Woman Buys Fish “Rotting” At The Store But What Happened Next Is Amazing

Woman buys fish rotting at the store. But what happened next is amazing. We've all been in a grocery store like Walmart and seen the brightly colored fish in aquariums sitting on the store shelves. A popular choice is the Siamese fighting fish or betta because they are so vibrantly colored. Bettas normally live 2 to 3 years, but there have been a few cases of bettas living well into their teens if they are in the right environment. And for one poor betta fish in Walmart, it appears that his days were numbered. Victoria Schild was shopping one day at Walmart, picking up a few groceries without any idea what she was about to encounter. Then she came across something that just broke her heart. A dull fish confined inside a tiny cup of tepid water, shoved to the back of the store shelf behind prettier betta fish. Its body had turned a sickly pale and had literally started to disintegrate and rot away. Things were looking dire. When she picked up the fish's cup, pieces of its tail began to float to the surface. The poor little guy's body was literally wasting away before her eyes. What would you do in her position? On the one hand, she didn't want to go into the store and find herself a pet, and this fish most certainly wasn't an ideal new roommate. She could have just kept on shopping and never given the fish a second thought. Or she had another option. Schild says she had to do something, and do something fast, given the fact he looked like his days, even hours, were numbered. I felt incredibly sad for the little guy and decided that I didn't want him to die in there, just rotting away, Schild told the dodo. I was 95% sure he was going to die that night. Even if he didn't make it through the night, she wanted his last days to be lived out somewhere other than a disintegrating cup on a shelf. She searched the store for a large, spacious tank and brought it home. Win or lose, at least she knew that she'd tried to help. Things were still really touch and go, but Schild wasn't going to give up. When I got home, I started researching everything that I possibly could to help him recover, and probably within a week of clean, warm water, medicine, and basic care, he started getting better, Schild said. After just a week of recovery, the beta started to improve by leaps and bounds. His tail started to grow back, and he began to slowly swim around his new home, no doubt grateful for the chance to thrive that he'd been given. Just days before that, he was literally rotting away on a shelf in a Walmart store. Now he was free in a much larger space to thrive in his new environment. And that was just the beginning. About four weeks after taking the sickly fish home, he's now almost completely unrecognizable from the sickly fish that she first met. I was really surprised, she said. I knew that underneath it all there was a beautiful little fish. But what won me over was his will to live and his spunk. She knew this fish needed a very special name and settled on Argo, an homage to his sail-like fins. Victoria said she's still in shock. Now he's an amazing little fish, Schild said. I love watching him swim around, leap for food, follow my shadow, and just be a cool little guy. This just goes to show that every life has value, whether it comes from a shelf at a Walmart or anywhere else. It's unfortunate that people dismiss betas, Schild said. With just basic care and a proper setup, they're a great little pet to have. I hope Argo's story can bring awareness to the plight of betas and other fish in pet stores. We need to be their voices, and the coolest part? She's not the only one who's done this before. Reddit user Astelaroth also found a near-dead betta fish, but this time at a pet store. Much like Argo, things weren't looking good for the fish, and it was lying listless at the bottom of a tank. Not wanting to reward the pet store for keeping the fish in such bad conditions, she said she offered to take the fish for free. If it was going to die anyway, what was the harm in asking? The poor beastie is in horrible shape, Astelaroth wrote. It was kept in a large community tank without any cover, with bright lights and many other species. Not cool for a territorial fish, which has vulnerable fins that easily get nipped by curious species. Not only that, but it was also suffering from fin rot, which is a bacterial condition that's almost always caused from environmental issues. What were the symptoms? In the early stages of fin rot, the edges of the fins will discolor, appearing milky colored on the edges. As the infection spreads, small pieces of the fins die and begin to fall off, leaving a ragged edge. Over time, the fins become shorter and shorter as dead flesh continues to slough off the affected fins. The affected area may become red and inflamed, with bloody patches appearing as more tissue is eaten away. In other words, it's not good news. Astelaroth knew what she had to do and placed him in a quarantine tank with a salt solution to help him heal. This little tank would be his home for the next couple of weeks, she wrote. I floated it in my larger heated shrimp tank for warmth. I dosed this two-liter tank with six grams of salt, an all-around medication for fish, which I don't think helped a lot. Salt is key, though. Did a 100% water swap with a new dosage of salt every one to one and a half days. Did it work? Actually, the beta wasn't improving in the beginning. His fins began to fall off, and he didn't eat for a week and a half after she brought him home. Everything that rotted fell off. This is as bad as it got, she wrote. At this point, I put him on an ultimatum and started looking at humane options to end it. Not much fish left. He was pale. His fins were rotting off and he wasn't eating. Can you blame her for thinking that the end was near? But then, almost two weeks into this rescue mission, something changed. The little beta began to perk up and started eating again. Since the rotting had stopped and I could stop with the salt, I decided it was time for a better home, she said. I filled a 15-gallon tank halfway and added plants and leaves and hiding places. He seemed to be making progress, but could he overcome all of his adversity? Yes, almost immediately, his fins began to regrow. One month after his rescue, the beta had regained some of his characteristic bright color instead of looking pale and sickly, and even had some short fins that continued to grow. Now he's back and better than ever. And much like Argo, his story reminds us that fish are just as important as any other animal. They may be small, but they're mighty.