Rip Pinky :( What Happened?

[Havvie]

Hey all,
 
Sad day, I went to clean my 5 gallon betta tank to find my dear Pinky had died

I have only had him for two weeks and he has been happy as a clam the whole time, including this morning when I fed him. He was his usual perky self around 10am this morning, swimming excitedly when I turned on his light and ate like normal. 4pm and I find him dead, floating by the bottom with no marks or anything wrong with him. I have attached a picture of how I found him (also one of him happy swimming around a while ago, his colour looks different but it's just my crappy camera on my phone) can anyone lend any ideas as what might have happened? Is it possible that the heater shorted out and electrocuted him or something? His body was twisted at an unusual angle. The heater is still working though and it's never given me any problems before. Its a national geographic 10 watt heater.
 
My tank is a 5 gallon, I did a fishless cycle before I got him which went according to schedule. My ammonia and nitrite are at 0, my nitrate is reading between 5 and 10 ppm which is odd as it's usually higher than that. The water temperature is 79 degrees. 
 
I just want to try to figure out what happened to him to before I go out and get another one so I make sure it doesn't happen again if it's something I can prevent

 
Thanks,
 
Havvie
 
 

 

[techen]

Do you have/had any water testing kits on you?

 

[LyraGuppi]

Have you cycled the tank?
 
RIP Pinky

 

[Havvie]

My tank is a 5 gallon, I did a fishless cycle before I got him which went according to schedule. My ammonia and nitrite are at 0, my nitrate is reading between 5 and 10 ppm which is odd as it's usually higher than that. The water temperature is 79 degrees. 
 

 
Yes I cycled it properly, following the instructions on this forum. PH is between 7.5 and 8.0, see above for other water details. I use the liquid Nutrafin Master Test Kit.

 

[techen]

Were those tests done when you found him dead?

 

[Havvie]

Yes, I tested it right after I found him and took him out

 

[Wildbetta]

So sorry to hear about your betta.         SIP Pinky!   
 
I do not see anything that would have caused his death.  You were keeping him in the correct fashion and he seems to be happy and healthy under your care.  Since you only had him for a short while, it is highly possible that he had an underlying condition that you had no way of knowing about which ended up killing him.  Most likely one of those freak occurrences that happen sometimes.   

 

[stanleo]

It's the oddest thing about fish. They can live for years sometimes in the crappiest of conditions and every once in a while healthy fish kept in the best of care can just suddenly die for no apparent reason.

If I were you I would just change out 100% of the water, do your water tests to make sure all is well and get a new fish.

Sorry you had to go through this.

 

[Mamashack]

Sorry for your loss. It's heart-breaking when you lose a fish
Try to get a juvenile one next time - it may be that he was an older fish. Make sure you acclimate your new one slowly using the drip method and then he can gradually adjust to all your water parameters, not just temperature.

 

[Havvie]

Thanks guys, that makes me feel better. I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't something obvious that I was overlooking because I was upset. Against my better judgement I bought Pinky from a local petstore chain in a little cup with lots of sickly looking fish around because I loved his purple coloring so much. Next time I will do what I had originally planned and get one from the LFS that keeps their bettas individually in 5 gallon tanks, I would imagine they would be in better shape from their considering they care enough to take up prime tank space with single bettas.