1 Weeks Vacation....

[Purplely]

What was I thinking (actually what was my local pet store thinking!!).....I am sitting here and Purplely is just eating and eating. I start surfing this page (is there a search function?) and read Betta's will eat until their stomachs explode. Not sure if this is true but his little belly is looking pretty bid right now.

I do not have a tank suction vaccum so I started looking for some sort of tubing that I could use to suck up the worms. I wanted to suck them up somehow because if I tried to scoop them up they would have gone everywhere in the tank. I pulled out my wifes "pampered chief" turkey baster and was just about ready to start sucking up the worms and thought if she caught me with that in the tank I might not hear the end of it.....then it hit me. A simple straw!! I held the top so the air would stay in the straw and then went up to the clump of worms and removed my finger. After about 10 times I pulled out all of the worms! It worked in a pinch!!

Looks like I will be cleaning up poo Saturday morning before we leave so the tank is not too dirty when we get back next Saturday...what a huge mistake!!!!!!!!!

One side of me wants to call the shop and complain. I did say I had only ONE Betta!! Next time I will have to cut a quarter (if that) of the frozen pellet (it is in a foil wrapper and just a little cube the size of a dice).

[MattD]

I think it's a bit of a myth that they'll eat until they burst.

No animal on this planet as far as I'm aware, would eat until they explode purposely, what would be the point of that? Perhaps a starving animal eating too quickly/too much would die, but that's different entirely.

Plus, and I'm sure EVERYONE who has had a Betta will agree, when Bettas aren't interested in food anymore, they just ignore it. After 2 or 3 pieces of brine shrimp, my Betta just wanders around the tank, ignoring me and my attempts to feed him completely. That is how you can tell when they're full, after all. ;)

[Purplely]

I hope you are right. I just came down to check on him and his belly is sticking out pretty far. Had a little scare as he was in the plants and just sitting there with his head down. I thought he was a goner. I move the plant a bit and he swam out. Either he is sick from eating too much food or he got stuck in the plant because of his big belly!!

He is not moving around alot right now.

Are bloodworms a good food for them? After the pet store problems, I am questioning everything they told me right now!

[Dtld9]

I feed my betta bloodworms every other night and he does fine. It's good to vary their diet.

[MattD]

It is most likely constipation making him look bloated. A boiled pea can help with this, although you must not feed him anything else.

[Purplely]

Well, I came down this morning and he was looking better. Moving around more so I think all is better. I still have the vacation thing tomorrow so hopefully he will do well with the tablets. If anything he still looks a little full so I guess that can not be too bad since we are leaving.

When I return next Saturday, how much sould I feed him? Should we give him extra or just his regular feedings?

Also how much bloodworms do you give your betta at one feeding? The "pill pack" was just too big for one betta. I guess I can open one and cut off a piece and feed that to him. Suggestions?

Thanks

[SST]

Just the regular amount of food for feeding will be fine.

I don't know about the frozen bloodworms. I use the freeze dried variety and I'm still trying to figure out how much is too much.

[tophat665]

Originally Posted by Purplely

Also how much bloodworms do you give your betta at one feeding? The "pill pack" was just too big for one betta. I guess I can open one and cut off a piece and feed that to him. Suggestions?

When I feed bloodworms to Dan, I put a cube in about 40 ml of water and feed him about 20 mls of it. Course, he's got Buster and Dexter the ADFs in there with him, so most of that is for them.

Incidentally, I use a turkey baster for frozen food feedings and water conditioner measurements and dosing excel. Really handy gizmo to have. Go to your local supermarket and spring for the five bucks a cheapie one will run you. While you're at it pick up an infant medicine syringe (like a mini turkey baster). Presto - all your chemical measurement needs taken care of. If you ever need to measure medicine by the millilitre, you'll be the cat's pajamas.

[Purplely]

We got home Saturday night and Purplely was dead.........it looks like he died pretty soon after we left because when we returned he was actually floating at the top and starting to decompose. (we were gone for one week). The water was very yellow and his 3 day feeder still was about 50% there.

The kitchen where we kept Purplely had a really strong bad odor. We gave him a cerimonial last rights and quickly flushed him because of the smell. The tank was dumped and put outside because of the smell. The kids were pretty sad.

Not sure what did him in. It could have been the full water change the Thursday before we left (we left on Saturday). After I did it I read how many ony do a 50%. It also could have been the bloodworms. He ate himself silly and never really looked good after that. The last thing (what I am thinking) is the temperature. We keep the house at 70 degrees. When we left the house I did not think about it but dropped the temperature to 65 degrees to conserve. We live in NJ so the nights can still get a little cold.

Your thoughts?

Well, we are going to give the kids a few weeks to decide what they want to do. Of course we have all of the "stuff" bought and now no fish!!

[Flashygrrl]

Sounds like you (or him, really) had a lot working against you.

1. You should have had a heater for him, 70 degrees itself is insanely cold for a Betta.
2. No filter. You said the water was pretty yellow? Probably ammonia or junk from the feeder block, and leftovers from the bloodworm fest. The full water change (never ever advisable in a tank that's not a bowl and no need for it with filtration) only served to stress him out more.

I hope you learn something from this experience...this forum is all about learning and asking questions, but it's extremely important that when given an answer, that answer be followed or stuff like this happens. I'm not saying this to be rude or mean, and I'm sorry if it seems a bit harsh (losing a fish sucks) but hopefully it also serves an example to other new people so they don't have to go through the same thing.