My Bettas Keep Dieing

[newfishy]

a is zero, ni is zero, na is 20, ph is 8.2, the same as its been for months.

no symptions at all, compleatly fine one day, wake up the next they are lethargic then mins later on the verge of death, for no reason. the mg male alone in a 5 gallon, 4 females in a divided ten gallon, only one of which is not dead or ill today, but I am treating her with a round of meds anyways.

tanks are filtered, with biweekly water changes. no new fish, no new anything. I use maracyn 1+2 and maroxy at the first hint of any lethargy.

and still they die, with no symptions, no warning, no nothing. I was quite miserable this morning cleaning out their tanks and equipment, my mg male is gone, my white female, the teal and the blue rt have the same symptions, so they should be gone by this evening.

this really sucks, I have done everything I can do for them, and its still not enough.

 

[Chris5787]

What filter do you have?

 

[dusky]

I'd do 100% water changed daily with Myxacin if you get that there. Take all the gravel out and througly clean it with boiling water, clean out any tubes as they hold germs. Through away plants and get fresh. good luck x

 

[sb_onefish]

Sorry this has happened to you. It must feel awful. Is there a chance of some kind of contamination, like air freshener, household cleaning products? Do you have small children that might have put something in the tank?

 

[newfishy]

I have a tetra hob filter on both, no gravel in the tanks at all, bettas are in a room locked away from the kids. bettas were placed in a cup and tanks sterlized and dried before refilled with water and bettas.

 

[Jaded12]

where are the bettas from? are they petstore bettas or imports? did you get them all from the same place? how long have you had them?

 

[newfishy]

two are high quality imports that I have had for 4-5 months. and two are very nice bettas from a breeder in the us, and I have also had them for at least 5 months.

my husband brought up the fact that it could remotely be heavy metal poisining, we have well water that tests out under normal things fine, though we drink and cook with bottled water. could a build up of heavy metals over time cause this?

 

[Amunet]

Do you not use a dechlorinator? Dechlorinators usually get rid of heavy metals as well, so guessing that they can also be harmful to fish. Don't really know what something like that could do, so have no idea if that is what is going on.

If it's not, sounds like it might be something that could've been cross contaminated?

 

[Jaded12]

Sometimes thai imports can be weaker, and not cope very well with the water over here, because the conditions are so much different where they came from. I've had thai imports drop dead for no reason what so ever, they just didnt take to the water over here. Just a thought.

 

[newfishy]

i hadnt been using a dechlorinator because we have well water with no chance of chloriene in it. however I am havign my dh pick some up from work today to see if it makes a difference.

 

[electric yellow]

Your ph is 8.2. Is that too high for bettas?

Whats their normal ph range?

 

[newfishy]

bettas would prefer lower to neutral, however, they are suposta adapt to the ph they are in. I have had these guys for months, and I have other bettas that are not sick, my two juvies that I raised are fine, and my betta that has cancer is also fine. which makes me think that it must be some sort of cross contamination, because the babies and the betta with cancer should be the first to go if it was water conditions.

other then treating with meds, and when they die super sterilizing the tanks...pouring several cups of bleach in the tank, letting it run over night (to kill anything hiding in the tiny bits of filter) throwing out all used media, then draining taking the tank outside, and hosing it for a very long time, no more bleach smell at all, then letting tank and equipment dry completely, then wiping all tank surfaces and equipment down with rubbing alcohol.

 

[newfishy]

well teal died over night, and my blue marble rosetail is not far from it. I just want to cry. I am never going to be able to replace these fish, they cost a decent amount to begin with, then several matured into rts and one ft, and I sure as heck cant go and buy several rts and a ft off aquabid.

 

[Syphoniera]

My deepest sympathies, newfishy.
And with such expensive, hard-to-replace fish...
This may be too late to be useful at this time, but, especially in view of the one betta having cancer, I was wondering about not only airborn contaminants (even pesticide/herbicide spraying outoors, perhaps?) but the possibility of such things as, perhaps, tiny flakes of fish-toxic paint, insulation or some such thing falling into one tank or another just the odd time from the ceiling, or perhaps the water for changes, wherever that's stored?
Insects do tend to get indoors in the fall as well as summer.
I've noticed that while my 'downstairs betta' tank has glass across most (air circulation) of the top, yet I sometimes find bits of half-eaten fruit or other flies in his tank and at others merely a mysteriously bulging belly is evident.
Even if the tanks are covered with hoods, there may be a possibility also of some small toxic/pesticide-exposed insect getting into the tanks to be eaten, especially if, (having well-water,) you're in the country?
It's a scary world for fish and their owners, but I do hope you'll soon find the cause and obscure the gaps left by your horrible fish losses with more, equally beautiful and, ultimately, valued fish.

 

[newfishy]

I had them in the basement at one point in time, actualy had the whole betta breeding mess down there. the furnace backed up and killed over 200 newborn fry. we just got lucky that it didnt back up into the whole house, even though we have carbon monoxide detecters on every floor. the bettas got moved out of the basement and into a spare room upstairs after that.

these deaths are pretty far apart from the basement episode, so it may or may not be related. my betta with cancer I am pretty sure he came with the start of it, he was a freebie from a breeder, and had a miniscule spot when I got him, that spot just kept growing into a tummor. so I am fairly sure that the breeder knew that fish from that line were more prone to cancers, and just dumps the ones with the first sign of it.

it is also remotely possible that some sort of pestacide is getting into the water in trace amounts threw the well, we live on a rather large farm in the middle of lots of farm land. we do not drink or cook with our well water so it wouldnt bother us.