sam end

I put Sam to sleep the day before yesterday. His condition deteriorated rapidly in just twenty-four hours: open sore on his side larger, gray necrotic-looking tissue. Under the fin it was reddish. He quit eating, was having trouble swimming, struggled to breathe. Hid under the leaves most of the time. It really looked like he was suffering and I have never seen photos of a fish this bad with story of it recovering....

I took a few last pictures because I have a bad feeling maybe this was the fish version of TB- which basically means you have to tear down the tank. Throw out the plants and substrate, sterilize the empty aquarium and equipment and start over... I noticed once he was in the container that he had become emaciated again. Not sure if the sores were ulcers or cysts. The rest of my photos are on the fish forum where I asked for help- they are awful.

I really hope (a horrible thing to hope) that what he had was a tumor and not something contagious I might have spread to my other livestock. Very unhappy day. I get just as sentimental over some of my fish as I do for my cat- especially ones that are so responsive to my presence like Sam was. I cried as I was dosing the clove oil, and again today. My six-year-old looked in his tank -brightly lit, plants green- and said "where's Sam? did you clean his tank?"
she noticed the water wasn't tinted anymore.
"He's outside- under the ground," I said.
"Oh. He died?"
"Yeah, he was very sick and it was hurting him..."
She didn't cry, but I did.

I don't know if I will get another betta. For now I've put another dozen malaysian trumpet snails in the tank. I'm feeding them one flake every other day, to at least keep some of the good bacteria alive...