Sad Week

Last week my betta Mick passed away shortly after I moved 3 hours to a new city. I don't know if it was the move or his age that did him in, but he seemed super stressed the whole car ride. I was devastated as he was my first fish and I had him for almost 4 years. After staring at the empty tank for a week I finally decided to stock it again.

Meet my new, currently nameless female koi betta. I got her from an awesome LFS who sources their betta's from a local breeder. She's absolutely fearless and really interested in me which I am not used to since Mick was so shy and easily spooked. She's incredibly active too so I'm probably going to re-scape the current tank and definitely upgrade her to a 10 gallon when I can. Here are a few pictures I got of her when she was still for 0.5 seconds lol. I'm also really excited to see if she'll change colors too!

Name suggestions are more than welcome!

I'm also going to have to get smaller food for her since Mick mostly ate the s/m cichlid bug bites. I'm going to get the betta formula, but does anyone else have food suggestions for a small betta? Frozen foods on deck: mini bloodworms, brine shrimp and tubifex worms.

Beautiful betta!

Sorry to hear Mick didn't make it after the move, fish are far more sensitive than many people realise especially when on the wrong end of the age string.

Very pretty fish.....my name suggestion would be Jigsaw

wasmewasntit said:

Sorry to hear Mick didn't make it after the move, fish are far more sensitive than many people realise especially when on the wrong end of the age string.

Very pretty fish.....my name suggestion would be Jigsaw

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Thank you. I tried to take every precaution to minimize his stress and added his plants for cover to the bucket he was in, but he just wasn't the same after I put him back in his tank.

Oooo I like it. I would have never thought of that name!

Valkyrie_Lips said:

Thank you. I tried to take every precaution to minimize his stress and added his plants for cover to the bucket he was in, but he just wasn't the same after I put him back in his tank.

Oooo I like it. I would have never thought of that name!

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Could have just been too much for him at his age...or even a tiny difference in the water that triggered something

Don't beat yourself up, these things happen sometimes and alot of the time without a reason that you can put a finger on.

I thought of Jigsaw since she has so many colour patches that might change as she grows up...another name idea being Patches

wasmewasntit said:

Could have just been too much for him at his age...or even a tiny difference in the water that triggered something

Don't beat yourself up, these things happen sometimes and alot of the time without a reason that you can put a finger on.

I thought of Jigsaw since she has so many colour patches that might change as she grows up...another name idea being Patches

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I still feel responsible. I tested the water here and it was similar to his old water, but the pH was lower and gH was 2 degrees higher. I kept most of his old water and only used less than 20% new water.

He had this open wound on his gill plate that also never healed and I wonder if that had something to do with it. It started out as a white dot surrounded by a red circle which I thought was a parasite of some kind, but after salt treatment then malachite green it didn't go away and got bigger. He didn't seem affected by it though, it just looked awful and he couldn't flare on that side.

I'm really curious to see if she changes colors! I'm thinking she might turn all red but who knows?

From your description of his gill, he may have been on his way out anyway and would have probably expired without the move being involved.

Without a necropsy you are never going to know and there is little point in having one done tbh, he had a really good life with you and it was his time to go...that doesn't make it any less sad that he has gone, but you shouldn't kick yourself over anything or question what you did or should have/could have done.....just one of those things matey.

I am waiting to see if Fred Betta changes his colouring, although a 3 year old, he has actually grown since he moved in with me...he is a really dark red with black/silver/white flashes. So yours might change a little over time, perhaps not change colour but maybe her colours becoming bolder and brighter

Sorry for you loss and hope you have many years of friendship with the new.

As to a name??? Probably won't be liked but I might go with Pixel. Ya, I'm a computer geek and a pixel is a single dot on a monitor. Seeing your new fish it just struck me as a random configuration of color dots...

I think I've settled on Venus since she's a galaxy koi and that's what her colors remind me of.