Sudden Betta Death - Why?

[Myka]

Hi all,

I just bought a nice "pink" (pure flesh colored) male betta from an LFS. I have several bettas, and have had them for many many years. I am addicted to buying the odd "rare" color that shows up in the local LFSs. This new guy just up and keeled over today for no apparent reason. I am wondering why this happened.

I bought him lastnight, he looked good in the LFS, was active and his fins were "out", not clamped in or anything. When I brought him home, I poured him into a canning jar (temporary home until I bought him a 2 gallon tank and HOB filter like the rest of my bettas), along with the water from his bag, and topped it up with water from a cycled betta tank. I offered him one pellet of food about 2 hours after he was in his jar, and he quickly gulped it up, so I put two more in, and he ate that as well. This morning I checked on him, and he looked good, was swimming around. I didn't feed any of my fish this morning. I just came back from work, and I see he's now dead on the bottom of the jar. His scales are all standing on end, and he has blood streaks through his dorsal fin, as well his fins are coming off in small chunks. Does anyone know what has caused this sudden death (of such a beautifully colored fish too!)???

 

[Zagz]

Welcome to AA. It may have been he was sick from the lfs. Scales sticking out in a pinecone fashion is commonly dropsy. Did the jar suffer any severe temp changes?

 

[An t-iasg]

Sorry to hear that...Dropsy (scales sticking out) can have many causes. Dropsy really isn't a disease in itself, which makes it hard to treat. It is a symptom of something else. It could be bacterial in nature, or it could be from a virus, organ damage, or maybe even a tumor. Since your betta had red streaks in the fins, and fin damage, that sounds like a bad bacterial infection. Since he died so suddenly it sounds like he was sick when you bought him. One thing I've learned about bettas is that temperature changes or temps that are too cool (room temperature is usually too cool) will cause stress, finrot, and other problems. Use a heater to keep the water temperature at 80 degrees. The temperature is bound to vary slightly from time to time but the water temperature will be much more stable than without a heater.

 

[Myka]

OK thanks guys! (thanks for the welcome too )

I've treated Dropsy successful (believe it or not!) on a Red Bellied Piranha I had a few years ago, so I know what it looks like. When the Betta was dead, that's exactly how he looked, although I absolutely know he did not look like that only 12 hours earlier. 12 hours before his death my new betta looked fine.

Interesting about the temperature. I don't have heaters in any of my betta tanks, and have never thought to do that, mine have always been happy and healthy. That would be quite the cost to equip them all!

I am very sad, I had not seen that color in a long time, and he was very purely colored as well. Bummer...

 

[WaterPond]

sorry for your loss

 

[joannde]

I'm so sorry for your loss.

 

[fish_4_all]

Is there any chance that something could have scared him? I know it sounds odd but my son slipped one day and hit a betta tank and within minutes the betta was dead. When he hit the tank, the betta screamed around the tank for a minute or two and then died. He also had the scales sticking straight out and ripped one of his fins but had no other signs of illness. Lends some credence to "Don't tap on the glass".