I came home from a sleepover just now, and found sky just laying at the bottomn of the tank. no getting up and wiggling at the top when he saw me. just layed there, gills moving rapidly. It dawned on me, after watching him for a while, that he cannot get up for air. so I netted him out and carefully put him in the little cup I bought him in with some tank water. It is a really bad setup, but he is on his last fin, and I might as well try REALLY hard to save him before he goes. It's only a matter of hours now. I dropped in a grain of tank salt, a drop of anti fungus, (because he seems to have translucent fuss on some fins, and it appears the top of his mouth is...gone) and a sliver of maracyn. Now, all I can do is the hardest thing for any person to do, and just wait until he goes. Just pull with me guys, if he makes it through the night I'll continue with the fungus treatment and maracyn, along with daily water changes. But I don't know. At least if he dies I will know I did everything I could.

I'm sorry for your little guy. :hug: your description is so sad, it seriously almost made me cry. :cry:

Uugh - that sucks.
I'm so sorry.

You're doing just exactly what I'd be doing also.
Sounds like columnaris - and hopefully with what you've got going on in his little cup it might work. That's the right treatment.

Tell him to hang in there from me and all my brood of betta kids.

if it is columnaris again, I am going to just put a pot of water on the stove and boil every single thing I have. It killed my first betta, oh my gosh I just had an epiphany...I put merlin in orchid's old tank, maybe I didn't sterilize it enough, then I moved him into the 30 gallon, allong with sky and jenga, then merlin went into a rapid decline. And now sky is going down too. Should I treat Jenga for columnaris too? and do water changes on the 30 gallon every day? Maybe, if I feel really ambitious I will strip it and sterilize it, and not re start it until my fish are all healthy. I took a picture of sky, laying on his side, I was going to post it, but I just cant even bear to upload it. He seriously almost has no fins due to that plague that was cast apon all but one of my bettas, fin rot. And the fins he has left are torn, pin hole-y, covered in slimy fungus crap, and useless. My poor little guy. I just can't even go up and look at him, he was always a little jester, dancing and playing, he NEVER flared a day in his life, he would look at the fish though the divider and just dance around. Just seeing him so helpless is depressing.

Seeing them helpless makes you feel totally helpless.

Do you see any signs of it in anyone else?
Columnaris is totally vicious - it strikes very fast so keep an eye on them to make sure you don't see anything.

I can understand how horrible it is to see them that way - I've gone thru that more times than I care to even think about.

You just have to think of the good days they had to this point.

*Pats*

I hear ya... disease totally sucks. We should get some Ben and Jerry's and watch sappy movies... I've had a totally shitty week, too. :(

Sorry to hear that, Saucy. Well, I decided to go up and see how Shy was. He has now surrendered utterly helpless, laying on his back, and BARELY moving his gills. :cry: I just hope he goes peacefully, knowing that someone cared aout him, and tried to help him. Since he is unable to go to the surface at all anymore, I have been blowing bubbles through the end of my siphon hose (gross!!!!!)to try and create a makeshift aerator so he doesn't suffocate to death.

Edit: all of sky's pain is gone now. We lost him about 5 minutes ago, give or take. Well, Sky and Merlin and Orchid all apparantly met the same fate. At least they won't be lonely. Merlin and Sky were my sickest fish, knock on wood Dory is looking pretty peekid too, but it isn't anything to worry about. I bought her looking like that, and she has made it a good couple months. All I know is, it is going to be over a month before I step foot in a fish store. Maybe more. I got a ton of fish food, enough dechlor, and I don't want to buy ANY more fish until this, whatever it is, is gone.

Edited to add a little tribute to by boys :cry: :rip:



Merlin, my stunning crowntail. I'm sorry you had to go in such an undignifyed way, and I wasn't even there for you.


[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y148/Equestrian_Girl1306/DCP_2956.jpg[/IMG


My sky, back in the good old days. I'll always remember you as the tiny little delta tail, famous for the butt wiggle at feeding time.

I'm sorry. :rip:

:rip: :cry:

:rip: :bye:

:rip: I'm so sorry for your loss.

I'm very sorry for your loss :rip:

Im so very sorry for your loss :rip:

I'm so sorry.
It's so hard when they go.
At least he's not suffering anymore.

Hang in there.

It's so hard to have had no control in it...

Please hang in there, and like BM said, at least he's not suffering. Just swimming about in his own bowl in the sky.

Thanks guys. I'm dealing with it a lot better than I thought I would. I mean, its just a lot easier since I've been expecting him to go for a few weeks, and I've had time I think to mentally prepare. Usually I cry over a fish's death, or get really worked up, but the last two fish that have died, I really haven't reacted much. I mean, I heard about merlin's death while I was on the phone with my mother my last day of camp. And I guess the reality of it didnt hit until I saw his little compartment empty. And sky, it wasn't so bad, even though he did go while I was out of the room, I got to be one of the last things he saw. And its easier, because I know that he had everything he needed to make a recovery if he could. But he was just too far gone. At least the rest of my fish are staying remotely healthy. They all still have kinda icky fins, but none of them are getting worse, and they are all still pretty active. One of the first signs I'm looking for though, is when they do that laying on the bottom looking like they're dead thing. If any of them start doing that, I'll know their time is coming short