I was listening to an Aquarium Co Op podcast from a few years back. Anyway, it came up in the discussion that lots of imported bettas are actually older breeding stock being sold off once their breeding days are done. I assumed (my assumption, not necessarily their implication) that they meant Thailand to US. It was interesting to me because, when shopping for bettas, I've rarely noticed the age of the fish actually being disclosed. With discus I feel like the age is pretty much always disclosed?

I'm wondering if anybody has any experience with this they can share? No matter how tangential, I'd be curious to see what anybody knows about it. How common is it? How can you spot an older betta? And I'm also wondering if even the bettas that end up at big box stores and local fish stores (that is, not just online sales) are also a few years old rather than a few months old.

I suspect, though, that this surely can't be that widespread because I imagine the breeders would only hold back very high quality fish for breeding. So, out of the mass numbers of bettas being imported, they surely can't all (or mostly) be from old breeding stock?

When you're dealing with a fish that lives maybe five years, to sell it when it's a bit older seems super disingenuous to me. But, at the same time, if it's not disclosed then it's not disclosed.

Anyway, maybe somebody knows something about it? Ty in advance.