Let’s take a look at those lovely vases with the Peace Lily or other plants in them that some people keep their Betta fish in. Have you ever had one of those? They’re pretty - at least at first. Sounds easy for you as a pet owner, right? But, how about for the tiny fish who lives there? How does it effect him and is there a better way for him to live at home with you?

O.k., but to start off, let’s clear something up. Betta fish have been characterized at times as loners, but that’s not an exact characterization of this noble fish. True, he is hard-wired to be territorial as a built-in mechanism for survival that served him well before domestication and even continues to work well for him in certain circumstances at times. But, although we must keep him separate from other Betta fish - especially male betta fish, or they will fight to the death; and, of course we will have none of that because we do love the dear little guys so much: they are known to be very social.

From behind their protective aquarium wall, they love to see other betta fish in their own tanks and they are overjoyed to see their pet parents walk up to their tank and greet them! They can even be kept in larger aquariums in a community of the right kind of peaceful fish, depending on the individual personality of your beautiful little betta buddy who is bursting with personality and joy!

To keep this joyful mood, though, let’s consider the topic of whether or not it is a good idea to keep your betta buddy in one of those vases with a plant in it, or as many of them are known - Peace Lily Betta Vases.

Some issues with the Betta vase with the plant in it are: many betta fish are killed by being placed in these types of vases with no air space that they need when they continually come up to the surface of the water for air. Betta fish have a labyrinth organ on the top of their head that allows these amazing fish to breathe both air and water. They have to come up for air or they die. Some people are under the misconception that these fish actually eat the plant, but they are meat-eaters and are suffering greatly as they slowly starve to death because they are not being fed Betta food that is made especially for their digestive system and for optimum Betta fish health. The plants also get mucky from waste and take up too much space so that the poor little betta fishy has no space to swim in. The muck from the plant dirties the water and this creates a lot of unhealthy bacteria that eat off of your fish and can cause a lot of fish diseases and pain and suffering .

Besides smothering the fish to death and starving them to death and fouling up the water in a too tiny swimming space … well, for heaven’s sake, do we need to hear more? It is already clear that it is a cruel way to keep your tiny friend. As it has been said about these lovely vases that can so easily turn into death traps for your fish - if you had a dog for a pet, would you keep him in the tiniest room possible with the minimum amount of heat, food, and air that you could give him? That would be inhumane. Of course, you would not do that!

Some people mistakenly think that keeping the betta fish in a vase with the plant is closer to nature than an aquarium with pumps, filters, and aeration, but - hello - bettas don’t live in vases in nature, either! And, in nature, before they were domesticated and various varieties have evolved over the years, nature did have its own way of cleaning and aerating the water: rain, dilution by a larger body of water, nature’s ecological system that cleans the water with scavengers, and special bacteria found in nature.

Their specially shaped upturned mouths are made for catching specific insects off the surface of the water when they originally lived in rice paddies in Thailand. Also, one very important thing you need to do to keep your betta fish healthy is simulate the temperature of its natural habitat since they are tropical fish. This is not possible in the Peace Lily Betta Vase. They need and deserve a properly outfitted aquarium.