Betta Died After Only 6 Months

After only 6 months in what I hoped would be an ideal environment for a betta, he is gone. I was never able to determine any symptoms to treat beyond lethargy and eating less. There were no signs of parasites, no swellings or spots, scales and fins normal. Eventually he would just lay on the bottom or on branch decorations and only eat what I held in front of him. This went on for about 10 days until he died. The tank is 10 gallons, planted with many wide-leaved plants. I check ammonia and nitrites weekly (always at 0) and do weekly 25% changes. The temp stays around 78. There are 6 harlequin rasboras who never interacted with him and they seem perfectly healthy and active. I hoped he would live at least 4-5 years with this setup. He came from the eBay shop of a breeder that specializes in bettas and appeared healthy and active when he arrived and until this recent decline. The tank was cycled (fishless) and rasboras and plants were in place before adding him. I don't know where I went wrong and am uncertain if I should get another.

Sorry to hear that. Sometimes it just happens. As in humans, he may have had something genetic that shortened his life span. It's really hard to tell. The worse part could be your tap water quality as a possibility. Also, nitrAtes but this is debatable. If you love bettas, I'd go for another one.

I have had this problem occur to me on a few occasions. Snazy mentioned some time ago about old tank syndrome. The betta you purchased may have been subjected to an environment that had degraded over time. The water chemistry, nitrates etc have increased, the water ph becoming more acidic. Most of the times you can see the tell tale signs of poor water conditions due to the high build up of algae growth. A lot of fish can acclimatise to these poor conditions leaving you thinking that everything is ok.
When you bring your fish home to a new environment.....nice clean pristine conditions your fish suddenly becomes ill....so you do your water changes thinking your water is contaminated but all the tests show that nothing is wrong.. You then begin to think that there was something wrong with your fish.....but there wasn't and even though your water was perfect for him he has ended up dying due to the new water conditions.

I googled old tank syndrome to check the details of the subject and feel that this may have been the problem to why your fish died. I tried to show one particular link but my computer did something strange. But do have a look and see what your opinion is.

Thanks for the input. I guess I'll never really know what happened to him but these are good scenarios to consider. For now, I'll leave the rasboras as sole occupants of the 10 gal., run more tests on the water and maybe try to find a betta from a known source. I do have another betta who was shipped with the one I lost (an unannounced "free" fish) who is doing well in his 6.6 gal (24l) tank. I'll just leave him there and not mess with what seems to be working for him.

After testing water conditions, doing a 30% change, and observing for a week (rasboras doing fine), I decided to get another betta for the 10 gal. This time I picked out a pretty blue veil tail at my lfs. I hope he lives a long happy life in his new home after being in a tiny cup for who knows how long (shop said they'd had him for only a week but didn't know how old he is). I have not been able to get a good picture but am attaching a blurry one which at least shows his color. He has been exploring his new environment now for 6 days, is eating well, and coexisting with his harlequin tank mates peacefully. I'm about to do the first weekly wc since he arrived.

bunnies&bettas said:

After testing water conditions, doing a 30% change, and observing for a week (rasboras doing fine), I decided to get another betta for the 10 gal. This time I picked out a pretty blue veil tail at my lfs. I hope he lives a long happy life in his new home after being in a tiny cup for who knows how long (shop said they'd had him for only a week but didn't know how old he is). I have not been able to get a good picture but am attaching a blurry one which at least shows his color. He has been exploring his new environment now for 6 days, is eating well, and coexisting with his harlequin tank mates peacefully. I'm about to do the first weekly wc since he arrived.

Click to expand...

This is where my trouble starts, the water change. Let us know how he goes with it. 2 things happen when I do mine. 1. he's ok for a couple of days then he starts hiding. 2 he goes off his food. I can do numerous water changes and everything is ok.....but on one particular day after a change he starts acting strange. Some develop fin rot too another annoying problem.
I'm having issues at the moment with my tap water. Trying to get to the bottom of it.....thats in another post on the forum. When a fish is stressed then all sorts of problems arise.
Your betta looks beautiful......love the blue ones. Have you got a name for him yet?

Well, so far so good after the change. I'll be watching him closely. I decided to call him Rhapsody.
Good luck with your water issues and keep us posted. I've learned so much more here from everyone's experience and knowledge than in all the books I've read.

You never stop learning