My betta died! What did I do wrong?

[blackberry75]

I just received this betta yesterday and he died today while I was at work.
Water parameters are zero for ammonia and nitrite, 5ppm nitrate, ph 7.2, temp 78F. His tank is cycled 5.5g with lots of plants to hide in or rest on. I did the drip method to acclimate him. He seemed healthy at first but as the day went on he became lethargic and refused to eat. He was mostly resting on the plants all day before I went to work and still wouldn't eat.

The store I bought him from is going to send me another one free of charge, but I don't want that one to die too. What should I do to prevent the new one from suffering the same fate?

 

[Aiken Drum]

From what you have said there is nothing obviously wrong with what you did. Sometimes fish die.

- How long was the fish in transit in the bag before you started your acclimatisation?
- Are you 100% sure you dechlorinated the water in the tank?

 

[fishwonder]

Agree above. Any chance of any chlorine in the water during a drip acclimate? Did you use any de chlorinator? That is about the only thing that can kill fish in very quickly. It doesn't take much chlorine to kill fish... > 0.05 ppm.

Fish started dying at a concentration of 0.04 to 0.05 ppm (mg/l). This is one tenth the minimum chlorine recommended by the EPA for safe drinking water. This is why forgetting to neutralize the chlorine in a water change can kill fish in minutes.

There is really no need to drip acclimate fish... IMO.

 

[blackberry75]

I used the tank water to acclimate the fish, it's been cycling for a week +. I used filter floss from my established tank to jump start the process and a guppy who needed a safe place away from the goldfish in an emergency situation. So basically a fish in cycle.

The rep at the fish store thinks it was stressed out from shipping, though I opted for overnight to minimize travel time. He said some fish just don't have the constitution for travel. Hopefully the next one is hardier. I opted for a store credit until the weather warms up to avoid drastic temperature swings in transit.

 

[Chris A.]

May I make it clear; it is not normal for fish to die. When they are imported, they arrive cold and in bags that stink of ammonia. Bettas are transported little different; however, they have been through hell to get to us and if they go into our tank and they die then commonly it is something to do with our systems and husbandry practices.

I would check your decor for shiny gold like inclusions that might indicate fool's gold (iron pyrite). Ordinarily the pH would be much lower if pyrite was responsible.

If you have residual medication in the water that might have caused problems. Up to a critical threshold, it is not the final concentration of therapeutics that kills but the speed at which fish are exposed.

Another thing that might causes the symptoms you described is a newly filled tank with water containing chloramine. Chloramine in tap water must be neutralised by “tap Safe” sodium thiosulphate before use.

It appears from what you have written that you did everything right. Fish in bags can expire if they have been travelling a long time and the pressure in the bag is low. If then you acclimate them with an open bag, then dissolved oxygen can further diminish asphyxiating the fish. If I had to guess, I would say it was badly packaged and transported.

I would acclimate the next one by putting the fish and water into small bucket then immediately syphoning water from your tank with airline. That way oxygen gets to the fish straight away and it gradually gets acclimated to the new conditions safely. Obviously, you’ll have to make up new water and add it to compensate for water loss. Do not use the water in the bucket. Do not store prepared water unless you put air through it constantly.

Upon knowing all learning ends

 

[Aiken Drum]

One thing i have heard happening after lengthy fish shipping.

The fish is in a sealed bag and ammonia will build up during shipping, possibly to very toxic levels. O2 will quickly run out and the fishes respiration causes CO2 to increase, this will lower pH. Ammonia in low pH is much less toxic. When you open the bag and the water is exposed to O2 the pH will rapidly increase and the ammonia will become much more toxic.

King of DIY on youtube has raised this, and he suggests not acclaimatising fish after lengthy shipping for this reason. Float the bag in your tank while still sealed to equalise the temperature, open the bag into a net over a bucket so all the contents of the bag drops into the net immediately, leaving the fish in the net and the water in the bucket. Your fish wont then have been exposed to the rapidly toxic water. You can then move the fish into your tank.

 

[blackberry75]

Thanks for the info. Right now I'm using Prime to treat water when filling or doing water changes. I'll def. keep all that information in mind when I get the new fish.

I'm also going to work on getting my pH closer to neutral before I get the new one. I feel like pH differences might have contributed to the poor outcome. I don't know, but a more neutral pH will probably be better for long term health as well.

 

[Aiken Drum]

I wouldnt worry about the pH of your tank. Its fine. You will do more than harm than good by trying to adjust pH.

 

[Chavamomma1227]

One thing i have heard happening after lengthy fish shipping.

The fish is in a sealed bag and ammonia will build up during shipping, possibly to very toxic levels. O2 will quickly run out and the fishes respiration causes CO2 to increase, this will lower pH. Ammonia in low pH is much less toxic. When you open the bag and the water is exposed to O2 the pH will rapidly increase and the ammonia will become much more toxic.

King of DIY on youtube has raised this, and he suggests not acclaimatising fish after lengthy shipping for this reason. Float the bag in your tank while still sealed to equalise the temperature, open the bag into a net over a bucket so all the contents of the bag drops into the net immediately, leaving the fish in the net and the water in the bucket. Your fish wont then have been exposed to the rapidly toxic water. You can then move the fish into your tank.

I agree with this.... I wouldn’t drip acclimate them. Keep the bag sealed, float acclimate for temperature, and then immediately pour your fish into a net with the nasty water going into a separate bucket, then add the fish only to the tank. Another Youtuber “KGTropicals” sells Bettas online - their guidelines on keepfishkeeping.com are very straight forward and specify not to drip acclimate.

But don’t be discouraged! Better luck next time

 

[connor31556]

Drip acclimation is more geared towards saltwater fish as the different water parameters in saltwater are much more finicky. Also I might have read it wrong, but it sounds like u gave the water parameters before the betta arrived. Is it possible you tried to get the fish to eat too much and the tank went through a mini cycle in response to this?

 

[blackberry75]

Drip acclimation is more geared towards saltwater fish as the different water parameters in saltwater are much more finicky. Also I might have read it wrong, but it sounds like u gave the water parameters before the betta arrived. Is it possible you tried to get the fish to eat too much and the tank went through a mini cycle in response to this?

The parameters where from before and after, they didn't change at all. He refused to eat once I offered food and I clean up whatever the fish don't eat.

 

[DeepAsHadal]

Gh and KH changes could cause osmotic shock. You might ask the shipper for their water parameters and see how they compare to yours. Also, if the shipper is using a breather bag I'm not sure it should be floated too long in the aquarium.

 

[blackberry75]

Well apparently there was a glitch in the matrix or whatevs because another fish showed up today! So much for my store credit. Little irritated because if it had arrived 30m later it would have stayed in the box until after midnight when I got off work. Anyway, life. It's that thing that happens while you're making plans.

Lovely blue and white butterfly. But took everyone's advice to heart and he already seems much healthier than the last one. I've dubbed him "Big Mad"-that doesn't need an explanation does it? LOL. The poor guppy. I'm either going to have to put it back in with the goldfish or buy her her own tank. Big Mad does NOT want a roommate. I improvised a temporary divider out of light diffuser\egg crate.

I'm off to bed and hoping for a betta tomorrow-I crack me up.

 

[blackberry75]

Note to self, when making a divider make sure it's tall enough the fish can't jump over it.

Big Mad killed the guppy. Woke up to him swimming around the guppys side of the tank and a finless, very dead guppy at the bottom. He then jumped over the divider as if to say "see, this is how I did it". I feel awful, but lesson learned I guess. The plan was to move him into a 10g with some dither fish, but looks like he'll be flying solo in the 5.5g for the rest of his life.

Oddly, since removing the guppy he's still big mad. I thought he was just being aggressive because of the other fish. Seems he really is PO as his default. Flares at anyone who walks by and swims around like he's on patrol. Still he seems happier now that the guppy is out of the picture, if that's even possible to tell with a betta.

 

[Aiken Drum]

I dont think bettas and guppies are considered good tank mates, especially males together. The long tails in male guppies trigger aggression in the male betta.

 

[Mother of fish]

Sounds like you did a good job. Sorry for your loss, I assume you got him from a big chain pet store? If you want a really good survival rate get from a breeder next time. Way better quality fish.��