Today my poor betta died. He was acting all depressed and lying on the bottom when I turned on the overhead light to feed the fish but when I turned it off he would swim around. That was yesterday.
When I got home from school today, I saw him lying dead on the gravel. He used to be red with bits of white at the tips but when he died his body turned off-white. Also the scales on his head seemed to have fallen off but that may just be a natural.
Anyways, after I took him out, I was about to do a water change (I have other fish and shrimp in the tank) when I saw this reddish-brownish thing on the bottom that seemed to be moving on its own. I thought it was a long piece of feces at first so I stuck my hand in and poked at it. Lo and behold, it curled up. So I took it out of the water and began taking pictures. After about 5 minutes out of water, it stopped moving so I assume it's dead.
As you can see it's pretty small. About the diameter of a penny. Also the body was transparent and I could see a red coil in it.
Does anyone know what it is and if it may be the cause of my betta's death? I'm planning to freeze it for now but once I'm done with a school project, I'm gonna put it under a microscope and have a look.
I think my tank may be around 15 liters. My thermometer broke and I haven't bought another but it feels around room temperature. It has a filter. It has an air stone. It has a heater but it's usually not on. I have 3 red Mickey platys, 5 red zebras, 6 glass fish, 4 gold dojo loach, 3 amano shrimps, another male betta (they get along well, sometimes flare at each other but usually keep to their own corners), 1 moss ball and 4 no-idea plants.
I usually feed them micro-pellets but sometimes I thrown in some flakes. They get a meal once or twice a day.
Usually weekly 50% water changes. I add in API Aquarium Salt, JBL Denitrol, and Nutrafin Aqua Plus every time I do a water change.
Haven't tested my parameters but they shouldn't be off the charts what with live shrimps, nitrifying bacteria and plants.
No change in appearance before death. Mopey when lights were on. Didn't eat. No treatment beyond trying to encourage him to swim and eat. He may have had a slight case of ich half a year ago but it was gone within a week. I've had him for a year but I don't know how old he was when I got him.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'll have to go back to typing up a report and sniffing over my poor Red.
When I got home from school today, I saw him lying dead on the gravel. He used to be red with bits of white at the tips but when he died his body turned off-white. Also the scales on his head seemed to have fallen off but that may just be a natural.
Anyways, after I took him out, I was about to do a water change (I have other fish and shrimp in the tank) when I saw this reddish-brownish thing on the bottom that seemed to be moving on its own. I thought it was a long piece of feces at first so I stuck my hand in and poked at it. Lo and behold, it curled up. So I took it out of the water and began taking pictures. After about 5 minutes out of water, it stopped moving so I assume it's dead.
As you can see it's pretty small. About the diameter of a penny. Also the body was transparent and I could see a red coil in it.
Does anyone know what it is and if it may be the cause of my betta's death? I'm planning to freeze it for now but once I'm done with a school project, I'm gonna put it under a microscope and have a look.
I think my tank may be around 15 liters. My thermometer broke and I haven't bought another but it feels around room temperature. It has a filter. It has an air stone. It has a heater but it's usually not on. I have 3 red Mickey platys, 5 red zebras, 6 glass fish, 4 gold dojo loach, 3 amano shrimps, another male betta (they get along well, sometimes flare at each other but usually keep to their own corners), 1 moss ball and 4 no-idea plants.
I usually feed them micro-pellets but sometimes I thrown in some flakes. They get a meal once or twice a day.
Usually weekly 50% water changes. I add in API Aquarium Salt, JBL Denitrol, and Nutrafin Aqua Plus every time I do a water change.
Haven't tested my parameters but they shouldn't be off the charts what with live shrimps, nitrifying bacteria and plants.
No change in appearance before death. Mopey when lights were on. Didn't eat. No treatment beyond trying to encourage him to swim and eat. He may have had a slight case of ich half a year ago but it was gone within a week. I've had him for a year but I don't know how old he was when I got him.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'll have to go back to typing up a report and sniffing over my poor Red.