My betta fish Paul died about a week ago :( I'm purchasing a new fish tomorrow (I don't like the idea of replacing him, but I'm a college student and am used to seeing a fish in my dorm.) He was acting ill for about a week before his death, and I tried researching betta illnesses but his symptoms didn't seem to match anything online. I'm terrified something similar will happen to my new fish, and was wondering if someone more experienced could tell me what might have gone wrong and what I can do to prevent this from happening again.
Paul's symptoms:
Not eating
Hiding in a corner near the bottom of the tank and only coming up for air- unusual, as he was a very active, social fish
He turned color from a deep blue to green
Tips of his fins remained their original blue color until the day before his death, when they turned black
No swelling of his belly, fuzziness, gill or scale abnormalities, etc.
I'm still confused; any advice would be greatly appreciated.
That could be a number of things, without more details (tank size, filter, heater, water parameters, feeding etc) it's really hard to say. If I was to guess, I'd say the problem may have originated from a gill problem since he was only going up for air (how often?). The coloration change may have also stemmed not only from stress, but a lack of oxygen. Post more details so we can help you out. :)
I had him for 3 1/2 months; he was purchased from Petco as a gift from my roommate. I don't know how old their fish are when they sell them, but I assume he wasn't too old when I got him. He lived in a 2 gallon tank which I cleaned every other night. Diet was a bit of an issue as when I first got him, he refused to eat. I went back to the pet store and purchased several varieties of food but he refused to touch any of them. My roommate thought feeding him tortillas would be a good idea for some reason, and he ate them. He ate them for about 2 weeks until I finally weaned him onto "normal" food, which he ate until he became sick. That's pretty much all the details I think of right now; if you want any more specifics, please let me know.
The tortillas could have done it. I'm too tired to find the exact ingredients in a tortilla, but I'm sure there's something that's not good for a betta in there.
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So confused!
