Just lost my Beta, what did I do wrong???

[ron89]

Maybe someone can help me. My beta was about a year and a half to two years old. We have had him a little over a year. About 3 to 4 weeks ago I put him into a 10 gallon tank from a 2.5 gal. tank and added 4 mollies. Everything seemed to be ok, he was not eating as much as he use to, but he was still eating so I didn't worry too much about that. This past tuesday night he was acting a little strange, not very active, but looked fine. Wednesday morning when I got up he was at the top of the tank breathing funny and had popeye. I went to the pet store and they gave me melafix, I came home at lunch time and started a dose of that, when I came home from work that evening he seemed the same, I did research on the internet and seen where it says melafix was bad for betas, so I went back to the pet store and they gave me betafix and I came home and moved him to a seperate tank and started using the betafix and put a little aquarium salt in as well. He didn't seem to get much better, but it wasnt getting any worse either. Tonight, saturday he seemed to be a little more active and then all of a sudden he started going crazy swimming around the tank for about 4 or 5 min. then he went to the bottom of the tank and passed. Any ideas of what went wrong? I lost a good friend tonight. Thanks rip Walter

[hermeh]

I think melafix damages your fish's labyrinth organ. I'm sorry for your loss. I recommend not to use melafix.

[ron89]

I only gave on dose of the melafix before I found out it wasnt good, I then put him in a different tank and started him on betafix. I trusted the pet store... big mistake

[hermeh]

Ya most times the pet store employees don't nkow much about bettas or fish in general.

[bahamut285]

Hello Ron, I'm sorry for your loss, welcome to the forum though!

Do you mind quickly skimming through the below questions to find out what you know? Maybe we can find out what happened to your good friend!

Housing
What size is your tank?
What temperature is your tank?
Does your tank have a filter?
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration?
Is your tank heated?
What tank mates does your betta fish live with?

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish?
How often do you feed your betta fish?

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change?
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change?
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change?

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?

Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
pH:
Hardness:
Alkalinity:

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed?
How has your betta fish's behavior changed?
When did you start noticing the symptoms?
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how?
Does your fish have any history of being ill?
How old is your fish (approximately)?

[ron89]

Housing
What size is your tank? 10 Gal.
What temperature is your tank? 80
Does your tank have a filter? yes
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? no
Is your tank heated? yes
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? 4 mollies

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? beta pellets
How often do you feed your betta fish? morning and evening

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? weekly
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 50 %
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? the chloring remover

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters? no

Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
pH:
Hardness:
Alkalinity:

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? he has popeye and breathing heavy
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? staying at the top of the tank
When did you start noticing the symptoms? tues. night
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? 1 does of melafix, then moved out of tank and started on betafix and and aquarium salt
Does your fish have any history of being ill? When my daughter got him, he was not being fed and his talk was dirty, that was 14 months ago and after a few weeks he was doing very well.
How old is your fish (approximately)? approx. 2 years or a little under

[Sakura8]

Hi ron89 and welcome to the forum. I'm very sorry for your loss. Your guy, Walter (?), was quite old for a betta. Their average lifespan is 1-3 years, with anything over 4 being amazing. On top of the time you owned him, most pet store bettas are at least 6 months to a year old by the time they hit the shelves. Based on this information, I wonder if Walter succumbed to complications from old age. The move from his small tank may have been coincidental. May I ask if the 10g was cycled and the filter mature when you added him in?

[ron89]

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by cycled and filter matured first. After I set the tank up, I put Walter in a plastic back and put him in the 10gal water and added water every 10 min. so it wasn't a shock to him when I put him all the way in.

[Sakura8]

Ah. So he definitely didn't get shocked by the transfer. That's good news. :)

What I mean by cycled is the nitrogen cycle. This is a cycle that your filter goes through to create good bacteria that eats ammonia, which is part of the waste your fish put out through their gills. If your tank didn't go through this cycle (which can take 4-6 weeks), then it's possible the ammonia level in your tank got too high and caused Walter to become ill.

[ron89]

then the answer to that would be no, it was a new setup. Once I had everything going and the water up to temp, thats when I started transferring him.