betta abuse or OK?

[mousey]

I was at a farmers market this weekend. It is a very famous one and a tourist destination for all sorts of bus tours. Anyway there were 2 booths probably run by the same family as they had the same kind of animals at both.
It was about 50 degrees outside and quite windy. I had on a sweater and a jacket!
There were red ear sliders for sale,
bettas and tropical frogs.The bettas were absolutely amazing all sorts of tailshapes and the colors!!yellow bodies with blue tails, powder blue bodies with cream tails and so on.
Anyway I asked the people if they were not afraid of their tropical pets getting a chill and dying. The man and woman both assured me from both booths" no problem" ,"do not need heat".
They also told people that if they bought a betta it could share the tank with the turtle!
I was surprised that the frogs and bettas had not died in the cold.
Perhaps I am fussing too much keeping them at a steady 76??

[TheOldSalt]

No, you're doing fine. These other people are the idiots.

The turtles wouldn't mind the cold, but the other things would, and you certainly can't keep bettas and turtles together.

[fishboy689]

Fish shop owners can be extremely stupid...
They had 20 ID sharks in a 10 gallon and 2 RES in a 10 gallon (fully grown RES)

[fishboy689]

Fish shop employees*

[Ichthius]

fishboy689, so you don't have to make a new post, you can edit your other post to add/remove something by clicking the edit icon at the bottom right of your post

Sounds like they had some gorgeous bettas, but definitely didn't know what they were talking about. Did you get anything from them? Besides bad info

[mousey]

no, I am currently blessed with 6 tanks running full tilt as well as 8 bettas, so I refrained.
Besides I am trying not to purchase these sad little things when they are being abused as it only encourages the idiots that sell them.
I had no way to get them home either as I was on a bus tour.

[khachdatinh]

I think those people know what they are doing if they can breed and have the beautiful fish out for sale. My house is at 70 degrees and my bettas are fine. I don't need any heaters. My bettas live fine but that doesn't mean yours will be fine in that temperature. Now don't try to raise fish in that temperature if you don't feel comfortable but don't have to accuse others as animal abusers because you think the fish "supposed to be" at a certain temperature. Why do bettas supposed to stay at 76 degrees? because you've read it on the internet. Internet is the truth, the whole truth and the only truth to some but to me, I raise fry at 70F, grown up at 70F and live well at 70F which is my room temperature.

[Ichthius]

Originally Posted by khachdatinh

I think those people know what they are doing if they can breed and have the beautiful fish out for sale. My house is at 70 degrees and my bettas are fine. I don't need any heaters. My bettas live fine but that doesn't mean yours will be fine in that temperature. Now don't try to raise fish in that temperature if you don't feel comfortable but don't have to accuse others as animal abusers because you think the fish "supposed to be" at a certain temperature. Why do bettas supposed to stay at 76 degrees? because you've read it on the internet. Internet is the truth, the whole truth and the only truth to some but to me, I raise fry at 70F, grown up at 70F and live well at 70F which is my room temperature.

Not exactly. I say they should be kept at a warmer temperature considering their natural habitat, given some are only mild variations of wild betta, from books I have read, and from fish I have kept.

What you keep your fish at isn't particularly cold, IMO. 70'F is much closer to tropical temperatures than 50'F on a windy day outside.

There are a few missing links in what mousey was talking about. We don't know they were actual breeders. They could just be the middle man. Temperature aside, it's a bad idea to keep those fish with a turtle like they recommended or to put people under the impression they need absolutly "no heat"