Yemminie

Hi all! I'd really appreciate any help that you can give me. I have just lost 2 female bettas to dropsy and it looks like I'm going to lose a 3rd, and I don't know what I've done wrong, especially since I kept a male betta for 4 years with nary a problem.

Ok, background: I have a 10 gallon tank with 3 gold twin bar platies. It recently finished cycling, levels were all fine, so I decided to get a couple more fish. I went to the LFS looking for pygmy cories, and discovered that they had some beautiful female bettas. I had a betta in college, and I love them. So I flipped through the betta books in the pet store, which confirmed what I had read before which was that female bettas can be good community fish and can be kept together, as long as one is prepared to intervene if they get too aggressive with each other. So I bought 2 and took them home, and continued reading about all this while they were floating in the tank. I found that I really should have gotten 3, as 2 will result in 1 being beat up all the time. So back to the LFS I went, to pick up one more. Now, I realize that this was overstocking my tank, but all of my fish are young and not full sized, and the bettas were really small, and I am willing to get a bigger tank when they've grown a bit. Plus I kept an eye on all the levels. So anyway, I got the 3 new bettas acclimated, and into the tank they went. They seemed to do fine. The platies were curious for a little while, but then they moved on to do their platy thing.

The next day I picked up some frozen blood worms. I've never fed them to fish before, but I understand that most fish love them. I thawed a cube and put the worms in the tank. OK, this, I admit, was a big mistake. I didn't realize quite how much food was in one cube. It was enough to feed them for more than a week. Betta 1 and 2 went CRAZY and ate a ton. Betta 3 didn't touch them. The platies enjoyed them, but didn't go quite as nuts as bettas 1 and 2. I got concerned and after a few minutes vacuumed out the rest of the blood worms. But the damage had been done, I think. For the rest of the week, their bellies were pretty round, but I figured it was maybe constipation from over eating, and if it didn't get better in a couple days, I was going to feed them a pea or two. Two days ago, I discovered betta 2 lying at the bottom of the tank, missing chunks out of her tail, and a serious case of dropsy - pinecone city. I stuck her in a breeding net that I have, as I have platy fry living in my only spare tank. I figured that would at least save her getting picked on. Meanwhile, betta 1 was acting weird. When I got home from work yesterday, betta 1 was dead and betta 2 was barely alive. She died a few hours later. I feel incredibly guilty, and I figured that it was from the blood worm feeding frenzy, since betta 3 didn't eat any and was doing ok. So I vowed not to repeat the blood worm mistake.

But now betta 3 seems to be developing dropsy. Lying at the bottom, scales starting to stick out a bit, though only minimally. I fear she is not long for this world. Is there anything I can do for her? The 3 platies are doing well as always, no signs of any problem. So what the heck happened?! The water levels are fine. The platies are fine. But the bettas have dropped like flies. I don't know if it was the blood worms or if they were just sickly to start with, though they seemed fine at first. I don't know what happened - I'm not a totally incompetent fish keeper. My dad always had fish tanks when I was growing up. I kept a male betta in great health all through college. I just kept 3 adult platies and a dozen fry alive and happy while their tanks cycled. But clearly I'm missing something here, and I don't want to repeat it.

In the future, IF I decide to feed blood worms, I will feed them ONE worm at a time, to make sure that I don't overfeed. If betta 3 pulls through, I will not be getting any more bettas. She can be solitary. If she dies, and if I decide to add any more fish to this tank (unlikely), it will only be one, so probably another platy, and I will wait several weeks to make sure everyone is in good health after this fiasco. I know I should get a quarantine tank, but I live in a tiny apartment, and there just isn't room. I don't know where I'd put it.

If anything in this sad, sad tale jumps out at anyone as being the cause of my betta disaster, please point it out to me. I love bettas, and I'd like to keep them again one day, but this has freaked me out. And if anyone knows anything that I can do for poor betta 3 to increase her chances of recovery, please let me know.

I feel just awful. Mea culpa, as they say.

COBettaCouple

I know some books will say it, but female bettas can be more territorial than males and it only takes one event to trigger hostility, a sorority tank does work sometimes, but it's more the exception than the rule. betta 2 sounds like she was attacked by one or both of the others, at least some and must have gotten away. it could be why betta 1 died first.

if you can get some kanamyacin - sold as kanaplex - it's a med that has the best chance to cure dropsy.. an espom salt bath may be helpful too. Check this thread for more info on someone doing that now: http://www.fishlore.com/Forum/index.php?topic=10650.0. We wish you the best of luck with her and hope she pulls through.

Phloxface

No one really knows for sure what causes dropsy but stress can bring on many diseases. Bettas, including females, are always best in a tank all alone. They are not community tank fish no matter what any book or so-called expert says. Even if they manage to live in a community tank or with other females doesn't mean they are happy. It is completely unnatural for Bettas, male or female, to share living space with other fish. In the wild they stay far away from others. They do not get "lonely" as some people seem to think. There is no need to give them tankmates. A 2.5 gallon tank or larger is just fine for a single Betta.

You may have bought your fish with the beginnings of dropsy already. I too bought a female Betta last week and she is now bloated, scales sticking up and dying of dropsy. Sometimes the breeder has an epidemic of disease going through their facilities and doesn't take proper sterilization precautions and it is spread through his whole stock. Some fish will catch the disease, some will not. A lot of evidence shows that stress may be a big factor in triggering dropsy in a fish that has been exposed. My female was in a tank with two others and was bullied when I rescued her. The stress of that experience no doubt weakened her immune system and she could not fight off disease.
I would recommend you remove the remaining female to a hospital tank to avoid spreading the disease and treat her with Kanamycin and put 1 teaspoon epsom salt per 5 gallons water in the tank to ease the bloating. Dropsy is usually fatal but we can try. If you decide to get a Betta in the future get him or her a separate tank and you will enjoy the antics of a personable and intelligent fish who enjoys your company far above that of any other fish.

Yemminie

Well, she's still hanging in there. I went out tonight and bought a little 1 gallon tank, and filled it 3/4 with water from the tank she was in, and 1/4 of new water. I added the epsom salt and a pinch of Maracyn-Two (couldn't find any kanamycin), and put her in. She looks really bad. When I bought her, she was beautiful blue and green, and now her abdomen looks white. Poor thing. If she makes it, I'll have to get my old 5 gallon tank from my parents' house, move the fry into it, and move her into the 3 gallon. Gah, all I wanted was ONE 10 gallon tank. I always thought I'd turn out to be a crazy cat lady, but now it looks like I'm a crazy fish lady.

Anyway, clearly, I will never listen to the books again on this one, and I will never try another tank with female bettas together. But I'm not sure about aggression being the killer in this instance. Stress maybe. It's just strange, because when I numbered them in my story, I numbered them based on what I thought their hierarchy was, and yet the dominant fish died first, with number 2 in command coming in a close second. Also, when I bought them they were in individual betta cups, so I didn't get them from one tank at the lfs - although I guess they could have been in one tank at the breeder. I'd like to think they were already starting to get sick when I bought them, but I guess I'll never know. Although now that I think about it, even from the beginning, betta 3 - the one still hanging on - wouldn't eat properly. I had to drop food in front of her face, flake by flake, in order for her to get it, and that's not normal. Who knows.

So I guess the only thing to do now is to do the best I can for betta 3, and learn from this disaster. No female bettas together or with other fish, no matter what the books say. And one cube of blood worms is a massive amount of food. And don't impulse buy fish, even if you check the books at the store. Sigh.

Thank you both for your advice. I'll let you know how it goes. Fingers crossed that the platies don't come down with anything.

COBettaCouple

sometimes a betta won't eat for a few days after bringing them home. i hope she makes it. we've got 10 tanks so we must be completely crazy