Amost Had Betta For Dinner :(

GuppyGoddess

Fish Herder
Joined
Aug 28, 2009
Messages
1,037
Reaction score
0
Location
US
So, I noticed over the last few days that the heat on temp. gauge on the side of the aquarium kept moving up, so in response, I lowered the temp on my heater. At first I thought it was because I placed the tank near a heater vent. . .well, as the days wore on, I was lowering and lowering my heater by a few degrees twice a day.

Well, yesterday, I went to check on my betta and he was sitting at the bottom looking a bit under the weather. Not swimming around to look at me when I waved my hand across his tank (like would normally occur). I checked his thermometer and it goes up to 82 degrees. . .and there was NO sign of what heat it was, as in above the limit of the sensors. I put my hand in the water and it was VERY warm. Poor guy.

I double checked my heater and it had been continually turned down so it was set at 72, but the temp was 10+ degrees warmer. Basically, he almost got cooked alive because I have NO idea how warm it was and clearly it was bothering him.

Luckily the store took the heater back (even though it was purchased 1 1/2 months ago), so today, I'm buying a new one.

Basically my point: be sure to check the temp on your tank and if there is any odd increase/decrease, you heater is probably to blame. I didn't realize one could go out so quickly!

Oh, and he was in a 2.5 gallon and because of how quickly his water changed heat in such a small confind space, and along with ammonia issues, I moved him to a 5.5 gallon. My other male is still in his 2 gallon heated bowl and is happy there!
 
you where lucky there i know someone and it mappened to them over night in a 5 foot tank and there 2 oscars and common plec got cooked. you really need to get that betta out the 2g it is way to small evan inf you do 75% waterchanges a day the ammonia will still buils up very quickliy and evan if you only miss one waterchange it could kill it 3g is the very min
 
I've had enough heaters go bad to make it a habit of touching the outside of tanks a couple of times daily. This is just a part of feeding. If you have multiple tanks and go putting your hand in every one you risk cross contamination if one tank ends up having a problem.
 
I agree - heaters are a pain for breaking - I've had one in which the thermostat went and cooked all my fish, and currently my heater is on it's way out but seems to simply be not heating as effectively as it did before (used to be set to 26 and heat tank to 26, now it's set to 28 and heats it to 25) so when I go to lfs on Tuesday I'll be buying a new one.
 
do you not have a thermometer in the tank? :huh:
Yes, I said, "I checked his thermometer" in my post. If you go back and reread, you'll see that. THAT is how I first knew something was going on. . .Anyhow, he's been moved into a 5.5 with a new heater and a filter.
 

Most reactions

Back
Top