This is my fist time owning a betta~i've had him for a few weeks now. First he seemed fine in a fish bowl then i decided to go all out and buy him a 5.5 gallon tank with heater and filter and everything. He was perfectly fine yesterday and swimming quite happily. His body was a nice vivid red. Today when i came home he's at the bottom of the tank and the body very pale and not moving at all. Can anyone tell me why? and is he dead? don't dead fish float?

How did you cycle the tank? did you let it run without the fish in it for atleast 2 and a half weeks? if not yo didnt give the tank time to set itself up get all the bad chemical out of the water (neutralizing chlorine) and your fish probably died from chlorine or from an ammonia spike bc the bacteria arent there to *digest* the poo and ammonia can build up to toxic levels very quickly in a small tank. do you ever do gravel vaccumms?

gravel vaccuums? no~i didn't let it run w/o the fish for 2 weeks...the pet store didn't tell me. The water in my house is all filtered from a central filtering system...Pet store didn't tell me anything about neutralizing water either. He was living perfectly happily for over a week in a 1.5 gallon fish bowl, then i decided to plurge and buy him his own 5.5 gallon tank with heater and such...does ammonia build up quickly in a 5.5 gallon tank with only one fish that can kill him in 3 days?

is he laying on his side?? if he is than he is dead!

oh and no, dead bettas do'nt float i have had 4 of them in my life.

you cannot always rely on the pet store to tell you this information YOU are the pet owner and its YOUR responsibility to do the research BEFORE you buy an animal, be it a fish, a dog, a cat etc. depending on how much you fed the betta yes his water can go bad that quickly. a gravel vaccumm is like a siphon tube that sucks all the poo and left over food out of the gravel. mine cost me 3 bucks at my local walmart. ANY water you use for your fish must be treated with a water softener to get rid of chlorine and chloramine. be it filtered or not it has to be treated the best one i have found is Aquasafe it can be purchased at any pet store or walmart for about 3 dollars. I'll be happy to answer any more questions you have. it may save another fishes life.

Dead fish usually only float if they have been dead longer than 24 hours.

he isnt necessarily dead yet if hes on his side. he MAY be but dont flush until you make sure its definetly dead. the only chance you MAY have left (which is slim) is to remove him from the big tank and put him in conditioned water at 76-80 degrees. im warning you now, if he doesnt swim away from your cup, hes dead. then you might as well still scoop him up and have a little fishy funeral

Someone gave info on cycling, which was wrong. You don't cycle water to get rid of chemicals. You should use a product like Prime before you even put water in a tank. Cycling is for bacteria, and without any bacteria in the tank, cycling for 2 weeks is pretty useless.

Anyway, for more basics, go to http://www.bettatalk.com/

I would only use prime in larger set ups, never in betta bowls, it is way too concentrated.
But, it is a great product.

quote:

Someone gave info on cycling, which was wrong. You don't cycle water to get rid of chemicals. You should use a product like Prime before you even put water in a tank. Cycling is for bacteria, and without any bacteria in the tank, cycling for 2 weeks is pretty useless.

yea that was a typo LOL
i clarified it in a later post

i just re-read your original post, and I didnt see you mention conditioning the water that you used in the aquarium. Chemicals in water can kill fish. next time use a water conditioner before your fish goes in the water, and test it for pH. These are the 2 most important things to check for, for beginners when setting up an aquarium.

quote:

Originally posted by sullybaby27:
I would only use prime in larger set ups, never in betta bowls, it is way too concentrated.
But, it is a great product.

It's the best conditioner out there.
2 drops per gallon in gallon water jugs I save after using them. Store the water that way, and use it as needed. It's not like you directly dump it into the tanks, anyway.

true, but if you are a beginner, I would suggest something a little easier to handle.