betta fish life expectancy

[uro1001]

my brother has had a betta fish for over 5 years(little less than 6) and is wondering life expectancy. we got him from petco a while ago and they said he should live about 2 years. is ours just lucky?

[wolfy-hound]

If you take proper care then he's finally getting really old.
Typical pet store bettas are culls from overseas, and not very well cared for, so you'd be lucky to get 2 years out of them.
Your brother's much be a very well taken care of fishie! Congrats!
Wolfy

[lillyorchid]

I had a male betta all though out High School. He lived 4 1/2 years. I have a male now that I've had for 2 years, and two females that I've had a for a year now.

[Entropy]

The 'average' life expectancy of a betta is three to three and a half years. But there are some that out live that. One of my favorite males lived to almost six.

And actually most pet store bettas are 'home grown' right here in the US. It would not be cost effective to import them.

[wolfy-hound]

ACTUALLY, most chain stores purchase the bettas from suppliers that ship them in. They are shipped in in boxes with layers of wet newspaper. Cost is about $.04 each. Thailand is the biggest supplier of bettas in the world. What we get is usually the culls out of the best stock. The females we see are almost cat food level culls most times. Really NICE females are usually either very high priced, or bred from really high priced fish.
Check out the International Betta Club for more facts. I'm still a card carrying member(so to speak, you don't get a card...)
Wolfy

[Shadow]

It takes betta a good while to get large pretty fun, so ones from petstores are generally already older having already lived half their life.

[SnakeySnakeSnake]

my brother has had a betta fish for over 5 years(little less than 6) and is wondering life expectancy. we got him from petco a while ago and they said he should live about 2 years. is ours just lucky?

Not sure, ours was alive for 2 or 3 years at least before the cats got him

[uro1001]

If you take proper care then he's finally getting really old.
Typical pet store bettas are culls from overseas, and not very well cared for, so you'd be lucky to get 2 years out of them.
Your brother's much be a very well taken care of fishie! Congrats!
Wolfy

hehe this is the thing im somewhat confused about. ian(my brother) would catch minnows in a nearby lake with friends and put them alive in the betta tank and he would eat them whole. i figured he must have parasites from that. then a couple years ago his friend wanted to fight his betta and ians. ians betta completely demolished and killed the other betta sadly with not a scratch on him. also finally about a year ago ian forgot to dechlorinise the water and the betta flipped upside down pale white. amazingly after 2 days in a different tank he magicly became a normal betta again. and if this makes anything different he hasnt made a bubble nest in at least 3 years.

[Entropy]

I'm sorry, but I seriously doubt your friends betta would eat minnows. They aren't like cichlids and while carnivorous are not preditory.

And wolfy, the stores I worked at were small and the fish most definately came from here in the US. I'm not saying all do but the stores I had experience with did.

[Karma]

our was like... 3-4 yrs old?