Tell me I'm overreacting

**bethyMT** · 10-28-2012, 03:52 PM

Hi everybody.

I need a little reassurance, or help maybe if something is wrong. Yesterday we got Susanna, a crown tail female. My daughter picked her out...she seemed lively and pretty healthy, save for some bottom fin damage (looks like water quality damage IMO). Anyway, we got her home, drip acclimated her, and put her in her 5 gallon tank. She seemed pretty baffled by the flow from the internal filter, but soon got her bearings and was swimming around.

I tried to feed her a little this morning, since she was swimming about actively. She didn't eat, even though she saw the food being put in. This is making me nervous. Is it normal for bettas to not eat right away? As far as I can tell she is adjusting well...swimming and exploring in the tank, she doesn't really use the hiding places yet - the tank is full of silk plants and cover.

Is she sick? I do not need another betta dying on me. Do I just need to have patience? Give me the gritty truth, please. Thanks.

**Lady Hobbs** · 10-28-2012, 03:57 PM

She's fine. Leave the lights off for a couple days so he can get used to her tank and settle down.

**bethyMT** · 10-28-2012, 05:21 PM

Thanks LH. I am having flashbacks of our former betta, Daisy, and her horrible demise. It's quite amazing how that little fish grew on me, and subsequently I feel very apprehensive about my ability to keep a betta healthy.

Really, Susanna's tank is really quite nice for her...I researched so much to make it right. And I guess I haven't had her long enough to somehow hurt her. But you never know.

Anyway, I am going to be needy here and ask for any other words of encouragement or possible criticism. How long can they go without eating? Sorry...all my other fish are little piglets, this is new to me.

**sheamurai** · 10-28-2012, 05:26 PM

You are prolly not feeding her the same food as she is used to having. As soon as she settles in and figures out that what you are dropping in is food, she'll be fine.

Fish can go quite a long time without food. However, after a few days and still she hasn't eaten, you can tempt her with some frozen brine shrimp along with the food. Just a little bit, only as a treat. She'll soon catch on.

**Goes to 11!** · 10-28-2012, 05:34 PM

+1

You can chillax a bit. :-D

It's perfectly normal for fish to not eat for a bit [Even a few days] after moving due to stress and the fact that they are adjusting to a new environment. Not saying all of them do it but it's most explicitly not an immediate cause for concern.

I don't even attempt to feed new arrivals for two days.

Give her some time to adjust and explore and become familiar with her new digs and she will settle in just fine. Not recognizing the new food is a likely issue also as mentioned.

Goodl luck

**250Gimp** · 10-29-2012, 12:03 PM

Our new Betta went a week without eating, and I got the same food the lfs was feeding him!

We finally got him eating by starting with freeze dried brine shrimp! And then we tried another brand of betta pellets as it seemed that the original ones were too big for him to eat.

Now he is happy as a clam after a bit more than 2 weeks!

Cheers

**bethyMT** · 10-30-2012, 07:19 PM

Well, I tried offering her freeze dried brine shrimp yesterday. She nommed it down. Today, I tried giving her a betta pellet, and she acted (caution:anthropomorpholization here)offended. Gave her some brine shrimp, ate it up, was "begging" for more. She's a stinker. We will work it out. She looks great, very active, watches my kids and I when we are in the room.

Oh, and don't ask me to spell that big word again. Wow it's a lot easier to say than spell.

**Cyberra** · 10-30-2012, 07:23 PM

XD If she was acting offended, she was probably offended. They're very personable little things ^_^ Never let it be said that bettas don't have feelings.

**250Gimp** · 10-30-2012, 10:19 PM

Glad to hear she is eating!

We had to persist a bit with the pellets before ours would take them.

They can go a couple days without eating, and then she may take the pellets. We just kept offering until he took them.

We also found it helps to presoak the pellets.

**bethyMT** · 11-10-2012, 01:36 AM

Well, things were going well...until today. Susanna has only been eating fish food/occasional brine shrimp. She's picky picky. But she had been active.

Anyway, today her belly is looking a bit bloated and she's hanging out at the bottom of the tank. Dammit. I tested water params, did a 50% change, lowered the temp (it was creeping up to 83F or so...stupid heater). And we'll have to wait and see.

I have not offered peas. There is a chance I overfed her, since I had a hard time figuring out how much she needed of the reg. fish food, and she was acting starving all.the.time. However, I never grossly overfed her. Now she wants nothing. She didn't even really come out to see us today either.

Ack. Why is it that I can do really well with most everything in the big tank and this small one, bettas in particular, is kicking my butt? If Susanna doesn't recover, I think I may be ready to give up. One dies, OK. Two die, that's on me.

I have to admit that I'm kinda ready to cry about this. IDK what it is with bettas...I DO NOT handle losing them/possible illness very well. I just had to get this off my chest, crazy as it sounds.