Think he's gone. :(

[laze]

We think our betta Moe (our first) may have died this afternoon... He'd been sorta-kinda sick off and on for a bit, but we thought he was still doing OK. I fed him this morning and he ate. But when we did 50% water change the other day, we also moved his tank to a different place in the room. When we first put him in the water, he sunk to the bottom like a rock and laid there on his side... that freaked us out because he'd never done that before and the two water temperatures were pretty close. We nudged him a little with the net and he came back to life and swam around. Very weird.

But back to today... he was fine after he ate, swam around a bit (though a bit droopy) and hanging out in the leaves of the fake plant. But after a few hours I hadn't seen him... at first I thought he was just hiding in the fake tree stump as he sometimes does, but he wouldn't come out with a little nudge of the tank. I let it be and checked back another 30 minutes later, and he was still nowhere to be found. We moved the tree around a bit, looked inside, couldn't see him anywhere. Right now, there's only the fake plant and fake tree in there along with some gravel, and we couldn't see him caught anywhere and he didn't come out from hiding when we made a bit of a commotion. He couldn't have jumped because we have a cover on the 10-gallon tank.

I checked the ammonia just to see how it was, out of curiosity, and it was at 0 (it was at .25 before our 50% change the other day).

So, I suspect we've lost our first betta, about 13 months after we bought him. Yet... I can't confirm it. I'd read on here about the mysterious "disappearing betta" and I wonder if he's pulled the same random disappearing trick. *shrug*

 

[BettaMomma]

Do you have ANY holes in the top of your tank?
My 10G tank hood has several places my bettas could easily jump out of.
They don't need much room to jump at all - even something smaller than a 1" round opening would do it.
I'd thoroughly search around your tank.

Also, do you have a dog or cat?
If he did jump, one of them could have found him and had a little snack, too.

Let us know.

 

[laze]

There is a very small area around where the heater is, but the thing is, in 13 months we've had him, he's never once jumped out of the water... he just doesn't seem to be a jumper.

And, interestingly, we did start dog-sitting for a neighbor today, but there's a fence around the tank and we've been with the dog all day.

We just did a thorough check of the tank again -- turned the tree over, poked around inside a bit, shook the leaves the plant, moved the gravel around, checked all around the tank and on the floor...

Nothing.

This is both depressing and incredibly strange.

 

[betta_CT]

you mite wanna search more around the tank coz if he did jump out with him flapping about he can move around, he could have possibly flaped about got through the gard and the dog may have got him.
sorry for your loss but bettas can be jumpers and they are very good at it to

 

[laze]

It would be nearly (if not totally) impossible for that to happen, based on the position of the tank, fence, etc., which is what makes this all the stranger.

 

[betta_CT]

ok sorry i dont realy know what it all looks like was just trying to give you some ideas.
maybe he grew wings and flew away

 

[laze]

betta_CT -- your explanation was as good as any I've come up with! I am really stumped.

At this point, I guess it's appropriate to give an official (?): RIP, Moe. We'll miss you...

 

[laze]

It's confirmed... he was in the tree -- we had it flipped upside down and when we flipped it back over again, he floated out.

Now at least we know where he was... now I just wish I knew what happened. He seemed fine this morning, eating and everything, and a couple of hours later, he was gone.

 

[Kiarra]

Ah, poor baby. But it sounds like he was loved, and you can take comfort in the fact that he probably knew how well he was loved.

 

[laze]

Thanks.

And, oddly, I decided to snap a couple of pictures of him this morning. Here's one:

And a picture from his better days (this is from last May):

Can anyone tell what type he was?