Reddit and other online sources of aquarium info are both vexing and all hobbyists really have access to. Reddit is dominated by a lot of people who just repeat “rules” with no concept of whether they have any validity or not. An example is that there’s an obsession with the idea that bettas need a five gallon tank, which leads to the absurdity of people with beautifully planted four-gallon tanks and a healthy betta being called out while miserable tanks that technically check all the boxes with clearly unhealthy fish being praised.

There is one academic paper that I’ve seen cited about bettas needing larger tanks. What it actually shows is that bettas, not surprisingly, don’t thrive in unenriched cups and bowls. But what the paper does show is that at 1.5 gallons with enrichment, bettas do thrive. So the whole five gallon thing is just arbitrary nonsense. That said, it’s easier to maintain stable water parameters in bigger volumes, but a well-enriched smaller space is fine. But posting this in the main betta sub on Reddit will get you downvoted into oblivion.

Another curious thing that I’ve noticed from Reddit is that the bettas in perfect, pampered setups die really quickly—months to a year, rather than the five years or so they should be living. I suspect the poor quality of fish from mass (in)breeding and big box pet stores plays a role in this. On the other hand, there are plenty of anecdotal reports of basically neglected fish living for years. The problem is that people who mindlessly repeat rules, refuse to look at the evidence in front of their eyes, throw up their hands, and conclude that store-bought bettas only live for six months.

Finally someone posted a plausible explanation: the “recommended” temperature of 26° c is lethal and bettas do much better at 22–23°. Higher temperatures are seasonal and induce breeding. Keeping fish like that all the time is stressful and makes them far more susceptible to bacterial infections. This easily explains why pampered bettas quickly succumb to diseases and the neglected ones, kept in unheated bowls, live much longer. The reactions are mixed between people with experience agreeing and the rule repeaters decrying this.

This is all a very long way to say that there’s a deep divide between academic and hobbyist knowledge when it comes to aquariums. It’s surprising how little we know and study the fish we keep and instead rely on platitudes.

This is in stark contrast to modern Buddhist practice, where the scholar-practitioner divide is fluid. Perhaps this is because textual studies are more accessible to most people, and serious research on animal husbandry requires a biology lab and lots of trial and error. Pet forums also don’t encourage reporting negative results, whereas informal Buddhist discussions abound in “this didn’t work for me”. Yet it is precisely the negative results that are so critical for advancing our collective understanding.