Hunnelips
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
First off I would like to say hello all...I'm new to the forum. I have read and followed for awhile and finally decided to join.
Now to the point...I have had two tragic betta deaths.
I have a lot of experience keeping bettas and all of my past fish have lived 3 to 5 years.
Joey was alone in a one gallon for his whole life (3 years) up until I decided to place him in my community tank. He was very active and seemed happy for about a month and slowly lost color and became lethargic. He unfortunately passed soon after. Joey the second was purchased (could have been his identical twin) and was very happy to have tons of space to swim around and explore. He lasted about 4 weeks and died tonight. Earlier I had noticed he had a cottony growth on his underside. This had sprung up overnight because I watch all my fish very closely and the 29 gallon is at the foot of my bed. I watch them as I fall asleep nightly. I treated the tank with melafix according to dosing instructions but unfortunately it didn't help.
I can't tell you ammonia levels because something used in my water conditioning gives a false positive, and my api test always reads above 8ppm. My other two tanks test the same. All other fish are healthy so I know these readings are not accurate. I can't tell you nitrite or nitrate readings as I don't have the test for those. I can't tell you the ph either. The tank stays at a steady 78 degrees. I would call it over filtered because I have a power filter as well as an air driven diy bio filter. Bio filter is ceramic bio media by Fluval. There is absolutely no aggression in the tank between any of the fish. The zebrafish chase each other and that's about it. Platys breed regularly and I remove the fry. Water changes are three gallons once per week, Amquel Plus as the water conditioner.
As a final note I would just like to say that I'm completely stumped. Most fish keepers say bettas should have adequate filtration and steady higher temperatures as well as large swiiming expanse. This will be my second failed attempt at giving a betta a better home. The funny part is that my prior bettas live long happy lives in unheated one gallon tanks. Does anyone have some insight on this or can see something that I'm missing?
Now to the point...I have had two tragic betta deaths.
I have a lot of experience keeping bettas and all of my past fish have lived 3 to 5 years.
Joey was alone in a one gallon for his whole life (3 years) up until I decided to place him in my community tank. He was very active and seemed happy for about a month and slowly lost color and became lethargic. He unfortunately passed soon after. Joey the second was purchased (could have been his identical twin) and was very happy to have tons of space to swim around and explore. He lasted about 4 weeks and died tonight. Earlier I had noticed he had a cottony growth on his underside. This had sprung up overnight because I watch all my fish very closely and the 29 gallon is at the foot of my bed. I watch them as I fall asleep nightly. I treated the tank with melafix according to dosing instructions but unfortunately it didn't help.
I can't tell you ammonia levels because something used in my water conditioning gives a false positive, and my api test always reads above 8ppm. My other two tanks test the same. All other fish are healthy so I know these readings are not accurate. I can't tell you nitrite or nitrate readings as I don't have the test for those. I can't tell you the ph either. The tank stays at a steady 78 degrees. I would call it over filtered because I have a power filter as well as an air driven diy bio filter. Bio filter is ceramic bio media by Fluval. There is absolutely no aggression in the tank between any of the fish. The zebrafish chase each other and that's about it. Platys breed regularly and I remove the fry. Water changes are three gallons once per week, Amquel Plus as the water conditioner.
As a final note I would just like to say that I'm completely stumped. Most fish keepers say bettas should have adequate filtration and steady higher temperatures as well as large swiiming expanse. This will be my second failed attempt at giving a betta a better home. The funny part is that my prior bettas live long happy lives in unheated one gallon tanks. Does anyone have some insight on this or can see something that I'm missing?