I Dunno What Happened!

[fishykisses]

A few days ago i got 7 Thai imports from a friend who was breeding but just had a baby and no time to look after them. So i got them - split up my 10 with very washed sand and plastic canvas and put 2 in their own bowls. I noticed right away the one ( a platinum male) wasn't very healthy - very lethargic. I had him in the divided for only a couple hours before i decided i didn't want to take the chance of him being sick and passing it on to the others. so he died last night in his own 1G.
The rest looked absolutely Fantastic - active, eating, bright.... so i just went downstairs to feed the babies and say hello to everyone and there's one butterfly HM dead and my red HM female near death. What the?!?!?!
They were all fine not even 1 hour prior!
What could have happened?!
I'm so devasted. I immediately took them all out and put them in 1/4G cups in the mean time with dechlor of course and bettafix for good measure.
So now i'm on my way to empty and wash the sand again and boil the tank and dividers.
UGH...i'm so sad and disappointed and completely perplexed
ps. The female died too.

 

[Durbkat]

You didn't share nets or stick your hand from the tank with the sick male then put it in the other tank or share vacum cleaners did you?

 

[fishykisses]

Oh i should add there there were absolutely no outward signs of sickness. the platinum just looked like he wasn't adjusting very well to the move.

 

[Durbkat]

You didn't share nets or stick your hand from the tank with the sick male then put it in the other tank or share vacum cleaners did you?

Answer this and maybe I can help.

 

[fishykisses]

read the post and you'll answer your own question. - they were in a divided tank

 

[Durbkat]

No I meant when you said that the female died and I presume she was in a different tank.

 

[Mr.September15]

Hot topic. Well anyways maybe durbkats right when hes saying that you might of linked the sickness from the first one to the others, but what do I know. Do you know the sickness that they had or do you just think that they are getting weak and then dying?

-Arrowhead

 

[afireinside]

Ok, I'll try to re-word what Durbkat to make it sound simpler.

After your betta died, did you stick your hand in his water? Then, without washing your hands, did you put your hand in the other bettas water? That could've held a disease.

 

[nino]

Durkbat, even if she had used her hand or net, can you think of any disease that would degenerate a fish within an hour? I can't off the top of my head. If you can think of one, maybe that's the answer to our problem here.

If there are no outward signs of illness could it possible that they experienced a great difference in water chemistry, like pH? I don't do this personally, but one LFS owner once told me that when I bring home my fish I should "drip drip drip" my water into the fishes bag so he could very very slowly become acclimatized to it. Could you have possibly fed them something that was bad? I think cleaning the sand and tank thoroughly should help prevent further deaths.
Have you talked to your friend or whomever you got them from? Maybe they've got a clue.

 

[afireinside]

Water Stats please!

 

[Elise]

Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that!

 

[splashluff]

I'm so sorry

All I can think of is that they were too rushed with acclimating. If you didn't float the bag, and slowly add 10% of the tank water to the bag water over several hours, they could've gone into shock.

 

[fishykisses]

i dunno cause they were fine all night and half the next day- you'd think if it was acclimation they would have some sympoms earlier.

 

[nino]

i dunno cause they were fine all night and half the next day- you'd think if it was acclimation they would have some sympoms earlier.

I think acclimatization doesn't necessarily show up right away. Maybe they just got super stressed. The guy who told me to "drip drip drip" also told me that if I didn't do that my fish wouldn't live more than two weeks in my tank. Of course, I didn't "drip drip drip" and proved the guy wrong (my oto has been going strong for nearly a month now) but maybe you did rush it.

A betta I recently bought from the LFS seemed to be doing really well the first day that I had him. I got him over a weekend visit to my parents house so since they only have flake food I was going to wait until I got back to school a couple days later to feed him. The next day, he seemed to be doing so poorly and was barely swimming- unlike the previous day. It turned out he was just hungry. I think he had thouroughly exerted himself the day I got him. Maybe your fish were doing the same thing and then they just crashed the next day. Just a thought though, because so many deathes in one day is kinda strange.

 

[fishykisses]

actually, it could have been the blood worms...maybe they were out too long. i'm just drawing at straws here.
I guess it could have been acclimation too - who knows - i just find it strange because betta's need 100% water changes...i don't know many people who acclimate everytime they do a water change - but this was a pretty big change of scenery from 1/4G cups to 2G's each in a 10G divided.
I've rewashed the sand, boiled the tank and dividers and redid everything and so far - A-OK, we'll see tomorrow afternoon.