I'll quarantine any new gravel from now on

[yvez9]

My girlfriend got herself a betta 2 weeks ago. He was fairly active at the store and still active in his bowl.

My girfriend had bought som red gravel for him (about a pound for this bowl). We put in the gravel, added water and water conditionner, acclimated the betta

All went well. After a few days, we noticed the betta was very calm and barely ever moved. He would still flare when we put a mirror near him though.

We got him a light with a timer. Temperature in the room was stable. Everything looked fine. 100% water changes twice a week to keep water quality good.

Anyway, the fish died so my girlfriend empties the bowl and that was that...

I asked her if i could take the bowl to work so i can put my betta in it while doing water changes, instead of a little glass.

Since I'm working graveyard shifts this week i figured i'd have time to clean it and set ip all up.

I kept the same gravel and filled up the bowl with water. After a few minutes, I noticed the water having a red tint. We noticed this before but we thaught it was the bettafix that tainted the water, as her betta had a bit of fin damage...

I empty out the tank again, fill it up, red again!

I put the gravel in a smaller bowl and let hot water pour through it for about 15 minutes. I noticed about half the gravel was losing it's color!

I tried washing it for an hour before giving up as there was always a red tint to the water after a few minutes.

No wonder the fish died, he was most likely poisened from the paint or whatever they use to color the gravel...

From now on, I will test out any gravel I buy in a bucket or something.

Anybody ever had a similar experience?

 

[wuvmybetta]

I'm sorry to hear that.

 

[JustinSane]

All these kind of experiences could be easily avoided if people stuck to using natural bottom substrates (ie. sand or gravel with a small grain size preferably, but also leaves and peat can be rather easily used). I mean how often have you seen a river with red gravel bottom?

But I think you've learned a lesson here, sorry about the fish though

 

[yvez9]

I've been using colored gravel in my 2 aquariums and never had problems with it.

I guess I just got a bad box

When I get my dream tank, 225g, I will put in nice light-colored sand, white or very light brown. This would be in like 10 years though... I would have put sand in my 20g tank if I had known better when I got it, but I just took whatever the guy at the lfs had. I didn't think too much of it

Anyway, as for red bottom rivers, there is a river about an hour drive from my place called "La Rouge" and when you look at it from above, the bed is bright red.

 

[freshmike]

Sorry to hear that, too.

 

[Bryan]

I wonder how many other fish died because of this gravel that shouldn't have been sold

Sorry about your loss

 

[yvez9]

My girlfriend bought the exact same pack of gravel last week for her 12 gallon tank, she wanted a bit of red sparkles in her white gravel

No problem so far so I guess it was just a bad batch, especially since it seems to be only about half the gravel I have here that is losing its color...

Anyway, I'm not going to that store anymore now, I didn't like their service last time.

I'm a very hardy customer when it comes to animals. If I find anything suspicious, I don't go anymore, even for hardware