Hello everyone,
So i lost my betta a couple months ago, I had him for 4 years. He was my pride and joy and I was devastated when he passed away. I have never been able to understand what happened to my tank, and I am so worried about something like this happening again. I would really appreciate if anyone can help me figure out what happened.
He was in a 5 gal, heated, filtered, heavily planted tank with snails, a pleco, and 4 rasboras. This tank had been established, all water parameters were good, no issues concerns or anything funny going on for 4 months. Then, out of no where, I came home to one rasbora that had jumped out and another one that didn't look so good. Over the course of a week, that one rasbora stopped eating, got pale, eye started to go a bit clowdy, body slim looked a bit whiter on one side, lost ability to swim and keep elevation properly and then died. Then a couple days later another one stopped eating and then went through that painful process. Throughout this time, I used aquarium salt, tiny bit of melafix, or an antifungus and eye cloud medication (don't remember what it was called). I had a couple weeks where nothing happened so I bought some more rasboras because that poor thing was so terrified being all by itself and then a week later it happened again, they died off one by one until there was one left. Then my betta Rizo stopped eating..... I tried absolutely everything and looked all over the internet and called all the local shops but no one had any advice. He died the same way as the rest except it took him 2 weeks to go. He also got very bloated and started pineconing.
To this day I have no idea what happened.. The pleco and that one rasbora made it through all that. I gave up on the tank and was so sad Rizo was gone so I didn't do anything with it for 3 weeks. Then I felt bad for the poor rasbora and bought him some company and they have been doing fine since.
I bought 3 guppies though a couple weeks later once I realized maybe the tank was fine and 2 of them died like the others and the other one is totally fine. I didn't medicate the tank incase this was the cause for the deaths before.
So in my tank now I have 3 rasboras and that one guppy, the pleco (his name is Fin) and the snails who have all been doing fine for the past 2 months.
I am moving across the province in a couple weeks and I am going to give the tank to my dad (who has been doing the fish thing for 30 years) and I'm going to start up 20 gal tank fresh when I am all settled into my new place. I'm oping the larger tank will be more stable and that if I don't transfer anything over (like wood or plants) that the dying will stop.
My thoughts: I think there is some disease or virus in there, that only some of the fish are resistant to??
Any idea what happened??
For those sticklers and filling out the form... See below.
Housing:
How many gallons is your tank? 5
Does it have a filter? yes
Does it have a heater? yes
What temperature is your tank? 79 F
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? Filter shoots water into tank so provides aeration
Does your Betta have tank mates? What kind? rasboras, pleco, nerite snails
Food:
What food brand do you use? various, also weekly frozen bloodworms
Do you feed flakes or pellets? both
Freeze-dried? no
How often do you feed your Betta? How much? daily
Maintenance:
Before your Betta became ill how often did you perform a water change? weekly
What percentage of water did you change? 20%
Do you vacuum the substrate or just dip out water? did not vacuum, had substrate and too many plants too vacuum, plus sooo many nerite snails they eat any food the fish miss
What additives do you use? water conditioner
Water Parameters:
What are your water parameters? All parameters were within recommended range. Parameters while fish were getting sick were the same as months previous when everything was fine
Symptoms and Treatment:
When did you first notice the symptoms? Symptoms were stopped eating, paler body, clouding of the eyes, (for Betta he got bloated and started to pine cone), stopped being able to keep proper elevation and then death
Have you started treating your Betta? If so, how? Treated with aquarium salt first, then after a water change tried the antifungal and eye cloud medicine, then tried melafix as a last resort.
Does your Betta have any history of being ill? Nope
How long have you owned your Betta? Was he or she a rescue? 3 years. Was a Petsmart betta.
So i lost my betta a couple months ago, I had him for 4 years. He was my pride and joy and I was devastated when he passed away. I have never been able to understand what happened to my tank, and I am so worried about something like this happening again. I would really appreciate if anyone can help me figure out what happened.
He was in a 5 gal, heated, filtered, heavily planted tank with snails, a pleco, and 4 rasboras. This tank had been established, all water parameters were good, no issues concerns or anything funny going on for 4 months. Then, out of no where, I came home to one rasbora that had jumped out and another one that didn't look so good. Over the course of a week, that one rasbora stopped eating, got pale, eye started to go a bit clowdy, body slim looked a bit whiter on one side, lost ability to swim and keep elevation properly and then died. Then a couple days later another one stopped eating and then went through that painful process. Throughout this time, I used aquarium salt, tiny bit of melafix, or an antifungus and eye cloud medication (don't remember what it was called). I had a couple weeks where nothing happened so I bought some more rasboras because that poor thing was so terrified being all by itself and then a week later it happened again, they died off one by one until there was one left. Then my betta Rizo stopped eating..... I tried absolutely everything and looked all over the internet and called all the local shops but no one had any advice. He died the same way as the rest except it took him 2 weeks to go. He also got very bloated and started pineconing.
To this day I have no idea what happened.. The pleco and that one rasbora made it through all that. I gave up on the tank and was so sad Rizo was gone so I didn't do anything with it for 3 weeks. Then I felt bad for the poor rasbora and bought him some company and they have been doing fine since.
I bought 3 guppies though a couple weeks later once I realized maybe the tank was fine and 2 of them died like the others and the other one is totally fine. I didn't medicate the tank incase this was the cause for the deaths before.
So in my tank now I have 3 rasboras and that one guppy, the pleco (his name is Fin) and the snails who have all been doing fine for the past 2 months.
I am moving across the province in a couple weeks and I am going to give the tank to my dad (who has been doing the fish thing for 30 years) and I'm going to start up 20 gal tank fresh when I am all settled into my new place. I'm oping the larger tank will be more stable and that if I don't transfer anything over (like wood or plants) that the dying will stop.
My thoughts: I think there is some disease or virus in there, that only some of the fish are resistant to??
Any idea what happened??
For those sticklers and filling out the form... See below.
Housing:
How many gallons is your tank? 5
Does it have a filter? yes
Does it have a heater? yes
What temperature is your tank? 79 F
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? Filter shoots water into tank so provides aeration
Does your Betta have tank mates? What kind? rasboras, pleco, nerite snails
Food:
What food brand do you use? various, also weekly frozen bloodworms
Do you feed flakes or pellets? both
Freeze-dried? no
How often do you feed your Betta? How much? daily
Maintenance:
Before your Betta became ill how often did you perform a water change? weekly
What percentage of water did you change? 20%
Do you vacuum the substrate or just dip out water? did not vacuum, had substrate and too many plants too vacuum, plus sooo many nerite snails they eat any food the fish miss
What additives do you use? water conditioner
Water Parameters:
What are your water parameters? All parameters were within recommended range. Parameters while fish were getting sick were the same as months previous when everything was fine
Symptoms and Treatment:
When did you first notice the symptoms? Symptoms were stopped eating, paler body, clouding of the eyes, (for Betta he got bloated and started to pine cone), stopped being able to keep proper elevation and then death
Have you started treating your Betta? If so, how? Treated with aquarium salt first, then after a water change tried the antifungal and eye cloud medicine, then tried melafix as a last resort.
Does your Betta have any history of being ill? Nope
How long have you owned your Betta? Was he or she a rescue? 3 years. Was a Petsmart betta.
