Rip Archimedes

[littlest]

Sadly my betta Archimedes died today. It was a long time coming. He's been very ill since the New Year.
I need to know what I should do with his bowl though. I want to get another betta, but do I need to disinfect the bowl at all?
I don't know what exactly Archimedes died from. He had trouble with his swim bladder and would sink when he tried to swim. He had no marks or visible parasites (although when I found him dead tonight he did have a bit of fungus. He didn't have this this morning when he was alive though).
I treated his bowl with a broad-spectrium anti-bacterial med but it didn't help him. It may have just been his time.

so, should I do anything to clean the bowl before getting a new fish (I would obviously clean it out and do a complete water change first anyway).

 

[Jaded12]

fish will start to grow fungus after they die so thats nothing to worry about, when I lose a fish I wash the tank out really well with a bleach solution made from 9 parts water and 1 part bleach then let it air dry outside for 48 hours then rinse it out again and towel dry it, this has always worked perfectly for me without any problems at all.

 

[liz2]

I now bleach my tanks after a fish has died as well. I leave bleach and water in for 30 minutes. Then I leave the tank under a running cold water tap to make sure there is no bleach in there. You can smell when the bleach has gone. Don't forget to either throw any ornaments/ plants or scrub them in bleach solution. I use those glass pebbles so you can clean them pretty easily as well

 

[littlest]

Ok thanks. I've disinfected a tank with bleach solution before after a goldfish died of a baceterial infection. Bit of a pain though as the filter for his bowl is fully cycled and I'll lose all the good bacteria.

 

[littlest]

quick question:
does it have to be pure bleach? I can't find bleach that doesn't have either perfume or "limescale deterrant". Are these OK to use?

 

[ibbledibble]

you could try using baby sterilising fluid?

 

[Amunet]

You don't necessarily have to clean the tank w/ bleach. In my 3 gallon.. I've only used plain old water. I scrub it really well, I have replaced the gravel each time though. Not b/c I thought it would infect another fish, but only b/c I wanted different gravel
And yep... everything has been fine so far.
1st betta that was in it died of something. Not sure what. Maybe old age *shrugs*
2nd betta bloated up like crazy and developed dropsy after I fed it brine shrimp.
And now My Sherbert currently resides in the tank no problem.

Basically same thing w/ our 5gallon tank. It's housed sick fish, only cleaned it w/ water, now we keep platies w/ fry in it no problem.