I have had Gumball for about 2 months. He is a beautiful Delta Tail. He is in a 10G cycled tank with silk plants. 0 ammonia, 0 nitites, about 10 nitrates. He was doing wonderfully...ate from my hand, very lively, just a pure pleasure.
I made the unfortunate decision to add 2 mystery snails to his tank a week ago. I accidentally got a little of the water from the pet store in the tank, so don't know if it was contaminated. He seemed fine until yesterday. All of a sudden he stopped eating and was swimming much less. I removed the snails and did a large water change...about 50-75%. He got worse through the night and this morning he was spending a lot of time on the bottom of the tank or in plants, just laying there. Occasionally he would dart to the top to get some air. I bought some Tetra LifeGuard today, but the man at the lfs said to try aquarium salt first. When I got home he seemed better...even came up to eat a bite, but still not his usual self by any stretch. I let the salt (2T) dissolve in some of his water and put it in slowly over about 20 mins of time. After about 30 minutes he nose dived to the bottom of the tank and was laying there, upside down. He very much looks dead. I tried moving him to a smaller container with some of his water and some conditioned water. He is just worse than ever now. I am absolutely heart broken. I think he is dead now. He has been laying on the leaf he fell on for a long time and not moving.
The LFS said this would not have been caused by the snail. But, could it have been the spilled water from the fish store tank? Could it have been the stress of a cooler house yesterday? The salt? I don't want another betta until I can figure out what happened. I also have a female betta in a cycled 5G tank. She is doing fine and one of the snails was in with her for a day or so. But I didn't spill any of the fish store water in her tank. I moved one of the snail from her tank to Gumball's because she was a bit bloated (before the snail came) and I put some epsom salt in her tank.
I change the water often, although there is some film on the glass. I wasn't sure if i should clean that off or not. His water is always in the perfect parameters. It was not until the snail was added, along with some of the yucky water, that he went downhill.
I am probably rambling, but I am so so sad that he is gone and so afraid to get another. Who knew you could become so attached to a little fish? He was so happy in his nice big home.
I made the unfortunate decision to add 2 mystery snails to his tank a week ago. I accidentally got a little of the water from the pet store in the tank, so don't know if it was contaminated. He seemed fine until yesterday. All of a sudden he stopped eating and was swimming much less. I removed the snails and did a large water change...about 50-75%. He got worse through the night and this morning he was spending a lot of time on the bottom of the tank or in plants, just laying there. Occasionally he would dart to the top to get some air. I bought some Tetra LifeGuard today, but the man at the lfs said to try aquarium salt first. When I got home he seemed better...even came up to eat a bite, but still not his usual self by any stretch. I let the salt (2T) dissolve in some of his water and put it in slowly over about 20 mins of time. After about 30 minutes he nose dived to the bottom of the tank and was laying there, upside down. He very much looks dead. I tried moving him to a smaller container with some of his water and some conditioned water. He is just worse than ever now. I am absolutely heart broken. I think he is dead now. He has been laying on the leaf he fell on for a long time and not moving.
The LFS said this would not have been caused by the snail. But, could it have been the spilled water from the fish store tank? Could it have been the stress of a cooler house yesterday? The salt? I don't want another betta until I can figure out what happened. I also have a female betta in a cycled 5G tank. She is doing fine and one of the snails was in with her for a day or so. But I didn't spill any of the fish store water in her tank. I moved one of the snail from her tank to Gumball's because she was a bit bloated (before the snail came) and I put some epsom salt in her tank.
I change the water often, although there is some film on the glass. I wasn't sure if i should clean that off or not. His water is always in the perfect parameters. It was not until the snail was added, along with some of the yucky water, that he went downhill.
I am probably rambling, but I am so so sad that he is gone and so afraid to get another. Who knew you could become so attached to a little fish? He was so happy in his nice big home.
