help my female betta!

[mcshell]

HELP!
my female betta (MAY) looks like she's sick!
She isn't moving much, and she's not eating at all!
She just tends to hide near the rocks.
Her fins / body seems okay.
but I'm still worried that the other fish may hurt her so i put her in a floating tank!
Is she sick??
What should I do???

 

[Iggy]

Were there any other females bettas in the tank? When my 3 girls were together, Reena would chase the other girls till they did exactly that, stay at the bottom or behind something, not move, hiding.

An aggresive alpha female may be trying to assert herself in the tank. There is not much you can do other than seperate them. Once you remove a female from a community tank, very often they cannot be reintroduced because the other females will gang-up and attack her.

A lot of breeders experience this when using a female from a community tank and breeding her to a male. Once she leaves the tank, the community will often not take her back.

 

[mcshell]

there were only 2 female betta in the tank - May and June.
I moved June to a breeding tank for breeding a while ago, and I've put her back to the community tank with May 2 weeks ago.
Everything seems fine.
It doesn't really look like May is hurt... her fins are okay. But she isn't eating!
So now i just put her in a floating tank inside the community tank.
I am worried that she may be having some kind of disease... since one of my guppies had dropsy and died a while ago in that tank I don't know if she has got the same thing or not...

 

[Iggy]

How old is May?

Keeping her in the floating tank might help you identify if June was the reason she was scared. Hopefully, she will eat again soon.

Did you check the water conditions? Use a flashlight to look for velvet (rustlike spots on her)?

 

[mcshell]

She's less than 1 year old, I believe.
I'll definitely use a flashlight to help her do a body check tonight.
For water check, I only have a toolkit for checking pH. What else should I check? Nitrate? Anything else?

Thanks very much for your suggestions!

 

[Iggy]

Ammonia and Nitrite is pretty critical. In a properly cycled tank, both should be at 0pmm.

Is she eating now? Try freeze dried bloodworms or frozen moquito larvie. It she will not eat that, then something is definately up!

 

[mcshell]

she died
she seemed to have a few tiny red spots in her body, other than that she seemed perfectly fine. I really wasn't sure what happened
I did a partial water change tonight.

Feel so depressed now
hope when the fry grow up, some of them will look like auntie May...
I missed her

 

[Iggy]

Sorry to hear that

Red spots could indicate a bacteria infection, which can be internal and unseen.

Farewell May. At least she had someone who cares about her taking care of her in her final days.

 

[mcshell]

thanks Iggy.
I'll get the testing kit anyway to make sure my tank is okay...

 

[mcshell]

I tested both Ammonia and Nitrite tonight, and both are 0.
So that sounds okay.
The water is pretty clear too -- What would cause a bacteria infection?

thanks!

 

[Iggy]

I can't really say what might cause an internal infection. Something she ate mayber, physical damage or defects, it is hard to say.

I am only guessing, the red spots could be fish bites from the other fish after she died (common) too.

I would not try to over think this one, she did die pretty quickly.