Betta blues...

[ladynaoko]

I've had one of my Bettas, Buxton since June now and for quite a while now he hasn't been.. well, right.

He used to be quite happy in the tank - swimming from one end to the other in a constant loop, stopping to hide under his flowerpot for a while before starting again. But for a few months now his entire attitude has changed. It was a gradual change at first, he'd stop a lot more while he was swimming around but it was nothing to cause concern. The past few months have been nothing short of depressing though - he hardly swims any more, he just lays there on the bottom sometimes going up to the plants to sit in them for a while before laying on the bottom again.

I have no idea whats wrong with him, every day I heck on him multiple times and every day I'm near certain hes dead - the only way you can tell is by looking closely to see if hes breathing or not.

Here are the tank specs in case you want them:

Tank volume: 15 UK gallon
Ph: 7.0
Nitrite: 0
Ammonia: 0
not tested for nitrate recently.

Tank mates:
Bristlenosed pleco
2 female platies

any suggestions will be welcome.

 

[Texaswoman]

Well, can you tell us about how old he is, and are his eating and bowel movements regular? Have there been any visable changes in his appearance?

 

[ladynaoko]

well, he's about 9 months old (thats an estimate - I got him in June and he was virtually the same size when I got him).

He gets fed every other day with King British flaked food with frozen bloodworm added every other feed - I've noticed he doesn't move much when he feeds, tending to wait for the food to drop near to him before picking it up off of the ground. He's never had much of an appetite in all the time I've had him but now it seems like hes making no effort to eat.

As for bowel movements I've never seen him do his business - ever. I'm not in my room a lot, only at nights and when I go to feed/clean/check up on them and most of the time hes either in the plants, under the flower pot or on the ground.

This is him back in June.

This is him now.

And this is what he keeps doing.

(apologies for the bad quality - the first image is darker because of where the tank used to be positioned. His fins look different in the 2nd set of pictures because of how hes swimming - not due to damage).

As you can see he's gone slightly whiter than before.

EDIT
He has also gotten quite thinner and I did notice before all this happened that he had a lump on his side, I seem to be the only person who's noticed this lump. I tried to get a picture for you but he wouldn't show the right side. The lump hasn't seemed to grow in size but it is rather big (its like the equivilent of you having a lump about the size of a tennis ball). I'm very suspicious that this could be a cancer of some sort.

 

[ladynaoko]

OK, so I decided to do a little experiment yesterday.

I'd noticed after adding some excess platy fry to the tank temporarily Buxton perked up a little bit. So, I went down to my lfs and picked up a few rummynosed tetras (I'd been meaning to get some for that tank anyway ). And whadda ya know he's already started perking up a bit. I even saw him swiming around properly for the first time in months last night - it made me so happy. He's moving around a lot more since the tetras came so I think it was all down to him being lonely. It sounds silly i know but before he used to have a lot more tank mates but for various reasons there was only him, a bristlenose and 2 platies left (none of which paid any attention to him). Now that the tank is looking livelier - so is he!!!

yay for progress!!!

 

[SRC]

Do you let him flare at himself ina mirror any? Mine seem to get really excited about that, makes them move around more. You know when peopel get lazy it takes alot of motivation to get them up and moving around again...maybe he has just gotten lazy, since he had no tank mates to *play* with.

I hope the tetras did the trick and keep doing the trick.

 

[ladynaoko]

I used to give him a mirror to flare at but my brother kept doing it constantly so I think it kinda desensitised him to the mirror trick

I fed them all just now and I was so happy to see him actually swimming up to his food instead of waiting it to fall next to him! I noticed two of the tetras were dead though - I have a good idea why though theres a guy at my lfs who doesn't really care about the fish and bashes them around the tanks when catching them - he did that with my rummy noses and then had the cheek to run off leaving me on my own for 40minutes with a bag of fish I only managed to leave then because one of the other guys came off his break and I told him. He gave me a discount because of it and apologised since he usually serves me.

 

[SRC]

lol I wouldn't have waited for 40 minutes.. I woudl have left a couple of dollars on the counter and left. That is rude to leave a customer like that for that long. @ him.

Yeah..they do get to where the mirror doesn't do anything..if it's been a while though he may have forgotten lol.

Still good news that he's perked up...YAY for him

 

[Danno]

hmm. Add some melafix. maybe a tiny bit of salt if the rummynoses are scaled fish. dont know if they are.

 

[AlexsDaddy]

Have you checked for signs of Velvet? I have had a couple bettas come down with this, and they acted normal at first, then just slowly lost their color and became lathargic. Shine a bright light on him and look to see if he has a goldish/copperish shine to him. If he does, it's velvet.

 

[ladynaoko]

Buxton just died.

Thanks for everyone who responded to this post

 

[ral]

I am so sorry to here that.

I am new to having pets, and can''t imagine how I will feel when on of them eventually goes.



Betta's dont have that long a life, so inevitably they will die on us in what seems to be too soon. But it sounds like you gave him a good place to stay. I don't think he regrets that he wound up with you.

I could not help but notice that he looks a lot like my betta, Max. Buxton had a good owner. I think he probably knew that.

 

[cation]

Aww, that's a bummer, lady. My condolences on the loss of your fishy friend.

 

[SRC]

Awww bless his little heart. Maybe he was older then you might have thought..and it was just getting to be that time. Don't feel bad about it...at least he was in a loving home, with someone who obviously cared alot for him...not locked away somewhere in a tiny, cramped bowl sitting on a shelf somewhere.

At least you gave him that...some love.

 

[tekknocolor]

You did all you could for Buxton, chin up. Sorry to hear about the loss though