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Post by Minaku on Mar 9, 2006 16:32:24 GMT -5
My betta, Neptune, is sick. I'm not sure what's wrong with him. He's about 1.5-2 years old now, and lives in a cycled 5 gallon. Ammonia and nitrites test at 0.
For the last week or two he's been extremely lethargic, refusing to swim around his tank. He lies on the bottom all the time and comes up for air every now and then. He still flares, and eats voraciously, but his color is faded and he won't do the "feed me" dance anymore (he did bite me a couple of days ago). Whenever he swims, however, his back end drags down. He hasn't been constipated - in fact, he'd been fasted for four days because I went away on vacation.
Just yesterday a pinhole appeared in his dorsal fin. Today, a second one appeared. I did more water tests but ammonia and nitrites were still 0. His tank temperature is 80.
Anyone have an idea of what's wrong with him? I can't stand looking at my poor boy lying on the bottom like that.
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Post by Rachel on Mar 13, 2006 10:15:34 GMT -5
How's he doing minaku?
From the symptoms you describe it's possible he's just getting old and his body is not functioning as it used to. Pin holes can be a sign of a few different things, so it's hard to say exactly. Do you feed him a variety of food?
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Post by Minaku on Mar 13, 2006 13:28:14 GMT -5
It's possible he's getting old, and I'm glad he's had a good betta life. I just didn't expect old age to hit him this fast, although I know old age is variable and bettas can die at any time after two years.
I haven't seen him since Friday, when I fed him and left him. I'm on spring break now, and the choice was either to leave him in his tank without food for a week (he refused food on Friday) or take him on a 6 hour car ride and keep him at home in a 1/2 gallon tank for a week. I chose to let him stay. I didn't think that it would be fair to him to stress him out just for my own peace of mind.
He gets both HBH Betta Bites and Hikari bio-gold with the occasional freeze-dried bloodworm. He's refused frozen brine shrimp before, and I can't find gel food where I am.
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Post by dragonreefs on Mar 21, 2006 1:10:04 GMT -5
Hm... My betta Died of the same issues and he was about 9 months when I got him, and I had him for 6 months afterwords. At least from the maturaty pictures I've goten; it shows they dont get color like he had for quite some time after 6 months. I dont know his true age. But I felt like somehow his deth was all my fult.. I'm not sure what that is and it could be ageing, but I remember a few places about bettas online before I came here that said bettas live 7 to ten years, is that just a myth?
If this is the case I hope your Betta rests peacfuly and I'm very sorry if you end up lossing him :hugs: I cried for days after Larulo died... I swear I took care of him to the best of my manners and money and he was fine untill a week after halloween, then he started just sinking in the water and bobbing back up for air now and then, I gave him alot of food one time thinking he was just starving , and he gobbled it like crazy, but alot of hole like things apeared on his body and things looked to have gone the way yours is, untill the day before I was about to get him meds for a bacterial infection he's always had, and he died on his favorite Dragon ornament .... This would explan alot ... But I really hope yours ends up okay, it sounds like a great betta as well and there needs to be so many that interact with us out there =3.
Btw Hello ^^; I'm still quite new here, and this information really help me and how I felt about larulo alot.. He possably just died of old age, and that takes alot of pain away knowing I did what I could and he possably did too ^^;
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Post by amanichen on Mar 21, 2006 9:13:23 GMT -5
I remember a few places about bettas online before I came here that said bettas live 7 to ten years, is that just a myth? During my time on betta forums I've repeatedly heard this 7-10 year old betta myth. Usually the fish in question is 9-10 years old, and the story involves a university experiment that somehow involves the fish getting exercise to minimize the buildup of fat in its liver. The myth sometimes says that such an experiment is mentioned in: "The Complete Introduction to Bettas" by Walt Maurus. I cannot personally confirm or deny this, as I don't have this book, and I can't view pages 16&19 of it when looking at the item on Amazon.com: www.amazon.com/gp/product/0866222545/ref=sr_11_1/102-7539401-8114560?%5Fencoding=UTF8This book might yield some useful information. In a couple of months I can probably get access to this book, but until then I won't know what it says. Unfortunately, I have yet to see anybody back up this myth with any substance at all, which means it's still just a myth in its current form.
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Post by Minaku on Mar 21, 2006 13:22:22 GMT -5
Neptune managed to survive an entire week without me being around, and was in the same state when I got home. I don't know what to do - he still eats, if I time it correctly and he sees the food when he's taking a breath, and he's still breathing. I could have sworn he would have died by now but he's still hanging on, just barely.
I've been looking at him very closely and two days ago thought I saw the beginnings of popeye. I finally decided to treat with some TriSulfa, but he hasn't shown any improvement since the beginning of the round. His tank still has good readings.
He looks absolutely miserable and he's not the perky, aggressive fish he used to be (though he did jump up and bite my finger three days ago). He has major swimbladder dysfunction - he gets up, but can't stay up - and he's clamped with major color loss. I'm very seriously thinking of euthanizing him.
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