Hi sorry for bothering all of you, I left my Betta with friends while my family and I went on vacation and it seems as though they overfed it and got SBD, for the first 2 days it couldn’t get off the bottom of the tank while sideways, this morning it couldn’t get down from the top while sideways, and then turned upside down and died afterwards, can anyone tell me what happened during this time period, and what I could’ve done to prevent her passing, btw I read online and it said it was common in Betta fish and that I should just let them fast so i’m Confused what went wrong??? P.S.- I’m not sure if this is where I’m supposed to ask my questions but couldn’t find anywhere else and I’m eager for answers, thank you so much!!!
Hi and welcome to fish lore. i'm very sorry for your loss your profile says you don't understand the nitrogen cycle, and understanding that may help you understand what happened to your fish. depending on how long you had your fish before you went on vacation, you may not have had a cycled tank. here's how the cycle works: fish poo. the poo turns into ammonia which is toxic to fish. but then bacteria that eat ammonia start to grow. when those bacteria poo, the poo is called nitrite. nitrite is also toxic to fish. but then ANOTHER set of bacteria start to grow and these guys eat nitrite. when THEY poo, the poo is nitrAte which is safe for fish up to a certain level. and by doing regular water changes you can keep the levels safe. what kind of tank was your betta in? How long was it in the tank? do you have a testing kit? if you do, what is the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate of your tank? what i think happened is that your neighbours over fed your fish, causing the ammonia to spike. that's what killed your fish EDIT: the bacteria live in the media inside your tanks' filter.
If they overfeeding him, then the chances are his swim bladder got jacked up, which would be why he couldn’t swim, in the right orientation. I’m sorry for your loss and check out the reply directly above mine
So sorry for your loss! In the future, if leaving someone else in charge of feeding your fish, remind them that their stomach is roughly the size of their eye. This will greatly reduce the chance of overfeeding! Also, automatic feeders exist and can help with portion control and feeding times while you are away.
I totally agree with the first part but stay away from automatic feeders! There have been terrible instances reported from using them!
Yes, unfortunately overfeeding can be deadly for Bettas. What I like to do to prevent swim bladder disorder in my fish is only feed an eyeball size portion every other day. It’s actually a good practice to fast your betta at least one day out of the week. Also, if I’m going to be gone longer than a week, I put pre-portioned out pellets into those daily pill box things instead of leaving the fish food container. I’ve found people generally won’t mess with those.
Good to know! I haven't done much research on them yet, but I was planning on using one for vacation, but I am definitely going to reconsider.
