pin3c0ne
- #1
I just typed all of this out, and it got deleted - I don't know if there's a drafts button. God. Haha
Hello. This morning I woke up to my betta fish dead at the bottom of my tank. I'm not sure how long he had been dead, possibly most of the night. He had his head tilted back a little, and his gills were wide open.
I had this betta fish for approximately 2 and a half years, his name was Fig. He was my second ever fish, so I'm quite new to fishkeeping. If you guys could offer me any insight as to possible reasons he could have died, I am all ears. I don't want to get a new fish until I know what may have happened.
He was living in a 3-4 gallon tank for the vast majority of his life. In the last week, I got him a bigger tank (8-9 gallons), and did it up for him. It was a natural planted aquarium; driftwood, dragonstone, java ferns, amazon swords, anubias, moss balls, etc. I cycled the tank using some water from his old fish tank, and his filter. Once the water parameters were perfect, I put the little guy in. In the last few weeks I had noticed he was missing some of his fins, so I had started changing the water more often. Once he was in his new tank, I also started him on some Pimafix (this is what the "fish expert" at the pet store recommended, and they didn't have any bettafix) for his fins. I followed the dosing directions on the bottle, but on day 5 I noticed he was just a little more lazy than usual. He was still swimming a lot, but just taking a few rests and didn't swim up to me, when usually he would jump up and swim to see me. However, at the time I didn't take this as anything to worry about. However, the next day he was in one spot in the tank for almost the entire day. On the occasion that he would swim to get a breath, he'd go right back down to it afterwards. I started researching why he might be doing this, and just in case I also googled people's experienced with Betta fish and Pimafix. Quite a few people had mentioned that after a few days of medicating with this, their betta had become pretty lethargic. A lot of people were also saying that this medication is unlikely to hurt your fish, so that was relieving. I figured he was just sluggish due to it. Several people had said to do a bigger water change than the bottle recommends to get some of the medication out, so I did a 50% water change. I checked the parameters after and they were still perfect. My betta hung out in the same spot for the rest of the day though. I managed to get him to swim up that evening to eat some food. I gave him a pellet and he couldn't get it down. It's like he couldn't chew it or something, he just spat it right out. So I tried some blackworms and daphnia, he successfully ate most of this - but he did spit out 1 or 2 blackworms. After eating, he went back down to his spot he was all day. I didn't want to do too much else to bother him, so I went to bed and figured I would do a water change in the morning. However, as you know, I found he had passed that morning. I have no idea what happened, or what I could have done to prevent his death.
Other than those 2 things, I can't think of anything else I've done different. His tank mates are still completely okay. A nerite snail, and several cherry shrimp.
I'm not sure if it was old age, the medication, the stress from the tank change, water changes, a combination of these, or something else entirely. I am devastated, I feel like I failed the little guy. I didn't even have time to heal his fins fully before he passed.
Here are some pictures and screenshots from videos of him, so you can see his fins. The first 2 are from August and October 2021 (they were the best ones I could find to show his fins, but I'm not sure when he actually started losing them, as I only really noticed in the last month).
The second one was taken JUST before putting him in his new tank. I did notice some regrowth during the time in his new tank, the ragged parts at the end of his tail had began to even out.
Thank you, any help you can offer would be so greatly appreciated. Please, let me know if I did something wrong. I don't want to make any of the same mistakes with my next fish. I know I should have noticed his tail faster, and done water changes in his old tank more often, but I won't make this mistake again.
Also, while I have you here - any recommendations for plecos that work well in an 8-9 gallon tank with a betta fish? Or other bottom-feeding fish.
Hello. This morning I woke up to my betta fish dead at the bottom of my tank. I'm not sure how long he had been dead, possibly most of the night. He had his head tilted back a little, and his gills were wide open.
I had this betta fish for approximately 2 and a half years, his name was Fig. He was my second ever fish, so I'm quite new to fishkeeping. If you guys could offer me any insight as to possible reasons he could have died, I am all ears. I don't want to get a new fish until I know what may have happened.
He was living in a 3-4 gallon tank for the vast majority of his life. In the last week, I got him a bigger tank (8-9 gallons), and did it up for him. It was a natural planted aquarium; driftwood, dragonstone, java ferns, amazon swords, anubias, moss balls, etc. I cycled the tank using some water from his old fish tank, and his filter. Once the water parameters were perfect, I put the little guy in. In the last few weeks I had noticed he was missing some of his fins, so I had started changing the water more often. Once he was in his new tank, I also started him on some Pimafix (this is what the "fish expert" at the pet store recommended, and they didn't have any bettafix) for his fins. I followed the dosing directions on the bottle, but on day 5 I noticed he was just a little more lazy than usual. He was still swimming a lot, but just taking a few rests and didn't swim up to me, when usually he would jump up and swim to see me. However, at the time I didn't take this as anything to worry about. However, the next day he was in one spot in the tank for almost the entire day. On the occasion that he would swim to get a breath, he'd go right back down to it afterwards. I started researching why he might be doing this, and just in case I also googled people's experienced with Betta fish and Pimafix. Quite a few people had mentioned that after a few days of medicating with this, their betta had become pretty lethargic. A lot of people were also saying that this medication is unlikely to hurt your fish, so that was relieving. I figured he was just sluggish due to it. Several people had said to do a bigger water change than the bottle recommends to get some of the medication out, so I did a 50% water change. I checked the parameters after and they were still perfect. My betta hung out in the same spot for the rest of the day though. I managed to get him to swim up that evening to eat some food. I gave him a pellet and he couldn't get it down. It's like he couldn't chew it or something, he just spat it right out. So I tried some blackworms and daphnia, he successfully ate most of this - but he did spit out 1 or 2 blackworms. After eating, he went back down to his spot he was all day. I didn't want to do too much else to bother him, so I went to bed and figured I would do a water change in the morning. However, as you know, I found he had passed that morning. I have no idea what happened, or what I could have done to prevent his death.
Other than those 2 things, I can't think of anything else I've done different. His tank mates are still completely okay. A nerite snail, and several cherry shrimp.
I'm not sure if it was old age, the medication, the stress from the tank change, water changes, a combination of these, or something else entirely. I am devastated, I feel like I failed the little guy. I didn't even have time to heal his fins fully before he passed.
Here are some pictures and screenshots from videos of him, so you can see his fins. The first 2 are from August and October 2021 (they were the best ones I could find to show his fins, but I'm not sure when he actually started losing them, as I only really noticed in the last month).
The second one was taken JUST before putting him in his new tank. I did notice some regrowth during the time in his new tank, the ragged parts at the end of his tail had began to even out.
Thank you, any help you can offer would be so greatly appreciated. Please, let me know if I did something wrong. I don't want to make any of the same mistakes with my next fish. I know I should have noticed his tail faster, and done water changes in his old tank more often, but I won't make this mistake again.
Also, while I have you here - any recommendations for plecos that work well in an 8-9 gallon tank with a betta fish? Or other bottom-feeding fish.
