Betta passed

[Desi]

Yesterday I posted about my betta fish who had dropsy. Unfortunately she didn’t make it through the night. I’m wondering if any of you have ideas of what could’ve caused the dropsy? I check my parameters every single week and they never changed. My pH level is always between 6.8 and 7. Nitrate levels are always around 0.5. Ammonia is never above zero, since I’m adamant about cleaning my tanks and do a 50% water change and a 25 to 30% water change each week. I make sure to only feed my girls a couple pellets a day and I fast them two days a week. I am just completely stumped and devastated this happened. Since she was in a sorority I am really nervous that the rest of my girls would come down with dropsy since I don’t know why she had it in the first place. I did a big water change plus I cleaned my filters really well and tank water.

 

[Algonquin]

I'm so sorry to hear about your betta. I think it's hard to lose those kind of fish in particular, since they have so much personality. It's easy to get attached.

This may not be helpful in sorting out what happened, but I just wanted to clarify that dropsy isn't a disease in itself... it is the end result or symptom of something else. The pineconing happens when the body fills with fluid that it can't get rid of. It can be related to the organs functioning less, and is often a 'final stage' indication of organ failure. I believe dropsy can be a common late-stage result of a bacterial infection.

I see posts on here all the time of mysterious fish illnesses and deaths, with optimal water conditions and good care. Often I think it has to do with poor stock that don't seem to be destined to live long lives, and whatever internal or external stressors they face weaken their immune system enough to allow infection and illness to creep in. Just my opinion, I'm no medical expert, but that's my interpretation of many of the cases I read on this forum. Most people who have kept fish for several years have likely experienced unexpected fish deaths that seem to have no obvious cause.

 

[Desi]

I'm so sorry to hear about your betta. I think it's hard to lose those kind of fish in particular, since they have so much personality. It's easy to get attached.

This may not be helpful in sorting out what happened, but I just wanted to clarify that dropsy isn't a disease in itself... it is the end result or symptom of something else. The pineconing happens when the body fills with fluid that it can't get rid of. It can be related to the organs functioning less, and is often a 'final stage' indication of organ failure. I believe dropsy can be a common late-stage result of a bacterial infection.

I see posts on here all the time of mysterious fish illnesses and deaths, with optimal water conditions and good care. Often I think it has to do with poor stock that don't seem to be destined to live long lives, and whatever internal or external stressors they face weaken their immune system enough to allow infection and illness to creep in. Just my opinion, I'm no medical expert, but that's my interpretation of many of the cases I read on this forum. Most people who have kept fish for several years have likely experienced unexpected fish deaths that seem to have no obvious cause.

Thank you for all of that. It does make me feel better to know that even with doing everything right a fish can still develop dropsy. It’s also scary to. It’s super hard losing any fish, but yes bettas are the hardest for me. It’s sad to know that so many bettas already have weakened immune systems to being with and if you put bad genetics on top of that it’s pretty much a ticking time bomb.

 

[Rose of Sharon]

Sorry you are going through this. I totally agree with Algonquin. Bettas are so over-bred, that they can be compromised genetically. They can look great one minute, and look awful the next day.

You did nothing wrong. So sorry!

 

[Light]

Condolence mate.
Try feeding them live foods, put IAL and give them a vitamins you can put it in their food so that they can eat and take the vitamins. And also mate don’t do the 50% water change it is so dangerous. If you have a big tank it’s better to make a 20-30% water change once a week.