A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion Landscape trials and triumphs Water Gardens Dont buy these!!!

I know this is a plant forum, but there is a water plant assortment being sold with a live fish, and I wanted to warn you not to buy it.

If you know what a Betta fish is, you may know of this. Bettas in the wild live in shallow areas of water, but they are selling a live betta in a plant vase that comes with a live plant, and saying the betta eats ONLY the plant and can live in the vase.
Bettas eat floating betta pellets, brine shrimp, and blood worms, and certainly a plant vase is too small for a betta to live in, so this is actually very cruel for them, not to mention water quality will foul quickly.

So PLEASE, do not buy this if you see it. If you do, please make sure you at least have an aquarium for the betta to live in, the plant is ok in the vase.

This what it most commonly looks like.

My grand daughter had a beta in a tiny vase for over 3 years. I kept saying it was mean but everyone kept saying that's the way they live. She never fed it. I thought it ate the plant floating around with it.

I personally do not like them being in a vase. Low oxygen levels. My sister had a roommate for about 9 months or so and when she left she left the fish, so I took it. It was in a very tiny vase and I brought it home and put it in a 10 gallon tank by itself. and I bought a 1 gallon octagon tank and got a female beta so they would have company. I placed the octagon in the 10 gallon and they lived like that for 4 years. So the male was around 5 and lived there well as well. I fed mine the brine shrimp and pellets.

it does seem cruel to keep them in such a tiny space. Hers was bought at Pet Smart and they sold the tiny bowel too. You'd think Pet Smart would know what they need. Do they actually swim around in a larger area because hers just sort of floated in one spot.

I bet the bowel is very tiny, now that you mention it!

I'm sorry to break it to you, but that is certainly not how they live! Bettas have a HUGE misconception about them in many areas, and your local pet shops, you cant trust them all, most dont tell you the right information, and those tiny bowls they sell them in, BAD! If your transporting them, fine, but not to live in their whole lives.

A vase, even if its large, still isnt good for bettas. They can jump out of the uncovered vase (yes, bettas CAN jump very well!), the water quality goes bad quickly (you would have to change it every 2 days to be good!), you cant control the water temp, and the betta doesnt have much room to swim. So your betta will not be active in such a tiny bowl/vase. Not to mention a vase is easy to knock over! You CAN keep plants in with a betta, but with the pic I posted, did you see how long those roots were, the betta had no room! The plant would have to be MUCH smaller, and you would need an aquarium if you want plants and a betta.

That betta may have eaten the plant just to survive from starving, but Bettas are meat eaters, in the wild they eat mosquito larvae, any bugs that drown in the water, and tiny, freshwater crustaceans. They get the plant material from their prey's stomach, they dont eat actual plants.


Bettas live in shallow water in the wild, BUT, that can be a large area like a flooded pond, so they have alot of room in feet to swim. They breath air, but that is a survival tactic in the wild, since there water is usually no current, still, and oxygen deprived, so they make up for lack of oxygen by breathing air, but they can easy thrive in a 10 gallon aquarium and do so nicely as long as you dont have a fast flowing filter, they cant swim well in fast currents. Some fish species also nip at a bettas fins, so you have to do your research if you want them in a community tank (in other words with other fish) And offcourse, NEVER keep two bettas together. In some cases in an aquarium you can keep 3 or 4 females, but NEVER EVER more than 1 Male or male/female (except to breed)! If you have a 10 gallon and want to put a divider in the tank, so each side is five gallons, then you can have any 2 bettas in the same tank, as long as they cant get to each other.

They also are tropical fish, preferring temp of 75-80 F.

Some of you definetly need to visit this site on bettas! It's not your fault people may have told you the wrong info, but its never too late to learn!
http://www.bettatalk.com/

poor fish. Living all those years like that. What a cruel life. Something should be done to stop the stores from telling that crap.