BETTAS!!!!!!

I have sad news: I came home to find Ilana dead at the bottom of the sorority. Her fins were shredded and she was missing an eye. 

SO NOW I HAVE TO ANALYZE HOW THIS HAPPENED so I know how to prevent it AHHhhh. 

• I just introduced everybody to the sorority on Sunday, with one fish missing (Baby) and one fish who was new (Donovan)
• Ilana had had her fins clamped when she was in the cup but other than that showed no other bad signs, and she opened up when there was food and stuff
• I don’t know if its relevant but the eye that was missing was the one that she got popeye in, in which the swelling/cloudyness never fully went away after she healed up
• Donovan was looking a little stressed in the sorority but mostly kept to herself, hiding under the filter and whatnot
• Donovan doesn’t have any ripped fins or wounds on her body, but her color is pale and her stress stripes were INTENSE
• Cranberry (who has been in the sorority from the beginning) has a shredded caudal fin

WHO IS THE CULPRIT???

DID ILANA DIE NATURALLY AND EVERYBODY JUST NIBBLED ON HER FINS AND EYE?

DID DONOVAN KILL HER?

DID CRANBERRY?

DID DONOVAN DO IT AND ALSO NIP UP CRANBERRY?

help pls!!! I cupped both Donovan and Cranberry but that only leaves three girls in the sorority and I can’t do that, what if fighting breaks out between them?? Its dark in there, sleepy time.

Oh my goodness, Donovan is bigger than Ilana! Ilana is surely older than her— Right?

I wonder if this pet store stocks their bettas at an older age, or if Donovan is like, a little giant.

She is so big, she totally reminds me of Fezzic.

aaaaaahhhh I love big bettas, she’s so inquisitive, she followed Ilana around all peacefully and stared at her like wat. 

One of my boys developed this patch on his head, it doesn’t look fungus-y, and his gills have flaming red outlines.

I’m treating him with Tetracycline.

I keep the water clean and treated? I’m kind of baffled, man, I don’t get it. He’s currently in a 1g with weekly 100% water changes. The water is treated with API Water Conditioner, API Stress Coat, and API Aquarium Salt. I don’t know the stats on it, I’m at work right now but its something I’ve kind of been wondering about.

I’ve also been wondering, what do I do about Ilana? Her popeye hasn’t gotten any better! Its either stagnated or gotten worse, and this is my second time treating her with Maracyn. I guess… I’ll switch to Tetracycline again after this? Does EM treat popeye?

So I know males stress Baby out, but since I am kind of totally considering putting together a sorority again at some point, I figured I’d see how Baby reacts to other females.

I floated Baby and Ilana in cups in Janice’s side of the tank. Now, I know she’s not mine, but Janice does well in Sav’s sorority, so I figured it would be a nice place to start.

Ilana didn’t give any fucks. I’ve seen her get fiesty and nip at the divider, but this time she couldn’t have cared less.

Baby had her fins spread, but that was about it. She was watching Janice like a hawk.

And Janice, wow, okay, Janice does not like Baby. XD I guess the little gal threatens her or something? She had her fins out, her beard out, she was S wiggling, nipping at the cup. She even made a couple of bites at Ilana’s cup, but Ilana wasn’t paying attention. 

P.S. Glancing over at the fishies, I love seeing Fezzic taking a moment to flare at Midnight. He’s so silly.

Fezzic

Almost completely healed! I would move him back into a 10g but I need more tank dividers, pronto, so that probably won’t happen till the end of this week. 

Balraj

The general cure did NOTHING for him, turned out it was a fungal infection instead. One night in a tank treated with Fungus Clear and the fuzz lining his wounds are already gone! He still has huge gaping holes on his body, but he eats and swims and his fins aren’t clamped, so I am hopeful that they will heal up now that they aren’t being eaten away at.

Baby

I can already see her fins healing! Since she’s so young, I’m removing her from the treated tank and keeping her in a tiny one with aquarium salt because I think she’s fine. Stress pushed her into the fin rot, so I just gotta keep her out of sight from males, they put too much pressure on her.

Crisanto

HIS FINS ARE HEALING! I can see the membrane lining the edges! Yesss!! I’m going to put him through one more treatment of Tetracycline just to be safe anyways. Sav and I were talking and we have theorized that this been a severe case all along, but the reason it took five months to get really really bad was because my previous treatments were stalling it.

Ilana

Definitely has popeye, but she’ll begin Tetracycline treatment today, once I set up Sav’s tank divider in my treatment 10g

Bonaparte

His fins are looking a bit ragged and his color hasn’t come back fully yet. I’m kind of really at a loss on what to do with him, but I’m worried he’s going to develop fin rot and I don’t have a proper place for him yet, so I’m putting him in the Tetracycline tank.

Lillybeth

:| His fins are looking… orange. I’m thinking parasite or fungus? Like, you can barely see it when he’s swimming, though it sort of looks like little orange dots on his tail fin. But when I scoop him in his net, his tail looks COMPLETELY orange. Diagnosing help?? I wanted to put him in Miracle’s 10g but I’m worried whatever he has is contagious, so Midnight got to go in there instead.

Its been a crazy couple of weeks and probably will continue this way as everybody heals, but I’m just glad to say that everybody is getting better. 

Ilana and George:

I went ahead and removed Ilana, and we’re going to try Peaches next. I’m waiting for Sav to get home before we do this, since its her fish, heh. But seriously, we left them together over night and everything, and they still hadn’t done anything. She just hid in a corner of leaves and he didn’t force her to come out. When I put her in his sight, he showed off instead of chasing her off, so clearly they hadn’t gotten it on yet.

Hopefully Peaches will be more excited about this, his bubble nest is Huge!!

Vivian and Conny:

I’m pretty sure they’d started before we all woke up and watched them, but we caught the last two hours of them mating. Haha, I was actually on the phone with another fish breeder when they finished and Conny started chasing her off! Geeze, trying to juggle my cell, the next, and the clean cup for Vivian was crazy. But I got her out! Its pretty interesting, she didn’t take any fin damage as far as I can tell!! 

Now Conny is diligently protecting his precious bubble nest. There were a lot of eggs! We shall see if there is any success with these two.

Janice and Cindy:

Cindy’s nest is still pretty disconnected… Maybe we’ll try them later? But seriously, his nest has nothing on the other two! Which is why we tried them first… And he needs a water change, I figure we can do that first… 

These fish

are

so

SILLY!

We put them back together tonight. 

They’re just lazing around OH WAIT NOW THEY’RE CHASING!! And now they’re not.

Yeah, uh, what?

God, what an awful name.

So, this is it.

George and Ilana are in the tank together, swimming around, flirting, etc.

He’s being a good boy. She’s taken a little damage but he’s not forcing her over to the nest or anything. She’s taking her time! Taking photos atm, recorded some video, will record more when they get busy!!!

Fin Rot tank

So since I have two babies with fin rot and 10g doses of the medication, I went ahead and set them up in the 10g with the divider. I also hung some aquarium background on the divider so that they wouldn’t stress each other out by seeing each other all the time. It has been dosed with:

• 1st dose of Tetracycline
• 1/2 dose of aquarium salt
• Double dose of stress coat
• Normal dose of water conditioner

“Hole in Head” Infection to Body Wound tank

Balraj got upgraded to the 1g for the sake of my sanity (dividing a 10g packet of powder into 20 parts? kill me now). His tank has:

• 1st dose of General Cure
• Double dose of stress coat
• Normal dose of water conditioner

Healing fins tank

Fezzic is still in the tiny tank for now because he’s been doing fine in there, fins are growing back, he eats well, etc. Tank had:

• Normal dose of water conditioner
• Double dose of stress coat
• 1/4-1/2 dose of aquarium salt

I fed everybody once they got settled in their tanks and everybody ate well! Everybody is active except for Balraj. He’s moving around, but his fins are semi-clamped and he likes to sit still for a little bit in spots. I think he’s beginning to feel the effects of the infection. 

pH Poisoning cup

Meanwhile at Sav’s house, Bonaparte is still in a cup but he gets daily water changes with normal dosages of all the usual stuff. He’s displaying more color each day, though its still a slow process. His fins are no longer clamped! But they have some growing back to do, they aren’t as majestic as they were before the pH poisoning. He eats well and flares his fins at all other fish. He is clearly just as fierce as he was before getting sick!!

On the downside, it looks like Ilana might be showing signs of popeye? We bought medication today, will start dosing her tomorrow. Seriously like… I know the main cause of problems is dirty water, that makes total sense. What I don’t understand is that we do diligent water changes with treatments and everything, how is everybody still getting sick? Ugh! Anyways, jesus, I feel like I’m going to be a pro at caring for sick betta fish at this rate, its almost like we’re cycling through every freaking disease they can get.

My iPod keeps correcting Ilana to Ulama.

NO, HER NAME IS NOT ULAMA, GOODNESS GRACIOUS.