Dead but still need help!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[monica12980]

What size is your tank? small less than a gallon
What temperature is your tank? regular water
Does your tank have a filter? no

Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? no
Is your tank heated? no
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? no

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? nutrafin betta food flake mix with pellets
How often do you feed your betta fish? 1-3 pellets/flakes daily

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? 1 per week
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 100%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? enough api salt

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? fins always folded
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? no until days before death
When did you start noticing the symptoms? 1 month ago
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? no
Does your fish have any history of being ill? no
How old is your fish (approximately)? 8 months old?

[DiiQue]

Ummm... not clear what you need help with.. please elaborate.

[monica12980]

how did she die? what disease?

[registereduser]

awesome thread title!

[registereduser]

What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? enough api salt

No conditioner to remove chlorine? Why add salt?

[Alcemistnv]

if you're wondering why you fish died, it's probably because you didn't do enough water changes. A tank that small needs water changes evry other day IMO, or one 100% and one 50% a week.

I do believe OFL has a sticky of the changes you need for the tank.

It alsos ounds like the fish was clamped, probably because it was sick, and adding the salt probably didn't help either :/

[DiiQue]

Originally Posted by monica12980

how did she die? what disease?

it was probably a combination of things... though this is just a guess. Just taking the info you gave, the little guy probably didnt have the best of conditions in which he lived. Please dont take this as a negative - I lost way more fish that you did until I learned from this site. My one betta, Dr. Z, is living testament to the knowledge one can gain here.

Anyways, with the size of your tank, you would have needed to do more water changes - not the once a week you were doing. Also the clamped fins is a tell-tale sign that something was not right... as registereduser said, you need to use some sort of water conditioner, which would remove chlorine from your tap water - which is deadly to our fishy friends. Also, the water temp was most likely too cold for the guy.. to sum it up, with these wrong conditions, he was in an environment where he would have gotten sick easily.

Anyways, sorry for your lost and definitely browse this site and learn as I did. Fishy #2 will thank you for it. =) Dont hesitate to PM if you have other questions or concerns.

[Tikibirds]

He could of died from various differea few things, however a few things stick out.

1) tank size - IMO, I feel that they should have at least 3 gallons of water. However a 1 gallon IS doable but it requires more matience - ie, water changes. In general, the larger the tank, the easier they are to maintain

2) Lack of a heater - Despite what many people seem to think, bettas need heaters, unless you live in like Thailand. If they are constintly exposed to cold water - under about 78 degreese - they become more suspectible to disease. Tank size is important for this becuase smaller tanks are harder to heat. Many heaters are too tall to fit in smaller tanks or they are not adjustable. SOme like the Hagen 25 watt are on the short side so they work well.

3) Water conditioner. I also didn't use it when i first started and my fish kept dying in less then a week. Finally I figured out they were dying from heavy metal pisioning from whatever they add to tap water. There are many good brands of water conditioner. Prime and Stress coat seem to be the most popular.

4) Fins always folded. I am also assuming that by this you mean clamped fins. DId they look all closed up - like this (pic stolen from google)


Clamped fins are usually one of the first signs that something is wrong, however that "something" does not always mean it's sick per se. It could indicate something is wrong with the water like its too cold or the ammonia is getting too high.

It's really hard to say exactly why the fish died but if you fix the problems we have pointed out - your next betta should be a happy fishie.

[MyRainbowBettaFish]

I agree with the above posters, i am still unclear on what they want?
Salt shouldnt be added for more than a week at a time, as it can weaken the immune system and cause internal damage. Was the salt fully dissolved?