K and I liked our first betta so well we got a second one. The first one, Pinot, lives in the living room; we've had him for months and he's thriving. The new one, Sir Robin, lives in the bedroom. We got him two weeks ago and named him that because he was a coward who ducked and hid behind his plant every time someone entered the room or came to feed him. (Monty Python fans will get the reference.) Anyway, Robin's dying.
Yesterday he was doing fine, just his usual cowardly self, but he was spending a lot of time sitting very still on the bottom of his bowl. This morning he was nestled in his plant at the bottom of the bowl, so still I wondered if he had died. He only moved when I grabbed the top of the plant and shook it a little. He didn't eat his food this morning either, which is unusual because normally he gobbles up his food the second it hits the water.
This afternoon I discovered him floating perfectly still in a vertical position, his mouth right at the surface of the water. He's still breathing (taking gulps and moving his gills) but he's not moving much. Periodically he'll go to the surface and thrash around for a minute, then dive to put his face on the bottom of the bowl and leave his tail sticking up vertically by the surface. At K's suggestion, I put some fresh water in the cup Robin came in, and transferred Robin to the cup. He barely fought at all, and he didn't eat the bloodworms I put in there for him. He's just sitting motionless now. I don't expect him to be alive when I come home from work tonight.
So does anyone know what's wrong with him? I don't want to make Pinot sick, and we will likely get another betta to replace Robin. I would like to make sure this doesn't happen again. Any fish experts here?
Edited to add... oh, and this morning I found a little dead bug floating on the surface of his bowl. We've had a few of these little moth-like bugs fluttering around at night this week, and one of them must have fallen into Robin's bowl. Could he have nibbled at the bug and gotten sick? I'm pretty sure these bugs aren't poisonous; they don't bite and the cat has been catching and eating them...


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Probably because fish can't breathe out of water.....





Thanks, y'all. Our fish don't live in tap water because L.A. water is nasty; we get the gallon jugs of spring water for 79 cents and put them in that. And this isn't the betta-plus-plant setup that you see all the time; Pinot has a tall vase with a lot of surface area, and Robin had a wide round fishbowl with even more surface area. Each bowl holds about a gallon of water (Pinot's vase holds a little more). I think they were good betta setups. Like I said, Pinot doesn't seem to mind.
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