Petco field trip

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue May 09, 2006 9:01 pm

Ha! My first grade daughter is going on a field trip to Petco on Friday. We happen to live in an area where the Petco is not so great as far as hermit crabs are concerned. Quite poor conditions. This is a field trip that petco provides free of charge for schools in the area. Do I hope she says anything about the hermies? (because she has heard me talking about the conditons) Or do I hope she keeps quiet. Looking forward to seeing how that goes, don't want to discourage them from providing free field trips.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue May 09, 2006 9:47 pm

I've seen those feild trips come through. It'll be intersting to see what she decides to do.

HERMEZ · Post by **HERMEZ** » Wed May 10, 2006 5:08 am

sometimes out of the mouth of babes...........things come into perspective for us adults

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed May 10, 2006 6:49 am

She just might. My 4 1/2 year old is pretty vocal about what he sees and thinks. He was loudly talking about how sad the betta fish at Walmart were because they lived in a cup and didn't have food. I didn't even talk about them. He came to that conclusion on his own or maybe from all the HC activism?. I did agree with him and told him so.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed May 10, 2006 7:55 pm

tell us how it goes!! tell! TELL!!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu May 11, 2006 7:06 am

yeah can you tell us how it goes i what too know

BAB · Post by **BAB** » Fri May 12, 2006 2:23 pm

Ooo... wonder how/what she did then!

Do let us know!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri May 12, 2006 8:36 pm

Well, here's the story. In the morning before the class left for the trip to Petco, Lisl raised her hand and informed her classmates that Petco does not take very good care of hermit crabs. She told them that they have painted shells and that this is bad for the crabs because they could eat the paint and die. And she told them they need more humidity. (This is the story as she told it to me). Her teacher told her she shouldn't say anything about that at the store and she was obedient and said nothing at the store.

But she gave her classmates a little lesson, anyways.

BAB · Post by **BAB** » Fri May 12, 2006 11:13 pm

Smart!! Very smart! Got the word out in a very quiet way. I rather like the route she chose.

Smart kid!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat May 13, 2006 1:26 am

Featherscrabs wrote:She just might. My 4 1/2 year old is pretty vocal about what he sees and thinks. He was loudly talking about how sad the betta fish at Walmart were because they lived in a cup and didn't have food. I didn't even talk about them. He came to that conclusion on his own or maybe from all the HC activism?. I did agree with him and told him so.

Not standing up for WalMart here, (ex employee, hate them), but what is wrong with keeping bettas in cups? Do you know they live in PUDDLES, (yes, puddles) in their native environment? I work at PetSmart, and have had bettas for years. They like a small environment, and don't need to be fed every day. We feed ours 4x a week, as I do the ones I own personally. They are not very active fish, and don't require much food, as their metabolism is slow.
For a chain store to keep bettas available to the public, if they kept them in the vases most of you keep them in, (which are no more usually than 1/2 to 3/4 of a gallon of water) it would be very cost prohibitive. There is a very fast turnaround on bettas and they are not kept in cups very long. How does your local fish store keep them? Ours here keep them in cups as well. Again, not trying to be smart, just a point to be made.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat May 13, 2006 7:20 am

My post is not meant to start an argument but just to answer your question about why I oppose Betta's kept in a cup. This is my opinion and everyone has their own-- I do not have Bettas as pets and am by no stretch of the word an expert.

Please read this in the manner it was intended which is to express my opinion, possibly educate and not make anyone angry.

Same reason I hate crab in the cup is why I also hate Betta in the cup. You just cannot meet the care requirements of an animal in a small plastic cup.

The animals in the cup we seen at Walmart (Betta's, frogs and snails) were in dirty poopy water and in tiny cups. Although Betta's may live in shallow ponds/waters in the wild I am pretty sure it is in a pool of more than 1/4c (I'm sure even more than one gallon). "Rice paddies are shallow but are still part of a much larger body of water that serves to dilute toxins. Scavengers and bacteria present in native waters break down wastes and render them harmless to fish." Also Betta's come from warm pools of water and at store room temperature in cups the water cannot be kept at the warm temps (around 80 degrees- remember they come from warm climates like Thailand) that the Betta's need. Kept at temps lower than 75 Bettas become lethargic. As for larger set ups to sell the fish being cost prohibitive that's my point with most animals sold in this way. If a store cannot care for them correctly then they shouldn't sell them. Maybe there is a big turn around and the animals are in these poor conditions for a short time but it also gives the consumer the idea that this is all they need to live and I can't imagine that it isn't doing some harm to them.

Now I know that keeping food available at all times is not a good thing when you live in a cup but they still should be fed and I don't believe that they are at Walmart to keep down on the pooo in the cup. I do believe they need more water than 1/4c and with a lid on there cannot be fresh air circulating for them to breathe.

Anyway I didn't go into all of this with my son and I do want him to recognize that animals deserve more than to live in a small plastic cup while waiting to be bought.

I used to work in a petstore when I was younger too-- from age 19 - 22. Their Bettas were kept in small goldfish bowls and fed live brine every other day and water changes often. They came to us in small baggies. A lot of them didn't make it and were dead in the bag when we got them. I think we had deaths in the bowls too. There were lights around the Betta bowls (so they could be seen better) but I am sure it didn't keep the water warm.
The females were kept in the tanks with the other tropical fish which was probably the best way... the instore filter system was gentle and the waters kept warm. Maybe a special divided tank system would be better and more cost efficent for stores?

As for how Bettas are kept at my regular fish store I honestly do not know. I do not keep Bettas so I don't look for them at stores. We just happened apon them at Walmart looking for Crab in Cups that someone told us were there but (thank God) they were not.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat May 13, 2006 8:09 am

I won't get into the betta argument, but I think your girl did the right thing. She didn't make a scene at the store or get herself into trouble by speaking her mind. You're raising a wise little one and you should be proud.