Reading Committee and Contributors

Bunstay is written by one keeper. That is a real limit, and the honest way to handle it is not to pretend otherwise but to have the work read by people who know more about a given subject than he does.

So there are two ways to be involved. You can join the reading committee and check articles, or you can write for us. The first matters more to us right now, and it asks less of your time.

The reading committee

A volunteer panel that reads articles before or shortly after publication and says what is wrong with them. It works by email. There are no meetings, no minimum commitment, and you choose which subjects you are willing to look at.

The committee does not exist yet. We are recruiting its first members, and we will not claim a review process we do not have. Until an article has genuinely been read, it says so at the top rather than carrying a badge it has not earned.

What we are aiming at

The standard we want is the one applied by established aquarium and veterinary publications: claims traceable to a source, dosages that can be checked, prognoses that are honest, and no advice that would harm an animal if a reader followed it exactly.

Popular betta content mostly does not meet that standard. That is the gap we are trying to close, and a second pair of eyes is the cheapest way to close it.

What a review actually involves

1. We email you a draft, or a link to a published article, in a subject you said you would cover.
2. You read it and reply with what is wrong, unclear, out of date, or unsupported.
3. We correct it. If we disagree with you, we say so and explain why rather than quietly ignoring it.
4. Once you are satisfied, the article carries your name and the date you approved it.

Most articles take twenty minutes to read. You are not being asked to rewrite anything, and you are not being asked to be right about everything.

Who we are looking for

• Aquatic veterinarians and fish health professionals, especially for the health section
• Experienced keepers with several years and several tanks
• Breeders, particularly anyone raising fry regularly
• People working in the aquarium trade, from farms and wholesalers to shops
• Researchers working on Betta splendens welfare, behaviour or physiology

For most subjects, demonstrable hands-on experience is enough. For clinical topics we need a real credential, and it will be stated on the article.

What reviewers get

• Your name and credential on every article you approve, with the date
• A link to your own site, practice or shop
• Payment for your time on clinical reviews
• The right to withdraw your name at any point, for any reason

What the committee cannot do

Worth saying plainly, because a review badge is easy to over-read.

• We cannot find a specialist for every subject, so some articles will stay unreviewed for a long time
• A review is one person reading one article once, not a guarantee of correctness
• Reviewers are not responsible for what we publish. Editorial responsibility stays with us
• Spelling and grammar are checked before publication anyway, and mistakes still get through

An article marked as read by the committee has had more scrutiny than one that has not. That is the whole claim.

Writing for Bunstay

We also commission articles, and we pay for them. Rates depend on length, research load and whether you supply photographs, and we agree the figure before you start. Nobody writes on spec.

How to pitch

A short email is enough. We do not need a proposal document.

1. The question a reader is asking, in one sentence, phrased the way someone would search it.
2. Why you can answer it. Your tanks, your years, your role, any credential.
3. What is original in it. Your parameters, your timeline, your photographs, your failures.
4. Whether you can supply photographs of your own setup.
5. A writing sample if you have one. A forum post is fine.

We reply to every pitch, including the ones we turn down. If two weeks pass, send a nudge.

What we will publish

• Guidance that reflects welfare rather than bare survival. We recommend the minimum conditions that keep a betta healthy, not the minimum that keeps it alive.
• Claims traceable to veterinary or welfare sources, or to your own documented experience, labelled as such
• Honest uncertainty. "This is not well studied" is a publishable sentence here
• Honest prognoses, including when a condition is usually fatal
• Your own photographs of your own tanks

What we will not publish

• Anything recommending a tank under 5 gallons, or treating a heater or filter as optional
• Medication dosages that cannot be sourced
• Sponsored posts, paid guest posts, or pieces written to place a link
• Work produced by an AI tool and submitted as your own research
• Generated images passed off as photographs of real tanks, fish or symptoms
• Anything republished from elsewhere, including your own site

The full standards are in our editorial policy and fact-checking policy. Read both before pitching anything in the health section.

Get in touch

To join the reading committee or to pitch an article, write to contribute@bunstay.com. Tell us which subjects you are willing to cover.

Corrections to something already published go to corrections@bunstay.com, and anything else to our contact page.

Bun Berka reads and answers these himself.