# HELP! I think my Betta is dying ...Updated ...he passed on



## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

So I got this beautiful split tail Betta the other day & he has been doin great in the 1 gallon bowl I had him in. I got a 2gal Eclipse tank the other day and got it set up and put him in it last night, he seemed fine till I went to bed & even seemed fine this morning. But when I got home from work he was upside down and appeared to be struggling to get right side up. All I could think to do was get him out of there. I put approx 2" of water in a bowl and got him in there. I dont know if he is able to breathe properly , he is mostly on his side then upside down he can't seem to get upright. I don't know what to do for this poor guy or what happened. I can't think there is enough current in that tank to cause any problems. Only thing I can think is when I went to put him in there last night he flipped out of my hand and fell on the floor, only a few feet and was on carpet. But like I said he seemed fine all the way til I went to work this morning. Any ideas or suggestions?? He is so awesome it breaks my heart to see him this way Thanks in advance for any help with this


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## Scholz (Apr 21, 2010)

Might be a swim bladder problem! If he seems fine but just can't right himself then it forsure is.... I hear this can really be a problem with double tails...

Don't feed him for a few days....

You most likely are overfeeding him....

They will eat and eat and eat....


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## Scholz (Apr 21, 2010)

Did you cycle your new tank? Or treat it with some brand of quick cycle? Do you have any plants in there for him? any snails for clean up?


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

Scholz said:


> Might be a swim bladder problem! If he seems fine but just can't right himself then it forsure is.... I hear this can really be a problem with double tails...
> 
> Don't feed him for a few days....
> 
> ...


He does seem fine other than he cant right himself, I will lay off the food , if he lives long enough & see what happens, My biggest concern is if he is able to breathe properly. he does get moving around and almost right side up to maybe get air, but it's just sad to see him like this and almost lifeless, hopefully you are right



Scholz said:


> Did you cycle your new tank? Or treat it with some brand of quick cycle? Do you have any plants in there for him? any snails for clean up?


 When I got the new tank I filled it with close to boiling hot water and ran it for 24 hours to kind of clean it up. Emptied it and rinsed it thoroughly. I refilled it halfway with water from my 20 gallon as it is established and the water chemistry is pretty much the same(which is the same water his bowl got in it when I first got him and even use that water when I do water changes for his bowl 40% of that and 40% fresh water), then I took most of the water out of the bowl he is in to top it off and added maybe 1 liter of fresh water and ran it for about an hour before adding him in there. There is a small Java fern (which was in the bowl he was in) & no snails


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## eternity302 (Apr 22, 2010)

I had a German Blue Ram that recently had the same thing!

There's really no cure for it! I would stop the filters and just use an air stone, and hope he can recover from it! Just what I would do.. hope others can help you out!


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## `GhostDogg´ (Apr 22, 2010)

Sounds like swim bladder disorder.
If he's @ the top he should be able to gulp air.
-Don't feed as much for a few days.
-Make sure the water is clean & warm.
-Maybe add a little salt.

I've had this happen to a few of my bettas & they always pulled through.

With bettas I just aged the water since they usually don't required a lot of water.


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

thanks everyone, I sure feel better knowing it may not be as bad as it appears. He's at the top, doesn't look like he has a choice. He's more on his side now than upside down like he was earlier & his color is fine. He looks dead when he's not moving,but, when he gets moving around he looks mad that he can't get up-rite poor fella, but atleast he's trying. Guess that's a positive sign


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## plantedinvertz (Apr 21, 2010)

I dont really know how to help but.. GOOD LUCK!!


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## Scholz (Apr 21, 2010)

Don't feed him for up to 4 days.... He'll be allright... He'll make it. It might just be a bad case of constipation... Once his digestive track get good a cleaned out he'll be fine...

What do you feed him currently?

How much do you feed him of whatever that is?

He'll be fine don't stress.... I had an oranda that use to get swim bladder pretty bad and after a couple days of no food he was back to swiming around like nothing happened...


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## crazy72 (Apr 22, 2010)

More info here. http://www.nippyfish.net/constipation.html

I'm no expert, but I was told to feed mine a quarter of a pea every second day or so. He seems happy so far...

Good luck.


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## crazy72 (Apr 22, 2010)

crazy72 said:


> More info here. http://www.nippyfish.net/constipation.html
> 
> I'm no expert, but I was told to feed mine a quarter of a pea every second day or so. He seems happy so far...
> 
> Good luck.


... the quarter of a pea is in addition to some other betta food, by the way. Not exclusively peas.


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## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

I agree with the others... Don't run a filter. I don't think he even needs an aeration stone. And the water shouldn't be too deep, either, if he is resting or floating. It would be good if he had some leaves to rest on (plastic or real). 

I hope that he recovers!


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

He died within the last hour probably the stress caused by me freaking out when I got home and taking him out of the new tank and putting him in his old bowl with a few inches of water as a safe guard till I could figure out what to do. It was probably an overfeeding thing that started it, I fed twice a day, morning and evening roughly 6-8 Betta pellets and a pinch of freeze dried blood worms & he loved to eat . I may have dropped in too many pellets today as I was in a hurry for work. Anyway , thanks for the help & support everyone, I leaned a valuable lesson with him. Maybe I will find his twin one day , he was so beautiful and friendly & he was probably our favorite. I'll post a few more pics of him in the photo gallery of one of his happy days , here's one for now


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## O.C.D Fishies (Apr 21, 2010)

Sorry to hear about your loss Diztrbd1. You did what you knew and it was the best you could do. You was very beautiful. Again I am sorry to hear that you lost him.


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## crazy72 (Apr 22, 2010)

Sorry for your loss. He was beautiful.


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## plantedinvertz (Apr 21, 2010)

Sorry for your loss


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## Scholz (Apr 21, 2010)

Sorry for your loss..... : (

I'm trying to breed some betta's right now..... You can have one of the offspring If they spawn...


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## Fishkeeper (Apr 21, 2010)

Sorry for your loss.


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## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

Sorry for your loss, Diztrbd1. It sounds as though you couldn't have saved him, you tried everything but he went quickly. He was beautiful.


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## prempitorystrike (Apr 21, 2010)

Sorry to hear for your loss  he was beautiful


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## `GhostDogg´ (Apr 22, 2010)

I'm sorry to hear about your loss.
What a beautiful betta he was.
I'm sorry my tips couldn't help in his recovery.
I'm sure you'll find another betta when the time is right.


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## Atom (Apr 21, 2010)

I'm sorry to hear about your Betta. He really was beautiful. 

I think your diagnosis is correct though. Sounds like he ate a little too much 
They can be very piggish.

Look forward to seeing photos of him.


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

Thanks everyone for the kind words and support. It's really amazing how quickly we get attached to these lil fellas, We only had him for a week but he was like family already. I'm glad I was able to get some pix of him before this happened. Thanks again everyone and have a great day.


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## CRS Fan (Apr 21, 2010)

Sorry to hear about your loss. My favourite betta decided to jump out and land behind an extremely heavy bookcase. Not nearly enough time to save the poor guy. Do what I did, get another betta to fill his tank. It definitely helped my mood !

Best Regards,

Stuart


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## L!$A (Apr 21, 2010)

So sorry to hear of your loss! It really sucks losing a fish, especially one of your favorites.


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## BettaGuy (Apr 22, 2010)

I'm sorry to hear about your loss! It looks like he did die of constipation complications based on how he was fed and the loss of swim bladder control. I suspect you've already researched this, but I thought I'd add a few details on feeding. 

For future reference... 8 pellets a day is A LOT of food, never mind the freeze dried blood worm snacks in between. Bettas don't require more than 4-6 pellets a day, so a couple of pellets per feeding is usually suffice. Take into consideration that their stomachs are the size of their eyeball. You can also disregard the information written on food packages that tell us to feed as much as they can eat in a 3 minutes. Companies want you to go through as much food as possible so they can make a profit.

I also want to draw your attention to the fact that the foods you provided him with are all dry. Dry foods expand tremendously so if you fed him even 3 pellets/dried worms that were dry, they would have each roughly double in size in his intestines, absorbing the moisture in his intestines and getting lodged there. Its recommended that you soak all dry foods for roughly 5 minutes before feeding to prevent complications. Freeze dried bloodworms, even soaked, are apparently a little rough on the intestines and should not be provided frequently except as snacks a couple times a week. 

I hope this experience hasn't deterred you from Betta keeping! We all make little mistakes and learn from them. 

Regards,

M.M.


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

Thanks BettaGuy, I am definitely not deterred one bit . I love this hobby & especially these fish. I appreciate all the tips and info , I will be changing my feeding habits. I did kinda go by the instructions on the packages, tho the freeze dried worms said "as a treat". They friggin love them things and a couple out of the 5 Bettas I have seem to only be eating those now. Didn't realize they could be damaging to them since it seemed more a natural food than he pellets. I guess they better get over it , cause there is about to be some changes on the menu lol I have been thinking I should look into live food for them as well.This happening, has made me more aware of things. The way they all eat, I thought they were ok with that since my oldest ones haven't had any issues, but they are a little bigger as well. I've been researching things since the amount of Bettas I have went from having 2 for a few months now, and acquiring 4 more in the last couple weeks(thanks to Grant's great prices at IPU lol) This was a learning experience, I learned. The rest of my fish will gain from it as well. Anyway thanks again for all the tips and advice.


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

CRS Fan said:


> Sorry to hear about your loss. My favourite betta decided to jump out and land behind an extremely heavy bookcase. Not nearly enough time to save the poor guy. Do what I did, get another betta to fill his tank. It definitely helped my mood !
> 
> Best Regards,
> 
> Stuart


thanks Stuart, sorry to hear about your loss as well & I did the same as you lol went to IPU looked at all of the twin tails didn't see one that really caught my eye like he did. On the way out , what did I see ? A gorgeous black with red and a hint of purple twin tail in a display bowl up front That apparently was just waiting for me to take him home  Thanks to whoever chose to put him up there. We will miss the other one, even tho we only had him for a week, but his replacement has put a smile on our faces again



L!$A said:


> So sorry to hear of your loss! It really sucks losing a fish, especially one of your favorites.


Thanks Lisa, we were pretty down about it last night, even gave him a mini-funeral this morning lol not in the toilet either


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## L!$A (Apr 21, 2010)

Mine loves live black worm, maybe give that a try??
You could still feed them the dried worms, just be sure to put it in a bowl for 5 mins so it gets nice and moist!

Oh no worries.. we lost a fish last night too, so I definitely know how you feel!!!


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

L!$A said:


> Mine loves live black worm, maybe give that a try??
> You could still feed them the dried worms, just be sure to put it in a bowl for 5 mins so it gets nice and moist!
> 
> Oh no worries.. we lost a fish last night too, so I definitely know how you feel!!!


I was gonna try the black worms . sorry to hear you lost one too, think I seen that earlier, it does suck. On the bright side, I hear you gained nice one last night too


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## L!$A (Apr 21, 2010)

Yeah, it was actually a South American Puffer that died.. he jumped out of the tank!! 

You should check out some of the Copper Betta's at IPU they have some nice ones


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## BettaGuy (Apr 22, 2010)

Well in terms of nutrition, I understand that the Hikari Betta bio gold mini pellets have just about all the nutrients they need to sustain themselves, however most people would agree that pellets rank far from the natural diet. I know of one breeder who gets around this by feeding pellets for one meal and frozen bloodworms for the other. 

Frozen foods are often preferred over live ones because there is a greatly diminished chance of introducing unwanted parasites and pathogens in the water. That would be my precaution to you! 

Upload pictures of your other bettas! we'd love to see them


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

L!$A said:


> Yeah, it was actually a South American Puffer that died.. he jumped out of the tank!!
> 
> You should check out some of the Copper Betta's at IPU they have some nice ones


I seen them , they were some nice ones. But I am holding out for a Black copper one. Apparently they are as hard to find as the Lochness monster lol


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

BettaGuy said:


> Well in terms of nutrition, I understand that the Hikari Betta bio gold mini pellets have just about all the nutrients they need to sustain themselves, however most people would agree that pellets rank far from the natural diet. I know of one breeder who gets around this by feeding pellets for one meal and frozen bloodworms for the other.
> 
> Frozen foods are often preferred over live ones because there is a greatly diminished chance of introducing unwanted parasites and pathogens in the water. That would be my precaution to you!
> 
> Upload pictures of your other bettas! we'd love to see them


 I might go back to the Hikari, I think I am using Nutrafin right now which they seem to like. I bought some Wardley essential betta pellets at IPU the other day but nobody seems to eat them for some reason. I will most likely stiick with the freeze dried maybe live every once ina while and the pea thing too thanks for all the info & advice, things will be much better in their future for them. I will get some pic's up soon of all of them , but here's one of the fella a got today at IPU. a worthy replacement


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