Why did my beta fish die so fast!!!!!?

Question

I recently bought a beta. He seemed very happy even making a bubble nest. I hear they do that when they are happy. Then two days ago he stopped eating but continued to blow the bubbles. I noticed his water becoming cloudy so I decided to change it. As soon as I put him back in the tank he went nuts. Then I noticed that he couldn't swin down. It was like something was making him float. He was fighting it something crazy. I didn't know what to do. Then minutes later he was dead. It was that quick. I don't understand. I used bottled water and let it get room temp. What did I do wrong? Was it the water? I did the same thing after I got him home and he was fine, I thought. Can anyone shed some light?

Answer 1

There is blowing bubbles, and then there is gasping. Gasping is when a fish gobbles at the water surface because there isn't any oxygen in the water. He could have been suffocating.

Did you buy bottled distilled water? Distilled water is 100% pure, but that is actually bad for them. With no minerals, diffusion tries to dilute the fish. (Diffusion is liquid's natural tendency to spread out anything evenly.) Basically he would have blown up from all the water going in. :( Make sure to always treat the water in the future. Also, never change ALL the water in the tank. Change 50% of it at the most. You can get a water clarifier - a chemical - that is safe to add to the water to make the suspended particles drop. (Makes the little bits stick together and sink.) For small tanks, mix the clarifier in another container before adding it.

Answer 2

I am using Wellwater on my beta, but let it sit for a day to get to the right Temperature. Did you change rocks or did you put new rocks in? That's what probably happened to my first Beta. I bought new rocks but did not clean them first. He was dead within 1 day after putting in the new rocks.

Answer 3

It sounds like you forgot to codition the water
even if you let it sit out for 24 hours, you still need to condition it before adding it

And if you have at least a 2.5 gallon tank with filter and heater you don't need to do complete waterchanges either, only 25% weekly with a gravelsiphon

It might have also been a swimbladder disease
here is a link that discribes it
http://www.healthybetta.com/articles/Illness%20Diagonsis/sbd.html


Hope that helps
Good luck


EB


for live help, follow the link in my profile

Answer 4

I think just using bottled water isnt enough. I had a betta and used this special stuff you put in the water to make it okay for them and my betta livedfor like 2 years.

Answer 5

Well i'm not too sure but do you have those special declorifying drops to add to the water to make it less dirty? I Know it comes with a beta set like with the bowl and drops and food. Maybe something could of been wrong with the fish, i dont know. Also i know that betas are supposed to last a klong time and i know they also dont like big bowls. Something to Think about. Hmm.

Answer 6

common sense, fish dont live in bottled water, so to be so harsh but its the truth. Next time do some research or ask the petstore people before buying you fish to see if you can really take care of it like it needs.

Answer 7

based on my experience, it's because of the water, your water may contain harmful chemicals. before you put your beta fish in your container you have to put some chlorine eliminator.

Answer 8

It might be more apparent if you told us the brand of bottled water. Some of them are carbonated, you know.

Answer 9

Yeah there's special stuff you put in their water

Answer 10

Did you purify the water? If not that could just be that fish die SO FAST!!! Sorry about your fish... =(...