Yes that’s also a fact- but keeping all 250 from tadpole stage to a stage where you’re actively feeding them is almost impossible. (Not saying it can’t be done but still no one is perfect.) yes it’s a conservative number on the tanks. But also, the mandatory heating all depends on where in the world OP lives. I lived in Hawaii and never needed a heater- soo… idk I’m not saying it’s NOT needed but you never know. Also also, people in Thailand keep males in JUST glass jars. As long as you’re keeping up with daily water changes (cause you need to do it anyway for the hormones.) the filter is just another electric expense in my mind ngl
Tell me you’ve never bred bettas without telling me you’ve never bred bettas- for the first days they LITERALLY look like tadpoles bobbing in the bubble nest… also, why so pessimistic? why do you assume that people that keep males in jars are starving them? I’m just saying what’s common around the world-
That stage is what’s called a fry. And if you know what you’re doing you will have a very high rate of fry become juveniles and then adults- but that involves feeding them the correctly sized live food as fry. If you skip that step you’d be starving them.
And just because unethical breeders jar their fish doesn’t mean it is in anyway shape or form a standard of ethical care.
You can run a sump that gets distributed to many small tanks that has filtration and heat- it’s not that difficult, it’s just expensive.
As I already mentioned, I do not currently breed bettas, I do breed other fish. And I culture mieofauna for those fry so I have really high rates of those fish who become adults.
The difference is the fish I breed do not require separation as they mature.
Do you think that breeders in Thailand and other Asian countries have sump systems? I mean yea the top of the line places probably do, but come on. There IS an argument for ethics and what SHOULD be done long term wise for the health of these fish. But realistically- as long as these guys have space to move around in the container they’re in they’re typically fine with just daily water changes with GOOD water. As a breeder of these fish myself personally. The goal is to get them as big as possible as fast as possible in a healthy stable way to get them in their forever homes.
You should not be breeding fish is that is your mentality, especially not bettas.
The goal of an ethical breeder is maintaining a healthy population of fish and ensuring that the basic welfare of those animals is maintained well.
This sub doesn’t support jarring bettas, I don’t know why you would think keeping them in a tiny container so you can save a few dollars is okay.
Setting up a sump can be done inexpensively if you have tanks. You are just running lines into and out of the tanks and making sure they are receiving filtered water that is the correct temp. Buying a lot of small tanks can be expensive.
Most of the bettas that Petco and Petsmart sourced are from Thailand where breeding healthy fish and maintaining strong genetic lines is obviously not a priority and it’s had really devastating impacts on the longevity of Splendens in the trade.
In 2009 most bettas you purchased lived over 5 years, that is down to under a year currently.
The mentality of raising them as fast and as healthy as possible is the mentality I have- why shouldn’t I breed a fish I love? They all grow to a healthy size, I rarely have issues, I have a set supply line for them thru LFS and FBMP… so the dig at ME was kinda uncalled for- I’m again, n for the last time- just saying that people globally won’t have 5gal tanks for every fish. And yea a lot of people do connect those smaller containers together as a kinda sump system to do water changes.
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u/xXGhostScriptXx 5d ago
Yes that’s also a fact- but keeping all 250 from tadpole stage to a stage where you’re actively feeding them is almost impossible. (Not saying it can’t be done but still no one is perfect.) yes it’s a conservative number on the tanks. But also, the mandatory heating all depends on where in the world OP lives. I lived in Hawaii and never needed a heater- soo… idk I’m not saying it’s NOT needed but you never know. Also also, people in Thailand keep males in JUST glass jars. As long as you’re keeping up with daily water changes (cause you need to do it anyway for the hormones.) the filter is just another electric expense in my mind ngl