# Poochie died. :( How long should I wait?



## UnderseaGal (Mar 4, 2014)

My beloved betta, Poochie, died yesterday (or, in light of a recent post, I should say that "I killed Poochie"). I'm very sad.

He was clearly not doing well the last little while. He showed no signs of disease on his body (no raised scales, no fat belly, no fin rot, etc.) but he was increasingly still & lazy. I went to my LFS and asked about this - they said perhaps he was slowing down because the water was getting cold, so I put a heater in his tank, and gradually increased it up to 76 a few days ago. It didn't change anything (or it might have been too late?) - two days ago he stopped being interested in food, and yesterday it was over.

In his tank (a Spec 3 gal) are 2 amano shrimp (still alive), and 2 otos (still alive). I originally had 5 tiny lampeyes in there but only one remains. One jumped out, but it's unclear whether Poochie may have eaten the other 3. I found one but two are still missing (though very much presumed dead). I can't tell if Poochie was sick or if he died because he was chowing down on the lampeyes (either way, I'm never housing lampeyes and bettas together again). I never saw him attack or chase any other fish or even be bothered by them (though one time he had a stand-off with a shrimp for a piece of food, but the shrimp won). 

I tested my water today and everything looks great - pH is 6.5, ammonia and nitrites at 0, nitrates at 20, GH at 100, KH at 20.
I will continue my schedule of weekly water changes for now.

How long should I wait before I get another betta for this tank?


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## greenfin (Nov 4, 2013)

Sorry to hear, how old was he?


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## UnderseaGal (Mar 4, 2014)

Thanks, Greenfin. I'm not sure how old he was - I got him from the LFS in early July, so probably not very old?


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## UnderseaGal (Mar 4, 2014)

Well in the end I waited just over a week.
I carefully monitored my water parameters (they are stable) and did my weekly water change and all other tank inhabitants seemed fine so I got Poochie II today. I probably should have waited longer - we'll see how this goes.
This time he gets a heater right from the start and no lampeye tankmates. I will also look into "stressguard" - many forum people seem to use it.
Poochie II is a gorgeous guy and he's way bigger than Poochie. Fingers crossed he's also hardy.

Thanks for reading!


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

Pic pic pic!


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## UnderseaGal (Mar 4, 2014)

Heh, I'm not much of an underwater photographer, but here are a few:






















In the last photo King Shrimpy is in the shot.
He's not fancy or anything - given the fate of Poochie I I was hesitant to spend a lot on one of the fancier ones, so I just got a good ol' veil tail. But he's beautiful to me. 

Sadly not all is well - one of my otos was dead this morning.  I don't think it was Poochie II but who knows what goes on when the lights go off... I'll keep an eye on him.


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