Bettas dying without any signs (about to give up)

[hypersushi]

Greetings. I chanced upon this forum after reading Carl's excellent articles. I'm no newbie to fishkeeping, having successfully kept planted tanks for years with healthy cardinals, rainbows, rummy noses etc. Recently got back into fishkeeping and have a double decker 4ft tank with the third one (at the bottom) acting as a 4ft sump filter servicing these two double decker tanks. It's a bare tank with gravel at the bottom. Been running since Nov2013 with an understocked tank filled with angels, guppies, rams, hillstream loach (the other died). I've been trying to keep fancy bettas (they are put in barracks, 2 to  a barrack) but so far, only one has survived. I do +-30% water change every week without fail. I've been trying to keep fancy crowntails and halfmoons. The fish get fin rot and I subject them to MB fish baths for about 3 days and they seem to get well (for about 3 weeks), then suddenly, they just die with no signs of injury/disease. One of my female guppy (heavily pregnant) also just died with no signs of illness. On an off I might get a fancy guppy dying also with no signs. The only betta I have now is a mutt (marbled half-crowntail) that appears to be active and normal. Could it be that all fancy bettas have weak genes and are doomed to die prematurely? I'm about to give up on bettas and am turning to this forum in hopes that will not happen. It's a shame I did not photograph anything but now that I discovered this forum, I will be doing a full documentation in order to get to the bottom of this. My main concern is that only the bettas seem to be dying consistently (8 so far) and it breaks my heart.

[Carl]

Welcome to Everything Aquatic!!

Also sorry for the slow response, a lot on my plate and a lot of persons only visit on week days

Anyway, could you post all water parameters, including:
*Ammonia and/or nitrites
*GH,
*KH
*pH
*Nitrates

Could you take a picture of your sumps system and further describe your filter system?

Also do you have a UV Sterilizer?

Foods Fed?

In the end, it also can come down to genetics (very common with Betta in-breeding IMO) or very difficult disease such as the rare but very difficult Ichthyophonus

Reference:
www.aquarium-pond-answers.com/2007/05/ichthyophonus-in-fish.html

Also read this article (Aquarium Disease Prevention)
www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Disease.html

Carl

[devonjohnsgard]

Feb 15, 2014 21:04:01 GMT -5 hypersushi said:

Greetings. I chanced upon this forum after reading Carl's excellent articles. I'm no newbie to fishkeeping, having successfully kept planted tanks for years with healthy cardinals, rainbows, rummy noses etc. Recently got back into fishkeeping and have a double decker 4ft tank with the third one (at the bottom) acting as a 4ft sump filter servicing these two double decker tanks. It's a bare tank with gravel at the bottom. Been running since Nov2013 with an understocked tank filled with angels, guppies, rams, hillstream loach (the other died). I've been trying to keep fancy bettas (they are put in barracks, 2 to  a barrack) but so far, only one has survived. I do +-30% water change every week without fail. I've been trying to keep fancy crowntails and halfmoons. The fish get fin rot and I subject them to MB fish baths for about 3 days and they seem to get well (for about 3 weeks), then suddenly, they just die with no signs of injury/disease. One of my female guppy (heavily pregnant) also just died with no signs of illness. On an off I might get a fancy guppy dying also with no signs. The only betta I have now is a mutt (marbled half-crowntail) that appears to be active and normal. Could it be that all fancy bettas have weak genes and are doomed to die prematurely? I'm about to give up on bettas and am turning to this forum in hopes that will not happen. It's a shame I did not photograph anything but now that I discovered this forum, I will be doing a full documentation in order to get to the bottom of this. My main concern is that only the bettas seem to be dying consistently (8 so far) and it breaks my heart.

Hi welcome!

I think getting water parameters is a good idea too. Also something to maybe think about is how many betta per tank "barracks". I know people have less success when keeping two together. Since your having issues with a few fish, I think water quality is the best place to start though.

[Deleted]

Feb 15, 2014 21:04:01 GMT -5 hypersushi said:

>> My main concern is that only the bettas seem to be dying consistently (8 so far) and it breaks my heart.

Bettas do die with no apparent sign of illness.... We (customers) have no control on how they are treated at the store. I have a beautiful Fluval desk tank for mine. It took me four tries until I got one that would live. I had been using purchased Betta water set to perfect conditions. Now I just use my RO water that is set perfect for Bettas. I used Bettafix in the water a few days after arrival. My Betta has two young cory cats as tank mates. The cory cats came from a store that keeps their pH around 8.0 - so the pH in my Betta tank is about 7.5 (the Betta came in water that tested just a little over 7.0). I check the store water pH before I buy.....With the exception of the store that has pH at 8.0 (their fish are always in excellent health), if the pH isn't close to mine, I don't buy the fish. Bettas can be swimming if "ammonia soup" at the store. Rather than the charcoal that came with the small aquarium, I use a small pouch of API Nitra-zorb (that can be recharged with aquarium salt) and a small pouch of Algone (which needs to replaced every couple of weeks). These keep the water at ideal condition for my fish.