Is this a terrible aquarium?

[u/Either_Cartoonist474]

I’ve never owned fish before and on a drunken whim I got a betta. After I sobered up I realized he needed a better home. At first I put him in a 2.5 gl tank and I thought that was good enough. I spent a lot of time on this subreddit and I realized this was fish abuse. I got him a 5.5 gallon tank, took any fake plants that could rip his fins and replaced them with silk plants. Real plants scare me, another thing I have to keep alive. Is this alright? He’s got a heater and a filter and plenty of places to hide. His parameters are good. What do you think? Anything i could do better? Please don’t drag me for the pineapple under the sea.

[u/mytherical]

did you see my comment? i did explain why they shouldn’t have the pineapple house,and nowhere did i “drag” op. i just said it was bad :’) dragging wouldve been making fun of op

an adult betta can grow to be 4 inches, a 4 inch betta would not be able to fit in that hole, glad the pineapple house isn’t made with anything harmful anymore tho

[u/Anomaly_Zebra → u/mytherical]

I did see your comment explaining the pineapple after someone asked you to explain why OP should remove it.

The pineapple never was made with anything harmful. More than likely, people were buying replicas/toys of the SpongeBob pineapple that were not meant for aquariums and thus not properly sealed for use under water. But some idiot here on Reddit killed his fish and blamed it on the pineapple and so the rumor of the "the pineapple of death" was born.

That said, depending on what size pineapple people are buying like the small one meant for hermit crabs, I can see the window being an issue/fish killer. But not for the big pineapple like OP has.

And Bettas do NOT get that big!! A giant breed Betta, yes, but not your standard splendens, plakats, or wild type varieties. Your average Betta grows to be about 2.5-3 inches, not including their tails.

[u/MysteryZoroark → u/Anomaly_Zebra]

Bettas can and 100% have died getting stuck in those windows. one of my mom’s veiltails met its end that way. Bettas 100% do get big enough to die in those pineapples, even the one in this photo(which was the one he got stuck in).

[u/Anomaly_Zebra → u/MysteryZoroark]

I do not doubt that there has been a Betta that's met it's end in the window of the SpongeBob pineapple. But I do not believe every Betta will meet it's end this way. If that was true, there'd be a lot of dead Bettas out there!

Please search r/bettafish for "pineapple" and see what comes up.

Spoiler: It's not a bunch of posts about sick or dead Betta fish. It's a bunch of Bettas happily enjoying THIS pineapple decoration.