Unamused fish is unamused

[tuxedo_elf]

Dear bettas comm and mod - Fuck you. If calling someone out on keeping their pets in unsuitable conditions is 'not playing nice' then I don't *want* to play nice. And deleting all the comments you don't like? Pathetic. Take your comm and stick it where the sun doesn't shine.

Bowls are for cereal and soup. Vases are for flowers. Walls are for pictures. NOT FOR FISH. Seriously, if you can't provide your fish with a filtered, heated tank, here's a hint - DON'T DAMN WELL GET ONE.

And if anyone is reading this and thinking 'it's just a fish' then I don't want to hear it.

Comments

[keiliss.livejournal.com]

*pets outraged hormones*

I agree on the bowl and the vase. Poor little betta. But I don't get 'walls'.

I saw the sweetest pure blue betta a while back, very young, very pretty, happily sharing a tank with some guppies, but I couldn't buy him, had nowhere sensible to put him. I'm currently bettaless - we've had deaths from old age and one full moon suicide - no really, R accidentally left the feeding hole uncovered and it flung itself out.

[tuxedo-elf.livejournal.com]

Oh, this nasty little thing is what inspired the wall comment - and in fact, the comm drama in general: http://www.thewallaquarium.com/images/wall%20mounted%20fish%20bowls/7seas-bubble-wall-fish-bowl.jpg

You hang it on the wall. Like a picture. It doesn't even hold a gallon. Someone was keeping a fish in it and wondered why it was sick.

They have some strange habits. I'm always hesitant to take my eyes off the tanks when doing water changes in case they make a bid for freedom!

[zhie.livejournal.com]

Oh! I've seen those. We actually have two aquariums in the library, and we considered doing something a little different at one point. We looked at getting an aquarium table, but read a lot of reviews that it has a lot of algae trouble. Then we saw those and were like 'omg cute!...wait, that's a real fish in there'. If they were bigger, then I think we'd have been in luck, but since that are like a cup full of water and not much more we passed.

We also try to keep a betta in each of our tanks (20 gal. and 55 gal.), since they do well socially with a lot of varieties that are out there. The exception was Fingon... after he repeatedly killed other fish, including a pair of swordtails named Elrond and Celebrian, and attacked a number of fish five or six times his size, he was finally placed in solitary confinement. Where he continued to attempt attacks on me at feeding time. Seriously. Stared at me from his bowl while I cataloged and made chomping noises. Should have named him Morgoth. No, he was not in the most ideal conditions in the 2 gal. we had him in, but he was heated, and we did bring him home holidays in case (the other two tanks have battery backup pumps, auto feeders, etc., but his wasn't large enough for that), and had plants and a little cave thing and was talked to by staff (though after the incidents, he started being called Killer quite a bit more than Fingon). On the flip side, he did manage to kill a half dozen fish and maim four others between four different tanks... considering I've heard of dogs put down for killing just one of their own kind, I suppose we were trying to handle the situation as well as we could.

I know where you're coming from. More than once I've been in a store where someone is getting their kid their first tank, and I step in to convince them to spend the extra five bucks for the ten gal. instead of the neon colored half gal. tank with the little light on it, and then explain the need to set up the tank for a month and not put any fish in until it cycles a bit. I've even let people inoculate their tanks with water from our work tanks (which were inoculated from a tank we had at another campus starting in 2004).

[naurring.livejournal.com]

There's no thing as 'just a fish'. Every living being deserves respect and providing just the absolute minimum of living circumstances is not part of that.

If this is about that blue fish from the first post I see when visiting the comm, that's just horrible. I agree that it looks pretty. But that's not reason enough to put a fish in a situation that will make it feel bad.

Sadly enough I had a vet tell me once how it doesn't matter, because fish can't be bored or feel bad about their living environment in another way, because they lack the brain parts for it. No reason to treat it badly, imo.

And thanks for the warning, if I ever manage to get a betta, I definitely won't go to that comm for info.

[tuxedo-elf.livejournal.com]

Exactly. It *looks* nice, but it's completely unsuitable and that should be reason enough not to do it.

The 'problem' with bettas, is that they can often survive such treatment. Some people seem to think that this makes it ok to subject them to it.

Honestly, they aren't hard to take care of properly. Min of 30 litres, gently filtered and heated to about 28 degrees, with some soft, wide-leafed plants. That's the bare basics.

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Exactly. It *looks* nice, but it's completely unsuitable and that should be reason enough not to do it.

The 'problem' with bettas, is that they can often survive such treatment. Some people seem to think that this makes it ok to subject them to it.

Honestly, they aren't hard to take care of properly. Min of 30 litres, gently filtered and heated to about 28 degrees, with some soft, wide-leafed plants. That's the bare basics. <ljuser="1fish_2fish"> is a pretty decent comm and there are lots of genuinely good fishkeeping sites out there.

[phyncke.livejournal.com]

Hoo. I agree with you. Sounds cruel to me.

[tuxedo-elf.livejournal.com]

It's awful... and then they're surprised when the fish get sick. Sigh.

[sinneahtes.livejournal.com]

WTF! I get people being newbies and more experienced comm members needing to be nice about pointing things out, but if someone's asking about fish health, the tank's suitability is relevant to the conversation.

[tuxedo-elf.livejournal.com]

Did you see the post? I only got to make one comment before LJ went down again, but the post only has 5 comments now, there were about 20 last night. All the 'this isn't suitable' comments got deleted. I think people just don't want to believe that their 'pretty' tanks are death traps.

I can't recall exactly what I said, but I agreed with another poster who said that if people couldn't provide the basics, then they shouldn't keep them. As echoed in this post. I've left the comm now, the passive-aggressive mod post was the last straw.

On the other hand, this icon has never had such a workout...

[sinneahtes.livejournal.com]

I half-saw the post while skimming and somehow thought someone was ranting about the tank rather than asking for fish help. O_o (I guess I get that comm mixed up with bettafishowners, where there's a rant in the user info about unsuitable tanks.)

As I said, I understand people being newbies with fish to an extent. But I still feel awful for how my first unsuitable tank and lack of knowledge shortened the lives of my first two goldfish and don't want anyone else to feel like that, you know?

And good grief. Nice of the mod to disable comments in her post, too.

And aw... nice to see Lila's face again in a way. I need to clean up my empty tank and get another betta girl sometime.

[tuxedo-elf.livejournal.com]

Oh, I understand completely! I was ignorant once too and made lots of mistakes... it still sickens me to think of how my fish died needlessly. You'd think people would be grateful that you want to stop them from learning the hard way.

It was the disabled comments that made my decision. If you can't even have a discussion with the mod, then I give up. I just joined bettafishowners though, that looks much more like my kind of place! Thanks for the link. :)

Aww, I loved this icon when you gave it to me, didn't realise it was actually one of your fish! I have a girl in my community tank and she's a right little character!

[lauredhel3019.livejournal.com]

You got to be kidding me. I followed the link for the wall fish bowl and I can't comprehend that there really are people who think this appropriate for any creature to live in. GRRRR! Saying that, what I do find appropriate is your above post. :D

[tuxedo-elf.livejournal.com]

Because bettas *can* surive such treatment, people seem to think it's ok to subject them to it. I bought a betta back from holiday last year and my travel tub held more than that!

Thanks, the icon was made by sinneahtes and is certainly seeing use today!

[nienna-weeper.livejournal.com]

I don't keep bettas because they are a little too much work for me, being puddle jumpers and needing special tanks and such. We do have a sweet little goldfish named Bubbles. She has a gallon fishbowl all to her self and we are fastidious about changing her water and scrubbing out her bowl. She is a little living creature after all.

I don't get people who buy fish and then ignore them. Just don't buy them, people. How hard is that?

[tuxedo-elf.livejournal.com]

I think because fish can't be petted or played with, they become decor, rather than pets. Which is depressing and utterly wrong.

Um... don't hate me, but Bubbles really needs a tank, with a filter. In a gallon she is likely to become stunted and not reach her full size. Tanks are easier too... no need to scrub, just 25% water changes weekly. Sorry, I'm a fish nerd!

[nienna-weeper.livejournal.com]

Hate you? Never!

Bubbles has tripled her size in the last year and a 1/2 that we've had her. I was just talking to the fam about getting her a bigger tank, which would necessitate a filter 'cause it would be too big for me to lug around on a regular basis. :D

[tuxedo-elf.livejournal.com]

Oh good! :)

That would be so much better for her! And it doesn't have to be expensive, there are tons going cheap on ebay. Lots of quitters, lol.

If you have the space, try for at least 20 gals... goldies are sociable creatures and she'd probably like a friend. (I'm assuming she's a regular single-tailed goldie.)

[nienna-weeper.livejournal.com]

We have a friend who is getting rid of a 5 gallon, which will be a good start. She'a a single tail, yes... Pretty silver with a sort of coppery tinge. I think she would like a friend. :)

[delaese.livejournal.com]

I disagree that they can't be petted and played with. I had a panther grouper that would actively seek interactions with me. She would poke her nose out to be petted, and with time I taught her to roll over! Some fish really don't care that you are there, but groupers are smart!

[zhie.livejournal.com]

Keeping tanks clean is good, but scrubbing can rid the tank of the natural slime coating building up on the sides, that helps protect Bubbles.

When we had goldfish, we kept a few pond snails in with them to help keep the tank clean -- just have to be careful with them, as they multiply fast (luckily, I knew someone with a pond, so we were able to now and then relocate batches of them).

[minuial_nuwing]

Arrrgh. That 'it's only a fish' mentality makes me crazy.

We don't have a tank now, but my Dad was a big fish man, and I grew up with lectures on cleaning and feeding and temperature, etc.

That comm sounds like a bad joke. Why gather a group of people to pass around lousy information? I'm glad you were there to put in a word for the fish.

**hugs**

[el-esteleth.livejournal.com]

I saw that post before the comments were deleted, and like someone else thought initially that the post was about the tank. I knew when it first went up that the tank was going to be an issue... Or rather, that itty bitty wall hanging that was being called a tank, cuz it definitely was not a tank. I read the thread of comments that were about the tank and didn't find them offensive at all, because a betta does need a heater and adequate space, etc. I don't know. I usually don't comment on the fish communities because things can get heated at times. I mean when I was a n00b, I had Spot in a too small tank and didn't know it because that's what the sales person had told me was ok and I was grateful to get the knowledge that joining 1fish_2fish gave me. I think I'll try out the bettas community that were in previous comments here, cuz I'm not a drama person at all. And I remember your comment and I don't think you weren't 'playing nice' at all.

*huggles*

[delaese.livejournal.com]

As a former fishy-mum, I stand beside you and applaud. Fish have feelings too. It infuriates me to see these gentle creatures living in slime and crap.

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