Betta Died :( Safe To Use The Same Tank?

[Mauricia]

One of my bettas suddenly died, he was fine one day and then in the morning he was dead. I inspected him and couldn't see any signs of disease. I have no idea how old he was when I got him from the store about a year ago so he may have died of old age. Do you think it is safe to use the same filter without cleaning it so I don't have to re-cycle the tank for a new fish? I use the same siphon and buckets with my other bettas and they are all fine, is this enough evidence that there isn't some disease?

 

[hihi100202]

i would clean it out. I dont think you would have to go all cleaning-commando, just a good scrub around the edges

 

[Truck]

You need to pin point why he died, did you test the water after the death? if so what were the readings? If it was natural causes the filter would be fine to use again.

 

[Mauricia]

Yep, I tested the water and it was fine. If any sort of chemical got into the water it hasn't effected the filter bacteria, as it has been a week and it's still processing ammonia and nitrite fine. I really can't think of a good reason for his death... he did seem a little more mellow and lazy than usual over the past month that's why I think it was old age. He's my only betta that I got from a pet store so I wouldn't be surprised if his lifespan was shortened due to stress.
Of course my plan would be to completely clean the tank (scrub well, replace all water). I know it wouldn't be a hundred percent safe to put a new fish in there, but I'm basically just asking what other people would do in my situation.

 

[Tolak]

Clean everything except the filter media with 1 part chlorine bleach to 20 parts water. Rinse well, use double the normal amount of dechlorinator when filling.

Due to biological exclusion the filter media in a mature filter will have enough nitrifying bacteria to choke out the much smaller percentage of any bacteria that may have caused a problem.

You may also want to run the tank with no fish, adding ammonia to keep the filter cycled. I will often do this with larger tanks which have experienced unknown problems. Having no host, any bacteria which may have caused a problem will die off in a week or two, no food source they starve. In these cases I will often give the filter media a quick rinse in tap water, not enough to totally decimate the nitrifying bacteria, but enough to knock back any stray bacteria that may be illness related.

I've gotten in shipments of bad stock, lost a couple dozen fish in a week or less several times. It's pretty obvious they weren't healthy before they were shipped. Depending on how soon I need to use that particular tank & the fish I'm planning to stock it with I will use any of the above methods. For anything sensitive I will use a spare filter from another tank, take the filter from the tank that had problems, clean it with the bleach solution & run it in a cycled tank.

 

[Mauricia]

Thank you, this was very helpful!

 

[ellena]

Yep, I tested the water and it was fine. If any sort of chemical got into the water it hasn't effected the filter bacteria, as it has been a week and it's still processing ammonia and nitrite fine. I really can't think of a good reason for his death... he did seem a little more mellow and lazy than usual over the past month that's why I think it was old age. He's my only betta that I got from a pet store so I wouldn't be surprised if his lifespan was shortened due to stress.
Of course my plan would be to completely clean the tank (scrub well, replace all water). I know it wouldn't be a hundred percent safe to put a new fish in there, but I'm basically just asking what other people would do in my situation.

Have you been feeding it ammonia?

 

[Mauricia]

Yep, I tested the water and it was fine. If any sort of chemical got into the water it hasn't effected the filter bacteria, as it has been a week and it's still processing ammonia and nitrite fine. I really can't think of a good reason for his death... he did seem a little more mellow and lazy than usual over the past month that's why I think it was old age. He's my only betta that I got from a pet store so I wouldn't be surprised if his lifespan was shortened due to stress.
Of course my plan would be to completely clean the tank (scrub well, replace all water). I know it wouldn't be a hundred percent safe to put a new fish in there, but I'm basically just asking what other people would do in my situation.

Have you been feeding it ammonia?

Yep I've been putting a little pure ammonia in every day in case I decide to use the same filters for my new fish.