Second Betta not eating! First one died! :(

17 years ago

Okay, same story as most of these folks here...except!

My male betta, after all of this happened (hunger strike, seems depressed at the bottom of the tank, low activity level), began to get thin, developed mild fin rot, and seemed to have a large bulge near the tail on his abdomen.

Normally the water gets changed weekly, although there have been instances of it going longer (not more than two I believe) due to life and kids. I think my two year old got to him a couple times too and was mucking in the water.

So I'm pretty sure the fin rot came from poor water quality and treated it with the medicine and water changes as directed, it got a little better, but then stopped. I also tried throwing in a few freeze dried brine shrimp here and there to stimulate him (he loves 'em, but they dirty the water worse than the Hakari pellets).

However, it was weeks before this developed. And beforehand it was the whole hunger strike depressed thing, and nothing that I could figure out! Even with water changes and turning up the temp in our room. Which, honestly, hadn't been a problem before, as we tend to keep our room in the lower 70's preferably. (Yes, there were times when it was lower and they got sluggish. Usually someone had accidentally turned down the heat and I turned it right back on! Problem solved.)

Eventually he died. I attributed it mostly to the lump, which if it was a tumor was more than enough to ruin his digestive tract.

At this point the female began acting depressed and started to limit her food intake.

I had moved the male to a different cube, and changed the water in the dual cube set up. I took out the divider to give the female more room and an infusion of clean water.

The next day (one day late on water change, but with the infusion of good water from the other side) I changed the water.

Now the female is no longer eating and doing spy-hoping on the top of the tank like the male did.

I'm treating her for potential fin rot b/c the male had it and the water has continued (like it always is) to be pretty constant in the lower 70's.

The fish are about 1.5 yrs (1yr with me, and assumed 6mo from the store)

Help is appreciated! We don't want to lose her too!

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Comments (3)

petiolaris
17 years ago
Are they in a Betta bowl or a regular fishtank? In case it's in a Betta bowl, without a filter, although they are Anabantids and can breathe atmospheric air and receive water changes, their environment is far less stable than that of an aquarium, with a filter and heater w/thermostat. They may be living with their waste products longer than what is tolerable, from time to time or get temp changes byond what they can take. Not that I am saying that the are... but the potential is greater for a small bowl, as opposed to a 5 or 10 gallon tank. The more stresses a fish has the more susceptible they are to bacterial or parasitic diseases. If it were me, I would set up a fishtank, with filter and heater and have it go through the Nitrogen cycle.
cuzsis
Original Author
17 years ago
Yeah, I'm going to do that next time. Unfortunately we don't have the room right now as the goldfish tank (10gal) is taking up most of the avaliable room.

The female just died tonight. She was only off-color for a handful of days, with normal water changes and a stable temp for long before she showed symptoms (the male was off for weeks and we were taking extra care of them to see what we could do). I don't get it. Sigh..

They did lead somewhat of a rough life this winter. We did have that massive power outtage (Northwest here) in Dec with sub freezing temps. We used handpack warmers and took them to a house with an ongoing fireplace (they were kept an eye on so they didn't get too hot). I'm wondering if that extra stress (five days!) plus the occasional mucking/failed water changes was enough to shorten the lifespan?

From what I hear sounds like it isn't anything solid (ie: velvet or something), other than potential enviromental problems that would lead to internal issues. I should be able to solve next time around with the filtered and heated tank. I hope that's it anyway.... at least then it will be fixed and the fish will live.

It's frustrating and sad though. :(
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petiolaris
17 years ago
I hear ya! Yes, I would say that the temperature fluctuations gave them the stress that gave them to diseases. The most common diseases are bacterial and ich. That would cover over 90% of what fish get, at the hobbyist level. Give it another go when you have opportunity to get a tank, with a filter and heater, and let it go through the Nitrogen cycle. Then you'll actually have an opportunity to breed them!