Help me understand why my Betta passed away

[Lexi B]

This wasn't my first Betta by any means. Last night, she was swimming around completely fine- I didn't notice any kind of concerning changes in her personality whatsoever. 

Just found her dead like 15 minutes ago. Apparently she died sometimes last night. I have no idea how. Testing water, the only thing that is out of place is ammonia- which spiked to about 5-10. I'm pretty sure it was just a result of decomp. 

I can't figure out why this happened. The only thing I noticed that I as weird on her body was that she was bloated with gas, floated like a balloon when I got her out of the plants she had been under. 

 

I honestly don't know what I did wrong. She lives with ramshorns, which she did go for from time to time. Could she have burst her stomach eating one? Can Bettas sometimes just pass away from unseen health issues? I'm so devastated. I only had her for about months, my other two Bettas are a year and a year and a half old. Those two are from aquarium co op. Kaia was from Petco. If that's relevant at all. 

 

pH - 7.6

Nitrates - 20-30 

Hardness - 5

Nitrite - 0

Ammonia -5-10

KH/Buffer- 3

Water Temperature - 80

 

5 gallon cube, heavily planted, sponge filter set up 

Edited June 25, 2023 by Lexi B

[nabokovfan87]

On 6/24/2023 at 5:19 PM, Lexi B said:

Apparently she died sometimes last night. I have no idea how. Testing water, the only thing that is out of place is ammonia- which spiked to about 5-10. I'm pretty sure it was just a result of decomp. 

I can't figure out why this happened. The only thing I noticed that I as weird on her body was that she was bloated with gas, floated like a balloon when I got her out of the plants she had been under. 

That's very unfortunate and I'm sorry for your loss. 

Some bettas can be very, very sensitive to certain types of food.  In general feeding something high in protein could result in what is known as dropsy.  That does appear as a type of bloating which you commonly see in betta fish.  This also could be an internal bacterial issue, internal parasites, and other things at play.

When it comes to small tanks, 10G and under I would say, is that something like dropping in a little bit too much food could lead to an ammonia spike.  The majority of ammonia in our aquariums does come from fish respiration, but there are other causes.  Smaller tanks magnify those affects and the time from which your water quality is poor to that spike is very quick.  Unfortunately that leads to stress on the fish, which does harm the immune response and can cause some secondary, lingering issues, to result in that disease wearing down the fish even more.

I can't say that is what happened here, but if we look at the big picture there is a lot to consider. 

The only final note here is to try to give the tank time to establish itself.  If you have an ammonia spike and the filtration isn't quite able to keep up, then that would result in a lingering ammonia or nitrite reading in your water parameters.  That would cause stress over time and can lead to ammonia burn or nitrite toxicity issues from those levels.  Adding aquarium salt does alleviate some of those symptoms from ammonia and nitrite, simply meaning that it's good to have on hand.

[Lexi B]

On 6/24/2023 at 9:27 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

That's very unfortunate and I'm sorry for your loss. 

Some bettas can be very, very sensitive to certain types of food.  In general feeding something high in protein could result in what is known as dropsy.  That does appear as a type of bloating which you commonly see in betta fish.  This also could be an internal bacterial issue, internal parasites, and other things at play.

When it comes to small tanks, 10G and under I would say, is that something like dropping in a little bit too much food could lead to an ammonia spike.  The majority of ammonia in our aquariums does come from fish respiration, but there are other causes.  Smaller tanks magnify those affects and the time from which your water quality is poor to that spike is very quick.  Unfortunately that leads to stress on the fish, which does harm the immune response and can cause some secondary, lingering issues, to result in that disease wearing down the fish even more.

I can't say that is what happened here, but if we look at the big picture there is a lot to consider. 

The only final note here is to try to give the tank time to establish itself.  If you have an ammonia spike and the filtration isn't quite able to keep up, then that would result in a lingering ammonia or nitrite reading in your water parameters.  That would cause stress over time and can lead to ammonia burn or nitrite toxicity issues from those levels.  Adding aquarium salt does alleviate some of those symptoms from ammonia and nitrite, simply meaning that it's good to have on hand.

See that's the strange thing. This set up is well over a year old, probably my most established tank of the 3 Bettas. She didn't have any kind of ammonia or nitrite burning because prior to this the tank has never had a nitrite spike. 

I did think maybe dropsy could have occured, but is it possible for a fish to just develop symptoms and die on the span of like 12 hours max? However their primary food source is Betta gold with different frozen thaw foods and repashy community plus- most of those have pretty high protein content. 

Its a lot to think about. I've never just had a Betta - or any fish, for that matter- just go from looking happy and healthy to gone like this.

Thanks the comprehensive list though. This whole situation just isn't sitting right with me.

 

Edit: in hindsight I'm not sure how likely dropsy could have been regardless, since her body didn't show any kind of pineconing. 

 

Some kind of build up of gasses occured, but maybe it was after she was already gone. I just don't know why it would've been so expedited since to my knowledge, that kind of thing would only have started to happen if decomp had been occuring for a few days? 

Edited June 25, 2023 by Lexi B

[nabokovfan87]

On 6/24/2023 at 10:29 PM, Lexi B said:

I did think maybe dropsy could have occured, but is it possible for a fish to just develop symptoms and die on the span of like 12 hours max? However their primary food source is Betta gold with different frozen thaw foods and repashy community plus- most of those have pretty high protein content. 

I don't see any issue with your food selections.  Betta fish, from what little I have researched, they do like to eat bugs.  I would recommend checking out some of the bug based foods and trying out the "grub pie" version of repashy if you feel so inclined.

Depending on what is being fed, how often and how much, that could lead to bloating.  Whether it was extreme enough to cause pineconing and technically be called dropsy is not really the point though.  If you saw bloating, the fish may have had some sort of internal discomfort from the food, internal parasites, or internal organ issues.

On 6/24/2023 at 10:29 PM, Lexi B said:

Its a lot to think about. I've never just had a Betta - or any fish, for that matter- just go from looking happy and healthy to gone like this.

Thanks the comprehensive list though. This whole situation just isn't sitting right with me.

Unfortunately, I have seen it happen.  I moved a fish and it immediately deteriorated due to temperature issues.  I understand the frustration and hopefully through discussing everything that happened the forums can help shed some light on everything.  It's not easy, and again, I'm sorry for your loss and the struggles you've undergone.