Hello! I recently bought a betta for my 2 year old and he died about a month after I bought him. I'm really upset about it because I tried to put a lot of time and research into it before I bought him to make sure I was doing everything right. He seemed happy and active when I first put him in the tank (pics are from that first day). But then a few days ago he stopped eating much and became lethargic. And yesterday I found him on the bottom of the tank. Before I buy a new one I thought I'd ask around to see if I might have missed something that caused this. Or if he was already sick when I bought him but just wasn't showing signs yet.
I cycled the 5 gallon tank for a month before adding. I have the api master test kit and there was 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and barely detectable nitrates when I added him. The ph was a little low (6.4). I was feeding him fluval bug bites with occasional blood worms. It's a low flow tank with a sponge filter and I kept it at 78 degrees. I also have several live plants in the tank.
I am wondering about chlorine because I didn't add any conditioner to the water. But all the water came from my reverse osmosis water filter which should filter out chlorine. Also when I looked it up it sounds like chlorinated water would have killed him quickly, not after a month.
I also added 3 ghost shrimp and a mystery snail to the tank. The snails doing fine but the 3 shrimp died. Two just sort of disappeared so I can't rule out the possibility that they became snacks. But the third I found dead in his hide a few days ago.
Thoughts? Is there anything I could have done better to prevent this?
https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1ry4s5o
Posted by shelby081990
4 Comments
* **Tank size**: 5 gallon
* **Heater and filter? (yes/no)**: yes
* **Tank temperature**: 78
* [**Parameters in numbers and how you got them**](https://www.reddit.com/r/bettafish/wiki/tank#wiki_test_kits)**. Key water parameters include the amount of ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, and pH.**: 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, nitrates somewhere between 0 and 5, ph 6.4. Via api master test kit.
* **How long have you had the tank? How long have you had your fish?**: Tank was set up about 2 months ago, added the fish about 1 month ago.
* **How often are water changes? How much do you take out per change? What is your process?**: 20% water change weekly via gravel siphon.
* **Any tankmates? If so, please list with how many of each**: 3 ghost shrimp (also deceased) and 1 mystery snail.
* **What do you feed and how much**: Fluval bug bites twice a day, until he loses interest. Occasional bloodworms (once or twice a week).
* **Decorations and plants in the tank**: Anubia, java ferns, cardinal plants, driftwood
I’m so sorry this happened! i’m not an expert but i definitively think it’s your water. i don’t have it myself but when i was researching, i wanted to give my betta the best of everything lol but i learned RO water is too pure. it removes chlorine but also ALL minerals (gh and kh). my understanding is that they basically get stressed to death or become lethargic and starve. if you have normal tap water, just use that and condition it! if you’re worried about your tap water, you can mix 50% tap and RO and condition that. but i would assume if the shrimp are dying too it’s the RO water because they’re extremely sensitive to low gh.
IMO it’s the RO water. Sorry for your loss.
Did you regularly test your water or perform water changes after adding your livestock?
Also, did you remineralize your RO water before adding it to the tank?