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Since I've started keeping Betas, my friend has given me another 5 Gallon with a divider for betas. I've also become aware of breeders 'culling'. If anyone has a beta that has a non-painful deformity, and would be willing to save it, I will gladly take the fry/fish. I live in Washington(State) and would gladly pay for postage/heating packs. I believe my own crowntail has a few deformities - bigger eyes, overly-large Pectoral fins, about the size of his head, or bigger. His CLaudal fin is overly -small-, and hasn't recovered ever since I've had him (1-2weeks).

So, send me an email at netnafiaalpha@comcast.net, and I'll get back to you ASAP!

glad to know im not the only one who cares obut culls

i have a young betta boy who if not for me would have been culled, he is the only survivor from his spawn, and is so special!

his parents are viel tails (keep this in mind)

he is a 4 ray (not sure what kind of tail yet, he is growing realy slow) he doesnt have a dorsel fin at all, only a bump, and is missing a ventral, he is also pink he constantly has swimbladder problems, but, he gets through them but i wouldent kill him for the world

Thats great! - I have my own little beta that was going to be fish food if I had not saved him. He has emormous eyes (not popeye), P. fins twice the size of his head, and an extremely small dorsal fin. I have room for four bettas, and am making a website right now with information on it!

In reality, culling is not a bad thing. There are dozens of homeless bettas at any given pet store at any given time and people are constantly breeding them. It is nessicary to get rid of some of the babies, and the ones that aren't healthy to begin with are the most logical candidates. Otherwise, we'd have hundreds of bettas all over the place and no one to buy them.

Culling isn't a bad thing if the fry is in pain, or can't survived very long. If the fry can survive with little or no help (crushing the food pellets, lower water levels, more plants to rest on, etc) then I don't think Culling is a good idea.

Take my Kaelin, as an example. He can't live in a tank that has any amount of current. Why? his dorsal fin is geneticly mutated to that it's smaller than it should be. He zooms around like a tatre in the 2.5 Gallon tank I have, and occasionally rests on plants because of a deformed mouth that doesn't let enough oxygen through.

Whenever you come to the tank, he emediatly zooms to you and greets you like a puppy. He'll 'follow' you around the room, and even sulks when I don't say hello to him in the morning.


It depends on WHAT your culling.

But the point is that there is already a surplus of unwanted bettas. Not culling would only make these numbers grow expodentially. Think about nature, much of the fry is eaten by predators before they grow up.

I know this, and I understand. Although there is a vast amount of betas in stores, as well with breeders, they will be adopted one way or the other. I know nature does what it does for a reason. I'm trying to give these critters. I know culling isn't a bad thing, and I'll try my best to put my shows in those breeders and your mind.

Now let me go about my work trying to save as many as possible.

you know, plenty of breeders cull fish that aren't deformed in any way.

I have a friend that culls anything that doesn't make it to HM or that has a long anal fin.

Though, by cull, I mean "remove from the breeding plan", which pretty much means they go to pet homes.

A lot of betta breeders also keep cull critters (crays, crabs, large cichlids, axolotls, etc) and the deformed fish go to them. I don't have much of a problem with this as unless they go to no-breed homes, they culd go to pet stores. People don't think twice about breeding pet store fish, and that would be pretty irresponsible of a breeder to knowingly sell a deformed fish that might well end up reproducing, especially if it carries a bad defect.

We had a bunch of fish that came through once where all the females exploded. Well, they swelled and swelled and swelled and eventually burst and died from eggbinding. It happened to almost every female in the spawn. The males were fine, but if any of the males were to breed, who is to say that the fish the males produced wouldn't carry the same trait? All the fish were either retired or killed, as that really was a horror spawn.

I'm glad you are making a home for some of these guys I have a tank of undersized fish at home, and I know of some breeders that have bettas missing dorsals, and plenty who are missing ventrals ad they are all well looked after.

It just depends on space constraints and the severity of the deformity imo

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett