[AngesRadieux]

GAH! I'm so frustrated! I try doing everything right. My three bettas are in a 2.5 gallon, 3 gallon, and 5.5 gallon tank respectively. They all have heaters and I change their water regularly. I supplement their pellets with the occasional treat of frozen bloodworms or brine shrimp and sometimes a freeze-dried bloodworm. But they all seem to give me problem after problem. I get tail-biters, I get fish that were fine the day before suddenly acting sickly and dying within twenty four hours of showing symptoms, etc.

My most recent attempt to do something good for my fishies was to put some live plants in their tanks. Two of my fish are very skittish so I thought putting some live plants for them to hide in might help. My thanks? I go downstairs to feed my fish this morning and I find Brahms with a bit of rust coloring on the edges of his fins, which I'm guessing is the beginning of fin rot. I clean his tank and find the water wysteria seems to have died. I'm guessing the dead plant caused a decline in water quality. I threw out the water wysteria and now Brahms is acclimating to the new tank water. -.-

I'm just so frustrated. Especially because I know people who keep their bettas in unheated, .5 gallon containers with a plastic plant and water changes every one to two weeks. Do they have issues with ripped fins, fin rot, skittish bettas, tail-biters, etc? Nope. One of those fish has been alive for at least three years. I'm glad the fish aren't keeling over within a week, but it does frustrate me a little that their fish are fine when my fish who have warm, clean water and plenty of room to swim just have every problem in the book. My last fish only lived for about three months...

So, my question for my lovely fishies is: WHY? Why must you always have some sort of problem when I'm doing my very best to keep you happy and healthy? /rage

Now whenever I go and get something for my fish, my sister's asks, "Why? It seems like the less you give them the longer they live."

Anyone have any idea why fish in a much worse situation are doing so much better than mine? Or does anyone have similar stories so I don't feel like such a bad betta mom?

 

[lelei]

Wow..I know of a similar story..it's weird, I don't have an answer, only that I can sympathize with you, and your frustration..I have not personally dealt with that type of situation, so I am not sure, why that is happening to you, the only thing I can think of, is water conditioner, (you are using one)? and if the tanks have filters, (some are too strong for betta's) causing problems..do you use an airstone? (aeration in the water, can help) I use one in our Sammy's tank, and he loves the bubbles, some have different personalities, some are skittish, others not at all..how long have you had all 3?

 

[youlovegnats]

Don't worry, it's not just you. Everyone has problems. I recently had an attack of something in my sorority...managed to kill all but one. :/
The dead plant def. had an effect on the fish. One of my DT's died that way.
Fin biters...well there's not much you can do there. I have two of them and they never stop, no matter what I try. All you can do is give them a salt bath every week or so (for a day or two) and help their fins heal up. My HM boy now looks like a DTPK rosetail...*rolls eyes*
You're doing the best you can, and I think that's what matters most - and I'm sure your fish appreciate what you're doing for them (rather than seclude them to 0.5 gals with no heat and huge amounts of ammonia.

 

[Aus]

Yup.

I bought Sid from a pet store. He was thin and sort of droopy, but so sweet.. and had health problem after health problem.. ich, fin rot.. he finally died of columnaris quite suddenly after not responding to treatment for it. He has an underlying problem with parasites that I thought had vanished or cleared up.. but it hadn't. This caused him to be weak and sickly, so yeah. Sick with everything, one disease after another.

I learned: worm your fish, if they look skinny and poop funny, no matter whether it seems to clear up or not.

And the shop I got him from is sister store to my local LFS, which has appallingly unwell bettas as well as a few lucky not-so-sickly ones. Did you happen to get all your fish at the one store? Perhaps whatever conditions they were in prior to you getting them have weakened their immune systems.

I made a post a few days ago, pondering why bettas get sick in nice, clean tanks so I won't reiterate all that here, except to say that as OldFishLady aptly put it: sometimes the dirty water in the LFS is actually preventing ammonia damage due to the water chemistry in the little dirty cup (no, this is not better for the fish! It's just a slower death). Adding clean water can upset that chemistry and cause ammonia burns and sickness.

Plus, some illnesses just love warmer water.. and if the betta is weakened from the stupid little cup, that's all it might need to take over the fish's system...

Wisteria doesn't do well in unfiltered tanks, in my experience, and rots pretty quickly. Try java moss - can't kill it with an axe and it doesn't mind little water movement. Put lots of it in the tanks with the fin biters - it helped mine feel more secure, and that plus a shallower tank helped him stop eating his fins.

Sudden deaths - was the weather hot at the time? Just out of curiosity.

 

[lelei]

I am not an expert, (by no means) but it seems like if you do a gradual upgrade, a smaller tank, from the cup, to make the adjustment easier to deal with, and then another upgrade, 2 wks or so later, then another upgrade, it seems to allow the fishy the time to (get used to it) rather than taking a fishy from a small cup to a big, filtered tank, again, I don't know, but from experience and things I heard..might have some bearing..??

 

[MistersMom]

i've had so many bettas dies i mean.... out of like 13 i only have 5 that have survived, mine all cam from walmart, and most the deaths were from a 'sorority' and after Sister killed them all, i gave up... so now i have 5 fishy friends in divided tanks and its been several months since anything has happened.... i have noticed that in my tanks... when they were in bowls and kritter keepers, etc. they got sick very easily, so when i upgraded to my 20 gallon and ten gallon they all got alot better.... the smallest one i have is a 2.5 ... but i know how you feel, i tell my friends about how mad i get about being a betta killer and they laugh and say 'what, did you kill ANOTHER one? HAHAHA' :rolls: so yeah, your not the only one, in fact, im sure im worse ... but i have finally learned about all of what i need to know about them, and i FINALLY learned what cycling is lol....so it just takes time, eventually you'll get that one fish that stays perfect-ish forever.... just keep doing research, have a 'emergency kit' and always be optimistic and never let your hopes down...

 

[Aus]

I am not an expert, (by no means) but it seems like if you do a gradual upgrade, a smaller tank, from the cup, to make the adjustment easier to deal with, and then another upgrade, 2 wks or so later, then another upgrade, it seems to allow the fishy the time to (get used to it) rather than taking a fishy from a small cup to a big, filtered tank, again, I don't know, but from experience and things I heard..might have some bearing..??

+1^ This could really help with the stress of a sudden large space, too, especially if they have some plants and/or hidey places..

 

[AngesRadieux]

I don't use filters. I did, but I noticed me bettas seemed to not like them. I had one tail-biter who still chomped his tail after I took the filter out but not nearly as much as he did when it was in his tank and running. I use API stress coat as water conditioner. :/ I was thinking about switching to prime, but the store near me never has it in stock, so I've been sticking with stress coat.

I wanted java moss, but they didn't have any at either of the stores I went to. I should've known better, but I listened to the employee's advice on the water wisteria. She told me it was popular because it was easy to grow. I'm a little skeptical that it was already dying in the store, though, because I only put the stupid thing in two days ago. I'm thinking of going back today. I'm either going to get more moneywort, because that seems to be doing okay, or I'll see if they have hornwort or java moss. I've heard hornwort is pretty tough to kill, too.

I got these three pretty recently. I've only had Mozart and Brahms for about two weeks. But it's been pretty consistent that my fish have been having problems. They've all come from either Petco or Petsmart, but some have come from different locations. The fish I had while I was at school came from the ones near Princeton. Now my fish are from the stores near home.

But one of the fish I know of that seems to be doing fine in a .5 gallon, unheated tank is a betta my aunt found at a dollar store. (Mind, the dollar price included the fish and the stupid little container.) So I'm sure that the care that fish got in the store was even worse than most pet store bettas.

Maybe it is just something about the clean water upsetting the chemistry...

But sometimes it's just been really sudden things. Lucius, my most recent fish to kick the bucket, was fine for months. Then all of a sudden one day he was clamped, sulking on the bottom of the tank, and ignoring food. That night, I got him to eat and he wasn't as clamped so I thought he was going to be fine. The next morning he was clamped and sulking again and later that day he was dead. I have no clue what happened! *sigh* Maybe eventually I'll figure it out and start doing things right.

 

[xShainax]

I know how you feel with your betta's tail biting. My feathertail HM betta Taz turned himself into a CT and one of my others stopped thank god but his tail is still healing.

 

[lelei]

Wow..his tail looks like our Sammy's never knew sammy's tail was that design (shape) by choice..lol..when we got him, it was already that shape, so I was unaware of "tailbiting" and now I can see what his tail would look like if he left it alone..

 

[AngesRadieux]

Well, the fish killer has struck again. Brahms died. But I have NO idea why. He seemed okay except for minor fin rot. But last night he suddenly decided he didn't want his food and this morning I found him dead. Now I'm paranoid about my other fish...

 

[MistersMom]

i think there's a fish-conspiracy going on where ever you bought them...

 

[xShainax]

It's the ninja's I tells you

 

[mjoy79]

I understand the feeling. I lost 5 bettas between December and May. And I have a sister that has had a betta sitting in an almost empty unheated 2G tank for over a year. I tried giving her advice over the winter about the need for a heater but she didn't want to hear it... and since then I had 5 of my own bettas die on me - most due to unexplained/sudden illnesses. She hasn't said anything but I wonder if she thinks that what she's doing is fine since I'm the one that lost bettas. And the one she had before her current one lasted about 2 years - in the same set up. sigh.

my oldest betta I bought a year ago so he's between 1 1/2-2 years old I'm guessing. If something were to happen to him in the next couple years i would be so mad at myself that i can't keep a betta in a heated/filtered/planted tank longer than my sister who doesn't even care about her fish!

 

[MistersMom]

awh.... :/