Personally, betta fish are really close to my heart. Last year I got a small tank that had three separate containers for 3 betta fish. I purchased my betta fish from Petco, not knowing what abuse they were putting on the fish. Once I did a bit more research, I realized that my betta fish need 5-gallon tanks to have a healthy, happy life. I did what would be best for them, and put them each in 5-gallon tanks. They all lived happily in their tanks for the next year, but unfortunately, one of them recently died from natural causes. After his death, I decided to do a bit more research on Petco Betta Fish abuse, and it led me to this video on Youtube, by PETA. Ever since my betta fish's death, I have decided to take on Petco’s Betta Fish abuse, because all animals deserve a life where they can survive, thrive, and reproduce; which wasn’t present in Petco’s way of holding Betta Fish. I decided that change needed to happen.

      At Petco, betta fish are sold in tiny plastic cups with no filter, heater, or plants and caves to hide in. Betta fish need a minimum of a 5-gallon tank to live a healthy, happy life. Along with this, the temperature should be 78-80 Fº, water changes should occur once every week to reduce ammonia levels to 0 ppm and a filter should always be in place to filter out harmful bacteria and substances present in a tank. For betta fish to live a happy life, they need plenty of places to rest or hide on, such as plants or logs, which tiny plastic cups don’t have. In these cups, betta fish are living in their feces and disintegrated food, which raises ammonia levels, which is super harmful to bettas and will lead to death. With all of these necessities not present in the plastic cups, betta fish are hit with all different diseases, such as fin rot, where bacteria eats away at their fins and bodies, or ammonia poisoning, where there is such a high level of ammonia from disintegrated food or feces, that the fish are painfully affected from it, leading to death. Betta fish are living creatures that deserve adequate space and conditions to survive, thrive, and reproduce. Petco is putting profits before the lives of millions of betta fish, who are breathing, just like you and me.

       What are we asking Petco to do through this petition? Well, we can't ask them to stop, as we wouldn't get too far. Asking for large corporations to stop selling an item that makes a lot of profit isn't realistic. What we can do though, is ask them to treat their betta fish better. I have been discussing this issue with different betta fish lovers on a forum called Fishlore. Many different amazing ideas came to mind. We can ask for Petco to treat their betta fish better by adding calm betta fish to community tanks, increasing the cup size, using heat lamps to heat multiple different betta cups at a time, an increase of the number of water changes per week, and even adding duckweed to the tops of the tanks to increase the enjoyment of the betta fish. We can't stop Petco, but we can persuade them to help betta fish live better lives while in their small containers. If you have any suggestions on this topic, please contact me at earthisaliveclimatechangepf@gmail.com.

    How can you help? Well, to start, please sign this petition to have Petco stop the abuse of betta fish. Along with this, you can visit our website, earthisalive.solutions, where you can learn where and how to take part in our future strikes against Petco. Thank you for taking the time to read this and we hope that you choose to make the change with the click of a button. Thank you.