Should I Reply?

[ladycrotalus]

The story part: Back in december the petstore i worked for the last 8 yrs at went bankrupt. Alot of stupid crap happened that i wont go into but i ended up taking home the reptiles, mice, hamsters, and 22 betta fish because i could take the time to rehome them. I have 11 bettas left. Managed to rehome 4, lost 5, and am keeping 2 of them. I periodically post an ad on craigslist, here is my ad: "All are males and all are veil-tails, 1 is purplish, the rest are red. 11 left. small rehoming fee
I will refuse if i believe they will be fought or if you don't know how to properly care for them.
pick up only
email me "

I get this email from a lady in ogdensburg: if u still have the bettas im interested in all of them i have alot of fish tanks and my kids love those bettas and i do know only one per tank also do u breed them all the time because i have alot of people that i could sell them for u to

my reply: I do not breed them, these i took from the petstore in massena when they closed down back in december to try and find homes for them. I would like them to go to people that have atleast a 1 gallon or larger aquarium since the tiny bowls that they are in are death traps. I have no choice to keep the fish in them because i don't have space for that many tanks.


her reply:
i understand i have a 75gal.-3 55gal.-6 10gal.-and a 38gal. so i have room for them and they should be in something bigger then them little bowls so i will take them all if its ok with u but i cant until friday to come and get them so if thats ok then let me know-ty


my reply:: What kind of fish would you be putting them in with though?



her reply: i have guppies goldfish catfish neons all community fish


my reply:
The guppies will be killed if they are the brightly colored males, and they can't go in with goldfish because bettas are tropical fish and have different dietary requirements, and if the community fish is nippy the bettas fins will get shredded.
I have only had success keeping a male betta in a tank with white clouds, neons, cardinals, platies, cory cats, pristellas, and certain rasboras. When we tried putting a betta in with mollies and swordtails the betta's tail got shredded.

her reply: i never had any problems like that but i feed my fish tropical flake food,blood worms,meal worms and pellet food of all kinds no matter what the fish is and never had any problems at all and i had fish sence i was 14 and i'm 37 on april 22 lol along time 23 years


my reply:: I have had problems though and because of that i have made sure to thoroughly research each species' requirements as far as housing, nutrition, and compatibility. I am just not comfortable sending them to a home where they will be mixed with species they should not be mixed with and kept in environments that are far different then what they need to thrive.

Her last reply: ok thats fine keep them thats why u still have them because u were trying to sell them before i'm not waisting anymore of my time/this is a big joke/fish are fish

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I know that what i have them in is really crappy but i clean them daily and keep them in the bathroom where it stays constantly warm. This girl emailed me today and she has 2 empty 3 gallons and wants a couple of them, i have dealt with her in the past and know she takes decent care of her pets so i will be bringing her a couple to her house tomorrow, so i am not hoarding them, i am just being picky about who gets them since i have had the displeasure of selling the fish to people through no choice of my own who ended up killing he poor fish either through ignorance or just plain stupidity.  

[Cowgirl-with-heart]

yea,and if you feed a cat dog food it will die,do the proper research,or leave the fish at a pet store for someone willing to do it. stare  

[Shanna66]

if she keeps goldfish with tropical fish then that right there would be enough for me to say no. when i breed my skinks i would much rather be stuck with the babies for years than have one go to a home where i know it wont recieve proper care

also i hate it whenever people bring up how long they have kept types of animals for. it doesnt matter if you have ketp fish for 23 years your still doing it wrong now. its the age of the internet and clearly she has internet access, there is no excuse so not do even basic research on the animals you keep. im contantlly keeping up with reptile communities to see if the care of my reptiles is up to date with current facts and i think anyone who keeps live animals should do the same so they dont get stuck in a rut with their outdated information, or in this case just plain bad information

also is it the same person who typed the last response? her typing style changed alot. she went from good spelling adult to pissy teenager arguing over the internet  

[DeeSpark]

Geez come on it's just fish. I mean, they're only tiny and their fish, so that means they're stupid. Why are you being selfish and wasting that ladies time?

I think you did the right thing. Sell your fish to people you feel comfortable with.  

[Vanilla eXee]

Soooo many red flags on that one. I wouldn't do it. The second girl sounds nice though.  

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

"fish are fish" well even if she does have large tanks, doesn't sound like a someone who cares about her fish at all. Some of the worst homes are from people who keep fish for years, they can be the most stubborn illogical people. Plus, wanting that many betta's to me raises a flag. She wanted to know if you breed them so perhaps she's just looking to sell them or something. If she were really just looking to do something wrong, she probably would have played along and said she wouldn't house them with goldfish, but it still just seems really off for me. Bigger tanks is not worth it if they are going to get eaten.  

[ladycrotalus]

Yeah i know i did the right thing in refusing, i wouldn't mind if they would be resold as long as it was someone who knows about proper care and actually gives a s**t but apparently this douche doesn't and someone else wanted to buy them all back in February but i never contacted her back because she stated that she has a degree in biology and in the next sentence she believes fish grow to the size of their tank and when i went to correct her politely she cut me off and changed the subject. After sleeping off my anger I won't be replying to her last email, she's not worth my time. Thanks for the reassurances though.
I dropped off the 2 bettas and her tanks are pretty nice so I'm at ease and her dog looked well cared for too.

I brought 3 bettas because i didn't know what colors she wanted so i have a betta accompanying me to all my classes neutral  

[Cowgirl-with-heart]

ladycrotalus

Yeah i know i did the right thing in refusing, i wouldn't mind if they would be resold as long as it was someone who knows about proper care and actually gives a s**t but apparently this douche doesn't and someone else wanted to buy them all back in February but i never contacted her back because she stated that she has a degree in biology and in the next sentence she believes fish grow to the size of their tank and when i went to correct her politely she cut me off and changed the subject. After sleeping off my anger I won't be replying to her last email, she's not worth my time. Thanks for the reassurances though.
I dropped off the 2 bettas and her tanks are pretty nice so I'm at ease and her dog looked well cared for too.

I brought 3 bettas because i didn't know what colors she wanted so i have a betta accompanying me to all my classes neutral

rofl maybe someone will take a shine to him xP I had this little fish once,in some class like biology,and,it was a minnow,or whatever those little wild guppy looking fish are,and the teacher had accidentally caught it when she was collecting samples for us to look under the microscope of pond water,so I was like well I'll take it home,cause we had guppies,and I had a small tank for the babies,that was not in use,so I decided to keep it,better than letting it starve,and I had it in a little glass bottle the whole day xP except one guy grabbed it and started shaking it not realizing there was a fish,he was just jokin around and stopped as soon as he realized,but she was ok,and I eventually after a long iso put her in with the guppies,and she lived for a while smile  

[Shanna66]

ladycrotalus

Yeah i know i did the right thing in refusing, i wouldn't mind if they would be resold as long as it was someone who knows about proper care and actually gives a s**t but apparently this douche doesn't and someone else wanted to buy them all back in February but i never contacted her back because she stated that she has a degree in biology and in the next sentence she believes fish grow to the size of their tank and when i went to correct her politely she cut me off and changed the subject. After sleeping off my anger I won't be replying to her last email, she's not worth my time. Thanks for the reassurances though.
I dropped off the 2 bettas and her tanks are pretty nice so I'm at ease and her dog looked well cared for too.

I brought 3 bettas because i didn't know what colors she wanted so i have a betta accompanying me to all my classes neutral

as someone who was majoring in biology i feel insulted someone else who studied in those classes can be so stupid  

[kage no neko]

Hahaha, who the hell can have that many fish tanks that are that LARGE and say they'll keep those fish in with the bettas (sounds like complete bullshit to me)? What a freaking idiot.  

[xXGabriella-ShadowfireXx]

WTH? Goldfish are cool water fish and Bettas are tropical fish that need to be in warmer temp water. That lady is pretty stupid thinking that bettas can go into the same tank as a goldfish.  

[Kipluck]

You did awesome, as usual. Those fish deserve better.