Journal of Woes

[Tappy4me]

I haven't been on the site in awhile...but I've lost a bunch of my bettas recently. I went on a 8 day trip a month ago, and left my fish in my mom's care. She overfed them (I was going to fast them for the week, but told her it was OK to feed the middle of the week, but she gave too much) and they ended up all having horrible fin rot from bad water conditions...I did a bunch of water changes and thought I had gotten everything under control. But 2 weeks after I got back, Tango the orange dalmation VT passed. Over this past week, Maiya (my newest cambodian crowntail female baby) passed...and just today, Sapphira, my royal blue crowntail female passed. (She was the healthiest one, and gave no indications of being sick.) Diego has hardly any tail...I think I have the infection stopped, but its not growing back. I'm not hopeful at this point. Shadow is tailbiting horribly, and Draco has some weird thing going on where his back is curved up like a L. No matter how many water changes I've been doing, they just keep dropping like flies. Remi died while I was gone on the trip...He was really sick prior, and I knew he wasn't going to make it.

Red died awhile back, as did another I had gotten shortly afterwards. (Was a 'rescue' that didn't make it.)
I just don't get it...I haven't been doing anything differently, but they're dropping like flies. I'm really bummed out....

[dramaqueen]

I'm so sorry for your losses. It's hard enough to lose just one.

[Tappy4me]

And now my apple snail of 8 months just passed away. I noticed he closed his shell and stopped moving around 4 days ago. Today I took him out and he was definitely dead. (I did the sniff test every day) I don't know what the heck is going on. Water parameters should be fine...I do 3 cleanings a week (2.5 gal tanks, heated; 1 filtered)...which has always been just fine for keeping ammonia levels down. *sigh*

Well, after these last 3 go, I'll bleach all the plants/substrate and go pick out 1 or 2 more bettas. I'm going to go with plakats from now on...I'm tired of dealing with my long finned beauties either getting fin rot despite immaculate water conditions (I tested water parameters for awhile, and they still got it) or being tail biters. Plakats are so much hardier.

[Romad]

Sorry to hear about all of your fish losses :( It doesn't really make sense that you lost all of those fish because of one overfeeding (tho. not impossible I guess)

Are you sure your water levels are good? And what are you using for water conditioner?

As for your water source, did the city or town add something to it? Sometimes they flush systems out with chlorine etc.

[Tappy4me]

Originally Posted by Romad

Sorry to hear about all of your fish losses :( It doesn't really make sense that you lost all of those fish because of one overfeeding (tho. not impossible I guess)

Are you sure your water levels are good? And what are you using for water conditioner?

As for your water source, did the city or town add something to it? Sometimes they flush systems out with chlorine etc.

I use API tap water conditioner alternating once in awhile with Prime, when more stress coat is needed.

Pretty sure water parameters were fine..I change water so often, that it made no sense to continuously check for stuff. (Usually do 2 changes during the week, a 25% change and a 50% change, then a full change every week and a half of the full 2.5 gallon tanks)

The over feeding is the only thing I can think of that has been different....no new plants/decorations for months. I'd had the snail successfully for 8 months, and the current fish for about a year, aside from Diego who I've had less.

We have a private well, (which I've been using over 11 years with no problems) so nothing has been added to it. The only thing that has been different lately is that we've been having alot of rain...so maybe there's some extra minerals in the water...but even with that, the water conditioners should be taking out any heavy stuff.

I'm just quite puzzled.