R.I.P. Drift

[goldenpuon]

My oldest female betta just died yesterday. :'(She is the mother of 4 bettas I have currently and was my favorite betta. I bought her from Petsmart over 2 years ago. Before I left for work to feed my fish, only 4 bettas came to greet me, not 5. I figured that everything was ok and that one was just taking its time to come to greet me for food.

But when I came home I found her on the bottom dead. I suspect it was old age and she was looking pretty worn down in the time before she died. It didn't look like the other bettas had eaten her though both her gill covers were sticking out (this happens w/ my bettas commonly after they die for some reason). I am curious if it is common for betta to look somewhat run down before they die, like starting a couple months before they die of old age.

.....I will deeply miss Drift. She was the matiarch of my bettas and I will never forget how she jumped out of the water to ambush her food every morning when I fed her or the beautiful offspring she gave me. :)R.I.P Drift. You will be missed...

[babygeige]

Sorry you lost your favorite! At least you have some of her babies to help remember her by.

[stix0504]

I'm so sorry.....I just lost one of my Orandas today, too so I also join in your sadness.

Isn't it funny how each individual fish has its own little uniqueness. I had a suckerfish once that would eat out of my hand believe it or not. I would hold the wafer at the waters edge and he would come up, flip upside down on the surface and eat away. Then I had another Oranda who would just sit mid water while I shot photos of her (got 3rd place in a photo contest, too). As soon as I put the camera away, she would go back to swimming around.

Again, I am sorry for your Drift.

[murdock6701]

sorry Renee, I truly am, but take heart at what Stephanie said, at least you have her offspring to remember her by

[goldenpuon]

Thank you very much for the support. She was truly a unique fish. One of her sons is slowly going downhill but the rest (aside from some genetic problems) seem fine. Thanks again for the support. I really appreciate it.

Sincerely, Renee

[bikeguy33]

sorry Drift is gone.....

it is common for ANY animal to look old and run down when the end is near....especially in showy fish such as bettas. again....we all grieve for poor lil drift...

[Carl]

I am sorry to read you lost your matriarch Betta, I hope her offspring can be a way to remember her by.



Carl

[DaharkazAngel]

I too am sorry for your loss. Its amazing how each fish has a deffernt personality. At least you will have something to remember her by (the off spring) Did you take losta of photoes of her? If so we'd love to see. Sorry again...angel. R.I.P Drift.

[goldenpuon]

Thank you Angel. I do have several photos of her and also a video of her and her mate Iden when they were breeding. Unfortunately Iden is also gone. He died of dropsy months before Drift....

I will share them when I can. I don't have time at the moment but I will show you when I get some spare time.

[fishfever]

Sorry to hear of your loss... I'm still trying to get used to how short fish lives are compared with other pets even if they lead healthy "long" fish lives.

[demfish]

Aww that stinks Renee, think we all know how it feels and it never gets any easier for us, least it don't for me. So R.I.P Drift say hi to Crash at the ole rainbow bridge

[kagome]

I am very sorry to hear that Drift died Renee. It is so hard to lose any pet. Rest assured that you took very good care of her and she lived a happy fishy life.

[goldenpuon]

Thanks guys. I am unhappy to see that Drift's daughter Ellie is not doing well today. She is a weak fish and has been having issues for quite some time. She is acting pretty stressed and seems to be having the buoyancy problem thing again. I'm not sure if Drift's body lying in before I could there triggered a saprolegnia outbreak. She had just died when I removed her but I knwo saprolegnia can grow quick. Plus I am trying to feed the new food they spitting out so there may be more organic waste. I have been cleaning the tank extra to keep that in check and remove the tinyiest of uneaten food particles. But the food change and Drift's body lying there for a little while may be what triggered the problem with Ellie. I am hoping not. I will be giving her a bath in MB tomorrow or sooner if she doesn't improve.

Thanks for your support guys.

[stix0504]

I'm so sorry to hear that Ellie isn't doing well. I don't know much about saprolegnia so I'm afraid I can't help much there. Hopefully the MB bath will help her. What new food are you feeding her?

[Carl]

Sorry that you are having trouble with Ellie now, I doubt that you left the other fish in the tank to allow for a Saprolegnia outbreak.

I would try and carefully vacuum uneaten food, but my guess is that the problem is a genetically weak fish (as you have already basically noted). I know this does not help much, but there is also not much you can do other than providing the best water conditions possible, and healthy varied diet.
Unfortunately as for the diet aspect of this, often I have found that weak fish are quite fussy eaters and will often not try new foods that would greatly help them, so this aspect fish health is difficult to get around.

Carl

[goldenpuon]

Thanks guys. Ellie keeps on having a reoccuring problem where she gets stressed and has trouble swimming upward. The food I changed them to was Sanyu BettaGold but I'm putting them back on the old stuff until I get Ellie's problems under control. Currently they are fed Thera pellets and a tropical fish food (I forgot the exact name but I do know it is a very good quality fish food).

My other females seem to be resting at the bottom a lot. I'm not sure if they are stressed to. But then again, I rarely watch them in the afternoon (it is late afternoon where I am now) and when I do by chance look, they are usually on the bottom resting. So I'm not sure if the others are just resting or stressed. They perk up whenever they get fed.

I thought of a couple reasons besides the saprolegnia that may have stressed Ellie. I did a couple 50% water changes recently and also cleaned out the tank a lot. Also, I added a new heater and before I got the settings right the temperature dropped from 76 F to 72 F and then back up. I don't think that is a super drastic change in temperature but they are used to it being constant. Also, today, Ellie does not seem any worse though she still seems a little stressed. She is also greeting me and begging for food which is a good sign. I guess I will wait and see on this one.

I tested the water and it was fine aside from that the PH, GH, and KH are a little low.

PH: 6.8
GH: 120
KH: 90
Nitrate: 10 or less
Nitrite: 0

[goldenpuon]

Things have not been going well in my female betta tank. Yesterday I noticed another female (Dot) had a tiny bit of fungus-looking stuff on her body and that was also some fuzzy stuff eating away at her pectoral fins (I'm not sure if I used the corrct name for the fins). I added 2 medicated wondershells and about 2 teaspoons of aquarium salt to the 4 gallon. I already had salt in there and when I added that salt, I didn't realize that I was making a huge mistake. I had more salt than the fish could handle and I didn't up the levels of salt slowly like I should have. I added the 2 teaspoons all at once. Within an hour, all the fish were stressing and were starting to look very weak. Two out of the 4 bettas were also going to the top. I removed 1 of the wondershells and changed about 2 1/2 gallon of water on 3 seperate occasions. I feel really mad at myself for miscalcuating on the salt like that. Carl said I should increase the salt I called him about this but I feel awful for miscalcuating the amount like that.

The good news is that the fuzzy stuff on Dot's fins has disappeared and all the fish are acting normal again aside from Ellie who is resting at the water's surface. They seem to have recovered overnight and I am very thankful. Dot also has a white area on her head. I am not sure if the patch of white on her head is the disease she has or just coloration since she is a pure white betta. Whatever's on her head doesn't look any different today and she is no longer acting sick. She is also eating and very active. I am not going to give her a bath just yet because it looks like she is recovering well on her own with just the wondershell. I'm just hoping Ellie will make it. She seems to be doing very poorly. And it is my fault.

Sorry about this guys. I should have known...

[bikeguy33]

your doing fine renee. we have all made mistakes in this hobbyand we learn from them. bet the math will be right next time....

[goldenpuon]

Thanks Bill. I'm sure I will. I'll try to raise the salinity of the water over several hours next time. I still wish I hadn't made that mistake. It was dumb of me not to think of it considering I've given fish too much salt in baths to the point where I had to rush them out as well. I will make sure I am VERY VERY careful in the future with salt.

[Carl]

Renee, I would not be too hard on yourself. It is noteworthy that the amount of salt you added is not lethal, any stress may have been due to the speed in adding, but you had a lot going on so I certainly understand.
It appears to be helping too.

As a side note, even Channel Catfish (as per a University of Alabama Study). In fact the study show the highest survival rate at a dose of salt at 3000 mg per liter of water. This equates to 2.5 teaspoons per gallon.

Please see the graph in this article:
Columnaris/Saprolegnia; salt use graph

Carl