Goodbye Sealink

[RandomWiktor]

For anyone who's seen my various threads under "emergencies," I have had a female betta since september who has just been one big mess of health problems. I rescued her because she had very severe fin rot (as in nubs), and a parasitic infection. Well, I tried everything from medicating to changing tanks, and she kept having re-occurances of the parasites (they were gill flukes). I finally got rid of them, but then she was having random problems with bouyancy, and also developed a skin condition. In other words, my little girl was quite a mess.
This last week or so, she was fairly badly; very pale, showing stripes, etc. I'd noticed she looked massively swollen with eggs and had for quite some time, but hadn't released. She had a similar problem once before but finally dropped her eggs, but there was a little bleeding from her oviduct afterwords? She was still eating and defecating normally, and was quite a voracious eater even on the morning she died. I don't know if she was eggbound or had a belly mass (it wasn't dropsy; no pinecone scales, just a chubby belly), but she finally passed away this morning after having labored breathing all last night.
I am so devastated. I don't understand what I did wrong; I tried so hard to get her back in good health, but it seemed every time I fixed one thing, another problem arose. I keep her in the same conditions as all my other bettas and they are all robust, healthy little guys.
Sealink had an AMAZING personality. She was active, agressive, and followed me past the tank like a little dog, even if she felt really ill and couldn't swim well. She built better bubblenests than any of my males, and was a real toughie. I'm going to miss her increadibly. I know we're not supposed to pick "favorites" with pets, but of my 30 someodd animals - fish, mammals, birds, whatever - she truly stood out.
Goodbye Sealink

 

[MissD]

Even though you're going to miss her terribly, the only consolation at the moment is that she's no longer feeling bloated and yucky.

I'm sorry for your loss

 

[BettaMomma]

I'm so sorry to hear of your loss.
When my favorite fish (Amos) left me I was in complete devistation too. I was for several days. I can only tell you that I know how you feel now. I even still think about him every single day.

The thing to remember is that she knew that you loved her and did everything good for her in her life. Had she wound up with someone else they'd have not cared enough to get her through all the tuff stuff like you did. And she'd have been gone long ago.

We are very much the same in that we know the risks when we take in the poor little souls that we don't think anyone else could fix, or even want - and it's the most rewarding thing in the world when you see them swimming happily and feeling good for the first time in a long time.

However, along with that come the risks that we know we're taking and unfortunately we just have them taken from us, way too soon.

She's in a better place now, where she won't ever be sick again, won't ever have to see a stupid little plastic cup and she can swim with whoever, whereever she pleases. She's probably even found Amos by now.