Sad and discouraged...

**Cyberra** · 08-30-2013, 04:48 AM

I am a real lover of betta fish, and do my best to give them good lives. But lately my betta swarm has been shrinking. I only have 5 bettas left, when I used to have 13.

Arrow, my energetic double tail, was a victim of the summer heat. The temperature in my room spiked to 35 degrees C, even with two fans. The problem is that my window is five feet up the wall and not very big, so the cool air from the fan blows well above everything, and Arrow's tank was almost directly below it. Despite my adding cool water the water temperature was spiking to 93 degrees F in his tank, and I lost him

My prized red female, Lady Ruby, had some sort of growth or swelling in her abdomen, and no amount of peas or careful water maintenance seemed to help. I could only watch helplessly as whatever it was burst through her sides and killed her.

I still don't know what happened to Shadow, my chocolate round tail. There wasn't a mark on him. I found him floating on his back the day after his tank had been cleaned.

Sunstreaker, my feisty gold crowntail, succumbed to old age. He was 3.

Now, I only have Lady Emerald (brown and blue-green veiltail female), Obsidian (black lace super delta plakat), Rainbow (fancy tricolor crowntail-double tail mix), Ember (orange dalmatian veiltail), and Comet (pale pink delta tail) left. Comet is showing all the signs of betta old age, so I don't think he'll be with me for much longer.

It's really depressing, losing my finbabies

And very discouraging when they get sick and there is nothing I can do to save them.

**Stlouisfish** · 08-30-2013, 01:51 PM

Sorry to hear about all your losses - we all lose fish/pets and it's not fun.

**sheamurai** · 08-30-2013, 01:55 PM

Its hard sitting watching and not being able to do anything to even make things easier for them.

You better stay away from the longer lived fish - the way you get attached to bettas, you'd feel even worse losing a fish you kept for 10+ yrs.

**mommy1** · 08-30-2013, 02:34 PM

Maybe if you list the tank sizes, equipment, maintenance schedule, what you feed them and how often we can help figure out what is happening so it doesn't happen in the future.