Lost My Bettalicious Boy This Morning! Not Sure Why?

[wendyngd]

Hi--After all the little health problems we've made it through this year with this betta and a move (with a fallen tank), after we've had him almost a year, woke up to find Bettalicious dead amid his leaf bed. Only sign I noticed were his gills seemed a bit swollen.

I'm fearful that he may have gotten stressed out this weekend because one day my husband and I were hammering, etc., about 3-4 feet away from the table he's on. He didn't seem too freaked out. Seemed very interested in moving around the tank to watch what mommy and daddy were doing. And I did try to soothe him when the noise got loud. Now, I'm wondering if I should have moved his 3 gallon tank with heater and filter into another room. I didn't because I thought that would be too stressful for him. Now I wish I HAD..

He also seemed especially nervous last night as I cleaned his tank and changed the water (with him in it--as usual).....Could I have bruised him?

I am sad about him. I miss him, but I also have learned (thankfully) that it was pretty easy to bond with these sociable guys, so it's not like I'll never find another so warm and friendly...I hope..

I plan to buy another one asap, but I'm not sure about cleaning out the 3 gallon glass tank to sterilize it for a new resident and also, re my filter. This is my first filtered betta tank and I'm not sure what to do about it. Do I keep it for the bacteria matter in it, changing some of the sponges, but not all or do i start over again with the filter?

Any suggestions (and hugs) would be greatly appreciated..
-Wendy

Bettalicious

 

[Amunet]

Aww.. I'm so sorry that your lil guy passed away *HUGS*
RIP little fella

It probably wasn't anything you did.. like the hammering or water change. What health problems did he have? They probably shortened his life so there most likely wasn't anything you could've done to prevent his death from occuring.


As for the filter. Keep it. I think the BB (beneficial bacteria) stays alive for about 24hrs? without an ammonia source so you can either 'feed' the filter w/ some kind of ammonia source or get another betta asap for the tank. You could change some of the sponges, but don't take them all out completely. That's where the majority of the BB lives so if you take it all out, you're basically cycling the tank all over again.

As for sterlizing the tank. I honestly wouldn't do anything except a 100% water change. That's just me though.

 

[Fish_Stix]

Fish are quite sensitive to loud noises and startle very easily. I'm not a physics professor, but I know that sound waves will always travel faster through a denser medium and water is more dense than air because water molecules are packed more closely together than air molecules. I also know that because of this sound is amplified underwater compared to in air and I do not doubt that this could have put an enormous stress on your betta and caused him to go into shock that he couldn't recover from.

As for sterilization, I don't think it would be a bad idea to completely sterilize the tank. If you are going to introduce a new betta or any other fish into the tank you want to be sure that they are in the safest environment possible, because you don't know how they will react to another fish's bacteria. That is why you never mix the water from the pet store with your own tank water, when adding a new fish to your tank.

 

[wendyngd]

Thank you, my friends, for the love and support. I find it very comforting!

Love,
Wendy

 

[PoptartShop]

Aw I'm so sorry for your loss.
My Bettalicious RIP<3