panda bear

Hello everyone. I was hoping to write you all and be able to show you pics of my bettas but I sadly cannot now. After having my two female bettas for two months (not nearly long enough at all) they have both died. I am looking for some help in figuring out how. The gills on both fish on the right side have a slight bump that looks almost healed over and under the scales it is a brownish black. I never saw them fight (though I'm sure they did) and I have other smaller fish (3 neon tetras) in the tank as well. I have tried to look up any information on this but guess am not looking in the right places. Although it will be a while before I get any more because I am very heart broken, I want to make sure I can keep this from happening again and that I hopefully did not cause this. Any help would be wonderful. Thank you!!!

chickadee

I am so sorry that you had this experience and I can only say that I do doubt that any of this was your fault. These things happen with fish and they do sound like injuries of some type.

This said, I should tell you that it is now the general thought that sometimes if you buy females that are not kept in the same tank at the store and are not getting along when you buy them it is like putting two males together. They will not live together. I just lost three of four because they came to me from a place that kept them all seperate.

Please if you do consider getting another fish do not consider putting a betta in with the tetras. Tetras cannot resist nipping those lovely fins of the betta.

Welcome to our forum and I hope you go on to enjoy your fish and if you decide not to have bettas that you find others that you can love. There are a world of fish out there and some of them will catch your eye and steal your heart.

Rose

panda bear

Thank you some much for your help and advice. They were my last two as they had killed the others two off so I thought they were buddies. This makes me feel a little better.

panda bear

I really wish I had asked you all about this first. Everything I have seen says that tetras are cool with bettas. But that's a no go now.

chickadee

Panda -

Bettas are very beautiful fish and they are lovely to own but they are hard to find tank mates for because they either terrorize the others or the others attack them. There are reallly only 2 types of fish I know of that do a pretty fair job of being able to handle them and those are Corydorus catfish and Otocinclus catfish. The otos do a little better in my opinion as they tend to be a bit less excitable. They settle right down after being chased and don't get too upset. The cories get kind of shook up and don't take it real well.

They need to go into filtered and heated tanks that have been cycled. If you haven't read about the Nitrogen Cycle yet please read: http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm and it will explain how to cycle a tank fishless before adding fish and how to test your water to make sure you do not have ammonia, nitrites, or nitrates causing your fish to get sick. Each betta really needs to have at least 5 gallons of room. I do know that a lot of people are told they can buy tiny little boxes to put them in but the bettas will not live for long and they will be sick most of the time they are there.

If you ever decide to buy another betta, another thing that may help you to figure out their care a little bit is the :http://www.fishlore.com/Forum/betta-...d-first.0.html . It is a basic guide to the care of bettas and if you have other questions, there is a lot of information about them all through this section written by many owners and those that have had problems or just are proud of their little ones. You are always welcome to browse or make a comment or question anyone..

I hope we have helped you some and please do not give up on fish. You sound like you love your fish and are making an excellent fish parent but just need to learn a bit more and get some confidence behind you. It is so hard to lose the fish you love, we have all done it and I know that it hurts, but it does get better when you learn how to get things set up and ready before you add the fish and then start slow.

Please keep us informed of how you are doing. It has been nice getting to know you and it would be nice for you to be GLAD PANDA.

Rose