Post by clarasmom on Dec 28, 2005 22:30:03 GMT -5
Unfortunately, my first post is a sad one. We got Mr. B in July of this year, and until 3 weeks ago, he was a happy little guy. Then one night he turned up his nose at his dinner. The first thing I noticed was a slightly enlarged belly, which got a bit worse by the next morning. So I checked his water for all the usual suspects, and even though I found nothing out of the ordinary, I did a water change (about 2 gallons of the 3 that are in his tank). No change in the belly, and now he was spending all his time either propped on a leaf of his silk plant close to the surface, or just hanging out at the bottom. I then spent a few hours looking for anything I could find on the web, and came across you folks. Thinking I might be looking at constipation (the last meal he gobbled down was freeze-dried bloodworms) I tried fasting for 2 days, then gave him some pea, which he ate. Because of the size of the tank, and the color of the gravel, I couldn't tell if he was "going", but if anything his tummy was getting bigger. This went on for a few days, when I noticed that his scales were starting to pinecone. I think that was the night I stayed up until about 3 a.m. looking for something to try. Alas, you all know the success rate for treating any betta who's started down this road. I tried some Maracyn II, and went out to look for an air pump since he was definitely having trouble breathing, taking gulps of air from the surface frequently. When I got home, he was gone. This was two weeks ago tonight, and I'm just now starting to get the tank back in shape so that we can adopt a new pal. Just to be safe, I took the whole set-up apart and cleaned everything except the bio-wheel with bleach. I'll put in new gravel, new plants, and possibly a new hidey-hole, since I notice that the paint had started to come off his old one. Anyway, thanks for listening as I think this will help me to move on. My husband gave me a card, good for the betta of my choice, for Christmas. Bombadil rests next to my late mother-in-law's peony beside the porch.
, and we're all so sorry for your loss 
.