A lot of people in the comments are saying that it was his fault the fish died, so I just wanna spread some info:
It is perfectly ok for a beta fish to live in a bowl, as long as its AT LEAST 2.5 gallons (which isn’t even a lot, when you think about it) and you clean it regularly.
Filters stress them out and kill them, so he didn’t need to keep his fish in a tank with a filter. The bowl would be fine.
@the-kitten-emperor Yeah no sorry that’s just flat out wrong. Bowls stress them out and are extremely bad for their health because
1. They don’t heat consistently
2. The circular shape stresses them out and makes them feel exposed
3. No pet store sells a 4-5 gallon bowl (the minimum size to keep a stable cycle)
4. They do need water flow to stop harmful bacteria from growing (stagnant water is always bad, there’s a reason they jump out of puddles in the wild)
5. In a proper sized tank the water flow will not be strong enough to stress a bettas. Or even better, sponge filters create very little current and are ideal for low current fish or fish fry
6. Bettas are carnivores/Insectivors meaning their diet is entirely protein based and their waste is extra good at producing ammonia and breeding bacteria. In a traditional tank or pond this isn’t an issue because it’s diluted by the volume of water and the flow of water. Bowls don’t have a very large capacity and the circular shape doesn’t allow for proper water flow (the same reason they don’t heat properly) and ESCPECIALLY with out a filter causes areas of ‘dead water’ where toxic bacteria and compounds collect.
I’m sorry but please don’t spread half informed pet care if you haven’t done your research, and especially if you don’t have/haven’t had the animal in question. I personally have five bettas a few of which are over two years old (a minor miracle considering they’re pet store fish) and have raised several from fry to adulthood (betta fry are notoriously picky and fragile) and I barely feel comfortable giving advice for anything more than the basics.
Bowls are entirely inappropriate containers and any serious betta keeper or breeder would tell you the same. Betta/goldfish bowls are a marketing trick by pet stores to get more people to buy fish (look they’re easy, just put them in a bowl and done!) and then buy more when they inevitably don’t live to their full life spans. A betta from a good line will live up to five years, even the worst bred carnival goldfish can live for a decade or more, but the inadequacy of common husbandry kills them at a young age
Also it’s good to point out the fact that yeah this fish was in care that was bad and that definitely contributed to their death but sometimes people don’t know better and regardless it doesn’t make someone less entitled to being sad their pet died and it also does not at all effect the humor of the story
ifesbob 