Beta Died..

So my beta Billie died today. Came down this morning and found her up at the top of the tank after acting a bit odd the previous day. I treated the water and found the Nitrate and Nitrite slightly higher than usual so did a partial water change. Later in the day i found her right down the bottom of the tank along by the plants and then a couple of hours later was dead. Her tummy looks a bit bloated so do you think this is the cause and if so what can cause that?

I seem to have had constant problems since starting out with initially fun rot which I tested and cured, then Popeye which I again tested and cured but now this.

Really feeling gutted and unsure why things have gone so badly. I tested the water regularly and all was fine with good readings other than those posted above from today.

Sorry to hear I lost a betta not so long ago they really are amazing fish. Mine was from a tumor and had to be put down. However, it seems yours possibly died from internal problems Im no expert so hopefully someone who knows bettas well will see this post.

So sorry to hear. I’m quite attached to my betta too. How long did you have her?

Hammerpgh said:

So my beta Billie died today.

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I'm really sorry for your loss, SIP Billie.

Hammerpgh said:

Came down this morning and found her up at the top of the tank after acting a bit odd the previous day. I treated the water and found the Nitrate and Nitrite slightly higher than usual so did a partial water change. Later in the day i found her right down the bottom of the tank along by the plants and then a couple of hours later was dead. Her tummy looks a bit bloated so do you think this is the cause and if so what can cause that?

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Bloating can happen for minor reasons, but when a fish is actively dying and bloats up before they die, the bloating is just a symptom, a sign of organ failure. What caused that organ failure and the death? That's much, much harder to pin down, and we'd need to quiz you a lot more on your set up and what might have contributed etc. But even then, we're not aquatic vets, we can't really run tests, so the best we can do is research as much as we can, and try to make educated guesses and attempt to diagnose and treat that way.
After death, the body can swell and look bloated as the decomp sets in as well, so might not be organ failure if she didn't pinecone before death (dropsy), could just be decomposition.

Hammerpgh said:

I seem to have had constant problems since starting out with initially fun rot which I tested and cured, then Popeye which I again tested and cured but now this.

Really feeling gutted and unsure why things have gone so badly. I tested the water regularly and all was fine with good readings other than those posted above from today.

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I'm really sorry, and I suspect it isn't your fault. Bettas are not healthy fish now. They naturally have short lifespans, but they're also bred for qualities other than health and hardiness... only for colour and fin shape, and previously, for aggression for fish fighting.

They're being farmed in huge fish farms abroad, it's an inexpensive but very popular fish, so they're mass produced if a variety gets popular, it gets bred more and more, both by hobbyists and those fish farms, that may not have the fish in the healthiest conditions, and diseases and parasites are easily transferred to fish and/or not treated.

Bettas have those glorious big fins... but those fins are so delicate and easily torn. Even a micro-tear is enough to let bacteria or fungus to get in and take hold, causing death by a secondary infection and just too much for the weak, poorly bred fish farm betta, and it passes away.
We probably get more threads about sick and dying bettas than any other fish. I don't know that for sure, but have followed so many threads where betta keepers have done everything right, everything they possibly could to give the betta the best life, and it still dies. People breaking their hearts over them and blaming themselves, even leaving the hobby altogether because it sucked any joy out of their hobby, and they blamed themselves for the deaths.

I love bettas, but I don't think I'll ever get one for this reason. We'd be happy to give advice about other fish you could try in whatever tank you have if you want to try something other than bettas, if you're wanting to try again? Or if you want another betta, how to prepare the tank and tips to try to find healthier hobbyist bred bettas, if you like.

Again, I'm sorry for your loss.

I only started at Christmas when my wife bought me a small 5 gallon tank. Initially we had 2 female Beta’s in there and some neon Tetra’s which it seems is too many for that size tank based on what I’ve read here. We bought them based on a points chart that was available at a local pet store. The Tetra’s all died within a few weeks. The two Beta’s then both were ok for a while but then both developed fin rot but I treated that successfully only for one of them to somehow get out of the tank a week or so later. It has a lid on it but it has narrow gaps to accommodate the filter and she must have somehow jumped out through there

Decided to just stick to the one after that as that was the advice I was hearing and Billie seemed to be doing great for a short while but then developed Popeye which I again treated and cured. That was a few weeks ago and now this

All through this the water readings have been fine other the water hardness which here in London seems particularly hard. The pH is slightly higher than ideal at about 8 so I can only assume It’s a combination of those two factors that have resulted in so many problems.

Really knocked my confidence in keeping fish as I do not want to have them suffer in any way. Maybe cold water fish would be an easier option but they seem less available local to me and not as colourful.

@Hammerpgh

Don't beat yourself up or lose confidence over what has happened.

Reading through your posts and tween the lines, it seems that your fishkeeping adventures got off on the wrong footing......and not by your own doing but due to something we see alot of on here.

When starting out, its all too easy to make mistakes when you are actively encouraged to buy equipment and fish by stores that are wholly unsuited to your water chemistry, size of aquarium, type of fish....the list of store caused mistakes is truly endless sadly.

As someone like yourself who wants to do the right thing and who doesn't have alot of previous experience or is coming back into the hobby after several years, the art of fishkeeping can be an absolute minefield. Being given bad advice by stores is actually one of the biggest reasons why people join forums cos they have followed that store advice and everything has gone utterly wrong and they think they are bad fishkeepers as a result.

None of this was your fault...the wrong aquarium, the wrong fish for the aquarium and your water chemistry....it happens...alot. It happens more often that you might think. And 90% of it stems from that really friendly storeperson who advised "to get this or that and oh don't forget this too"

The 5 gallon aquarium is the minimum for a single Betta on its own...maybe with a Nerite snail for company if the Betta is docile enough.

You had Neons....they have been inbred so badly in recent years that they drop dead at the first sneeze. They have become so genetically weak that its hard to keep any of them currently. Having hard water, as you do, that is not suited to Neons so any genetic weakness is exacerbated. But at the time you bought them, you did not know or realise how the water from your tap can make a difference in the health or welfare of fish.......and to make a sale, alot of stores will tell you the sky is pink with orange spots. They bank on you not knowing the reality. In the same respect a 5 gallon is unsuited to Neons since they like alot of elbow room.

It is NOT your fault that you had bad information.......alot of people take whatever they are told by a store as being correct and its not til disaster strikes that you realise that maybe that store actually didn't know what they were suggesting.

You didn't know that you were being given bad advice so it truly is not your fault that everything went pearshaped.

Now that you are active here and you have the desire to do things the right way, there are many here who are more than willing and happy to guide you through from the cycle process to being sat infront of your aquarium staring at you gorgeous, healthy fish

Don't give up...keep at it....things will go right, you are not alone in your experiences of loss with fish in these circumstances.....many of us (OK all of us) have made mistakes, lost fish through no fault of our own.....and some are still making those mistakes after many years. That's how you learn....and you also learn not to trust what that oh so friendly store person says to you too.

Pick yourself up, dust yourself down and try again....only this time, listen to that store person but now you know better cos you have more insight......especially the importance of the water chemistry from your tap when choosing fish.

Don't beat yourself up over any of this......you're not alone and we can and will get you and your fishy dreams to work out right if you want to give things another go.

Hammerpgh said:

I only started at Christmas when my wife bought me a small 5 gallon tank. Initially we had 2 female Beta’s in there and some neon Tetra’s which it seems is too many for that size tank based on what I’ve read here. We bought them based on a points chart that was available at a local pet store. The Tetra’s all died within a few weeks. The two Beta’s then both were ok for a while but then both developed fin rot but I treated that successfully only for one of them to somehow get out of the tank a week or so later. It has a lid on it but it has narrow gaps to accommodate the filter and she must have somehow jumped out through there

Decided to just stick to the one after that as that was the advice I was hearing and Billie seemed to be doing great for a short while but then developed Popeye which I again treated and cured. That was a few weeks ago and now this

All through this the water readings have been fine other the water hardness which here in London seems particularly hard. The pH is slightly higher than ideal at about 8 so I can only assume It’s a combination of those two factors that have resulted in so many problems.

Really knocked my confidence in keeping fish as I do not want to have them suffer in any way. Maybe cold water fish would be an easier option but they seem less available local to me and not as colourful.

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Sorry to hear about your fish. You did your best treating them for fin rot and subsequent diseases.

I suspect that nitrate and nitrite were slightly higher than usual because the treatments killed off beneficial bacteria. Although a healthy fish could cope with that, it’s a different story to a weak fish fighting off whatever diseases at the time.

With pH of 8 you could expect problems keeping bettas.
Although not having the same personality as the bettas, Paradise fish (Macropodus opercularis) should be more suited to your water and they cope better in colder water too. I’d keep them the same as I would a betta, an aggressive or semi aggressive fish that doesn’t really care much about tank mates but happily explore the tank on their own.