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126 Posts
Hello all,
I was very excited to share a few months back that I had bought a truly beautiful betta named Lazuli from import and breeder Glee Bettas. He arrived in tip top shape and had the personality of a golden retriever - never aggressive or shy, always curious and friendly. Didn't seem stressed by shipping at all, had bright colors and ate readily.
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I created a planted tank with ADA Amazonia soil, and cycled it for three weeks. During this time, he lived in a 1 gal floating critter keeper in the main tank, and I did a 25-50% water change every 1-3 days depending on what the ammonia reading was. When all my water parameters came back good, using sponge media and Seachem Stability and Prime, I released him into the main tank. He seemed to thrive. The parameters stayed very good, the plants are still doing great. But two weeks after that, Lazuli passed.
I made a photo album of the disease progression that you can view here, so that this post doesn't get too image heavy - https://photos.app.goo.gl/9tMDziSepVVrlIwj2 .
It seems to have started with a beige spot on his tail. I actually noticed this spot when he was still living in the critter keeper. It kind of looked like a spot where his color had just disappeared. I thought perhaps he was marbling since koi and marble bettas change color sometimes.
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The beige spot got bigger, and he started getting bloated. Thinking maybe he had eaten some dirt or something, I fasted him (my previous betta was witnessed eating sand all the time, lol).
He only got more bloated. He bloated and bloated until he suddenly became discolored all along his ventral side. That same beige color.
Last Wednesday, I noticed he was not swimming as much and he was either resting on the bottom of the tank or floating weirdly. His gills were working hard. That's when I realized this wasn't constipation and I put him back in the 1 gal hospital tank and treated with a 1/5 dose of Lifeguard (since it comes in 5 gal doses). The ammonia-nitrites-nitrates of the main tank at the time was 0.25-0-1.
I raised the temperature from 78˚ to 82˚ and decided to leave his tank dark and check on him in the morning.
Thursday morning, he had passed. His gills had turned black and he was discolored and pale all over. However, there was no pineconing of scales during any of this.
I'm heartbroken to say the least. I searched high and low for his color morph and I was so careful to constantly check his water. I am shocked he passed away so young!
I have two theories as to what happened, any advice would be very appreciated:
---- Maybe my city water is contaminated. His breeder told me one of their associates lost 200 bettas when their city did a chloramine flush, as flush levels are too high to be buffered by Prime.
They suggested I look into a reverse osmosis system or a reverse osmosis water subscription. I agree with this because I actually don't drink the water here directly, I run it through a Brita filter. I always ran all my tank water through the Brita filter too. But RO water is expensive compared to the pennies a month for tap water.
---- It may have been a bacterial infection. My last betta actually passed of similar symptoms - bloated despite fasting, lethargic, black gills, gasping for air, floating. I bought a whole new tank and filter and substrate but I didn't think to bleach my supplies, like my turkey baster and net. I thought if they dried out completely, any water bacteria would die, but maybe not.
---------> if it was an infection, which one? Iridovirus? Tuberculosis? That's the part I'm stumped on.
This leads me to my next section: What do I need to do to make my supplies safe for another fish?
-- I know I can boil and bleach my net, turkey baster, ceramic decor, silk plants. I know I can even bleach dip my live plants. But what do I do about the soil substrate? Do I have to throw it out, or can I bake it in the oven or the sun? It's all dirt with no rocks.
-- I know I have to throw the filter media out and start over. What do I treat the tank and filter box with - vinegar? Bleach? I read at this link that 6% cleaning concentration vinegar will kill the tuberculosis if it's present.
Basically I don't want to lose hundreds in tank supplies and live plants if I can help it. I also don't want to kill another expensive import fish and be heartbroken all over again.
I was very excited to share a few months back that I had bought a truly beautiful betta named Lazuli from import and breeder Glee Bettas. He arrived in tip top shape and had the personality of a golden retriever - never aggressive or shy, always curious and friendly. Didn't seem stressed by shipping at all, had bright colors and ate readily.
I created a planted tank with ADA Amazonia soil, and cycled it for three weeks. During this time, he lived in a 1 gal floating critter keeper in the main tank, and I did a 25-50% water change every 1-3 days depending on what the ammonia reading was. When all my water parameters came back good, using sponge media and Seachem Stability and Prime, I released him into the main tank. He seemed to thrive. The parameters stayed very good, the plants are still doing great. But two weeks after that, Lazuli passed.
I made a photo album of the disease progression that you can view here, so that this post doesn't get too image heavy - https://photos.app.goo.gl/9tMDziSepVVrlIwj2 .
It seems to have started with a beige spot on his tail. I actually noticed this spot when he was still living in the critter keeper. It kind of looked like a spot where his color had just disappeared. I thought perhaps he was marbling since koi and marble bettas change color sometimes.
The beige spot got bigger, and he started getting bloated. Thinking maybe he had eaten some dirt or something, I fasted him (my previous betta was witnessed eating sand all the time, lol).
He only got more bloated. He bloated and bloated until he suddenly became discolored all along his ventral side. That same beige color.
Last Wednesday, I noticed he was not swimming as much and he was either resting on the bottom of the tank or floating weirdly. His gills were working hard. That's when I realized this wasn't constipation and I put him back in the 1 gal hospital tank and treated with a 1/5 dose of Lifeguard (since it comes in 5 gal doses). The ammonia-nitrites-nitrates of the main tank at the time was 0.25-0-1.
I raised the temperature from 78˚ to 82˚ and decided to leave his tank dark and check on him in the morning.
Thursday morning, he had passed. His gills had turned black and he was discolored and pale all over. However, there was no pineconing of scales during any of this.
I'm heartbroken to say the least. I searched high and low for his color morph and I was so careful to constantly check his water. I am shocked he passed away so young!
I have two theories as to what happened, any advice would be very appreciated:
---- Maybe my city water is contaminated. His breeder told me one of their associates lost 200 bettas when their city did a chloramine flush, as flush levels are too high to be buffered by Prime.
They suggested I look into a reverse osmosis system or a reverse osmosis water subscription. I agree with this because I actually don't drink the water here directly, I run it through a Brita filter. I always ran all my tank water through the Brita filter too. But RO water is expensive compared to the pennies a month for tap water.
---- It may have been a bacterial infection. My last betta actually passed of similar symptoms - bloated despite fasting, lethargic, black gills, gasping for air, floating. I bought a whole new tank and filter and substrate but I didn't think to bleach my supplies, like my turkey baster and net. I thought if they dried out completely, any water bacteria would die, but maybe not.
---------> if it was an infection, which one? Iridovirus? Tuberculosis? That's the part I'm stumped on.
This leads me to my next section: What do I need to do to make my supplies safe for another fish?
-- I know I can boil and bleach my net, turkey baster, ceramic decor, silk plants. I know I can even bleach dip my live plants. But what do I do about the soil substrate? Do I have to throw it out, or can I bake it in the oven or the sun? It's all dirt with no rocks.
-- I know I have to throw the filter media out and start over. What do I treat the tank and filter box with - vinegar? Bleach? I read at this link that 6% cleaning concentration vinegar will kill the tuberculosis if it's present.
Basically I don't want to lose hundreds in tank supplies and live plants if I can help it. I also don't want to kill another expensive import fish and be heartbroken all over again.
