Chlorine Doesn't Kill Bettas?

[tetraman]

It says in the mini-profile to the left of his post.

 

[ileopard]

What a coincidence that her fish died today. So yes, I guess the answer is, it does poison bettas, but very, very slowly. (The fish lived 2 years with her.)

 

[tetraman]

Remember that chloramines, which are molecules consisting of ammonia and chlorine, don't evaporate, and are used by water treatment plants in the summer.

 

[PaPeRo]

Chlloramines affect fish differently than chlorine. IIRC it's absorbed into their blood stream.

Edit: Sorry I was thinking about Nitrite when mentioning about absorbtion into the blood stream. Nevertheless chloramines are more toxic than chlorine and stay in the water for weeks unless you treat it.

Oops I was correct originally.

Chloramine is very toxic to fish. Chloramine, unlike chlorine, passes through the gill tissue causing little damage. Chloramine then enters the bloodstream and binds to iron in the hemoglobin in the red blood cells. The blood is unable to carry oxygen, resulting in a condition called methemoglobinemia, similar to nitrite toxicity. Fish become lethargic, sitting on the bottom or near the surface. At low chloramine concentrations a few fish will die every day. Higher chloramine levels can cause all fish to die within 24 hours.

 

[OohFeeshy]

What a coincidence that her fish died today. So yes, I guess the answer is, it does poison bettas, but very, very slowly. (The fish lived 2 years with her.)

But that's incredibly illogical. People keep bettas in heated, slow current filtered, heavily planted 5gs and they keel over after under two years. By that reasoning you could claim keeping a betta in such surrounding is very slowly killing it, which is completely untrue, so why should it apply here? Two years is plenty, especially since you have no idea on genetic history (probably highly inbred), age when purchased (could be anything from 6 months to a year) and many other affecting factors.