How did my betta die? :'(

[kefinlin]

Hi, I am a new fish keeper and my fish died today and I want to find out why. I got Confetticake 2 months ago. His colors were so unique and I knew he was the one I wanted. When I first got him, he was off-white and had a blue heart on his double tail (first pic).

However, about 3 days ago, he started to change colors. His body and fins started changing black/grey (second pic), but other than that, he still acted normal and ate his pellets and was actively swimming. I started searching online what might have caused the color change, and got a lot of results of "marble gene." I performed a 50% water change just in case.

2 days passed and he was okay until this morning, when I found him at the bottom of the tank and was leaning was on his side. I immediately performed a 100% water change because I thought it may have been something in the water. However, when I came back from school today, I found him dead and small pieces of his fins had fallen off and dispersed throughout his tank.... How did he die???

He lived in a 1 gallon tank alone with his rock, fake plant, and Petco gravel. He has a heater, but doesn't have a filter. I made 100% water changes with "Bettabowl Plus" dechlorinator every 5 days. Water temp was always kept at 75-80 degrees and I always make sure the water temp are the same when changing water. I fed him 6 pellets a day and always fed him one pellet at a time just to be sure the no leftover food was left in his water.

RIP my poor Confetticake

[Fabian]

Next time when you keeps bettas again,get another tank but this time get a 5 gallon.
I do not suggest adding the fake plants as they may rip your bettas fins.
When your betta is in a 1 gallon you should do 50 or 100% water changes a day instead of 100% every 5 days.

[asukabetta]

I think it caught the mystery disease. 1 gallon is fine for a betta as long the proper water changes were done :) but I'm not going to mention housing further, as it is not the place for it, I leave you with the post about the mystery disease and you can see it's symptoms and see if it was the same thing.

http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=90086

[ChoclateBetta]

Great looking Betta. Might be ammonia poisoning.

[ANHEL123]

i agree with asukabetta completely. Well i didn't read the symptoms for mystery disease though.But It kind of mystery the way your betta died. So sorry. But it really not because of the tank size or plants ,or your water changes. I also do 100% water changes only, sometimes. So it really mystery the way he died. Looks like everything you was doing if fine. You sure you didn't forget to put water conditioner? Changing color can be due to marbling and if he was acting normal and eating i am sure non of the people on the forum would not recommend you to treat him anyway .
One question when you do 100% water changes always introduce betta slowly to the new water. Let him acclimate by adding slowly water to his changing cup and let him get used to it for 3-4 min and do it for a few times. Then let him go to the tank with new water.
Don't get discourage though. It happened a lot. No matter how long you have bettas we always learning and at any time they can get sick no matter how good care you give him.
Definitely disinfect the tank and everything in the tank before you put another betta in there. Also just in case when you go to the pet store check your water. They will do it for you in the store. I would think that your water is fine since he was fine for 4 month but i still will do it.

[AyalaCookiejar]

I don't think it was the mystery disease. It kills within 12-24 hours and the discoloration is grey and I think usually starts at the tip of the tail and spreads to the body. It could have been ammonia poisoning. Test your tap water. I had my Betta for 10 months before finding out that there is ammonia in my tap water. Cycling the tank and using Seachem Prime water conditioner will pretty much rule out any ammonia in the tap water. Prime temporarily neutralizes ammonia, but long enough so that a cycled tank can get rid of it.

The changed colors look more like marbling to me.

[ChoclateBetta]

The Plastic plant might be bad.

[AyalaCookiejar]

Probably, but I don't think that is why he passed away.

[ChoclateBetta]

I know but the more problems we find will help them avoid this again. Weird thing I have never heard of a CB dieing.

[ANHEL123]

I agree first step go to pet store and check your water. And if it is ammonia there is way to manage that problem. Let us know so we can help you. I still think it can be something else too.