I bought a beautiful paradise male betta from PetCo on Dec 24. As of last night (Dec 28), he is dead. Admittedly, I didn't realize what a commitment and how involved it was when I first bought him, but I found this sub and started reading. I bought a 2.5 gallon tank (I know, I needed bigger, but my local stores only had huge ones left) with a filter & light, I bought a heater and was checking temps regularly, bought two kinds of betta food, water conditioner, and a test kit that checks ammonia and nitrite. I was going to buy plants today.
Growing up, we kept bettas in small containers, didn't have filters, lights, or a heater and they were totally fine! Tap water, a plant and food. Now that I've learned better and am trying to do better, he died. I'm trying to decide if I should try again or just call it quits. If I try again, what do I need to do differently?
pic from when I brought him home from PetCo, before I transferred him to the tank
https://i.redd.it/421jftfa78ag1.png
Posted by Salty_bitch_face
5 Comments
Sorry you lost him. That sucks, especially when you were actively trying to fix things.
Four days isn’t enough time for something you did to kill him. Bettas from PetCo sit in cups for weeks or months in cold water with no filtration. A lot of them are already sick or dying by the time someone buys them. You didn’t kill him – he was probably already too far gone.
If you want to try again, the main thing you were missing was cycling the tank first. Running it empty for 2-3 weeks with the filter going builds up beneficial bacteria that process fish waste. Without that, ammonia spikes and stresses the fish. Look up “fishless cycling” – it’s boring but it prevents crashes.
The other thing: get at least a 5 gallon if you can. The 2.5 works but it’s harder to keep stable. Bigger tank = less room for error.
Everything else you were doing (heater, conditioner, test kit, planning to add plants) was right. You were on the right track.
And if you can, buy from a local fish store instead of a chain. The fish are usually way healthier.
The bettas that survived in cups when you were a kid weren’t fine – they were just surviving. You’re trying to actually give one a good life. This one didn’t make it, but that’s not on you.
Fully setting up, with plants, etc and cycling a tank a month in advance is generally the best start The automod’s comment also has some links to guides and wikis on how to keep bettas properly.
Just because they lived longer before in vases and awful conditions doesn’t mean they were fine either. They just were hardier and could put up with the abuse for longer and better.
The fish in the cup also looked quite sickly from the start, if that’s him on day of purchase btw! So definitely try to get the best and healthiest looking one. Or ideally, if you have the option to, try to find and support a shop or seller that doesn’t keep them in cups.
Everything. He looks about to die already, bad fin rot. Possible ammonia burn.
It’s better to set up the tank before buying fish, like 4-6 weeks before. Make sure the nitrogen cycle is going strong and all ammonia converts to nitrite, then nitrate. Plants have time to grow, and micro fauna can establish.
10 gal would have been good. 2.5 is hospital tank size.
You did a fish-in cycle with an already very ill fish. Yet alone, this would be stressful and possibly harmful for a healthy fish.
Yeah, poor buddy was probably already really ill. Sometimes they just die after a few days or weeks because they were already ill. I bought a beautiful boy and had to euthanise two weeks later because he suddenly developed dropsy. It sucked.
Bettas generally just have bad genetics due to overbreeding and inbreeding especially from big box stores like Petco and Petsmart.
I don’t think you did anything wrong, OP. You just got dealt a bad hand and chose a fish that was already sick.
To be a bit fare on you here, that fish looked terrible to start with. I use 2.5 gallons as hospital setups regularly, so honestly he should have been fine until you upgraded if he was healthy.