about a little fish?

It's the rare few that actually care. The pet shops are there to make money. They do NOT care about the livestock they sell (for the most part, there are some good places out there but are few and far between). They will sell you 37 products to cure your fish of what ever ails it but not ONCE tell you doing regular water changes and feeding good food will do what every medicine in the world can not.

[Feathers]

Ugh, that is so freaking sad...

My supervisor is totally the same way. She got a little betta and keeps him in this tiny little tank... It might be two pints or something? It's' ridiculously small. I explained that she should really consider getting him something bigger, and she said she "was told that bettas are happier in smaller spaces." I explained to her that it wasn't the case. She also has a horrible habit of moving his little tank around in a kinda rough way, sending the poor little fish all over the place in the thing. She doesn't seem to want to change either, since she's my supervisor, why would she listen to me, y'know? XD

But yeah, I've had all kinds of people ask me for advice about fish and then totally not follow it. I hate that

[trashion]

oh don't i know how those people can be! i just quit my job at petco because i can't handle dealing with those people 4 days a week.