bettas

I haven't made note of my little fishy friends for a while; mostly because I always feel frustrated at getting good photos to share, and they are so beautiful with their irridescent blues. Well, I've been learning things about keeping fish. Namely that if you have a betta in a bowl, you must be very meticulous about cleaning it and changing the water. Toxic ammonia can build up very quickly.

I still have my first blue-green dragonscale betta, Pinkie. He's healthy and happy. He has a new neighbor, a golden orange half-moon male. My daughter inadvertently killed her prior betta (water change temperature too warm and that was it. An easy mistake). We got a new one but it didn't do well with the shock of coming home so we took it back, got our water tested, got this golden one as replacement. Daughter has named him after her original goldfish, Hector. Pinkie is very happy to have a new neighbor- the gallon fishbowls sit next to each other- he is constantly swimming back and forth where the bowls meet and flaring. He also swims excitedly up and down the glass when he sees me approach at feeding time!

My other betta, in the bowl with live plants, has been having troubles. Firstly, the second plant I bought had to be tossed out. It grew too quickly and was crowding the bowl, plus little bits kept breaking off and decaying. Now just one plant. The fish himself, who replaced my female crowntail (she met the same fate as my daughter's betta; I once made the water change too warm. Now use a thermometer every time to check the temperature) is a blue-and-purple dragonscale male. I call him Bluet. He's had this lump under his gill. At first I thought it was fungus and treated him for that. Then I thought it was parasites and treated him for that. Then I thought perhaps he had cancer- fish do get cancer, and figured nothing to do, leave alone. He swims well, looks healthy, eats good.

Then I forgot one day to do his water change, and ran out of water conditioner and was two days late. He looked okay until the day I cleaned his bowl and then went into shock, clamped fins, difficulty swimming, color fading, wouldn't eat. I thought he was a goner. I did a ton more reading and finally figured out he probably has swollen and scarred gills from ammonia poisoning. Meaning I haven't kept his bowl clean enough and the ammonia affected him. And then when I did change the water it was too sudden and he went into shock. The damage is irreversible although if I keep him very clean he can continue to live. I feel really bad it's my own fault he got his gills injured.

The good news is once I did another water change and added some aquarium salts (half teaspoon for the gallon) he started to recover, and this morning he looks like himself again. I am so relieved, and glad that I've finally diagnosed his ills properly - the treatment worked! So the remedy is to always be on top of the cleaning schedule, and dissolve aquarium salts into the water each time w/the change (good for gill health).

I'm also doing the once-a-week fast and pea regimen with my fish now. Bettas are carnivores, I've learned, but the dried and pre-packaged diet you get in the pet store (most convenient so I go with that for now) can swell in their stomachs and give them constipation. That's when they have the trouble swimming, don't float normally or sink on the bottom. The remedy is to skip meals one day a week and the following day feed them a quarter of a green pea (cooked, cooled and skinned) which helps them "go" again. Supposedly this keeps them in better condition. So I'm trying it today.

Some redundancy here; but I'm writing this mostly to remind myself of what to do to care for my little pets properly.

Edit 8/27/16: No, it was not ammonia poisoning that caused that lump under his chin. I have found what matched his symptoms: it was probably some kind of cancer or lymphocystis, also known as 'cauliflower disease.' Lymphocystis is a viral infection, it isn't necessarily fatal but there is no treatment as far as I know. Affected fish die because it weakens them and they are more susceptible to other illnesses, or if the growth blocks their mouth and they can't eat. I don't know if the one on Flash was affecting his gills or stomach.