sunnypseudo
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
I will start off by saying, I'm not a fish enthusiast. I'm not even a Betta enthusiast. Truth be told, I never saw myself as a fish owner because they are fragile creatures, and as weird as it sounds, I'm not fond of things dying under my watch. So that being said.. I got a Betta nearly two years ago from a Petco, blue/green/purple Half Moon, because, believe it or not, the guy was trying to get me to bring him home. I started him in a two and a half gallon tank with live plants and filter, and pretty regular tank cleanings/water conditioning to the letter every time. He did wonderfully. I started doing more reading about Bettas a while back, and thought it would be nice to upgrade him to a ten gallon tank. I had heard that the larger the tank, the more exercise, the longer they live, as well as, with a larger tank, you can have bottom feeders and I thought it would just be a nice thing to do for my little buddy. We had gotten three spotted cory and aside from his first discovery of other life on this planet, he did great. They never picked on him, he never picked on them. A few days after we had gotten everything set up, one of the cory went for the big sleep. My husband (who knows a lot more about this stuff than I do) assured me that its normal to lose a fish after bringing home. Being some what familiarized with Betta behavior and sicknesses, I've kept a watchful eye on him for these last (nearly) two years, and nothing had really changed until yesterday. He didn't have rapid gill movement, he wasn't tucking his fins in, he wasn't even hanging out at the bottom. Once he did arch his head back which I thought was strange so I watched him for a bit, and he swam off, and resumed as normal. The only other strange thing that happened was yesterday he didn't seem to want to eat. I know it isn't uncommon for a fish to skip a day, he has before, so I just kept an eye on him. By last night, he was sideways on the bottom of the tank, and I caught him just as he passed. We removed him immediately into our spare tank. Now, I watch him, or have watched him closely, there had been no previous discoloration of fins or gills, no scale loss, no spots, no blood. When he was passing, this was the first I had seen his gills looked swollen and bloody. We checked the PH level and it was under .25. I've been keeping the tank at about 76 degrees, which is the same temperature my Betta has always lived in.
The two cories that are left seem to be doing just fine, no changes with them at all, though I haven't had them for more than a week, so I don't know them like I knew my Betta.
The only thing his visual symptoms matched up with was ammonia poisoning, but I don't see how that can be possible when the PH level was fine. Is there a chance this really could have been old age? Until I can get to the bottom of this, and make sure the other two cory will be fine, I really don't want to bring home anymore little guys for risk that they may die on me too.
The two cories that are left seem to be doing just fine, no changes with them at all, though I haven't had them for more than a week, so I don't know them like I knew my Betta.
The only thing his visual symptoms matched up with was ammonia poisoning, but I don't see how that can be possible when the PH level was fine. Is there a chance this really could have been old age? Until I can get to the bottom of this, and make sure the other two cory will be fine, I really don't want to bring home anymore little guys for risk that they may die on me too.