Bye bye Betta

Hey fish friends.

I'm going to add a couple pictures of my Betta fish. He was doing awesome in my filtered 5 gallon tank with live plants. I have him for about 2 years and probably a month ago I noticed some things a bump under his mouth some silvering of the belly and most recently his scales looked like they were lifting. He passed into fishy heaven today.

Any ideas what this is?









Thanks for the help guys!

Rob

 

Dropsy. He may just have been old and vulnerable, but what were the tank parameters?

 

I do regular checks with my water and weekly cleans. The only thing I tried lately was adding some Milesian wood and attaching some moss which despite soaking the wood for a day still turned my water slightly tannis however I've read that it's okay for that water to have a slight ting to it

 

Looks like dropsy, I'm so sorry, may he swim in peace.
Now as to how he got the dropsy, lets try to figure it out.Can you answer a few questions?
1. Was the tank heated
2. was it cycled
3. what are the parameters
4. do you have a liquid test kit
5. what was the temp
6. what did you feed him
7. anything new/different that happened

 

Okay!

Yes tank was heated

Yes tank was cycled

My parameters are good ammonia and nitrites were always very good but I struggled with nitrates from time to time

I use the API liquid test kits and try to test my water bI weekly

Temperature is at a constant 25 degrees

I used to feed him pellets but recently changed to freeze dried grubs

The newest thing I did was added a piece of Milesian wood with some moss and it turned my water slightly tannis despite soaking it for a full day! I read that it's okay to have a slight ting to the water however

Thanks for the help

Rob

 

Sounds like you where doing everything right, it may have been an unfortunate event. Although, I don't know about the grubs. How do you do water changes? How often?
maybe Flowingfins can help out as well.

 

To be honest I used the grubs because I ran out of pellets. I change my water once a week and I take about 30 percent

 

Freeze-dried foods should be soaked before feeding, they can expand in the fish's stomach and cause bloat. However, I don't think that would be the source of your problem. Dropsy can cause bloat, but I'm not sure bloat can cause dropsy.