bad betta owner....

[bonz-1987]

i got a betta and had him for a while and decided to put him into my tank to stop the smaller sharks from fighting. it worked for about the first 2 weeks or so with no problems to the bettas fins. then one day i noticed he had a little bit of his fin missin i thought maybe the catfish got him once for goin in his hole....then i notice it was gettin a white fungis like substance that looked white and sticky, i should have put him in his own tank hen but i thought it was just a wound healing (cause ive never really owned fish before) so i left him in there, later i noticed he was gettin weak and more of this white stuff was on him so i put him back into a betta container with a spacer and another betta ( the shield was in so no stress from other betta) then about a half a day later he died.....i thought from lack of oxygenated water (he got used to the filtered tank) but then i noticed within the next 2 days the other betta died with the same white substance on him....is this a fungis???? did it come from the red finned sharks? i havent seen any signs of it on any other fish except the 2 bettas that died..thats why i posted it in the betta section please help any info would be appreciated thanks

[Abbeys_Mom]

Sounds like it could have been Ick, fish get it when they are stress or from poor water conditions. Once you introduced it to the other bettas tank, it got sick too. Sorry to hear that you lost both your fish, but that sometimes happens when you start keeping fish. I suggest you research more about fish keeping and water conditions. This site has a great E-Book on fish keeping for beginners.
http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aquariumforum/showthread.php?t=1602
I am sure there is also some helpful information on this site about the care of bettas as well.

[Lady Hobbs]

Yes, it was a fungus and could have been cured if treated immedately.

[kimmers318]

My first question is why you put a betta in to keep sharks from fighting? I have not heard of any one doing that before...is there something I am missing that bettas have an ability to settle sqaubbles?! If you noticed some fin damage, and then the white patches looking like fungus, that is probably what it was. The betta would have been prone to infections from the damage it sustained while with the other fish. Stands to reason that if it became an infection it very well could have passed it on to the other betta when you moved it. You may want to consider whether your tank maintenance needs some looking at though because nice clean water goes along way towards preventing secondary infections from physical damage. We have seen a number of different fin nips around here with fish that just weren't going to get along, or fish that were settling dominance, and none of them have ever had any infections or fungus along with the damage and healed rather quickly. Certainly nothing that caused death/

[bonz-1987]

at the time the betta was a lot bigger then the sharks and he did a good job at keepin the black sharcks off of the albinos.....i think the catfish got him for goin into his log. i didnt notice it till the next day not that night so by the time i noticed he had the fungis like stuff and i didnt know what it was so i moved him. i have to say i am a beginer but there is a but....i have been testin the water and doin a cleaning/rearrangment because it keeps the sharks in the open instead of claimin territory and fightin, last testin i check i was at like .5 nitrates i think and like 1 nitrites it was very low so i was doin a lot better, since first time i tested it was like 5-8 it was high. my fish have a high tolerance to weak water since i bought them in alaska the water the where shipped here in is blue with some chemical and they are in little jello lookin containers they cant even move....so i think the like the water its a lot better then they were in and its crystal clear now that levels went down. thanks for the tips....but how do u cure the fungis? just in case it happens again? thanks