This is getting frustrating....

[DragonFish]

So, a little bit of a back story here.....
With the exception of my two females(Jinx and Tetsuya)All the fish that I have in the RIP part of my siggy died in one of my two 2.5 gallon critter keepers. And now Shiro-chan is suddenly lethargic and refusing food :/ GAH! I don't understand!! No one seems to last longer then a month in my critter keepers, every one that died obviously died of something different too. I can't see what I'm doing wrong, I keep up with my water changes, they're fed the same things as my others in the cycled tanks.....I don't understand. :/ After each fish had died, the keepers and decor were rinsed thoroughly with hot water and then left alone, nice and dry, for at least a few days....and, like I said before, each betta has had something different....so I am TOTALLY stumped. >_<;
It can't be my water either, Max has been in an uncycled 2 gallon tank the entire 6 months we've had him and hes thriving, though hes not in a critter keeper.....I just really want to hit my head on the wall repeatedly right now :/ If Shiro-chan dies, I'm debating on either throwing the whole thing out or just giving it all a soak in bleach THEN vinegar THEN bleach again >__<; Ugh......

Anyone? Help? :/ I'm at a complete loss and I'm desperate, it wold just kill me to loose my precious Shiro-chan ......I'll do ANYTHING.
As far as his symptoms and everything...
This all started out yesterday really, I found him laying on the bottom and hiding behind the heater(temp is a steady 79-80 degrees, theres no way he could be cold.....)as opposed to swimming around and hanging out in the front of the tank, watching me. He just had a WC the night before, so his water was nice and clean. He spit out breakfast, spit out dinner, and doesn't even try to eat today :/ I changed his water today as well, rinsing out everything in hot water, replace it and accumulated him....no difference. And now his fins are clamped and hes flashing UGH!! I don't understand! Physically, he looks just fine, and he still responds to me peeking into his tank....but then when I lean back he goes back to this odd behavior. Is there anything I can do? Anything I should try? ANY suggestions at all? Please....I'm desperate...:/

[Scienceluvr8]

Well, just to see if its actually the tank itself, if possible try moving him to another tank, or some other temporary home. I'm thinking it may be something with the acrylic...I'm not really sure what though....that is affecting them. Sorry I'm not much help, that's really all I could think of. Try that and if he gets better, there is truly something wrong with the tank itself. Hope your fish gets better :)

[Romad]

So sorry you're having all this trouble. My only suggestion would be to remove everything from the tank except for silk or plastic plants and the heater. I suspect that one of my aquarium caves got to one of my CT males because even though it looked safe, when I scaped at the paint with my fingernail, it flaked off. It's possible that something was leeching into the water (altho. i'll never really know for sure).

Like you, I knew it wasn't my water bc I use the same water for all my tanks and it wasn't like he was diseased from another fish source since he was alone in his tank. After scratching my head over and over - it was the only thing that was different from the other tanks.

I hope you figure it out soon. I'm crossing my fingers for you and your fish.

[DragonFish]

Thank you both so much for your responces, I really do approciate your help :)

I would move him out, but I have no other place to put him without moving a fish into that tank.....and if it is something to do with the tank then I definitly don't want to put another fish in there....perhaps I can figure out something, it can't hurt. But....is it possible for this to just now be showing up after a month if it had something to do with the tank itself...?

All thats in there actually is a clay pot for a cave and a single silk plant....it's bare-bottom too. I dunno, maybe it could be the silk plant I have....? I could snag another one out of one of my other tanks and try that out....but then again, same plant has been in there the whole time....Perhaps it's just waring down and leeching something..?

[doggyhog]

Maybe get a new plant?

I really really hope Shiro Chan makes it!!!!!!

[DragonFish]

Gah, okay, hes even worse this morning :/ Ugh.....in desperation I've set up one of my old half gallon bowls with some warm, conditioned, salted water and a whole different plant(I know this plant is a good one, I've had it for years and keep it as a spare because its small. Never had issues with it). I'm accumulating him now and I'll see how he does...if he starts perking up, then...I'm not sure what to do....would bleaching everything be a good idea? Would it kill whatever might be in there? I couldn't afford a whole other tank :/

[dramaqueen]

I think bleaching it would be worth a try as long as its rinsed REALLY good.

[DragonFish]

lol, No worries there. I'll be rinsin' until my hands hurt, I'm way paranoid :P Though I think if we have vinegar, I might try that instead.....

[DragonFish]

hOkay, hes in the bowl and seems to be doing a tiny bit better..... swimming around a little more and even ate a bit, however I'm noticing something now. He has a single black spot on him. Like....picture a Ich spot, only black. I've never seen anything like that before, NO clue what it might be O.o; And also the very edge of his tail looks like theres a very small small chunk missing and its bloody :'( Ugh, not sure how that happened....but its really small, and theres some salt in his water, so hopefully that'll help.....

Any suggestions on what that spot might be...?

Here, I took some pictures in the hopes of maybe seeing something else that I couldn't detect before....unfortunately I don't see anything out of the ordinary beside the spot, but here are a couple pics anyway...perhaps someone with better eyes can find something.

His tail:


The black spot(....Maybe this is scaring me because I've watched too many Pirate movies....):

[DragonFish]

Another little update(tired of me yet :P):

Hes not 100% yet, but Shiro-chan has definitely perked up and is no longer sitting on the bottom though it seems like hes having a little bit of a hard time swimming....like, his fins aren't quite obeying him. But, hes slowly getting better as the time passes. The black spot is gone now...so I dunno what the deal was with that O.o; Anyway....looks like he'll be living in the half gallon for a bit while I do a thorough cleaning of his tank :/ Ugh....