BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Fish Help me.....I'm now sad!

This is my first post. I've been on these boards a lot and learned a tremendous amount about Beta's, but now I have (or had, I guess you can say now) a problem. Here's the story:

I got my Beta about a month ago. He was always very active and LOVED to eat. I got home just a little bit ago and went to say hello and give him his dinner. I noticed right off that he wasn't acting right. He didn't do his usual "I know I'm about to get food" things. I also noticed the color of his body almost seemed brownish blue. His fins though were still nice and bright blue. Anyway, I just knew something was wrong. His water was just changed again a few days ago, but I decided to do it again anyway since I read somewhere that you cannot do it enough. Anyway, after I got him back in his bowl, he intially was swimming really close the the gravel in the bottome of his home. He was even turning over onto his "back". Then he did what seemed to be attacking the gravel on the bottom. It was really wierd. I got him some food cause I know he goes right for it. He ignored and continued to "attack" the gravel. I watched him for a few seconds and realized he couldn't even get his head up. It was almost like someone put a heavy weight in his mouth and no matter how hard he tried his head just kept going south. I rushed over to my computer and before I could even get it up, he was gone. I saw him floating with his head down and his body up. He didn't move so I went over to him just to confirm that he'd gone to fishy heaven and indeed he did. I am soooo sad!! I loved that little guy!

So now to the point. Can anyone shed some light on this situation? I am just so curious what happened.

Thanks for any input you can give.

-Amy

thats what happened to my purporius maximus...its sad...but he lasted 2 days which i think made it worse. we all work hard to give our bettas a good life, but it always has to end

I just hope to heck I didn't do anything wrong. This is the first little guy I've owned and I only had him for a month, but I got really attached to him. It's wierd that I got attached to a fish. It is just a fish! Okay, that's what I thought. He became my little child though to the point that I'm on the verge of tears and cannot even think about another little guy right now.

Sad in Texas!! <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Contrary to popular belief, changing water too often can be a bad thing especially if it hasn't been treated with conditioners or the temps equalized..just a heads up. Anyway it seems your Betta was already feeling down, but when you did the water change the shock pushed him over the edge. Did you let the water temp equalize? Did you treat the water?

Yeah, I treated the water and I made sure the temp he was in before the bowl change was the temp he went back into. I didn't use a thermometer, but to touch it felt the same. Something was definitely already wrong with him. He wasn't acting his normal self, but the shock of just being taken from his home to a temporary home while I cleaned his just, like you said, pushed him over the edge.

A couple of questions while on the topic of water. I have this liquid to put in his water. The bottle doesn't say I have to wait a certain amout of time before putting a fish into the water. It makes it seems as though the treatment is instant. Any thoughts on this? Also, how are you letting the water temp equalize? Is your guy in a baggie or in another bowl you just set down in the water. I've never done this. I just tried to make sure the temp of the bowl he came out of was to touch about the same as what I put him back into.

Thanks for any advise,
Amy

From what I've read, dechlorination and dechloramination takes place immediately after adding the water conditioner. However it must be mixed thoroughly with the water. You can use a clean plastic spoon or similar tool to stir the water after you add the conditioner to thoroughly mix them.

Keep in mind that some water conditioners do not remove or detoxify ammonia which can be toxic to your fish. You need to use a water conditioner that detoxifies ammonia and not just remove chlorine/chloramine.

If after doing a water change, you see your fish struggling to maintain balance like being sideways upside down etc, then it is definitely the new water. Only do partial water changes and not complete ones. For small bowls that are about 1 quart you can safely do 50% water changes every 3 days. For larger 1 gallon bowls you can do 25% water changes every 7 days. I would recommend you set aside pretreated water that you can use to make these water changes. This way the water will be similar in temperature. Just make sure this pretreated water isn't sitting there for months accumulating dust and bacteria..

I have a couple of questions for you. When you do water changes how much water is being changed? How do you remove the fish? Do you use your hand, net? How big is your fishbowl/tank?

Anyway the easiest way to do water changes for fishes in a bowl with gravel is to pour some of the existing water into another spare container which you use only for this purpose. This spare container must be clean and never washed with soap. It should only be rinsed with regular tap water after each use.

Now take out the fish and put him into the spare container that you poured the exisitng water into. Make note that you will be keeping the water in this spare container so it should be a good amount of water from the main bowl. The amount depends on the size of the bowl.

Next take the dirty fish bowl and rinse the gravel leaving the gravel inside the bowl then pour all the water out. You can use untreated tap water for this step. After it's rinsed pour some clean water you have set aside into the bowl with the rinsed gravel just enough so that the gravel is submerged. Swish it around and pour that water out. Now pour some clean treated water into the bow then pour some of the water from the spare container into the bowl. Now take the fish out from the spare container and put him into the main bowl. Finally pour the rest of the water from the spare container into the main bowl and you're done.

This may seem like a lot of steps, but it is fairly easy and safe for the fish. After you do it a few times it becomes second nature. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Make note that if your fish is not feeling well, this water change method could still be used as it provides a minimum level of shock, but it is not a cure for the fish's condition.