I have had a few betta fish over the years and 2/3 of them have died because of dropsy, so I had a break of about a year so I could learn and get over the fact that I just cant keep them alive for some reason, unlike other fish I get quite attached to these fish because of their personality and it just hurts when they pass away.
last month I got a betta determined to do everything right and I have, 0 nitrites, 0 ammonia and 5ppm nitrates constantly, 26c temp in a heavily planted 20litre tank with shrimp, sponge filter to keep the waterflow slow, feed him tetra betta pellets plus, last week I fed him live blood worms which I've not done before(usually just do frozen ones once a week) which I thought it would be a nice treat, and make him dart around hunting them which he did and he loved it and was fascinating to watch, after he eat 2 he got full/bored and stopped and the rest just dissapeared into the grass/plants for the shrimp to eat(there was only about 6 or 7 more, I didn't want to overfeed and cause spikes in perams)
few days ago I noticed he wasn't coming up to the top of the tank when he see's me, wasnt pecking my hand or following my finger when I put my finger in the water.. which he did every day, I just let him be, I was putting 2 pellets in each day encase he got hungry during the nights and if not the shrimp would just eat them, he's been hiding at the corner of the tank and this morning noticed he's pineconing…
I may not be cut out for this betta fish keeping.
I did manage to get a quick picture before he swam away this morning to hide again, sorry its not a great one but you can see he's pineconing.
I will contact my LFK this morning when it opens for some treatment but what I've read online via forums/YT videos once they stop eating its almost zero chance they would survive it(just what I read/heard – not sure if 100% true or not)
I do have a community tank that is thriving and healthy but for some reason… I just cannot keep these beautiful fish alive.. :(((
https://i.redd.it/xkl24uxcdivg1.jpeg
Posted by _jonnny_
3 Comments
Betta fish is not that complicated. You are overly doing it.
To be fair, you could try a bigger tank. My betta got a bit unwell (not dropsy, but definitely ill) and I wanted to move him to a tank with aquarium salt (couldnāt do it in his tank because I had invertebrates) and he looked a lot better and I ended up leaving him in that tank, fully furnished now and is a community.
More water is generally easier to manage too so might help. Seems like youāre doing everything right in terms of levels and temperature but obviously new tanks can be expensive
I know that bettas can be kept in 5 gallon/ 23L tanks with success but I feel like once they get ill maybe being alone in a larger tank could be beneficial for their recovery seeing as that was really beneficial for my current betta
change the place you buy your bettas from! also betta live span has decreased significantly over the years due to poor breeding practices