I'm so sad right now!

[lilfishie]

A little back ground. I have been keeping bettas for two years now. I was taking down a ten gallon tank and moved my beta from it to a 55 gal tank with other occupants being bosemani rainbows and a couple killifish and a common pleco. Anyway, I acclimated him this afternoon over a period of about 35 minutes. I left to take my son to dinner for his birthday and got home not too long ago to find my little guy had passed. He was in perfectly healthy condition when I acclimated him to the tank. When I found him his fins were completely shredded and he was deceased. Water parameters are perfect. Ammonia, nitrites, nitrates all 0, ph 7.6.

What would cause this? And in a matter of hours.

He was so beautiful. I'm gonna miss him.

[dukie1346]

That's terrible!
Maybe he got in a fight with another fish over all the new space?
He was beautiful:(

[lilfishie]

Is it possible the bacteria that causes fin rot is so high in consentration that it would cause this so quickly but not affect the othe fish. I cant see that happening really. There is no one in the tank that would fight with him. I have had the bosemani rainbows with another betta for over a year until I moved them to this tank about 7-8 months ago. I feel so bad for him.

[Chicklet]

Alot of different fish finds the long flowing tails of a betta very attractive,

One of the other inhabitants found his likewise,
Only takes a very short while for this to happen and it always ends in the demise of the betta if not caught quckly.

That is almost guaranteed as to what happened,

[lilfishie]

Okay, well we wont be putting any more bettas in that tank. Thanks for the insight. I'm still sick about it. I hate that I put him in that situation. I wish I hadnt gone out and caught it before it got bad.
Thanks for the help.

I'll be hangin around I think. I would like to set up a few 10 gal tanks for betta only tanks. I have a 20 long I can section off. I think thats what I will do. I'll keep you all posted on the new tank.

[Adastra]

My guess is the killifish and rainbows ripped the poor fish to shreds. They can be quite aggressive, and are often in species-only tanks for this reason. Bettas are extremely slow-moving due to their excessive finnage, so they just don't stand a chance against aggressive, more streamlined fish.

Your best bet is to keep bettas by themselves or with peaceful bottom dwellers like pygmy cories.

Sorry for your loss.

[lilfishie]

I dont know if it was the bosemanis or the killies. I had another betta for two years. He was in a 30 gallon tank with three of the same bosemanis and some chocolate killi's for a year and a half. Thats when I moved the bosemanis to the 55 with a different species of killis. I since managed to save a couple bosemani rainbow babies that hatched in the 55. Maybe they got more aggressive with the babies in the tank. I dont know who did it, but it was surprising. I have a betta in with a pair of Fundulopanchax Sjoestedti Niger Delta's. No aggression at all between them either. But I will not put another one in the 55 gal tank.
Thanks everyone.