wildroseofky
Aquarium Advice Addict
I had my Beta for only around 5 months and he died last night. He stopped eating three days ago and was hiding in the corner of his 10 gallon tank. I noticed his fins were sticking out and he looked bloated. I tried to feed him a pea but he would not eat it. He just hid from me. I added fresh driftwood and a tea bag to his tank to get some tannin in the water. I also added a teaspoon and half of canning salt. Yesterday morning he came to the center of the tank and was floating near the top of the water. He looked like he was feeling a little better. Than we had a power outage. His tank temp dropped to 72 degrees. When I got home last night I found him dead. Stuck to the filter intake.
I stressed him out a couple of weeks ago doing tank maintenance, trimming plants and vacuuming tank. I messed with the substrate and had a spike in Ammonia and Nitrite. Two days after tank maintenance my ammonia went up to .50 and Nitrite was at .25. I did a massive water change. I tried to catch my Beta before doing the water change and really stressed him out. I was going to take him out of the tank and do a 100 percent water change but could not catch him. I gave up and did a 90% water change. I tested daily and did water changes as needed for the next week. He got sick about a week and half after that fiasco. Did I kill my Beta? I feel really guilty for stressing him out so bad.
What do I do with his tank now? Should I break it down, removing everything, and disinfect it? This is a heavily planted tank. Do I need to replace the sponge filters? Can I sterilize them? Would a complete water change be enough? I want to get another Beta and want to try to make sure this doesn't happen again.
I stressed him out a couple of weeks ago doing tank maintenance, trimming plants and vacuuming tank. I messed with the substrate and had a spike in Ammonia and Nitrite. Two days after tank maintenance my ammonia went up to .50 and Nitrite was at .25. I did a massive water change. I tried to catch my Beta before doing the water change and really stressed him out. I was going to take him out of the tank and do a 100 percent water change but could not catch him. I gave up and did a 90% water change. I tested daily and did water changes as needed for the next week. He got sick about a week and half after that fiasco. Did I kill my Beta? I feel really guilty for stressing him out so bad.
What do I do with his tank now? Should I break it down, removing everything, and disinfect it? This is a heavily planted tank. Do I need to replace the sponge filters? Can I sterilize them? Would a complete water change be enough? I want to get another Beta and want to try to make sure this doesn't happen again.
