BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Fish Fish Journal - BETTAS ONLY

Ok I got a new one for you. I put my fish into a little Tuperware bowl that I used when I first bought the fish. While I was waiting for the water to age. Anyway there was so much food debris and what not at the bottom of the bowl I was using that I decided to clean it out completely. All the talk about finrot and such got me worried. Anyway I left the fish at while I went to work. I tried to feed him like you said before I left. He wouldn't eat so I removed the food.

I don't know how, but I came home from work and there was no fish in the either bowl. I looked and looked again, but nothing. Then my roommate said there he is. I looked down and the fish was dried out on the floor. So somehow someway this fish has jumped out of the tuperware bowl, and then flopped around the table or whatever till he died.

I think I am done with trying to have a fish. Apparently I am not meant to have anything that makes me happy. Or something. I have never heard of anything like this happening. I swear when I got home I had a sinking feeling that something had happened to my fish.

LOGIC !

Not true...this sort of thing happens with Bettas ALOT !! They are known for doing this. In fact, I found one of my fry laying on my table on day, just jumped right out of his cup..not surprised, I wouldn't like it in there either :rolleyes: I don't know how long he was there by the time I noticed him..I thought he was dead at first then I saw a gasp. Put him back in water and floated him in the warmer tank water with meds...and...he survived it.. :rolleyes:

Don't let this sour you to having a betta..they are really neat fish, just have to keep a lid on em...thier great jumpers!!

Emg <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

sorry your guy jumped out on you while you were tryng to keep him so neat and clean. When you are ready go get another one. Neat and clean is nOT how they are kept waiting for someone to come along and give them a good home. I think when you are ready to visit the betta section you will hear one calling your name.
glo

Logic,

I'm so sorry about your betta. As other folks have said, they are jumpers and do better with a cover as long as they can get air. You were trying to help him out, so don't feel bad.

I hope you will give these great fish a chance. I've had several otocinclus die on me -- one died Tuesday less than 2 hours after I got it into the new tank with my betta.

Take some time, but stay in touch. Hugs,
Nan

An idea to help with the jumping beta:

Go to your local thrift shop where there are a lot of oddly shaped glass vases and whatnot. I used to have a huge beaker with about a 3 in. diameter neck, but it was so tall, the beta couldn't jump out. After that cracked (ARGH!) I got a coffeepot with a lid. Has a nice little hole to dump the food through too ;-) Anyway, be creative with the containers.. that's what's fun about bettas!

And don't give up with them either. When you get in the rythm, they're fun and really easy.

I actually had a oddly shaped vase. However it was dirty at the time, and he was in a tuperware bowl when this occured. I will take precautions next time. I haven't given up. I plan on getting a new fish come next week. I plan to pretty up the vase first. Another plant for instance, and I am gonna take someones suggestion on making a cave for the fish. Oh well I did hate to see him die, but he seemed determined to kill himself. With not eating and all.

an update on GT's fin rot, i'm kinda at a loss now
about a week and a half ago i was so desperate to get him better i bought a betta hex and duct taped it to a support beam in the tank i had just set up (heater YAY) so i put GT in there with clean bettafixed water and within 3 days his fins started growing back i was SO happy so i left him in there for a few more days (with a few more water changes as well those things are small) and once his fins had grown back to the ends of what is left of the rays i gave him a day or so and put him in the new tank with the platies (they get along great i'm very pleased) this morning (his fourth or fifth day actually in the tank) i noticed his fin rot has come back the tank water is super clean i dont really understand it so i moved him back in the betta hex in the tank does anyone have any ideas what could have happened?

oh man Josh! sorry to hear that/ i remember the first time i came home and found my Twink on the floor, he was almost dried out. got there just in time. turns out he and the other fishies were scared of my hisband at first. so while they were int hier little containers (i was out shopping for new homes) he would walk around the house and they would get scared and jump out. my husband didn't do it on purpose (i witnessed some action) but i decided it was best to give them a lid with small holes even when i moved them into larger homes.
'course they're not afraid of my husband now and absolutely love him, they can't wait 'til he gets to the office (wher ei have them) and do a little dance. <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />
bettas are great jumpers. even to this day my
Twink will try to jump through a small hole in his tank lid when he gets jealous of my computer time. :love: he's too cute sometimes.

oh and Jilly:
my little swamp tank...
what i did was get lazy with one of the hospital tankes (the $5 tiny Betta Bowfront Duplex) and instead of cleaning it out when 'Tude was done with it i left in the window sill. of course that means algae eventually grew, i mean LOTS of it, and beard algae too (which i tend to think is beautiful if kept in control).
it just looked so pretty in the sill with the light coming through the green water that my husband i decided to keep it that way. kinda gave the room colour.
anyways, i started adding things like a small amount of peat, toy turtle, stuff like that. soon when i think condition and chemistry are right, i'm gonna put in one of my carnivorous plants. plrobably the swamp butterwort, since that one actually like being partially submersed. when it's all set up nice i'll post pics.
maybe you should try it as a kind of different planted tank experiment. it does look nice when light shines through. <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

that is a really cool idea, mel. Ya, i want to see pics when you can. Your husband must be a neat guy.

Logic, you are experiencing what most of us have been finding out - bettas are both really easy and really difficult fish. Once their peculiarities are met, then they are easy fish. But get a few things wrong and WHAM, they refuse to eat, jump to bad places, get fin rot, or sulk.

if you can find a Paradise Fish, that is like a betta but far, far easier to keep. they don't need any heater at all, no filter, and never get sick. it's related to the betta and very pretty but without the long flowing fins. I have one in a 1-gallon bowl by my bedside, and he's got live plants and two ivory mystery snails as company. he's so easy to keep it's unreal. but you can't mix him with any other fish - they are killers that way.