AnonymousMuggle
New Member
Hi all,
Firstly, this is my first post on this forum, so I hope this is the correct place I should be posting this question. I'm completely new to owning a pet, let alone a fish, so forgive me if I sound super foolish!
So here's the deal: We got a blue half-moon betta fish just over a month ago at the request of my 12-year-old brother. He wanted a pet, but our parents didn't trust us with a 'real pet' (a cat) so we decided to get a fish, thinking it'd be less hassle. We also travel quite a bit and it'd be hard to find a place for our cat to stay if we went on holiday.
Anyway, this week the house was empty because the family was out camping in the mountains and I work at a residential summer camp. So we put a ticker-feeder-thingy that had worked before and dispenses 2-3 pellets a day. I just came home to find a murky tank with a rotten black fish at the bottom and I was really wondering what caused him to die. He was alone for 5 days and nights and a number of things could have caused his demise.
First of all, the feeder was faulty and wasn't turning and there was no food for all the 5 days. So I just assumed that it had starved. But then I looked online and found that bettas could usually go for a week without food, so maybe it wasn't that.
What I'm thinking is that our setup is grossly inadequate. We have a 1/2 gallon tank (tiny!) that is unheated and unfiltered. I think that the ammonia, NO2, and/or NO3 levels got sky high and it died from poisoning. Could that be? We don't have a testing kit.
The reason I'm asking is that ever since we got our fish, I've been obsessing about it online and telling my parents we have to upgrade his setup. But they were adamant that the guy at the store said bettas were supposed to live in puddles and that 1/2 gal would do. So now that our fish has died, I really want to get to the root of the problem so that when or if we ever get a new fish, we'll be better prepared.
If I'm to convince my parents, I kind of need good solid evidence that the fish died either from a toxic environment or from temperature. From the following info, could any of you tell me how he died?
The water was gross when I got home and he was at the bottom, completely black and really soft, so he must have died earlier this week. The last time his water was changed (50%) was 5 days ago, 10 August. That was also the last time he was fed. Where we live, it gets to about 19 ºC at night right by the thermostat and maybe 25-26 ºC at midday. The water shouldn't experience quite that much fluctuation, as it's not right by a window or anything and water doesn't heat or cool as fast as air if I'm not wrong.
Could any of you determine what the cause of death was? I really hope it didn't just die of starvation because that would be sad and I'd be really mad at whoever made the stupid automatic feeder. In any case, the death was caused by negligence on our part and I really want to make it right by determining what we need to do better if we get another fish.
Thanks for reading my whole rant and helping me out. Also, have you any tips regarding keeping a fish while still being able to travel? We travel frequently, up to 3 weeks at a time in some cases, so if that just isn't feasible while still taking care of a fish then we should probably just forget this hobby!
Marcel
Firstly, this is my first post on this forum, so I hope this is the correct place I should be posting this question. I'm completely new to owning a pet, let alone a fish, so forgive me if I sound super foolish!
So here's the deal: We got a blue half-moon betta fish just over a month ago at the request of my 12-year-old brother. He wanted a pet, but our parents didn't trust us with a 'real pet' (a cat) so we decided to get a fish, thinking it'd be less hassle. We also travel quite a bit and it'd be hard to find a place for our cat to stay if we went on holiday.
Anyway, this week the house was empty because the family was out camping in the mountains and I work at a residential summer camp. So we put a ticker-feeder-thingy that had worked before and dispenses 2-3 pellets a day. I just came home to find a murky tank with a rotten black fish at the bottom and I was really wondering what caused him to die. He was alone for 5 days and nights and a number of things could have caused his demise.
First of all, the feeder was faulty and wasn't turning and there was no food for all the 5 days. So I just assumed that it had starved. But then I looked online and found that bettas could usually go for a week without food, so maybe it wasn't that.
What I'm thinking is that our setup is grossly inadequate. We have a 1/2 gallon tank (tiny!) that is unheated and unfiltered. I think that the ammonia, NO2, and/or NO3 levels got sky high and it died from poisoning. Could that be? We don't have a testing kit.
The reason I'm asking is that ever since we got our fish, I've been obsessing about it online and telling my parents we have to upgrade his setup. But they were adamant that the guy at the store said bettas were supposed to live in puddles and that 1/2 gal would do. So now that our fish has died, I really want to get to the root of the problem so that when or if we ever get a new fish, we'll be better prepared.
If I'm to convince my parents, I kind of need good solid evidence that the fish died either from a toxic environment or from temperature. From the following info, could any of you tell me how he died?
The water was gross when I got home and he was at the bottom, completely black and really soft, so he must have died earlier this week. The last time his water was changed (50%) was 5 days ago, 10 August. That was also the last time he was fed. Where we live, it gets to about 19 ºC at night right by the thermostat and maybe 25-26 ºC at midday. The water shouldn't experience quite that much fluctuation, as it's not right by a window or anything and water doesn't heat or cool as fast as air if I'm not wrong.
Could any of you determine what the cause of death was? I really hope it didn't just die of starvation because that would be sad and I'd be really mad at whoever made the stupid automatic feeder. In any case, the death was caused by negligence on our part and I really want to make it right by determining what we need to do better if we get another fish.
Thanks for reading my whole rant and helping me out. Also, have you any tips regarding keeping a fish while still being able to travel? We travel frequently, up to 3 weeks at a time in some cases, so if that just isn't feasible while still taking care of a fish then we should probably just forget this hobby!
Marcel