Over the last few days, I’ve been seeing a video that’s been bounced around on TikTok about betta fish. In this video, they talk about how no one should breed betta fish for various reasons.
They talked about several reasons but mostly about how bettas in the fish hobby are abused.
They explained that the only way to solve betta fish being abused would be to have no one ever breed betta fish and never let anyone get betta fish in the future.
For obvious reasons, this would never actually come to pass. This is a nonsolution. It’s just something they are saying to make it sound like they really care about betta fish.
I love betta fish and I think betta fish are a great fish, especially for beginning fish keepers, and making it so no one can have them would have a real negative effect on the hobby.
I’ll just break down some reasons why I think that betta fish should continue to be bred in the hobby, and should be a fish that people can have.
The first one they’re talking abuse of betta fish. Obviously, education is key in helping people understand the proper care of fish and there’s not just one way to do it.
I’ll probably dive into another post about the proper ways to take care of a betta and I know that not everybody’s gonna agree with how I think the betta fish should be treated. I’m not super hardcore on one particular way to take care of them.
I think there are many ways to properly take care of betta fish and some of them are not popular.
But I believe education is the number one way to end the abuse of betta fish or any fish is education. Educating people on proper care without being condescending is the best way to create change.
My next reason is that betta fish are excellent beginner fish. They’re a really hardy fish and can be kept in a wide variety of environments. Especially if you’re getting a common betta from a pet store.
They’ve been bred so long in the hobby, that much like guppies they are really hardy and adaptable. Regardless of what type of water you have, or how often you do water changes, how often you feed them. They’ll bounce back and be able to withstand a lot.
Betta fish are great for beginning fish keepers that are going through a learning curve and figuring out how to take care of fishing properly. They are a excellent fish in that aspect.
Because of their hardiness betta fish are a great fish for people to come in, get into the hobby, learn how to take care of a fish, and then potentially move on and select other fish that catch their interest and grow their skill set that they have to be able to take care of more difficult, cool, rare, interesting, or even just any type of fish.
In that aspect, it opens up the gates so people can learn about fish care.
Next betta fish in the wild are fairly endangered. Some types of bettas are only found in one or two small swampy or pond areas.
So without people breeding them, you are sentencing them to go extinct. There are many bettas that are kept in captivity that are only still around due to people keeping and breeding them.
It’s a very unique and cool fish. I have personally some Imbellis bettas right now. And now they’re not wild caught. They’re not exactly like the ones in the wild but they have the same body shape as wild caught betta fish.
And they’re awesome. They’re in my 10 gallon tank right now. I’m hoping that they color back up soon and get healthy enough to breed. Or what I mean is that they will get in optimal shape for breeding because one of my goals, since I was 10 years old, was to breed betta fish.
The whole blowing the bubbles in the water and creating a safe haven for their babies, to hatch and grow, and having the dad take care of the babies instead of the mom just fascinated me as a child and still to this day.
I still have not been able to breed betta fish. I bred a lot of other fish, but for some reason, I cannot manage the task of breeding betta fish even though for most people, they are they’re extremely easy to breed.
Leading up to the next part of breeding betta fish is a fun experience that is attainable for most people and can do in a small area, and there’s always demand for bettas so you don’t have to worry about finding your babies new homes.
So breeding bettas is something that could help people get into the hobby. I love breeding fish and the whole process of raising them and selling them. And so I just assume everybody else wants to do that too.
Betta fish are a great one to breed because there’s always a demand, which leads to the next thing I want to talk about. Even if you were to able to make it completely illegal to breed betta fish in the USA and no one can have them.
It will still happen just like everything else we try to make illegal. People in other countries or even people in the US decide that they’re not going to follow the law and then they’re going to end up being bred anyway.
There’s too much of a demand for beta fish. They’re the most one of the most iconic fish in the hobby. Outside of guppies, and goldfish. They’re probably the most well known fish.
But the demand for betta fish is way too high for something like that to be an effective way to help with the abuse or mistreatment of betta fish like they’re proposing. And so why not take the route that is much easier for those fish to be taken care of properly? Education is the easier way to help bettas.
Not only for fish keepers but also for those who sell fish. And if you find out someone is taking care of a Betta fish in a way that you find abusive. Don’t jump down their throat. Don’t get after them because if you’re aggressive with them they’re not gonna listen and learn from that situation.
And they’ll just keep doing it. The best way to encourage them is to talk about what they are doing right and then over time, help them with that educational process of learning how to take care of fish properly.
And I mean I would argue that many, many fish keepers and breeders and probably some of the biggest ones, you know in the hobby that you’re either seeing on YouTube or other aspects. They got their start either keeping guppies goldfish or betta fish.
And arguably you can say that all those three fish are the most common fish to be in bad situations, but they’re also the fish that have the capability of handling that and helping beginner fish keepers learn to become better fish keepers. It’s a gateway Fish to fish keeping and I don’t think it’s something we should shy away from and stopping people from breeding them would be a mistake.