Did I Kill My Betta?

[1stbetta]

I did a 25% water change with him still in the tank and he died that night. I was so upset to find him dead the next morning, especially since I think I should have removed him and re-accustomed him to the water. I did, however, notice that he was acting odd the day before, so I'm thinking the added stress might have done him in. I did the best I could for him with a fully cycled 10 gallon tank, but the problems began when the old filter broke and the tank went unfiltered for a day. That's when he started acting weird, but I thought he was just blowing a bubble nest in the still current.

 

[dzsigmond217]

Awww..so sad! Did you happen to do any readings of the water in the tank that the filter conked out on?
Maybe there was an already existing issue with the water quality?

 

[1stbetta]

Yeah I had it tested today. The ammonia was a little high, but nitrates and nitrites were fine. I don't understand it because the tank was cycled, but I suspect that maybe plant matter might have decayed or something. I had a disaster with cobomba and did 2 water changes this week to get all of the remains out, but my other plants are fine. I don't know what is causing the ammonia levels, but I think my new filter will sort it out. I am currently housing my GF's two dwarf puffers because her levels were far worse then mine, and I just hope they make it. I've also developed a nematode (I think, definitely a worm, though) problem, but I think the puffers are eating them.

 

[Amunet]

With the new filter, did you save any of the old filter media and place it into the new filter? Only being off for 24 hours.. so long as the media (sponge, filter bag, whatever) didn't dry out, the bacteria should've been ok for that amount of time. Some of it would've died, but there still should have been enough to keep the tank from cycling again.
If you just totally replaced the filter & filter media.. your tank is probably cycling again b/c you got rid of most of the beneficial bacteria. There's very little in the water and gravel.

Did you dechlorinate the water when you did the water change? Or make sure that the temp was close to the tank's temp? I know it's kind of a duh question, but gotta ask if to rule out that being a possible cause ya know?

I'm so sorry your little guy died

 

[1stbetta]

HA I've found that there is no such thing as a duh question, but yeah it was dechlorinated and theoretically had set long enough for the water dechlorinator to work, and the temps were as close as I could get to identical. And no, my new filter has different media because the old one was a defunct model that nobody sold new cartridges for. The floss from that one won't fit in my new filter, so I am trying one of those "instant cycle" things. I got 2 tiger barbs to help occupy the space that will be fine in my turtle tank later, and as of right now I have no idea where the second puffer is.

 

[Amunet]

What instant cycle product are you using? Most of the ones you get in your LFS/LPS are absolute wastes of money that don't do anything.

But yeah.. if you threw away all of your old filter media (you could've cut it to fit into your tank if possible?) then your tank is most probably cycling again which is why you have ammonia readings now.

 

[1stbetta]

It's called Stability...I hadn't heard anything negative about it like I had about Prime and others, but they didn't have Bio Spora, which is supposed to be legit. I went with the next best thing I could find, plus I didn't pay for it so no harm no foul.

 

[Amunet]

Prime is just a dechlorinator that makes ammonia and I think nitrite less toxic.. so now sure why you would hear something bad about that?

I've seen stability in stores and it looks just like the rest of the useless so called quick starters.

Bio-Spira is different though b/c the bacteria is kept alive due to you having to refrigerate it.

 

[1stbetta]

I just meant that it doesn't work as a cycle-shortener, which is how a lot of places market it. I guess we'll see what this does because I'm going to get my levels checked the next time I go.