Betta Fish Forum banner

Help! Beginners bad luck :/

2K views 20 replies 7 participants last post by  Mbpoppy 
#1 ·
Today I was deeply saddened to wake up to my new baby dead! I had tried to treat him before but I wasn't sure what to do other than put him in a small cup from where he came from. I got this sweet baby on valentine's day and was so excited because I always wanted one. I bought him a 5.5-gallon tank, heater (temp was 75F), filter, decorations, conditioner, and of course food. I conditioned the water and let it cycle for about 15 minutes before I put him in. I also cut a water bottle so the filter wouldn't disrupt his swimming because the flow was too hard. I also fed him 2-3 pellets twice a day. Every day I would leave the light on in the morning and turn it off around 9 or 10 pm. I did test the water twice, once at the pet store and once with some test I bought. They said the water was fine but deep inside I feel as though it was and I feel like a bad pet mom. Yesterday he was acting strange, looked kinda depressed with his fins closed, so I quickly googled what I could to help the poor baby but it was either too late or just not good enough. I did a 50% water change and cycled it again before I put him in but then I panicked because he was struggling, even more, to swim so I returned him to his small cup. Slowly watching him died killed me inside and I'm so torn and still couldn't figure out what was the problem. Please help with maybe what could have happened!
 

Attachments

See less See more
2
#2 ·
Very sorry for the loss of your buddy.

Well... I'd say it's possible he was sick already, and the stress of moving to a new home aggravated things. But going forward? Improvements I'd make would be... heater to 78-80, 75 is too cold. If it was a new tank 15m isn't enough to cycle it unless you used media from other tanks or a bio booster for beneficial bacteria. The light could be cut down to 12 hours or less.
Somewhere around here is a nitrogen cycle post that might help you.

Big water changes on a new tank without something like stability (seachem) or fluvals bio booster, or even api's stresszyme would just start the tank all over again at 0. They can also be incredibly stressful on the fish. :\

There's so many things can go wrong with a new tank and a new fish, it's hard to know exactly what it was without all of the specifics of the tank and routines. It can be a hard learning curve but incredibly rewarding when you have a happy, healthy betta buddy.
 
#4 ·
Sorry about your Betta. You are not a bad owner. This has happened to those of us with tons of experience. However, it would really help if you could fill out this form even though he has passed. It might help us pinpoint areas that need attention.

https://www.bettafish.com/99-betta-...-out-form-so-we-can-best-help-your-betta.html

Just to clarify for you, "cycling" a tank is not the same as letting it run for a few minutes. Cycling is a specific process in which good bacteria is grown which makes the tank safer. Here's a link to this Forum's tutorial:

https://www.bettafish.com/30-betta-fish-care/507585-cycling-two-sentence-tutorial.html

Could you tell if his stomach was bloated? Did he lose color or remain vibrant? Was he eating?

Thank you and, again, so sorry.
 
#5 · (Edited)
He was a double tail who had black gills, which I'm not sure is normal but could've been. I do need to check for ammonia again at the local pet store for the water as I did not ask for the numbers, I would need to update tomorrow. But I do have the rest of the info
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
pH: 6.0
Hardness (GH): 120
Alkalinity (KH): 40
I have a feeling it was ammonia poisoning as I do not have this information, but I could be wrong. He was fine when I got him only until Saturday morning he was only refusing to eat and just laid at the bottom of the tank only to come up to the surface to gasp for air. It wasn't only until that night when he started to have difficulty swimming and gasping constantly. I was going to change the water that morning but the gravel vacuum I had bought had not arrived yet so I wanted to wait until I had it. I did try to not let his food fall as I would just use a bottle cap to scoop up what he didn't eat but of course, I couldn't clean his poop. Overall everything was fine up until that point. I fed his twice a day, 3 pellets but he did look to seem like he was bloated so I was going to cut down to just 2 pellets. I tried not to watch him too much as I thought it would stress him but would occasionally check up on how he was doing. He also jumped a lot which worried me but Google didn't really help with why he did this so often. His fins also looked closed but didn't look like they were rotting, just sad. I did try to help him but I probably made it worse by adding him into the small cup with sadly only warm tap water. I hope this bit of information is helpful. Thank you for your help!
 
#17 ·
He was a double tail who had black gills, which I'm not sure is normal but could've been. I do need to check for ammonia again at the local pet store for the water as I did not ask for the numbers, I would need to update tomorrow. But I do have the rest of the info
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
pH: 6.0
Hardness (GH): 120
Alkalinity (KH): 40
I have a feeling it was ammonia poisoning as I do not have this information, but I could be wrong. He was fine when I got him only until Saturday morning he was only refusing to eat and just laid at the bottom of the tank only to come up to the surface to gasp for air. It wasn't only until that night when he started to have difficulty swimming and gasping constantly. I was going to change the water that morning but the gravel vacuum I had bought had not arrived yet so I wanted to wait until I had it. I did try to not let his food fall as I would just use a bottle cap to scoop up what he didn't eat but of course, I couldn't clean his poop. Overall everything was fine up until that point. I fed his twice a day, 3 pellets but he did look to seem like he was bloated so I was going to cut down to just 2 pellets. I tried not to watch him too much as I thought it would stress him but would occasionally check up on how he was doing. He also jumped a lot which worried me but Google didn't really help with why he did this so often. His fins also looked closed but didn't look like they were rotting, just sad. I did try to help him but I probably made it worse by adding him into the small cup with sadly only warm tap water. I hope this bit of information is helpful. Thank you for your help!

I am so sorry for your loss. :'(


Did the pet store use strips to test your water? Strips are only accurate the moment you open the bottle. Our local Petco had MAJOR issues with the water. I had them open a Master Kit and test. The ammonia was so high, it was DARK. They tested with the strips, and it read "normal". They HAVE to use the strips per Company rules, but also use the drops for more accuracy.


A true cycle takes about 6 weeks, and 1 or 2 pellets 1x a day is better.


As others have said, he could have already been sick.
 
  • Like
Reactions: pnwbetta
#7 ·
So... a few things stand out here and not all of them were anything you’d know about right off the bat.

Ph sounds really low. Even if you’re using test strips (I’m thinking you are with those numbers) which are notoriously off a ‘low’ reading should should be mid to upper 6’s.

Acclimating the fish is important from their cup even to the new water. There’s various ways of doing this but making sure the temps match and such is key.

However none of that is as important as..

Top fin water conditioner is suspect. Use something like Prime going forward. I’ve come across several others who used top fin and had early fish deaths. Sometimes our tap water has extra chlorine and chloramine and a diluted conditioner like top fins betta conditioner may not be the best.

Also you mentioned that you put him in the cup again with just tap water. Did you treat the tap water? That would have to be done no matter what before fish are in the water.
If he was in untreated tap water he may have been trying to jump out of it as it’s toxic to fish.

There’s a lot going on here but it can be addressed for future fish to have long happy healthy lives.
 
#8 ·
I left it untreated as I suspected the conditioner was probably not the best for him but he was trying to jump while he was in the tank before I had switched him to the cup. Would I need to do a 100% water change to get rid of the top fin conditioner? Or do 50% with Prime?
 
#9 ·
Update
Just tested the water again at the pet store
Ammonia: 0
Nitrate: 0
Nitrite: 0
Hardness: 75
Chlorine: 0
Alkalinity: 120
Ph: 7.0

I also bought a master test kit and will be checking tomorrow to see if it changes. Also bought a new heater and Prime conditioner. I hope this new fella will turn out okay.
 
#12 ·
Update #2
Got another male double tail betta. Not sure if I should keep the water I had for the other fish or would it be too risky because it does have the conditioner I used before I got prime. Is it fine to put him in the same water if the results were fine or should I do a water change?
Also thanks to everyone helping me!
 
#19 ·
I love your new boy! Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful! :thumbsup:

And I love DT Betta. I've had several and I found they need a different sort of care. As I mentioned before, their body shape makes them more prone to bloat and other swimming issues. To avoid this, I treated them the same as I do my Giant Betta: Three meals per day with one being frozen Bloodworms, Brine Shrimp, "Mini" Bloodworms (mosquito larva). Two pellets with the other two meals. Usually I judge how many pellets to feed by their bellies being gently rounded. I do not follow this with the DT.

As far as the death of your other lovely boy, I do not believe anything you did or used harmed him. It is doubtful the filter flow exacerbated his demise. Unless it blew him all over the tank and there was absolutely nowhere in the tank he could find calm surface water it was not too strong.

And, while I prefer Prime, that Top-Fin is responsible for the early death of other fish is purely a guess based on anecdotal evidence.

Sometimes fish just die. No rhyme or reason. I have had healthy, active Betta be fine when I turned out the lights and dead in the morning. Sometimes they are borderline ill when we buy them and the transition from a cup to a larger tank stresses them out just enough to give whatever they have a foothold.

FWIW, I hear all of the time that test strips aren't accurate. I use test strips AND liquid and have never found any significant difference between the readings. I recommend the Master Test Kit because there is more bang for the buck. Stores, unfortunately, often use outdated/expired merchandise rather than throw them away. This includes test strips and food. I have also seen them use the strips wrong by shaking them.
 
#20 ·
Hi, next time you clean his tank, take the decor and give it a sniff make sure there's no chemical smells. I'm not familiar with those decorations (which is probably a good thing).

Also, is that plant plastic? You can feel it or run some pantyhose over it to see if it snags. I'd really hate it for him to snag and tear his beautiful fins on it.
 
#21 ·
Hi! By the way, here are my two cents for you... I wanted to mention to be aware that there are different sizes of food pellets. You commented that you have New Life Spectrum Betta pellets. Check the tub to see what the size of the pellets are, mine are the Small (.5mm - .75mm). The directions on the tub advise that food should be eaten within 60 seconds or less - your boy would be in the "less" range.


Also, another option could be the Omega One freezedried bloodworms. Although I don't have the varied menu that other members provide their fishy buddies, it is definitely important to give them the extra nutritional value and so my boys get one or two small pieces daily or so.


Additionally, you might consider utilizing a skip day where you don't feed your boy. I've done this on occasion although I find it extremely challenging to walk by a (divided) tank where I have two wiggly bodies nearly plastered to the nearest tank wall, giving me the Silent Song of their People LOL
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top