Losing Quite A Few Bettas Recently

[KeddyPie]

The group of fishies I got from Nashnut hasn't been the healthiest (I don't blame you!). over the last month and a half, we've lost three. Falsey went first... Then the one I gave to my boyfriend (he took very good care of him) died last week. He only has two fish, as opposed to my 15-some... So he was rather depressed about the issue. All he has left is his one balloon molly now, and I hate to break it to him that they don't have a very long life expectancy. I woke up today to find my Ronoldo dead, another oen fo my nashnut babies. ;_;I'm going to re-arrange tanks this week, and get rid of my one divided tank, and start a low dosage of bettafix on Spunky, because he shared the same water as Ronoldo... It's just a precaution. I'm rather bummed about all this, because they keep dying suddenly. No signs of illness, which makes the whole issue even more worrysome. I'm not sure if they have some genetic issue, or if it's something I'm doing... It's only the ones from Nashnut, all my other guys are fine. At the moment, the other three I have from nashnut are all fine and dandy, but I'm obviously a little concerned.

Has anyone else who recieved fish from nashnut this past summer had problems with them? I know they were an unpredictable litter, but this is really boggling my mind. They're not too old, and they seem to be going the same way... I'm not sure what is causing it. It might just be really bad luck on my part... Once again, I don't blame nashnut... It very well might just be luck, or maybe some genetic issue that could not be forseen.

 

[nashnut]

Very distrubing. It's the first losses that I have heard of. I'll check with the others. How did they die? I know that I've lost 4 over the past month - 2 to tumors and 1 unknown and 1 from a bad shipper. I seem to have problems keeping the new ones that I buy alive. My little guys are fine. I kept 6 females and 6 males from that batch and they are all doing fine. Growing well and changing colors. The mother of the group did develop several tumors at the age of about 2 1/2 and finally just recently died.

I just took this blurry shot of one of my guys.

 

[KeddyPie]

From what I can tell, they're all healthy. They're even bright and vibrant... They're not the most active of my bettas, but I'm assuming it's because they're the longest finned of the bettas I have, and I don't have much comparison... They just, well, die. Falsey lost his color a few hours before he died, he's the only one that wasn't absolutly sudden. With the other ones I've lost, they look fine one feeding, and the next time I look over they're at the bottom... I'm going to pitch the pack of bloodworms I've been using, just in case that's the problem, but I highly doubt it since the boy at my boyfriends house obviously wasn't eating those. He's even eating a different brand. He told me his boy was acting a little sluggish about 2 days before he died, but not enough for serious concern. He did a 50% water change just to make sure, it wasn't water change day yet, and the next day I went over there and had the joy of pointing out to him that Zell was dead. >_<

It very well might just be rotten luck on my part... Occasionally these things happen. I really have no clue what the cause is.

 

[nashnut]

The lack of activity bothers me. The ones I have here are quite active. Bubble nests in 4 of the containers and those who can see each other are constantly flaring. One jumped the divider a couple weeks ago and got the devil beat out of him but is very active, and has great fin regrowth. He's got the start of a bubble nest. The females are all active and the larger tank. All are carrying eggs.

It's something I would like to get to the bottom of if possible. If it is genetic then I won't use any of those females for future work. I know one of the males (purchased from a breeder) I just bred turned up to have a air bladder/spinal genetic problem which was passed on so his offspring is basically a "pet" only betta. The girls will be sent somewhere where they won't be used for any breeding programs and I'll keep the males myself.

Here's another pair that are going thru color changes that I kept....

 

[nashnut]

So far about 70 have checked out okay. I'm waiting to hear from someone who took about 25 of them.